stainless steel loops ?

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dugdiamond

New member
My BD WC rig will soon upon us

as a qualified plumber i have thought that metallic piping will help chill the coolant better than plastic hosing.

would this be correct?

i am not interested in the asthetics of the finished rig - just the best WC solution

what are your views?
 
I don't know to be honest but i have always thought about making it with metal pipes wich would look much cooler imo
 
I think it would be better on the basis that you have very good air flow in your case as the copper or stainless steel pipes would be like a home central heating system giving off heat as well
 
Things to consider though are steel and copper pipes are not going to be flexible like the plastic tubing so you would have to get them cut exactly to length and shape.

The heat from the pipes will be radiated back into the case causing other components to get hotter and in turn heating the coolant. Also the heat from the pipes would also heat up the barbs/compression fittings which go into the GPU/CPU block, RES and rad/s heating those up as well.

It sounds like more trouble than it's worth to me, looking at the temps from the Shadow H20 rig which has one 60mm thick 360mm rad and is keeping a 990X @ 4.4ghz and a 6990 @ 950mhz at 50c, if you do a similar set up or a dual loop I doubt your temps would be high at all.
 
If you used standard copper pipe, it could look very retro, like the inside of the nautilus or something? I don't think its worth doing as a standard build but if you did it as a theme to go with say something like this, then I think it could look quite cool...

retro-brass-lcd-and-keyboard.jpg
 
The only reason I can think of that would justify that much hassle is some kind of rig competition where looks are key. The temps would barely change, or perhaps they would be cooler to begin with but slowly rise. Normal tubing insulates where as these would conduct the heat to the point where they might even produce higher temps.
 
There would be a slight improvement, and I mean slight. The length of the runs are too short in an enclosed space to make a big difference. Even though you start dissipating heat earlier before entering the rad; in an internal watercooling system, you might be able to utilise 'some fresher' air that misses the most components before being exhausted through the roof; but other than that, you be using mostly slightly pre-warmed air passing the rad in the roof.

If not for looks, it still will be a technical achievement to be proud of.
 
I have thought of this in the past, It would really help cooling the liquid if the tubing had radiating fins to increase the surface area, Got the idea from a heating system we had when I lived in alaska, Our heating was by hot water that was pumped through copper pipe with radiator fins running the length, a lot of heat came off of that and the house stayed nice and toasty in the middle of the sub zero winter. I did find some on the net, might not be as good looking as polished smooth tubing but if you are going for a unique look, maybe a steam punk style and extra heat removal from the liquid, I think it would work.

Copper fin tube.

oimg_CA00418125.jpg


Spiral Fin Tube, is said to have a higher heat transfer due to its sharp twists making the fluid move and mix rather than just moving down a straight shaft.

oimg_CA00418355.jpg


Im sure you could get these in stainless, The site I was looking at was in Korea and I noticed they had even Titanium, but I did not look specifically for Stainless. Did not see prices either so I have no idea what this kind of stuff would set you back.

One thing I came across that you probably already know about, is that some people are able to get some tight loops and angles bent into the metal tubings by filling the tube with sand when bending, this is supposed to help keep the tube from kinking when bending, also the addition of heat helps.

If you go through with some metal tube please keep us updated, I did see one rig on the net not to long ago that used copper tubing and it came out really cool looking.

IMG_3876.jpg
 
If you're using metal pipes wouldn't you also run into the problem of condensation?

No, the coolant wouldn't be cold enough for that to happen, that only happens if the pipe would be very cold contrasting to the warm environment, I wouldn't worry about it.

EDIT: Oh forgot about OP, well I don't think it would make any difference to justify doing all that work; only for a themed rig competition.
 
If you're using metal pipes wouldn't you also run into the problem of condensation?

Ya, if just straight water cooling, you would never get below room temp, heck, you would never be at room temp while it is running. It would always be warmer.
 
actually I would think it would help keep temps down. Think about it metal dissipates heat very well thin gauged tubing (1/32nd) which is alot thinner than tubing 1/8th to 1/4in) would allow case fans to in theory treat the piping as a rad. Helping to eliminate more heat. Keeping temps closer to ambient than a rad alone solution. Were not talking about high temps to start with so I doubt seriously that heat would affect the barbs at all and in reality you'd use a different kind of barb, most likely a union compression fitting.

Would truely be a work of art to see it done bro. I hope ya do this and take time and patients and make it sweet.
 
It would be a huge project... to do it properly. Don't think that standard 15mm copper pipe & some JG Speedfit connectors would quite cut it lol....
 
if i was to go down the copper route, then the tubes would have to be plated. copper oxidizes over time (goes green and black).

i would probably go down the 'tinted' chrome-plated-copper path in a multi-bore solution.
 
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