Car Radiator in PC

[KappaPlz]

I wanted to share this with you all. A dude is selling a PC which includes a car radiator attached to it. Is it even possible ?

[flibberdipper]

Possible? Yes. Stupid, especially given the components I'm seeing? Also yes.

[SignatureSigner]

10 minutes ago, KappaPlz said:

I wanted to share this with you all. A dude is selling a PC which includes a car radiator attached to it. Is it even possible ?

 

Why would you watercool an rx 570?

[Bombastinator]

Works and works well are different things.  A car radiator is designed to function with very large volumes of air going through it caused by either a very powerful fan or the movement of the vehicle.  A car radiator is huge compared to a computer radiator so it could still possibly work, but it won’t be very efficient because it’s optimized to do a different thing than it is doing.   At the end of the day they’re both radiators though and work in more or less the same way.  I don’t know how much efficiency loss would be created and how much of it would be offset by sheer size.  One serious possible problem I see is density.  The car radiator’s design assumes a lot more much faster air.  It may not cool through convection much at all due to dense structure placement which could effect efficiency a LOT.   It sort of doesn’t matter though.  This looks a lot like some dude’s hack project he thinks he can get money for because of the shortages.  and probably quite works poorly.  I wouldn’t go near this one personally.

Edited March 4, 2021 by Bombastinator

[sub68]

I am in class and I pull off the most confusing face.

But a car radiator is a radiator and works but probably inefficient.

[thrasher_565]

car rads are alumanum arnt they? what is the cost of this car rad? i would think you would need a d5 pump at least so that can add cost to the loop already and your going need car flowed witch is not as good as water for cooling but it works with mixed metals. id the pipes of the rad are to big i would think it wont work.

[Bombastinator]

3 minutes ago, thrasher_565 said:

car rads are alumanum arnt they? what is the cost of this car rad? i would think you would need a d5 pump at least so that can add cost to the loop already and your going need car flowed witch is not as good as water for cooling but it works with mixed metals. id the pipes of the rad are to big i would think it wont work.

Depends.  Sometimes. I’ve seen copper and brass ones but not on newer vehicles.  As for pipe size I doubt that is much of a factor.  Large diameters would simply make the water move more slowly.

[thrasher_565]

9 minutes ago, Bombastinator said:

Depends.  Sometimes. I’ve seen copper and brass ones but not on newer vehicles.  As for pipe size I doubt that is much of a factor.  Large diameters would simply make the water move more slowly.

i guess they will just have to try it i guess.

yu can buy cheap aluminum pc rads for half the cost. the d5 pump is expensive thow. the cheap knock off is still like $80 and there are lemon d5 pumps.

 

i picked up 2x 480 rads and 2x 120mm rads for $100. fittings you cant buy cheap fittings on ebay anymore so... but use to pay like $2.50 a 90dgree and like $2.50 for compression 8mm od 1/2 id fittings.

 

[Bombastinator]

1 minute ago, thrasher_565 said:

i guess they will just have to try it i guess.

yu can buy cheap aluminum pc rads for half the cost. the d5 pump is expensive thow. the cheap knock off is still like $80 and there are lemon d5 pumps.

 

i picked up 2x 480 rads and 2x 120mm rads for $100. fittings you cant buy cheap fittings on ebay anymore so... but use to pay like $2.50 a 90dgree and like $2.50 for compression 8mm od 1/2 id fittings.

 

One would assume it’s a junk yard radiator.  Free or super cheap. Notice the crushed bits on the fins.  It’s been knocked about a bit. Even a small auto engine produces massively more heat than a computer though.  With adequate airflow the thing could be quite impressive.  It appears to have no fans on it though.

[thrasher_565]

20 minutes ago, Bombastinator said:

One would assume it’s a junk yard radiator.  Free or super cheap. Notice the crushed bits on the fins.  It’s been knocked about a bit. Even a small auto engine produces massively more heat than a computer though.  With adequate airflow the thing could be quite impressive.  It appears to have no fans on it though.

ya well having  many rads or a big one means you might be able to go no fans at all.

 

i really dont no. if i found it for cheap or free why not.

[Blue4130]

This is how pc watercooling started. In the late 90's and early 2000's there were no pc specific rads, people would usually use car heater core rads. They worked fine. 

[Bombastinator]

10 minutes ago, Blue4130 said:

This is how pc watercooling started. In the late 90's and early 2000's there were no pc specific rads, people would usually use car heater core rads. They worked fine. 

Hmm.. a heater core can be gotten from a junkyard for cheap.  The main cost is removing the thing in the first place

[Bombastinator]

2 hours ago, thrasher_565 said:

ya well having  many rads or a big one means you might be able to go no fans at all.

 

i really dont no. if i found it for cheap or free why not.

Not a lot of noise savings.  The pump is usually the loudest thing.  It’s those pumpless systems that interest me.

Edited March 5, 2021 by Bombastinator

[tdkid]

well how many miles are on the computer?

[airborne spoon]

yeah it would work just fine so long as the rad and the block are the same metals.

also with the massive size of that rad compared to the small amount of heat a 570 puts out there is no way a fan would ever be needed to cool the rad. 

back in the day i had an aluminum rad and and aluminum block for my AMD bulldozer and never had a fan and that sucker ran cool as can be. looked dumb as shit but it was almost free and it worked so i didnt care.

[Bombastinator]

13 minutes ago, airborne spoon said:

yeah it would work just fine so long as the rad and the block are the same metals.

also with the massive size of that rad compared to the small amount of heat a 570 puts out there is no way a fan would ever be needed to cool the rad. 

back in the day i had an aluminum rad and and aluminum block for my AMD bulldozer and never had a fan and that sucker ran cool as can be. looked dumb as shit but it was almost free and it worked so i didnt care.

“the same metals” is just a simplified  way to think about it.  You could have two totally different metals, but if they have similar properties there won’t be current flow and it won’t matter.  Aluminum and copper happen to have very different properties though so it’s a simplification that makes sense for computer radiators.  

[Bombastinator]

5 minutes ago, SGT-AMD said:

WOW! What is wrong with this picture? A car radiator, and no car waterpump?

 

I’m old.  I know electric water pumps have been a thing in cars for a long time but I think of car water pumps as being mechanical.  Are there really actually silent electric automotive water pumps?  Noise is a much bigger factor in PC cooling.  I have used building and automotive sound insulation in cases and it works well.  Tends to make things heavy.

[Bombastinator]

2 hours ago, tdkid said:

well how many miles are on the computer?

Computers work like aircraft for that:  number of flight hours.

[tdkid]

2 minutes ago, Bombastinator said:

Computers work like aircraft for that:  number of flight hours.

well they would but the FAA (federal aviation administration) requires an annual inspection and many of them would fail.

[Bombastinator]

10 minutes ago, tdkid said:

well they would but the FAA (federal aviation administration) requires an annual inspection and many of them would fail.

True.  It would be hilarious if people had to have their computers inspected annually though.  Would put a huge kink in Google and facebook’s systems.  Everyone would be dumping their search histories and whatnot.

[airborne spoon]

16 minutes ago, Bombastinator said:

I’m old.  I know electric water pumps have been a thing in cars for a long time but I think of car water pumps as being mechanical.  Are there really actually silent electric automotive water pumps?  Noise is a much bigger factor in PC cooling.  I have used building and automotive sound insulation in cases and it works well.  Tends to make things heavy.

Yeah electric water pumps on cars have been a thing for a while now. I installed one on my 06 mustang to reduce the parasitic drag, wasn't concerned about it being quiet though since i took of the cats and had some gnarly flowmasters on there. I was also pushing 460hp at the wheel so i was chasing to free up all the extra power that was being wasted, like the A/C pump and PS too.

For my computers i've yet to find a way to silence the fans that is where noise comes from i never hear the pump. Desktops its easy and just adjust the curves. but for things like my ASIC's that have those 6,000 RPM blower fans there is no way to make that quiet.

[Bombastinator]

2 minutes ago, airborne spoon said:

Yeah electric water pumps on cars have been a thing for a while now. I installed one on my 06 mustang to reduce the parasitic drag, wasn't concerned about it being quiet though since i took of the cats and had some gnarly flowmasters on there. I was also pushing 460hp at the wheel so i was chasing to free up all the extra power that was being wasted, like the A/C pump and PS too.

For my computers i've yet to find a way to silence the fans that is where noise comes from i never hear the pump. Desktops its easy and just adjust the curves. but for things like my ASIC's that have those 6,000 RPM blower fans there is no way to make that quiet.

Both times I tried AIOs the pump was by far the loudest component.  Computer fans try so hard to be silent theyre not very useful for anything else.  Watched a video about a guy who was challenged to make a model airplane fly with a computer fan.  He basically couldn’t do it.  The things are apparently weaker than rubber band props. 

[airborne spoon]

1 minute ago, Bombastinator said:

Both times I tried AIOs the pump was by far the loudest component.  Computer fans try so hard to be silent theyre not very useful for anything else.  Watched a video about a guy who was challenged to make a model airplane fly with a computer fan.  He basically couldn’t do it.  The things are apparently weaker than rubber band props. 

I've never used an AIO or had the desire to get one i like to make my own custom loop with hard lines, so i just have a D5 pump chilling out running at 100% and the only way to verify its on is to feel it vibrating because it doesn't make a sound.

I think flying with a computer fan is possible, just the issue is the power:weight ratio. although my EK fans spin up to 3k RPMs and are pretty light... but a rubber band on a balsawood plane and a 2 blade prop weighs about the same as just the blade portion of a computer fan.

[Bombastinator]

3 minutes ago, airborne spoon said:

I've never used an AIO or had the desire to get one i like to make my own custom loop with hard lines, so i just have a D5 pump chilling out running at 100% and the only way to verify its on is to feel it vibrating because it doesn't make a sound.

I think flying with a computer fan is possible, just the issue is the power:weight ratio. although my EK fans spin up to 3k RPMs and are pretty light... but a rubber band on a balsawood plane and a 2 blade prop weighs about the same as just the blade portion of a computer fan.

Custom loop is apparently a different animal. You can let the air out.  

[thrasher_565]

ya my d15 with 2x 140mm fans run at 800 rpm you cant hear it. ya with a good d5 pump and the air out it should be silent.  the wuosh of the water going in to the rez is probably loudest part.