Zalman fanless cooling

[markland556]

Im really looking at the Zalman stuff cause i hate having a radiator with an annoying fan. But i also dont really wanna use the crappy pump and waterblock it comes with, would it be worth my troubles to mod this shit for it, or just use a radiator, and if a ratiator, what would you guys suggest?

 

[Little Grabbi]

two german companies by the names of Cape and Innovatek make special passiva radiators. They cost too much, but they do work well...

 

[SledgeMakeGood]

I exist without the aid of fans.

Check sig. I'll set you up with a shopping list if you want, but it's no easier than any other custom setup.

 

[CopyCat]

With a truck Rad its no surprise you don't need fans. By the time water gets through that thing its 30 seconds later

 

[markland556]

just looked into the innovatek one, they look alright, but the one costs about $360, thats alot for a dam chunk of metal. But i think i might just do a little modding to the zalman one. Because i hate having a fan when im going water cooled, because my old computer had it like that and the air moving past the radiator made quite alot of noise.

Hmm maby ill run a hose out the wall and have the radiator outside, my dad has a mercedes shop and i have a least 5 radiators in my garage alone, he probably has about 10 million more at his shop. LOL

 

[SledgeMakeGood]

With a truck Rad its no surprise you don't need fans. By the time water gets through that thing its 30 seconds later

I'm using a pump matched to the rad, not the blocks, so it goes through pretty quickly, but yeah, it's nice to not worry about whether the coolant is spending enough time in the rad, and the blocks are getting some pretty massive flow ; )

Look into getting a *new* radiator from a car that fits the size you can deal with. DO NOT get a used one, it will flake pieces off inside forever and kill your pump and fry whatever you're cooling. Free is a lot better than $100-something, but it's a lot more hassle. Mine was just over $100 (I didn't pick it, my buddy had it from when he bought an '85 truck and was doing maintenance), they make a copper-cored version with brass side tanks for less than $250 that's actually a little larger, which would solve any corrosion problem that might arise.

The downside is that you have to build a frame for a car rad, I managed with 10 sections of 1"x3" pine and 30 wood screws and it doesn't look half bad so it's not too difficult. If you're just going to stick it in a window frame like an A/C unit, you don't even have to do that.

The reason I'm using this instead of a zalman or innovatek or any of the other ones that go for $200-$300 is they're about the same money (sometimes a lot less), but you get much better performance from these, at the expense of looks and simplicity of setup (I had to buy a bunch of pvc reducers to get the 1-5/16" inlet and 1-9/16" outlet down to fit my loop).

Whatever you go for, good luck and have fun.

 

[markland556]

i dont really know about actually doing the car radiator. i really wanna keep this lookin a little neat and more high tech. I think i might go with the zalman.

 

[SledgeMakeGood]

The reserator always interested me because it looks so clean and interesting, like it belongs next to a computer case, but the performance with the integrated pump is easily dismissed as not worth it. Unless you're willing to pick up some copper tube and solder accordianed aluminum sheetmetal around it, (which is how I imagine you'd make your own), your best bet is to yank the pump out and use an external pump, because no decent submersible pump that I know of will fit in there.

Nuts, now I want to go get some copper tube and aluminum sheetmetal ; )

Actually, you could probably get the same performance out of a really big bucket, provided it was metal (a regular 5-gallon plastic bucket would insulate the coolant). Those fins probably don't help as much as look good considering there's no forced air running over them.