HWLabs gets medieval
"It's really just some metal glued together." "Oh, Nuh-UH you DI-N'T!"
Such was the thorough thrashing given to Koolance by HWLabs.
Apparently, in an effort to promote its own product, Koolance, Inc. took a little bit of...shall we say, liberty...with the laws of physics, basic understanding of production, and reality in general. It released an "informative article" (which was viewable here until it was removed -- Ed.) discussing the "copper radiator myth" and why aluminium Koolance radiators are better than the BlackIce radiator.
Whether one product is better than another, of course, isn't the issue so much as the flat-out erroneous info contained. And so, Hardware Labs (maker of the BlackIce radiator) has laid out four very fatal flaws illustrating the poor research and understanding that went into the article.
The flaws, as quoted from the reply, went as follows:
"1) Copper and brass tube radiators are glued at the core.
2) Brass tubes degrades performance
3) Naturally occurring surface oxidation retards performance.
4) Aluminium radiators are superior in performance to copper/brass radiators.
To which we shall respond to all the major technical points in order of inaccuracy (the most ridiculous assertions first): ..."
The points laid out in the response are interesting, even though honestly most people familiar with basic heat transfer would probably have questioned Koolance's logic anyhow. With the facts asserted, HW Labs has demanded a public retraction and apology from Koolance, as well as the removal of the offending page.
Are Koolance aluminium radiators better than HWLabs copper BlackIce line? Whether they are or aren't, that's probably for review sites like us to decide. But since Koolance was so nice as to determine it for everyone, the least we can do is snicker at the responses here in the forums.
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Discuss in the forums ReplyIn short, "no, we don't glue our radiators together, we solder them together."
They're talking about two different effects here. You could just as accurately say "Aluminum is a more noble metal than copper. In fact oxidation on aluminum is not as dangerous as a pinhole cavity of oxides in copper as oxidation on an aluminum surface protects the material beneath it from further oxidation."
A pinhole cavity in an oxide layer is a big corrosion problem, period. It happens to steels, it happens to aluminum, it happens to basically anything that needs to oxidize to protect itself. Saying that aluminum is more of a problem because it oxidizes, and then saying that copper oxidizing (via the exact same mechanism) isn't a risk is inherently self-contradicting.
Not the circular logic: "Copper is the best material for PC radiators. We know this because it's used in high-performance applications, like PC radiators." Once again, you can easily replace copper with aluminum, and the argument still works just fine.
Of course, the entire article is riddled with ad homenim attacks, too. For a company that claims "HWLabs has always maintained its polite demeanor in dealing with adversities, and when faced with claims made by overtly opinionated and disinformed entities", they're coming across as being petty, opinionated, and generally not much better than their competitor. (Not that I'm saying Koolance is any better from a scientific standpoint, but they certainly wrote their article better.)
You make a very good point with the pinhole comment, though.
:D hahahaha
http://216.239.59.104/search?q=cache:xtbWj-IXCKQJ:www.koolance.com/technical/myths/copper_core_radiators.html+http://www.koolance.com/technical/myths/copper_core_radiators.html&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=1&gl=uk
Some of the AQ rads ARE HW rads....
Altho I must say right now that koolance looks like an idiot.
My current setup is all cooled by koolance PC3-400 in a lianli.
Opteron 170 at 2.4ghz stock voltage
7800gt @ 470
7800gt @ 470
Chipset..
according to my Kill-a-watt my sytem pulls a total of 320w (I will check again when I get home) while running WoW and boinc.. -the 4hdd's and fans and PSU loss I guess its about 290w of heat from the components. In a 68* room CPU is 118, GPU1 is 124, GPU2 is 132,and chipset is 98. Not bad considering the tiny radiator and two 80mm fans cooling it (moded red LED, quiet fans and at full power)
In my book an aluminum radiator works just fine, in 22mo of service my hosese are still as clear as the day they were installed indicating zero oxidation.
Another point.. from I have heard.. not sure its true or not. Aluminum gives off heat better than copper.. Copper draws in heat better than aluminum, hence the copper base and aluminum fins on some heatsinks?
Don't believe all the hearsay. :p
The only reason for this is that copper is more expensive than aluminium, and aluminium is lighter. You can make a larger heat sink out of aluminium and still be within intel's/amd's weight guidelines.
The reason that copper draws heat better than aluminium is the same reason why it dissipates better. It is a better conductor of heat, and heat sinks work on the principle of conduction.
/sigh air cooling ***^^