Liquid Cooling / PC Case hybrid?

[Guest]

Hi guys, long time reader first time poster.

I have a speculation question/topic regarding liquid cooling systems.

In a loop the heat is transported to a radiator to dissipate the heat, would it be possible to have the case act as the radiator?

Maybe have the whole case designed as a heat sink by making it like a Matryoshka doll with a bimetallic material that absorbs on one side and transfers on the other, with fluid between for the loop?

That way the whole case would stay cool inside and move the heat to the outside and also be part of a cooling loop without needing an external radiator.

Thoughts? Crazy Thoughts? I'll take them all.

 

[mattangle]

I think you're case would start getting pretty thick/big quick, but honestly its a pretty killer idea imo.

 

[Guest]

I think you're case would start getting pretty thick/big quick, but honestly its a pretty killer idea imo.

I was thinking because of the surface area of the case itself, you would not need to have it too thick

 

[mattangle]

Radiators are usually stacked pretty tight together to make the heat transfer quickly, I am not sure how you would get that same effect to spread over a larger surface space vs a stacked space. But I am excited to see how it turns out!

 

[manofchalk]

Its a good idea but ultimately pretty impractical for a couple reasons.

1. As brought up, it would make the cases pretty thick walled. The water has to flow along the case to transfer its heat, you need metallic tubes integrated into the case for that to happen. Which means more material required and it becomes a lot harder to manufacture.

2. Water-cooling metals are expensive. Most cases are aluminium, steel or plastic, which is a big red flag for any water-cooling product. Quite simply Aluminium and Steel corrode badly in the presence of the typical water-cooling metals like Copper, Bronze, Silver, Nickel and Brass. Either you would have to plate (expensive to manufacture and imperfect) the internal tubing of the case with something like Copper or Nickel (expensive outright) to prevent corrosion, or build the whole thing of water-cooling safe metals (very expensive and not ideal as they are pretty soft metals). Plastics and acrylic are fine in water-loops, but are very poor conductors of heat, so no good in this situation.

3. Suddenly cases are going to appear much more frilly as they sport random heatsinks everywhere. A cases surface area really isnt that significant compared to something like a 360mm rad. Industrial designers everywhere in the PC industry weep.

 

[Guest]

Ok! This was exactly the sort of logic I was looking for. A copper case would not be fun.

There are beastly cases out there, like the Coolermaster Cosmos 2 Ultra Tower

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/cooler-master-cosmos-ii-ultra-black-full-tower-aluminium-case-ultra-performance-with-usb-30-w-o-psu.

With the size and width of those side panels surely we could make a rad that shape?

On a similar track, but much more grounded, I was looking at a case and a rad to try and make something a little different. I think with these:

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/enermax-eca3250-b-ostrog-usb-30-black-mid-tower-case-with-side-grill-panel-w-o-psu

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=WC-032-BX


I know its not exactly enthusiast level hardware but I think a rad would slot nicely onto the top of that case, drill a couple holes for the pipes and attach fans underneath.

I'm just really surprised Corsair doesn't already have a case out that has an h80i built into it.

 

[manofchalk]

Oh yea, jut thought of this, radiators are supposed to get hot by design and have water in them. Make your case sidepanel a radiator, and suddenly you have to wait 10min for them to cool down after turning off the computer and you have to drain the loop if you want to take them off.

External mounting rads isnt anything new, its just not done outside of custom modders. I have an external rad on my machine.
http://i1146.photobucket.com/albums/o537/Manofchalk/IMG_20130216_120524_zps4608b88f.jpg

Thermaltake have some cases with pre-installed water-cooling in them, but Thermaltake CLC's are pretty horrible and so is the case bundled with it to be brutally honest.
For Corsair, theres really not much reason too. If someone wants a H80i they can buy it separately for more than Corsair can justify raising the price on a Case+H80i. Come up with a new case with integrated water-cooling (maybe an ITX case) is a possibility, but it would have to be better than just bolting a H100i to the case and calling it a day for it to be anything compelling.