• Does radiator size matter for cooling?
    7 replies, posted
[url]http://www.pcgamer.com/does-radiator-size-matter-for-cooling[/url]
I was wondering why pc gamer was talking about car shit for a second :v: Anyways useless article is useless. Does a component whose entire function dependant on its surface area get more effecient if you increase its surface area? Does a bigger tree give you more wood?
Yes, surface area is* the largest consideration of a heatsink to transfer energy (heat). (Other than the actual thermal conductivity of the mediums, but we're assuming most people have radiators that dump the heat into ambient air) [editline]29th October 2017[/editline] ninja'd.
there's a little more to it than just size. all things being equal a copper radiator will outperform an aluminum one for example. color matters too, a black radiator will have greater emissivity than a silver one, though the insulating effect of paint will make the difference negligible.
And once you get to a certain size there's essentially 0 benefit for being that much larger
[QUOTE=TheTalon;52834741]And once you get to a certain size there's essentially 0 benefit for being that much larger[/QUOTE] You can make an entire computer tower out of 1 big radiator and forgo the fans even.
[QUOTE=Karmah;52834954]You can make an entire computer tower out of 1 big radiator and forgo the fans even.[/QUOTE] Zalman reserator 1 or 2 if we're talking watercooling. There's also a few companies specializing in making cases out of ribbed aluminium with copious amounts of heatpipes to transfer heat away from cpu (and optionally from a dedicated gpu) to the case itself.
[QUOTE=butre;52834717]there's a little more to it than just size. all things being equal a copper radiator will outperform an aluminum one for example. color matters too, a black radiator will have greater emissivity than a silver one, though the insulating effect of paint will make the difference negligible.[/QUOTE] Though really the thermal efficiency of copper vs aluminium is pretty negligible. Copper absorbs heat better but aluminium radiates it away better due to density. Honestly they're basically equal as far as it actually matters. We're talking maybe a few measly percent difference max.
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