Hi STW engineering folk (isn’t that most of the STW demographic? ;))

I’m building a new passively cooled PC for watching movies etc and I’d like a block of copper, say 300x300x20mm drilling a 6mm hole through from one side to the other to accommodate some heat pipes I can solder in.

It should be a pretty straight forward job really, thought to get a good surface on the hole interior it’ll need to be drilled at under 6mm and reamed to the exact size.

Can anyone on here do this? If so, how much do you think it’d be?
Thanks muchly 😉
JT

That’s a lot of copper! Do you have a block?

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/180mm-alphacool-nexxxos-xt45-full-copper-single-radiator

Any good?

you don’t say which way the hole runs ?, i take it you don’t want it through the 20mm thickness but running the long way through the 300mm length more than once , you could get 30+ holes 300mm long and reamed to finish, so thats a 180mm 5.8mm PFX drill followed by a 160mm 6mm h7 reamer 60 times (30 each side)

plus the cost of a piece of copper 300 square x 20mm thick,

thats going to cost you a good sum of cash fella

I’d use aluminium, not as thermally conductive but should be ok, and a lot cheaper.

thanks for your replies people … Yes, you’re right, much cheaper: http://www.aluminiumwarehouse.co.uk/Aluminium-Square_Bar/c120_136/p3085/Aluminium_Square_Bar_(6082T6)_30_mm_x_30_mm/product_info.html

I only need 4x holes putting in, although as it coudn’t be soldered (by me at the least) I’d probably want it cutting in half so I could apply thermal compound.

Thanks for the link to the radiator, this is the case I am using: http://quietpc.co.uk/hfx-classic-case it’s approx 17kg’s without anything in it.

I have heatpipes coming to me from China as a freebie sample in a selection of sizes, among what’s coming to me there is some 450mm pipes as I’d like to couple left and right sides of the case together, so that it isn’t CPU on right-side of case only. Alas, if it’s cheaper to buy the extension kits that’s what I’ll do.

cheers,
JT

As stated above I’d also advise aluminum for heat management, its generally what is used for direct PCB cooling and most ims materials (used for cooling LEDs) are aluminum, its cheaper than copper and generally stable.

Plus no one in their right mind will want to machine copper 😀