Cutting the tubes...........

[The Spyder]

What would happen if i cut of the pipes on my Coolermaster Heat pipe and ran 1/4inch water hose to them- would it work? Could i creat a watercooled/ fan cooled heatsync?
Spyder

 

[Diggrr]

You won't get very fast water flow through those tiny pipes.

I have no idea if it'll work or not, you'll either be a genius or a nut.

 

[IFMU]

Interesting idea. Not to sure how exactly the heatpipe runs through it. I would actually be kind of interested to see how that would perform. Very interesting thought.... But how much do those suckers cost? Not sure if I would be all that willing to cut one of those up....

By my understandings though, most heatpipes arent exactly hollow they have a few things on the insides... I personally have no clue... but others do I am sure....

 

[The Spyder]

I saw some one cut on of these open-- it had this white mesh on the tubes inside- they are $35 - and im not that brave :-D
Spyder

 

[Tiger]

Don't even try this.
Heat pipes work by capillary action this means that the system is driven by natural convection. The pipes will be carrying the vapour from the heat spreader to be cooled in the fins and then returned to the spreader. Both the heat spreader and the fins will have capillaries in them. The pipe is small and the capillaries are even smaller.
If anyone has the guts I would love to see how one of those would perform by evacuating it and filling with propane or some other freon.

 

[Ugmore Baggage]

A "real" waterblock would almost certainly be better becuse it would move the heat outside of the case instead of just pushing it off of the heatsink and onto the chipset. Once you go to water, there's not much point in hybridizing unless, as in a heatpipe, it is self-contained.

 

[Tecumseh]

Over the temp range expected in PC cooling there is nothing
better for a heat pipe than water. Why? Water has the highest
heat of vaporization of all substances. It is this that is the
secret of a HP's success. Also water has the surface tension
needed for good capillary action. This is what transfers the
fluid back to the hot end. Also note that HPs are under
a slight vacuum to lower the boiling point.

Turning a Coolermaster into a water block by piping water
thru it would not work well. In water blocks there is
no phase change in the water. The phase change is
key.