Pumpless CPU cooling

[pyrojunkie]

I know this isn't very technical, but I figured it could be discussed here anyways.

The idea is to make a water cooling setup without pump, or fan. With a little assistance of directing the tubes, would the rather cycle through the system just by the heated water rising and the cooler water sinking replenish the block from below. The heated water would tubed to a radiator above the CPU. The water resevoir would be tubed below the CPU.

I know this might not be ideal for overclocking, but it would be great for a completely silent system.

My real question is would the water cycle through or will it possibly cycle but not be sufficient enough to prevent overheating?

 

[Pudgygiant]

*cough*heatpipe*cough cough*

 

[syberscott]

A fan is still needed on the radiator to get the water cool enough. Take a look at the ShuttleX design.

 

[pyrojunkie]

I am well aware of how a heatpipe works. My design is essentially a bigger heatpipe. I was hoping by being bigger than a normal "heatpipe", having more water and a larger radiator the design would work without a fan.

If a fan is still a must, its still an improvement to lose the pump. The pump is just another part that can fail from being overused. Every water cooling kit I see though uses a pump. How important is it to the design?

 

[ZeroNine8]

your design is not a bigger heat pipe, it is a completely different principle. Heat pipes utilize the energy of phase change to transfer large amounts of energy with relatively small amounts of mass actually moving. What you are describing is a thermally driven liquid convection setup. Theoretically, yes your idea can work, however for it to be feasible to run silently without a fan on the radiator portion, you will need a rather large radiator. It will also be quite important to have the system setup so that you use the effect of gravity to your advantage, otherwise you will probably fry something. Your radiator should be on top of your case, your reservoir on the bottom, and the cpu in between the two. This way, as the cpu heats your liquid, it will become less dense and rise to the radiator, where it will cool and return to the reservoir. My guess is that this type of system would be very sensitive to pipe sizes, flow resistance, heating chamber size, etc. I would say you'd have a very good chance, if you can get it tweaked to actually flow in a cycle like this, to achieve comparable levels to standard air cooling.

 

[Matthias99]

I saw a thread on overclockers.com about someone who did this *accidentally* -- his watercooling pump broke, but he didn't realize it for over 3 weeks because the convection currents kept it circulating and running just fine.

link to thread

If you build a low-resistance watercooling system with the radiator at the top of the case and the heat sources at the bottom, it will work. You'll almost certainly still need a cooling fan (or fans) for the radiator.

 

[pyrojunkie]

That link answered all the details I wanted to know. Thanks.

 

[Varun]

Some of the first car engines never had water pumps. The problem was as rust and scum built up the water would stop flowing, though I can't see that being a problem on a new plastic system.

I think I would still use a fan though on the rad, just get a big slow moving one.

 

[Cogman]

heatpipes would be far more effective though, an you could, in fact build a fanless heat pipe cooler (it was reviewed at silentpc.com) However I would changed thier design a little, I would put the main heat sink on the top of the computer, add fines to the block over the cpu, and make the main cooler lots larger (cover the whole top of the case. Also, if you could get like 4 seperate heat pipes and spread them apart over a large area, that would also help the passive cooling cause.

 

[bwanaaa]

has anyone seen that new voodoo pc that is completely fanless. ?

uses heatpipes to a thick aluminum case that dissapate the heat. even the psu is silent.
runs an amd 64 with an asus mobo-sk8v i think.

 

[pyrojunkie]

I just saw that computer at Voodoo. Wow, does it cost a lot. Wish they had pics of what it looks like inside. I am interested to see how they use no fans even for the psu.

 

[Goatsan]

any of you have links to some pics, i cant see any good ones on their website