Idea on Radiator Mounting

[AMDGuy]

I'm putting the finishing touches on my water cooling design. I ordered the thin radiator from BECOOLING and have been looking at different mounting options. I was thinking of mounting it on the inside of the case in the front at the bottom, but had a thought I wanted to get some opinions on. What if it was mounted between the plastic cover and the aluminum frame on the lower front of the case? I was thinking this would allow it to radiate more heat off as the air outside the case would be cooler than inside. I'd bore a 4.75" hole in the metal, drill two 3/8" holes for the barbs on the radiator to go into the case, mount the fan inside the case sucking air in with a rubber gasket between it and the metal to seal it up good, and bore a 4.75" hole in the plastic cover for the front. This would allow cold air to be drawn across the radiator into the case, and the air might be a little cooler?

My other option is to mount the fan directly to the radiator and put the assembly inside the case at the lower front with the closest to the front of the case and the fan sucking in. Bore the 4.75" hole in the metal and the Plastic, and use some plastic scrap to make a duct from the plastic cover to the hole in the metal to direct the air straight in.

Any thoughts?



Any thought?

 

[Sketch]

that's close to what i did. Works well for me. Here's a pic of the rad in between the front cover and case. ( front cover not latched in so you can see the rad, this was done on purpose. )

 

[Sketch]

here is the inside of the system.

 

[AMDGuy]

Sketch (May 09, 2001 06:58 p.m.):
that's close to what i did. Works well for me. Here's a pic of the rad in between the front cover and case. ( front cover not latched in so you can see the rad, this was done on purpose. )

Looks like a clean setup. I actually used the same resoviore box. What kind of temps are you getting?

 

[Sketch]

AMDGuy (May 09, 2001 07:25 p.m.):

Sketch (May 09, 2001 06:58 p.m.):
that's close to what i did. Works well for me. Here's a pic of the rad in between the front cover and case. ( front cover not latched in so you can see the rad, this was done on purpose. )

Looks like a clean setup. I actually used the same resoviore box. What kind of temps are you getting?

Thanks, I have to still install the rolled cables and wrap the psu cords yet, but I'm happy with it. Attached is my temps from motherboard monitor running folding@home 24/7 ie. the high and average temps, but never over 46C, but during normal operations it's around 34C. Gaming it reaches 42C. Not bad, I think if i get a better rad I wouldn't have such a swing in temp, but I'm only using a transmission rad, nothing fancy. Anyway thanks for the props and hope to see how your system will run.

 

[William]

you may want to be exausting air from the from, cause you will be blowing hotter air into the case, other than that, it is a very solid idea!

 

[Sketch]

dunno260 (May 09, 2001 09:29 p.m.):
you may want to be exausting air from the from, cause you will be blowing hotter air into the case, other than that, it is a very solid idea!

I would have thought the same thing, but cpu temps are lower and case temp was only affected by 2C! Go figure? But I will take what I can get. And thanks!!!!

 

[Kryten]

Sketch (May 09, 2001 10:11 p.m.):

dunno260 (May 09, 2001 09:29 p.m.):
you may want to be exausting air from the from, cause you will be blowing hotter air into the case, other than that, it is a very solid idea!

I would have thought the same thing, but cpu temps are lower and case temp was only affected by 2C! Go figure? But I will take what I can get. And thanks!!!!

I was about to post suggesting the same thing but you can't fight the numbers....
Before I decided to take everything external I was playing with the idea of mounting a long radiator on the bottom of the case mounting a fans on the inside and blowing through the rad.
(using the wheels on the case to raise it to keep air flow going)

 

[Shadow ÒÓ]

I would think sucking warm air out of the case across the rad would be best. Sucking air across the rad into the case would only raise case and cpu temps. Keeping temps down in the case is the whole point, and if you mounted the rad on the bottom but inside the case....then put the fans outside the case but blowing out, you'd be removing heat from the case instead of blowing it in.

But I'm not a thermologist either. =)

 

[AMDGuy]

Shadow ÒÓ (May 10, 2001 12:23 a.m.):
I would think sucking warm air out of the case across the rad would be best. Sucking air across the rad into the case would only raise case and cpu temps. Keeping temps down in the case is the whole point, and if you mounted the rad on the bottom but inside the case....then put the fans outside the case but blowing out, you'd be removing heat from the case instead of blowing it in.

But I'm not a thermologist either. =)

Actually, all sites I've looked at including overclockers.com recommend the fan suck air into the case. I believe Skip or Joe tested inside and outside temps and there was only a 1 oC difference between intake and exhaust temps when the fan sucked air into the case. I thought the same thing as everyone else, but the numbers tend to show otherwise.

 

[TechnoFile]

I'm using an old chevy heater core as a radiator, and its size dictates that it sits on my floor until I get around to making a plenum for it, but having it handy makes it easy for me to play with fan locations. For now, I'm using four 80*80mm fans(I know, I know). I've got two 4 11/16" (about 110 cfm each) fans on the way, but the 80's work for now. I'm using a low-flow pump(90 Gph). One thing I noticed was the water temp dropped 5°C when I changed the fans from pushing to pulling the air through the rad. I also made a little shroud, adding about 1 1/2" of space between the rad and the fans(old coat hangers and aluminum foil can be dangerous things). For my purposes, I'll mount the fans to suck air across the rad, but my rad is outside the case, so I don't have to worry about warming the air inside(not like my case is ever on).
Anyway, thaose are just my experiences.