MrWizard6600
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title says it all, why are Radiators from say.... Asetek so much better then ones from thermaltake?
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What makes a good radiator?
- Thread starter MrWizard6600
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Flow. Some of these, like the Thermaltake radiators that come with the kits, are sorta like a snake looping back and forth between. That's restrictive. Black Ice radiators, single pass, the water enters the top, exits the bottom, and that's that. Not as restrictive.
Not only that, but some use Round tubing, others use Flat tubing. The round tubing is not as efficient as the flat, since there's not as much water contacting the edges, making for less heat flow out.
Not only that, but some use Round tubing, others use Flat tubing. The round tubing is not as efficient as the flat, since there's not as much water contacting the edges, making for less heat flow out.
A short list:
Flow restriction is very important factor in radiator performance. A nearly unrestrictive radiator would be able to dissipate very little heat. A well designed but highly restrictive radiator would be able to dissipate a great deal of heat.
- Tube Design: As Bbq said, flat tubes are not only superior to round tubes, but far superior. Flat tubes result in a great deal more contact surface area than round tubes, and also result in coolant flow being much more turbulant. Turbulant flow results in a less sizeable boundary layer (which inhibits heat transfer). Flat tubes are result in a lower airfllow pressure drop.
- Tube Density: The number of tubes in a given area, in either a dual pass or single pass configuration. More is better, but will likely result in more overall restriction, since tube size will likely change depending on tube density.
- Single pass or multi pass: A properly designed single pass radiator should be more effective than a similar dual pass radiator. As far as I'm aware, there are no "proper" single pass radiators designed for PC cooling at the moment - X-flow radiators are not tailored for maintaining high velocity and turbulance in the tubing.
- Fin Density: The number of copper fins per inch (fpi). A higher fin density will perform better given very high volume fans (these fans should also be able to create strong pressure). A lower fin density will result in better performance for low volume, low pressure fans. Some high density radiators might demand 100cfm+ fans to achieve better performance than their low fin density counterpart.
- Fin Thickness: 45 micron in older Black Ice and ThermoChill rads (and others), and 25 microns in Black Ice GTs. Thinner fins allow for more fin density with the same degree of airflow restriction, but may or may not result in any measurable increase in dissipation.
Flow restriction is very important factor in radiator performance. A nearly unrestrictive radiator would be able to dissipate very little heat. A well designed but highly restrictive radiator would be able to dissipate a great deal of heat.
DFI Daishi
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QFT.phide said:
one adition related to your final point is that in a general sense rads are trying to find a sweet spot between the performance vs restriction curve and the pressure vs flow curves of the fans that people want to use when watercooling a PC.
a good rad should represent the best cooling performance for the noise/airflow that you are targeting, with the lowest coolant pressure drop needed to attain that performance. you know.....the old have your cake and eat it too.
thewhiteguy
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It's because some are heatercores and others aren't.
ThermoChill PA160 - designed to be singlepass from the ground up.
For info on the rest, see ProCooling forums (Radiator Design section), as well as links from the PA160's page at ThermoChill.com where the design of the later Thermochill range is detailed, and also see the article posted HERE which details the various types of rads and why some are better than others for our application.
Tends to explain more or less whats bad and whats good in a rad...
Note, arising from OP...
Asetek don't make radiators. They use HWLabs Black Ice series radiators. Be aware when discussing rads that the majority aren't made by the company whose name is on the label. Eg: ppl refer to the "DD BIX". There is no DD BIX. It's a HWLabs BIX, resold by DD. Nothing different about it than the BIX sold by any other company.
Ah yes, forgot about the 160. So, any plans of developing a broader range of single pass radiators with PA fin density? Seems like you fellows have been rather stagnant for a bit.
I imagine I'd throw a couple hundred bucks at ya for a single pass PA120.3
I imagine I'd throw a couple hundred bucks at ya for a single pass PA120.3