How fragile are heatpipes?
Moderators: NeilBlanchard, Ralf Hutter, sthayashi, Lawrence Lee
How fragile are heatpipes?
I'm asking because I was wondering if a large tower heatsink could be modded to fit a shorter case. I know it would hurt cooling a bit, but would it be even feasible to remove the top 4-5 fins from a tower heatsink and recrimp and/or bend over the top ends of the heatpipes to make it fit?
Probably not a mod I will ever really try either way, but I'm curious if it could even be done.
Probably not a mod I will ever really try either way, but I'm curious if it could even be done.
-
- Posts: 2049
- Joined: Thu Dec 15, 2005 11:06 am
- Location: Klamath Falls, OR
-
- *Lifetime Patron*
- Posts: 5316
- Joined: Sat Jan 18, 2003 2:19 pm
- Location: St Louis (county) Missouri USA
Well I've done mods to heatsinks with heatpipes. I've removed the top 5 fins on an Aerocool VM101 (they were a press-fit), then cut off about 1/3 of each fin to gain clearance for an optical drive. The fins just press back on.
And I had a bad clearance problem with one heatpipe on a Silverstone heatsink. I was able to bend it slightly, and squash it slightly.....without any problems.
Those heatsinks were 8mm thick, looked strong enough......but turned out to be very easy to modify.....too easy in fact. You have to be very careful here, not to kink the pipe. I've never heard of anybody rupturing a pipe by bending it.....but you never know.
Probably would be safer to just buy a heatsink that fits as is.
And I had a bad clearance problem with one heatpipe on a Silverstone heatsink. I was able to bend it slightly, and squash it slightly.....without any problems.
Those heatsinks were 8mm thick, looked strong enough......but turned out to be very easy to modify.....too easy in fact. You have to be very careful here, not to kink the pipe. I've never heard of anybody rupturing a pipe by bending it.....but you never know.
Probably would be safer to just buy a heatsink that fits as is.
-
- Patron of SPCR
- Posts: 749
- Joined: Sat Nov 11, 2006 6:02 pm
Kinking a heatpipe is bad like Bluefront said.
In one of the threads here, I saw a link to a Thermaltake Sonic Tower used on a graphics card. Both towers needed to be bent to be able to fit it inside the case. This was over 60 °. If done with care, it is possible, but I wouldn't want to try it if I didn't have a backup.
Sonic Tower on x1900xt - graphics card mod
In one of the threads here, I saw a link to a Thermaltake Sonic Tower used on a graphics card. Both towers needed to be bent to be able to fit it inside the case. This was over 60 °. If done with care, it is possible, but I wouldn't want to try it if I didn't have a backup.
Sonic Tower on x1900xt - graphics card mod
A lot of good feedback here. As I said at the beginning, this is just something I've been thinking about. I don't really want to go out and buy a brand new heatsink that I know won't fit, just to see if the mod will work. But I've worked with copper tubing before, so I know it can be bent if careful. I just don't know how that affects the function of the system.
BTW, anyone know where I might be able to get old, used, or otherwise dirt cheap heatpipes to experiment with?
Do you mean "cease to work" altogether, or just won't work past the kink? say I need to remove 5 fins and the ends of the heatpipes stuck past the top fin by 4mm. If i pinch off the heatpipes 4mm from the new top fin and just fold them over (making sure not to puncture them), it seems that it would still work fine, unless there is something about the inner workings of heatpipes that I'm missing.cmthomson wrote:...the pipes will cease to work if you cut, puncture or kink them.
BTW, anyone know where I might be able to get old, used, or otherwise dirt cheap heatpipes to experiment with?
If i pinch off the heatpipes 4mm from the new top fin and just fold them over (making sure not to puncture them), it seems that it would still work fine
It will, but I highly doubt you'll make it without puncturing. As it was said, heatpipes only tolerate smooth bends, for which, in your case, there is not enough spare length. _Possibly_ you can make pipe tips more flexible by annealing them, but you'll need something like a MAPP torch for that.
It will, but I highly doubt you'll make it without puncturing. As it was said, heatpipes only tolerate smooth bends, for which, in your case, there is not enough spare length. _Possibly_ you can make pipe tips more flexible by annealing them, but you'll need something like a MAPP torch for that.