Radiator on top of the case

[Rhambus]

Hey all,
I am a newbie to the board but not to water cooling - I currently have a rig running my 1GHz Athlon AXIA at 1367 MHz. But I want to make a new system, one that is inline and inside the case, with no reservoir. I know how to do that, but I have had a wacky idea - what if I put the radiator laterally on top of the case? I found a radiator that is copper and almost exactly the size of the top of my computer, and I was wondering if you guys/girls think that a lateral radiator placement (parallel to the floor) on top of the case would work. I want a near-silent system (my current one sounds like a jet at full afterburner!) so I was thinking that maybe I could use convection to cool the radiator instead of fans, or at least only minimal fans. What do you think?

 

[wild_andy_c]

Yep - that'd be fine, but at the same time I'd keep as many fans on the heat exchanger as possible. With a fanned heat-exchanger in the open air you will have optimal cooling!

But on the other hand, if you can remove the extra fans on the outside of the case and still obtain a respectable temperature that keeps good system stability - then go for it - and enjoy the peace and quiet !!!

 

[Sketch]

What he said. LOL!

Yea, I would keep fans on it but use 120mm fans set at 7volts, there really quiet. Or you could wire them into a rehostat, to adjust from off to full power. That way you could apply the amount of air flow needed when needed.

 

[eradda02]

rehostat? is it like a rpm changer??? where can i get one??

 

[bdf24]

I have my radiator located on top of my case on the outside right now. Seems to be working ok.

 

[Sketch]

eradda02 (May 02, 2001 02:26 p.m.):
rehostat? is it like a rpm changer??? where can i get one??

Yea similar. You can get them at Radio Shack. I will try to find what they are called. I can't remember. LOL! Sorry. I'll get back with ya.

 

[Sketch]

Ok there really spelled Rheostats. Sorry for the miss spelling earlier. They are also known as potentiometers. Virtual hideout (www.virtualhideout.net) has a guide on how to do this. I couldn't find it on the front page. And I hope I don't get in trouble for the redirect there, but hey, gotta help a fellow overclocker anyway I can.

 

[mudguts]

On the front page of Overclockers.com, on the bottom left , look for the topic "watercooling" open that and then look for the subject "watercooling from A to Z" (I cant seem to link it here) on the second page Joe explains how he set up his rheostat , and somebody else writes in to give an even better way to set one up. I put mine on the front of my case and I usually turn it full blast when Im gaming. I have my radiator at the bottom front of my case, I too considered mounting it at the top, but decided not to because I didnt want the warm air from my other components blowing through my rad. But when you think of it, the way I got it mounted, it blows ITS warm air on all my other components. In the end I mounted it there because of convience.

FIC AZ11E KT133
AXIA t-bird 1k @ 1300Mhz
104 x 12.5
256Mb PC133
Dangerden maze-2
Swiftech rad 6110 w/ Eheim 1046 pump
Promise Fastrack 66 (hacked Ultra 66) w/ 4 Quantum15G 7200, striped
Winfast GTS 32mb
Soundblaster live value
Ricoh Cdrw/Dvd

 

[Rhambus]

Thanks, all. I got the radiator I am going to use today. It is copper tubing and it is huge. 8" wide and 17" long, with 16 straightaways through it. It is a true monster. My old radiator is a little 12 by 5 aluminum jobbie that just is not up to par, so I wanted to make sure that that didn't happen again. Example: I had an aluminum waterblock at first, with Radio Shack thermal compound, and was getting temps of about 110 degrees Fahrenheit (sorry Celsius people, I am just too darn American, I guess). I figure this is too hot for my taste, so I shelled our for a Danger Den A-Maze-ing copper block and Arctic Silver II thermal grease. Everything I read said it should help majorly. Well, no such luck. The temp is now at about 105 F, sometimes 107. OK, that was not worth the 40 bucks or so. So I want a real difference. Hopefully this will make the difference.

BTW: I like the 120 mm undervolted fan idea, maybe I will put one or two under the radiator? Of course, then the radiator will have to be even higher off the case, but hey, maybe it's worth it. This thing is gonna be a monster when I'm done (not for a while, I'm a law student in the middle of exams). Is there any way to post pics?

 

[ken257]

I have a 12x5 with a swiftech block, comparable to a Maze2 in a 1.2 running at 1440. With a room temp of 70 it idles in the mis 70's and gets to the mid 80's under load. The highest temp I have seen so far is 90 under a long prime95 run. Two 120mm low cfm/rpm fans pull air through the rad. I like pulling air through the rad better then pushing the reason is if you monut the fans to the rad you are only moving air though a little bit of the fin surface. I have the fans mounted about an inch above the rad so they draw through the whole rad this cools the water much better. You could easily make a box over the top of the rad and have 2 or 3 fans drawing air through it at a reduced voltage. Make a voltage regulator with a Radio Shack LM317 variable voltage regulator, works great for this purpose.

 

[therapture]

Rhambus (May 02, 2001 12:14 p.m.):
Hey all,
I am a newbie to the board but not to water cooling - I currently have a rig running my 1GHz Athlon AXIA at 1367 MHz. But I want to make a new system, one that is inline and inside the case, with no reservoir. I know how to do that, but I have had a wacky idea - what if I put the radiator laterally on top of the case? I found a radiator that is copper and almost exactly the size of the top of my computer, and I was wondering if you guys/girls think that a lateral radiator placement (parallel to the floor) on top of the case would work. I want a near-silent system (my current one sounds like a jet at full afterburner!) so I was thinking that maybe I could use convection to cool the radiator instead of fans, or at least only minimal fans. What do you think?

Check out my top mounted radiator setup using TWO 120mm fans stepped down in voltage, it is nice and quiet, not to mention effective...keeps my 1.5+ Tbird running under 45c.....

http://www.cox-internet.com/raptur

 

[eradda02]

just take the pictures scan them then put them on a webpage (geocities is free!!!)

 

[Rhambus]

Well, I have now figured out that the radiator I have is a little wider than the case, so it is definitely going to have to go outside... maybe I should have gotten a smaller one but this one is just so cool.. I am going to mount it above the case with a gap between it and the top in case I want to add fans. QUIET is the name of the game here for me, since I want to have this comp on all the time in my room where I also need to sleep. I am hoping the performance gets better than it is now, it almost has to. How quiet are the fans, anyway (120 MM undervolted) Are they dead silent? If so, I might be more likely to use them.

 

[Szech]

Hey Rhambus, I doubt you'll find a noiseless 120. Even the panaflo low noise 120 is rated at 35 dBa. You could lower the voltage with a rheostat or a voltage regulator until it becomes noiseless. But since your radiator is pretty long, I would recommend you get this fan. I have one that I wired for 12VDC, and it's really quiet. When I had it wired for 7VDC, it was dead silent (I don't like the 7 volt wiring trick anymore though). By dead silent, I mean absolutely no noise whatsoever (it is supposed to have 24VDC, after all). It moves a good amount of air, and although it won't push as much air as a black label, it won't have that obnoxious hair-dryer-in-your-case-sound either.

 

[Rhambus]

That fan looks cool, but I have no idea how it would work! Any words of wisdom for me?