Why do I want to watercool?

[DrMrLordX]

Just an FYI, but anyone looking to buy an H240-X can get one from Gigaparts. Not tryin to shill for Swiftech or Gigaparts, just sayin, you can get one if you look hard enough for it. It ain't cheap though.

 

[BonzaiDuck]

Just an FYI, but anyone looking to buy an H240-X can get one from Gigaparts. Not tryin to shill for Swiftech or Gigaparts, just sayin, you can get one if you look hard enough for it. It ain't cheap though.

No -- it ain't.

But here's a question.

Volenti coolers and all sorts of exotic Rube Goldbergs aside -- some folks here have chosen the smaller footprint than the traditional full- or mid-tower case.

It occurred to me earlier -- I'm still a watercooling wannabe and newbie -- that the problem can be one of fitting a desired radiator capacity to a desired case design and case-size.

Seeing what WGusler did with his Corsair C70 and an H80 AiO, I'm looking at "fat" single fan radiators, as well as dual-fan radiators that are thicker than 35mm. So I'm wondering if there's some arithmetic rule-of-thumb for assessing the relative cooling effectiveness of an 80x120x120 or 80x140x140 radiator, and a 40x120[140]x240[280] radiator.

I'm sure there's an arithmetic basis of comparison. I just don't know the particulars.

 

[DrMrLordX]

There is a mathematical way to go about comparing radiators based on different fin configurations, and you'd want/need a strong background in heat transfer and fluid dynamics to undertake such an analysis. Let me just say that dealing with any fin configuration that is not a simple case of fins protruding from a base at right angles can be very . . . complicated. It would be a lot easier to use a computational model to calculate temperature distributions throughout the radiator, at which point one could then discern overall heat transfer from any given point on any given fin and then sum the total (or something along those lines).

 

[BonzaiDuck]

There is a mathematical way to go about comparing radiators based on different fin configurations, and you'd want/need a strong background in heat transfer and fluid dynamics to undertake such an analysis. Let me just say that dealing with any fin configuration that is not a simple case of fins protruding from a base at right angles can be very . . . complicated. It would be a lot easier to use a computational model to calculate temperature distributions throughout the radiator, at which point one could then discern overall heat transfer from any given point on any given fin and then sum the total (or something along those lines).

I guess for starters I should look more closely at radiator specs. Otherwise, what you describe sounds like an integration problem.