stacking rads

[carolkarine]

so, muy question is how detrimental to performance is it to stack rads? technically what I'm going to be doing is having three push-pull rads on top of one another. so I'll have one set of fans, a rad, 2 sets of fans, another rad, 2 more sets of fans, one more rad, and then one last set of fans, all blowing the same way. would this work well? and which rads would be best for this?

[virusal19]

And where are you going to fit all these? 

 

I doubt this will work. Even if it does work, I think the temps won't be any better than having a single rad with one set of fans. 

[Ghost]

People have talked about doing this before. The question that stopped everyone considering it;

 

How would you screw two radiators together with a fan sandwiched in between. You have no way of getting inside the radiator and screwing them in.

[Hyydrah]

People have talked about doing this before. The question that stopped everyone considering it;

 

How would you screw two radiators together with a fan sandwiched in between. You have no way of getting inside the radiator and screwing them in.

You don't necessarily have to screw them in.

[Levent]

People have talked about doing this before. The question that stopped everyone considering it;

 

How would you screw two radiators together with a fan sandwiched in between. You have no way of getting inside the radiator and screwing them in.

who needs to screw them when you got duct tape

[GeneralBear]

i use to stack fans on my older rigs with zip ties

[virusal19]

i use to stack fans on my older rigs with zip ties

 

Ghetto... I like it. 

[Ghost]

i use to stack fans on my older rigs with zip ties

I still don't see it happening. If you actually manage to sandwich a set of fans between two radiators then props to you but I need to see it to believe it. You have to remember a radiator is closed and there should be no gaps between the fans.

 

Also stacking fans is a terrible idea and it helps very little in terms of air flow and would just make more noise. If you read up on the design and workings of the jet engine you will find out why but that's a discussion for a different thread.

[Bupalooga]

Very inneficient. Cant remember the guy who does all the watercooling component benchmarks and testing but I read he covered stacking rads in different orders, fan speeds, push pull configs and in all cases its not worth it. The warm air from the first rad diminished the head disapation ability of the second rad. It was only viable in very high airflow situations where the air is passing through so fast, its not as heat saturated as in low airflow situations. Definitely pointless with more than 2 rads and why have that many rads when ud need to have fast loud fans.

 

Martins liquid lab, thats the one!

http://martinsliquidlab.org/2012/06/08/hesmelaughs-radiator-sandwich-testing/

Edited May 31, 2013 by Bupalooga

[Ghost]

Following through from Bupalooga's link here is a picture of an actual working set-up but no mention of how it is attached.

 

[GeneralBear]

Ghetto... I like it. 

yeah i use to stack fans fans on the back of my case to where my cpu cooler was to blow air right form the cooler all same model same rpm via a controler i found it helped but nothing amazing only like 5c

[carolkarine]

And where are you going to fit all these? 

 

I doubt this will work. Even if it does work, I think the temps won't be any better than having a single rad with one set of fans. 

 

 

People have talked about doing this before. The question that stopped everyone considering it;

 

How would you screw two radiators together with a fan sandwiched in between. You have no way of getting inside the radiator and screwing them in.

 

 

i use to stack fans on my older rigs with zip ties

 

 

I still don't see it happening. If you actually manage to sandwich a set of fans between two radiators then props to you but I need to see it to believe it. You have to remember a radiator is closed and there should be no gaps between the fans.

 

Also stacking fans is a terrible idea and it helps very little in terms of air flow and would just make more noise. If you read up on the design and workings of the jet engine you will find out why but that's a discussion for a different thread.

 

 

Very inneficient. Cant remember the guy who does all the watercooling component benchmarks and testing but I read he covered stacking rads in different orders, fan speeds, push pull configs and in all cases its not worth it. The warm air from the first rad diminished the head disapation ability of the second rad. It was only viable in very high airflow situations where the air is passing through so fast, its not as heat saturated as in low airflow situations. Definitely pointless with more than 2 rads and why have that many rads when ud need to have fast loud fans.

 

Martins liquid lab, thats the one!

http://martinsliquidlab.org/2012/06/08/hesmelaughs-radiator-sandwich-testing/

 

thanks for the insight.

 

see, the reason I'm doing it this way is because I'm working on a design for a completely custom case. the stacking is probably the easiest way to stuff rads in and still have the intake on the bottom. see this thread for more details on my plans:

 

http://linustechtips.com/main/topic/21117-custom-case-plan/

 

as you can see, I tried to limit the number of openings I have on the side of the case. I could go for 4 480s along the sides, but that kind of limits the aesthetic I'm going for. I don't want to strangle them like the prodigy and 900d do, where there's openings on the side and no holes in the middle. I guess I could do mesh for those bits, but I'm trying to go for a clean exterior with only a few visible openings.

 

 

Following through from Bupalooga's link here is a picture of an actual working set-up but no mention of how it is attached.

 

 

well, I would have fans between the rads. so it would be fan rad fan fan rad fan fan rad fan. I could screw the fans and rads into push-pull, then use corsair SP's with threaded bar cut into just long enough sticks with locking nuts to secure the three push-pull rad assemblies together.

[Ghost]

well, I would have fans between the rads. so it would be fan rad fan fan rad fan fan rad fan. I could screw the fans and rads into push-pull, then use corsair SP's with threaded bar cut into just long enough sticks with locking nuts to secure the three push-pull rad assemblies together.

Having two fans in series is inefficient. Have a look at

; specifically the compressor part. Notice that there is a set of non-rotating blades in-between each set of rotating blades. In a radiator the fins do this job.

[carolkarine]

Having two fans in series is inefficient. Have a look at

; specifically the compressor part. Notice that there is a set of non-rotating blades in-between each set of rotating blades. In a radiator the fins do this job.

I see what you mean. now, how many rads would you suggest for a 2gpu+cpu loop? everything I've heard says about 480 total.

[Ghost]

I see what you mean. now, how many rads would you suggest for a 2gpu+cpu loop? everything I've heard says about 480 total.

Depends on rad thickness.

[carolkarine]

Depends on rad thickness.

I have plenty of space when it comes to that.

[Ghost]

I have plenty of space when it comes to that.

In that case use 80mm rads and yes 480 rad space would be enough. In general the more rads you add the better it is as long as you are reasonable.

[Ghost]

And for future reference, this is how you would mount rads back to back:

 

 

So you alternate rads you screw the fan to in every hole and use nuts to make the screws shorter.

[FluffyNuggets]

Why not use a radiator box? Seems odd to want to stack 3 radiators on top of each other. Or you could just buy a 900d and stick 3-4 radiators in it. That would be enough to cool a CPU and 4 GPU's.

[carolkarine]

Why not use a radiator box? Seems odd to want to stack 3 radiators on top of each other. Or you could just buy a 900d and stick 3-4 radiators in it. That would be enough to cool a CPU and 4 GPU's.

I'm building my own FT03 inspired case. small footprint, you see.

[FluffyNuggets]

I'm building my own FT03 inspired case. small footprint, you see.

Are you against running radiators outside of the case? You could just have a rad box sitting somewhere on the floor like behind a desk and just run some tubing to it. Now if you want to move the computer that would be a problem obviously.

[carolkarine]

yeah, I am agaisnt a rad box. only thing I['d consider for external stuff would be phase-change.