Alu vs. steel Chieftec Dragon test - guess the results....

Post by **Ralf Hutter** » Sun Jul 04, 2004 12:08 pm

SystemCooling.com recently did a "Does an aluminum case cool better than an identical steel case" comparison. Anyone care to guess the outcome? The results shouldn't be surprising to anyonw who regularly reads SPCR, but I'll give you a hint: it's yet another nail in the coffin of this old wives' tail.

Bluefront · Post by **Bluefront** » Sun Jul 04, 2004 12:33 pm

Ralf I'm surprised at the conclusion you apparently have, using only a few examples of this test.....

The conclusion I would come to after reading the results is.......In this particular case design, it does not matter which metal is used (aluminum or steel), as the cooling effects of the case are almost identical.

This does not mean that choice of metals has no effect in ALL case designs.

Post by **Ralf Hutter** » Sun Jul 04, 2004 12:42 pm

So you're suggesting that some other type of aluminum case (not including the Zalman case that's actually designed as an aluminum heatsink, as opposed to the typical aluminum case which is just an aluminum copy of a steel tower) actually will cool better than it's steel clone?

Bluefront · Post by **Bluefront** » Sun Jul 04, 2004 12:57 pm

The problem is that most aluminum cases are as you say.....merely copies of steel cases. Copies that make no attempt to use the heat transfer ability of aluminum (vs steel) to actually cool the internal components of the case.

Ok here's another test of this type, using aluminum vs steel. I'll bet the cooling ability of aluminum hard drive cages is measurably superior to an identical steel setup. Anybody ever test HD temps this way?

The point is...you have to make use of heat transfer to aluminum in a positive way. It's obvious expecting the air in the case to transfer heat to the case itself....is futile. Some sort of direct connection to the case itself, is necessary if you expect the case to cool anything.

What we've seen is marketing only with aluminum cases....no real effort to use the aluminum to cool anything. With a few exceptions....

Here's my new design of the day....construct the right and left case panel as aluminum radiators, no airflow through them, just fins on the outside, maybe fins on the inside also. A water-cooled setup with some internal airflow through the case, could probably run passively like this. With steel radiator panels I doubt it.

greeef · Post by **greeef** » Sun Jul 04, 2004 4:25 pm

heatpipes would be enough bluefront - i saw some site that sold the blocks and the pipes once.

I was thinking of pelt cooling my aluminium case. If it didnt reduce ambient temps it would make it cool to the touch, which would be funky..

griff

Bluefront · Post by **Bluefront** » Sun Jul 04, 2004 4:54 pm

Well sure in a dedicated/OEM setup you could use heatpipes. But I have never seen heatpipes that could interface say one case with a different brand CPU heatsink, or motherboard. But that is a possibility......and I think the first setup like this will be aluminum, with copper heatpipes.

I don't think steel cases have much of a future.

josephclemente · Post by **josephclemente** » Sun Jul 04, 2004 6:16 pm

I like the look of aluminum cases because of their metal front bezel, while steel cases always have a plastic bezel. To me, there is no difference between these two cases in the comparison because they both have big plastic front bezels.

Post by **Rusty075** » Sun Jul 04, 2004 7:16 pm

Bluefront wrote:This does not mean that choice of metals has no effect in ALL case designs.

To make Ralf's wisdom bluefront-accurate:

"For all but 1 case out of the 5000 on the market today, Aluminum does not cool better than Steel, everything else being equal. It is also noiser, everything else being equal" Unless you specifically design a case to take advantage of the aluminum (which no conventional case does) the aluminum is useless from a cooling perspective.

There, I think that about covers the "aluminum vs. steel debate"...until it comes up again in 3 months.

HammerSandwich · Post by **HammerSandwich** » Sun Jul 04, 2004 7:42 pm

I'm surprised, Ralf. You even posted when this came up in an earlier thread.

Post by **Ralf Hutter** » Mon Jul 05, 2004 5:45 am

HammerSandwich wrote:I'm surprised, Ralf. You even posted when this came up in an earlier thread.

Oops, I'm a real moron.

Remember boys and girls: "Use the Search", and "do as I say, not as I do".

I'll leave this here for a few days and delete it later.

HammerSandwich · Post by **HammerSandwich** » Mon Jul 05, 2004 9:49 am

Ralf Hutter wrote:I'll leave this here for a few days and delete it later.

How about just linking to it from the "you know you're getting older" thread?

Nowhere_man · Post by **Nowhere_man** » Tue Jul 06, 2004 5:30 am

So I can conclude from all of this that hot water freezes faster than cold water inside either case?