Re Hexus, Aug 30 newsletter, hexus.net/tech/reviews/cooling/59477-enermax-ets-t40-white-cluster
I'm intrigued by the orientation of the Enermax ETS-T40 cooler as depicted in your Haswell unit [to save searching, the coolers pipes are arranged like 4 U's lying on their sides]. Given that these units utilise a gas-liquid phase change then the unit as shown would only be half efficient?
The way I see it, the heat flow from the CPU boils the medium; the gas so produced then rises [bubbles] upwards to be cooled and condensed and finally trickle down under the influence of gravity. Therefore, one could assume that the lower section of the Enermax would be operating only by liquid convective flow, which would be drastically restricted in the narrow heatpipes.
I would have thought maximum efficiency would be achieved by the vertical orientation of the pipes [as shown in final picture in the article, the cooler on a horizontal board], and a somewhat lower efficiency with the pipes horizontal [4 U's flat on their faces] and the fan blasting up into the PSU...
So why does no-one make an integrated cooler for vertical boards with the pipes all sloping upward from the CPU contact plate, with fan orientation so as to vent to the rear? Thinking along the same lines, with split systems one should avoid any gas traps with the layout of the tubing from core to radiator. Slugs of fluid lying in a low position would impede gas migration; trapped gas caps reduce the flow cross-section of fluids.
Or am I wrong about all this? Educate me.
I suppose I could test my ideas with Sandra, by laying my unit on its side as well as vertically and monitoring the CPU core temps.... I use it with the pipes horizontal; sometimes it gurgles, but not as loudly as when they are vertical.


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