Question for H2O experts: Cooling P4 3.06 w/ small radiator?

RDaneel · Post by **RDaneel** » Mon Mar 31, 2003 5:20 pm

Hi -

I am trying to decide on how I am going to cool my new P4 3.06 system... I know I want to use water, as I am sick of all the fan noise from my current oc'd systems. My case is a Chenbro\Chenming Dragon mid-tower. It has space at the rear for only 2 80mm fans, in a vertical arrangement. There is no room for a larger radiator, like a full size Black Ice, unless I cut a hole in the plexi side panel or the top, and I don't want to do either of those things.

My issue is this: can I QUIETLY cool a 3ghz processor with one or two Black Ice Micro radiators? I imagine that I could mount them so the fans pull air through them and exhaust (would pushing air be better? mounting the rad onto the fan is easier with these crappy plastic brackets I have) out the rear. Would using a pair of very quiet 80mm fans provide enough CFM? Would I be better off going with an Exos or the new Corsair HydroCool system (120mm temperature controlled fan)?

Thanks for ANY help you can offer!

RDaneel

Mirar · Post by **Mirar** » Tue Apr 01, 2003 5:37 am

I think it's really easy to cool stuff if you have a fan/radiator combo, so my guess would be that it's enough.
You could always run the fan faster, if it's a problem. Right?

Most of the watercooling stuff is designed for overclocking. I don't know how tiny the black ice micros are, though.

But if I were you I'd go for something like a huge radiator on the outside of the case and cool it without fans. It demands some more experimentation and tools though.

RDaneel · Post by **RDaneel** » Tue Apr 01, 2003 9:37 am

The Black Ice Micro is pretty small - it is about the size of a 80mm fan, which makes it perfect for my application, but concerns me in terms of cooling potential. I think I may just try it out, and see if it can keep the temps down... I can always run two in series for extra cooling potential.

I just wish I had a way of calculating the heat output of the chip, and the heat dissipation of the radiator. Is this info available?

Thanks,
RDaneel

Mirar · Post by **Mirar** » Tue Apr 01, 2003 10:01 am

The CPU output should be easy to find. I'm sure someone will give you a link.

The radiator stats probably varies a lot with the airflow, and the airflow is hard to calculate anyway because it depends on stuff like how the fan acts under pressure... I guess there might be stats on known combinations, though. You only need to find someone that uses black ice micro...

I would guess that a water radiator cools a little better then an equally sized normal HSF combo (because the airflow gets better). With such a tiny radiator it might not get quieter...