What is an X-Flow radiator?

[bitbum]

What is the difference between the "Black Ice GT Stealth" and the "Black Ice GT Stealth X-Flow" radiators? They look like they are the same size, I'm looking at the 120. Other than the fittings going on opposite ends on the X-Flow, is there a difference?

 

[danks]

i havent seen many people using the x-flow rads in their loops but I believe they are a single pass. The regular gts rad is a dual pass...

 

[mwin]

Yeah. The X-Flows are single pass radiators. Water flows in on one corner, through the radiator, and out the opposite corner. The regular ones are dual pass. Water flows in one corner, flows throuh half the radiator, turns around, flows back through the other half, and out next to where it flowed in.

 

[Arcygenical]

I like the X flow because it's a good, oh... foot of tubing I don't need to use to get water from the top of my case, back down to the bottom (I mount my radiator vertically).

 

[jreffy]

I used to work as an engineer for Modine Manufacturing, which is a company in Wisconsin that makes radiators. The above poster is correct in saying that the cross0-flow rads are better. Crossflow simply means that the inlet and outlet are on opposite sides of the radiator, and on opposite corners. Back when I co-op'd with Modine, the crossflow radiators were the best for performance and flow. I'm 99.9% positive the same rules apply to smaller radiators. You get the best flow and cooling in the cross flow with a lower erosion rate and less of a chance for clogging.

 

[Erasmus354]

I used to work as an engineer for Modine Manufacturing, which is a company in Wisconsin that makes radiators. The above poster is correct in saying that the cross0-flow rads are better. Crossflow simply means that the inlet and outlet are on opposite sides of the radiator, and on opposite corners. Back when I co-op'd with Modine, the crossflow radiators were the best for performance and flow. I'm 99.9% positive the same rules apply to smaller radiators. You get the best flow and cooling in the cross flow with a lower erosion rate and less of a chance for clogging.

Actually in this case the X-Flow is worse. When engineered correctly single pass radiators are great, especially when used in the correct kind of system. However, the X-Flow radiators are simply normal dualpass radiators with changed end tanks to convert them to single pass. In this case there was no engineering for designing a radiator for singlepass, therefore the X-flow radiators are worse than their dual pass counterparts.

A good example of a solidly engineered single pass radiator in PC watercooling is the PA160. It was designed from the ground up with single pass in mind, and performs very well because of it.

 

[indokyne]

well i guess it really comes down to the path within the radiator - and not just inlet/outlet position.

I believe that there could be in fact better x-flows out there in terms of flow but in terms of cooling, how would it compare against similarly designed standard radiators?

 

[Arcygenical]

Yeah lol... HWlabs just added a second plenum tank to the other side and a barb... They didn't do anything to optimize the flow. Having said this, the difference between the Xflow and the regular GTS will be within 2'c. Lets put it this way, I'm running a dual 120mm BIP Xflow radiator and I'm still getting 33'c idle (well, I'm listening to music and posting this, so not TECHNICALLY idle).

The GTS will perform even better, so get what works better in your case. The Xflow has barbs on opposite ends, a different price than the GTS regular and about an inch longer... Take those 3 things into consideration and buy the one that fits your case and budget the best .