Out of curiosity

[callumparker666]

has anyone ever hooked their WC loops up to a domestic radiator? they are about the same price as your average WC rad and allot bigger, just with no fans, to me it kind of makes sense to recycle the waste heat and surely modern domestic radiators would be efficient enough for this purpose, though i imagine you wolud need a fairly powerful pump at either side of the rad.

 

[Motopsychojdn]

Interesting proposition, I'm not sure that anyones tried it,
domestic rads are quite thick so it would be difficult to get the heat out of them,
it would basically be a passive loop and I'm not convinced it would work effectively,
unless you mounted it horizontally and laid it in ice
Moto

 

[callumparker666]

but isn't their sole purpose to dissipate heat? or are the simply not designed with the same efficiency as WC rads?

 

[DJDeCiBeL]

Since this is a a thinking outside the box situation anyway, I imagine it could be cooled with a household box fan, set on high. Probably too noisy for most people though, lol.

 

[Motopsychojdn]

They are designed to emanate heat but you want a radiator that is able to be actively cooled by fans for example, you would need a hell of a fan to cool the radiators metal enough to cool the water inside,
@Recon, he means a house radiator like we have on walls,
not car rads, which are a suitable alternative, although again with the massive fans hehe
@Dj, yup too much noise and not effective enough
Moto

 

[vrumor]

Built a custom WC system a few years ago and I found that certain transmission coolers will fit 3 120 mm fans perfectly with a little mod and are about 1/3 the price and cool exceptionally well. Youre welcome for that.

 

[DJDeCiBeL]

Yeah, if you're talking about a household heating radiator, there's no fan (even industrial) that will cool that, since the metal's too thick and it's not meant for cooling anyway. vrumor put you on the right track though. Although I DO think a full size car type radiator would work, but you would need a high flow pump for it to work properly, and a huge fan to cool it.

 

[Motopsychojdn]

Plus it would most likely be aluminium, and we don't put aluminium in our loops as a rule, it gets messy and you need corrosion inhibitors and stuff, my head hurts
Moto

 

[voodooking]

The physics are behind you and it should work. That's a large area it has to heat up. You are talking about one of those old style metal ones right?

 

[callumparker666]

yeah voodooking, however it did occur to me as i was washing the pots just now that they are designed to store and release the heat slowly which of course would mean the cooling potential would be vastly reduced over time as the ambient air temp would increase and ultimately render the system ineffective.

fair point you make moto, though that doesn't seem to inhibit their use in household systems.

 

[callumparker666]

so what other types of RADS are there, surely there are others that would be suited to this task

 

[Motopsychojdn]

Car radiators, Toolmaker_03 found some great little copper things on ebay but we don't know what they are,
Excuse the Ms paint edit I did

Moto

 

[callumparker666]

certainly interesting moto, especially if you don't have allot of space for your WC but i wouldn't say they're particularly cheap...

 

[Motopsychojdn]

Watercooling and the word cheap should only be in the same sentence when separated by a negatory, as in 'Watercooling ISN'T cheap'
I believe he got six of them reasonably cheap though
Moto

 

[callumparker666]

maybe we need a sticky dedicated to unconventional cooling methods in general

 

[callumparker666]

you're definitely correct there moto, the only possible cheap WC is those sealed loop systems

 

[Motopsychojdn]

http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/forum/forum2.php?config=tomshardwareuk.inc&cat=11&post=274855&page=1&p=1&sondage=0&owntopic=1&trash=0&trash_post=0&print=0&numreponse=0&quote_only=0&new=0&nojs=0
One of his,
http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/forum/forum2.php?config=tomshardwareuk.inc&cat=11&post=274734&page=1&p=1&sondage=0&owntopic=1&trash=0&trash_post=0&print=0&numreponse=0&quote_only=0&new=0&nojs=0
the original thread,
and some interesting discussions in here Re: unusual methods,
http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/forum/270566-11-discussion-thread-watercooling-closed-loop-coolers

**Edit, in general we don't consider those 'real' watercooling, although I concede they serve a purpose, some hardcore W/c'ers don't
Moto

 

[callumparker666]

i think my curiosity on this matter has been satisfied, however i have one last question on modding, has anyone ever modded one of those sealed loops for different tubing/bigger rad, i had a look the other day and only found one thread on the matter however the discussion derailed only a few posts after the OP

 

[callumparker666]

bumping out of curiosity

 

[Motopsychojdn]

^Yes, a few people have modded H50's etc, lutfij here was one
He soon gave up and went real water
Moto

 

[callumparker666]

im currently balancing out my desire for a WC rig with the desire for a lian li big tower

 

[callumparker666]

i need something cheap so its either this
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Magicool-DIY-Watercooling-Kit-775-1156-1366-AM2-AM3-/190565415059?pt=Computing_ComputerComponents_Fans_Heatsinks_SR&hash=item2c5e957893
or this
http://www.specialtech.co.uk/spshop/customer/Antec-Kuhler-Water-Cooling-Kit--H2O-620-pid-12999.html

 

[callumparker666]

any opinions?

 

[toolmaker_03]

ok truth be told most of the awesome builds that you see in the gallery they started from somewhere and most started with a kit of some sort but the reason most of us advocate for a custom build is because where trying to save you in the long run from buying something that will be dismantled and thrown away. let me explain this in a another way I like to build cars and my last project was a Nissan 240 sx after the warranty went out I started look at ways to make it better, stronger, faster, and more exciting. so I beefed up the shocks rebuilt the motor, rear-end, and transmission, the total on this was $12,000, cheaper than a new car, but more than I had to spend to do this. if I had bought the R edition I would have been able to achieve the same results for about $7000 if I had only considered who I am at the time when I bought it, true the R edition would have cost about $4000 more, but would have saved me a lot of work in the process. but I do have a car now that can squall the tires at 60 mph if you floor it. my girl friend drove it through a wall one day, and blamed me for causing the accident, said that my upgrades caused her to be unable to control the car. although when I arrived on the seen her friends were gone, and it was obvious that she had been drag racing the car. she never paid for the damage, but she also does not drive it any more either. man chicks can cost, a lot. but back to water cooling I bought a swiftech Qpower startup system. the start up was $600 just for the processor, but it was easy to upgrade and I did not half to throw anything away. so if you spend a little extra now, it will save you in the long run. maybe I should apply this type of consideration to women, if I get a higher class of woman now, she won't cost me so much latter? :lol:

 

[Motopsychojdn]

I wouldn't recommenc either of those kits, in fact I would actively steer you away from them,
if budget is an issue, wait until its not, then build a good loop later on,
Moto