sandwiching rads ?

[nightwalker]

i know its not really an ideal situation but i was thinking maybe this might work ok ?

<--FAN PULLING--- RAD1---SPACER---RAD2---FAN PULLING-->

if the fans are pulling the air away from the rads i thought it might work, im not a genius with the whole airflow situation etc maybe someone like Arcygenical might be able to shed some thoughts on the subject

 

[MrE]

While I'm not Arcygenical, I can play him on the forums.
Stacking Rads is NOT recommended as your fans won't generate enough ambient air between the Rads. Even if you have two Rads that can sustain a serious heat dump, if you cannot move enough air through the chambers due to stacking, you risk the ability to take advantage of the second Rad. How? Simple, you take ambient air being pulled into the first Rad, pass through the chamber, air warms as it passes only to be pulled over the second rad. So now your ambient temp air suffers from being heated as its pushed through to the second set of chambers. Even with high CFM fans, you cannot escape the fact that the secondary Rad is receiving its airflow from the heat waste of the first. Does that make sense?

 

[mwin]

I would do it:
--->Fan pushing--->Rad--->Fan pushing--->Rad--->Fan pushing--->

It wouldn't be as efficient as having two rads "unstacked", but it would be more effective than a single radiator.

 

[nightwalker]

While I'm not Arcygenical, I can play him on the forums.
Stacking Rads is NOT recommended as your fans won't generate enough ambient air between the Rads. Even if you have two Rads that can sustain a serious heat dump, if you cannot move enough air through the chambers due to stacking, you risk the ability to take advantage of the second Rad. How? Simple, you take ambient air being pulled into the first Rad, pass through the chamber, air warms as it passes only to be pulled over the second rad. So now your ambient temp air suffers from being heated as its pushed through to the second set of chambers. Even with high CFM fans, you cannot escape the fact that the secondary Rad is receiving its airflow from the heat waste of the first. Does that make sense?

yeah but im not pushing air through the first one and into the second, air is being pulled outwards from either side.

 

[BillParrish]

Nigthwalker you have it correct and nothing at all wrong with that. The worst thing you could do is have the warm exhaust from one rad feeding the second rad as it is the difference between the temp of the air flowing over the fins and the temp of the coolant flowing through the rad that make them work. So your original setup with air intake feeding both rads and exhaust going in different directions is much preferred. And if you can arrange for that to be cool ambient temp air even better.

The cant generate enough air comment is also puzzling, its not like you are going to create a vacume. Now the airflow through the center section will be high because both sets of fans are sucking air from the same source, the space between the rads, but if you give them even an inch it should work ok. If you are talking about spacing of 1/4 inch or so, air like water will follow the path of least resistance and will want to mostly go through the top of the rads while the middle and lower portions will get less. But this is a minor effect, the fans will pull air where the fan makes a low pressure area behind the blades so air will certainly flow throught the fan "footprint". However "wind noise" might be a concern with very small spacing between the rads.

What distance spacer are thinking of ?

 

[nightwalker]

i dont even know what size spacer id use, i was thinking about just using the frame of a fan but then i dont know how air would get between them lol. it was just an idea.... i might just lay the rads next to each other as theyre going in the bottom of my v1000, its not like there isnt enough holes for air to get in and out.

 

[MrE]

Double post nuts.

 

[MrE]

yeah but im not pushing air through the first one and into the second, air is being pulled outwards from either side.

Something like this then?

Pic taken from XS Forums

This might work, but I still doubt that it will be as efficient as separate Rads. Worst case, you try it and find that it does or doesn't work for your needs.

 

[nightwalker]

Something like this then?

Pic taken from XS Forums

This might work, but I still doubt that it will be as efficient as separate Rads. Worst case, you try it and find that it does or doesn't work for your needs.

yeh like that.. im just looking for the best option to put radiators in the bottom of this lian li case, doesnt matter if i cant figure out something good for this one coz im buying a tower26 which fits a quad 120 rad in the side

 

[Kil4Thril]

I would do it:
--->Fan pushing--->Rad--->Fan pushing--->Rad--->Fan pushing--->

It wouldn't be as efficient as having two rads "unstacked", but it would be more effective than a single radiator.

I actually tried that once, just to see. Unfortunately, I didn't have enough heat to dump in to saturate even one rad, much less both, so I can't comment on any temp differences.

I will say that it wasn't very quiet, but could be an effective setup if used for an external system.

 

[flogge]

Do the radiators have fan mounting holes all the way through them or just a short hole to put screws into? If you can go through the rads just get some small all-thread and bushings made from small pipe and go through the whole works from one end of the assembly to the other.

You might have more of the center dead area problem on you fans with this setup since the air has to turn into the radiator from a small middle space. You might put the fans on the sides of the middle area and the radiators outboard of that to separate your heat sources a bit more.

 

[Arcygenical]

yeh like that.. im just looking for the best option to put radiators in the bottom of this lian li case, doesnt matter if i cant figure out something good for this one coz im buying a tower26 which fits a quad 120 rad in the side

This will work fine actually... You'll lose a bit of performance to turbulence and availability of air, but I'd estimate that at around 5-10%...