In a nutshell: The mad scientists at Billet Labs are back at it. Their latest project involves building a near-silent PC cooled by a massive cast iron radiator weighing more than 100 pounds. The century-old component certainly has charm, but it remains to be seen whether it will effectively cool a modern PC or end up as little more than a giant paperweight
The company said the radiator can hold just over two and a half gallons of liquid. Given that volume of liquid and the large surface area of the radiator, it could be more than capable of keeping a PC from overheating… well, maybe.
To convert the radiator into a PC cooler, the team will need to fabricate fittings for the inlet and outlet pipes to connect with the rest of the cooling loop. They'll also want to flush out the radiator to the best of their ability as the inner chambers are no doubt disgusting after a century of use.
Pairing the radiator with the right hardware will also be critical to its success. In passive mode without any fans, the radiator will only be able to dissipate so much heat. High-end CPUs and GPUs generate enormous amounts of heat, and it's unlikely that a system without any active cooling would be able to keep pace. A modest general-purpose machine would likely be a good fit, or perhaps an entry-level gaming rig, but trying to use it to cool a power-hungry workstation or high-end gaming machine sounds like a recipe for failure.
The project is still a work in progress so we don't yet know the outcome. Still, a build like this is right up my alley. I have an affinity for silent PCs and have always wanted to design and piece together a rig featuring a radiator so large that it doesn't require active cooling. Here's to hoping Billet Labs can pull it off without having to deploy any fans.
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