Fully passive cooling

[Spewn]

So, the first day I had my watercooling setup hooked up, I forgot to plug my pump in when I turned my machine on. At this point, I wasn't overclocking though. I realised what I'd done wrong after a few hours of wondering why my temperature was sitting at 38/39'C at idle. However, this made me wonder; if it were designed right, could one make a watercooling setup that had no pump, and no fan, and worked *entirely* off of convection?

 

[dobbz]

if you mean stagnant water, then i doubt it. aluminum and copper cool much better. water's job is to move the heat more efficiently than air.

 

[Syphon Filter]

it could be done IMO,

but not using a conventional block and tubing i dont think. You would effectively need a big (i'm thinking pretty freakin huge) tower of water above ur CPU so that hot and cold water could move easily...also i dont think it could be done easily in a case which as a the CPU at 90* to the ground (ie all tower cases).

The theory is sound , but in practice it just wouldnt be feasible...i dont think

 

[maxkilling]

you'd be better of with heat-pipes. But these only work in a certain temperature area... thats too too warm for great cooling quality.

 

[Little Grabbi]

Originally posted by maxkilling
you'd be better of with heat-pipes. But these only work in a certain temperature area... thats too too warm for great cooling quality.

The temp range depends on the fluid in the heatpipe. IF you use something that evaporates at 30°c, and keep the cold end under that temperature, all's fine.

 

[zer0signal667]

Originally posted by dobbz
if you mean stagnant water, then i doubt it. aluminum and copper cool much better. water's job is to move the heat more efficiently than air.

He said convection, not stagnation.

It could work, obviously since you did it, but not very well. You'd probably want to use a specially designed block, loop, and radiator to reduce flow resistance and get some decent flow/cooling going on.