X-bit labs

Four Liquid-Cooling Systems for the Masses (page 12)

Category: Coolers

by Vasily Melnik

[ 10/14/2005 | 03:30 PM ]

If you have an exhaust 120mm fan in tour computer, you can remove the radiator’s own fan.

The radiator is noticeably shifted down in its casing:

This is not good since there’s no sense in blowing at pipes that have no ribbing. Again, I don’t know the reasons for the engineers to make such design solutions. Probably they did so for the Big Water to install properly into Thermaltake’s own system cases – the company can increase the sales of its water-cooling systems and system cases at the same time by optimizing the former for the latter.

Two different radiator designs are usually employed in consumer water-cooling kits. One of them is an accordion-shaped copper pipe with ribs put on:

This is actually a condenser rather than a radiator. Such condensers are usually employed in refrigerators where the operational temperatures are somewhat different. In computer systems it is, however, better to use radiators specifically designed for liquid-based cooling. I’ll talk on this point later on and will give you some examples.

One of the distinguishing features of the Big Water, and of the above-described Rocket, is that you can first mount the water-block on the CPU and then to connect the pipes:

Thanks to a clever design of the fittings, you should meet no troubles as you’re connecting the pipes. The installed system looks just like the above-described one since they only differ in the type of the radiator (if you don’t install the expansion tank which you can well do without). So, these systems may require a different position for the radiator in your system case, but it will depend on the type of your system case.