External Rad Box

[dhmzip]

I am tired of hearing fan noise. my air cooled system is driving me crazy with my 2x gtx 570's (with stock coolers), its freaking loud!

So i have had this idea for some time:

to build an external radiator box with enough heat exchange power to work passively most of the time, and during intense gaming some fans could kick in and cool things down.

As my current case is barely large enough to fit one 240 RAD in the roof i figured instead of upgrading my case (as i have already put a lot of time and effort making my current one look all nice) i would build an external system that could handle future computer builds.

I was thinking to buy 1x 360 rad and mount fans to it, then buy some baseboard radiators and use the copper fin pipe as the passive portion of the radiator

see link:

http://www.finnedtube.com/finning-photo-gallery.aspx

http://www.tex-fin.com/prod.htm

or a car radiator. (much larger for lower cast than a typ 360 RAD)

or a radiator from an old A/C unit (could find junk one for free)

So my question goes out to you,

Is it possible to get enough cooling from a passive system?

would it be worth wile to even build something like this?

all comments and suggestions are welcome,

cheers,

 

[grandpatzer]

I'm considerind similar thing myself, not sure where to find a massive radiator and how to convert it into PC fittings.

Zalman has reserator which is rad+pump+res combination It's dead silent, but I think it's made for one gpu + cpu but it really depends on temps, maybe it can handle 2 gpu's?

Personaly I'm considering phobya 1080 with 4x 180mm fans running wery low speed for silent operation.

 

[jonnyfgm]

Personaly I'm considering phobya 1080 with 4x 180mm fans running wery low speed for silent operation.

I've just bought one of those, take a look in the build logs forum as i'll be finishing it off next week and i'll let you know the results

 

[sheroo]

The whole idea behind having fans is to aid heat exchange. The heat is transfered to the air moving over/through the fins. The air current moves the hot air away and provides a constant stream of cool air for the heat exchange to take place. If you remove all air current then the heat exchange process will be much more inefficient. With decent fans you should be able to get a near silent system, I don't think a completely passive water cooled system is very practical.

 

[jonnyfgm]

Do i expect my rig to run totally passively under load? no

do i expect my rig when idling to run passively a large amount of the time, well yes actually.

I dont think anyone here was suggesting a totally passive rig, just suggesting providing enough rad surface area in order to make the amount of air movement needed minimal

 

[dhmzip]

Do i expect my rig to run totally passively under load? no

do i expect my rig when idling to run passively a large amount of the time, well yes actually.

I dont think anyone here was suggesting a totally passive rig, just suggesting providing enough rad surface area in order to make the amount of air movement needed minimal

i agree. im not expecting under load passive cooling will be sufficient

also about that zalman tower: i was looking at that a while ago, however:

1: it got many poor reviews

2: expensive

2: is not a project i can build (therefore less fun)

 

[dhmzip]

I've just bought one of those, take a look in the build logs forum as i'll be finishing it off next week and i'll let you know the results

i was thinking about building a rad box using that radiator. although the cost is a bit much:

i will be keen to see the results, especially on noise levels.

 

[grandpatzer]

i was thinking about building a rad box using that radiator. although the cost is a bit much:

i will be keen to see the results, especially on noise levels.

The phobya 1080 is slighly less cost compared to a RX360?

Atleast here in Europe.

 

[grandpatzer]

Do i expect my rig to run totally passively under load? no

do i expect my rig when idling to run passively a large amount of the time, well yes actually.

I dont think anyone here was suggesting a totally passive rig, just suggesting providing enough rad surface area in order to make the amount of air movement needed minimal

Well I think it's a hazzle to run them passive and always remember to turn on fans when gaming, I would personaly forget turning them on and fry my gpu's

I think running the 180mm fans at wery low rpm it's like having them passive as it should make wery little noise.

Which fans did you choose, I saw the phobya 180mm cheap fans got good reviews.

 

[jonnyfgm]

Well I think it's a hazzle to run them passive and always remember to turn on fans when gaming, I would personaly forget turning them on and fry my gpu's

That's why im just going to wire them into my MOBO and use speedfan to control the fan speeds

Yeah I went with the phobyias

 

[dhmzip]

Well I think it's a hazzle to run them passive and always remember to turn on fans when gaming, I would personaly forget turning them on and fry my gpu's

I think running the 180mm fans at wery low rpm it's like having them passive as it should make wery little noise.

Which fans did you choose, I saw the phobya 180mm cheap fans got good reviews.

true, except you can always get a fan controller to kick on the fans when temps get high.

 

[jonnyfgm]

Whoops, didn't need to post that, cant figure out how to delete, if a mod spots this please delete

 

[grandpatzer]

Are there temperature controlled fancontrollers besides motherboard?

Did not know that, they must be kind of expensive?

 

[dhmzip]

Are there temperature controlled fancontrollers besides motherboard?

Did not know that, they must be kind of expensive?

yes they do make temperature controlled fans/controllers:

http://www.frozencpu.com/products/6...e_Monitoring_Panel_-_Black.html?tl=g47c17s422

http://www.frozencpu.com/products/8...nel_Thermal_Fan_Controller.html?tl=g47c17s422

 

[jonnyfgm]

So i set up the phobia 1080 rad. Basically you could probably get away running it mainly passively if not totally passively

If you want to see full details look here

Click Here

 

[dhmzip]

So i set up the phobia 1080 rad. Basically you could probably get away running it mainly passively if not totally passively

If you want to see full details look here

Click Here

wow, pretty sweet!

how are the noise levels with the fans on at normal rpms?

Are you planing to keep the rad out in the open, or put in an enclosure?

 

[jonnyfgm]

noise levels with the fans at max are hardly distinguishable from when they are off lol.

Eventually I intend on mounting the rad outside, but for now i'm just leaving it free standing

 

[dhmzip]

Thanks for the info, I think i may go same route, however I would like to build a nice enclosure for the rad. I don't have the option of putting it outside.