Homebuilt case (copper pipe) cooling capability?

[botboy]

Ok guys, I'm embarking on a new project. I call it "Silence is copper" a dumb parody of an old song.

Basically, the case will be about a foot cubed, and made entirely out of notched & sweat soldered copper pipe, 1/2" OD. My design is for square sides with a 8-faceted "star" patten that flow coolant throughout, on 4 of the 6 faces of the cube.

Now, I don't want to use a single fan in this entire machine if at all possible, but I have a couple questions for sketching this out:

1) who makes a good, fan-free low profile power supply (ATX, figure 175-250W). My preference would be an inch thick and no more than 8"x4"
2) any idea how much heat this copper pipe will be able to dissapate, without a steady source of moving air?
3) Is there any better way to preserve the copper look than to buff to a high luster using a dremel and buff disk/polishing compound, then coat with a clearcoat? Any recommendations for clearcoat that will adhere to copper and not discolor?
4) I had an idea of using LED's from the inside of the copper tubing to illuminate this setup. Keeping clutter to a minimum, I'd ideally like to run small gauge wire thru the tubing (flexible tubing between processor block, pump and exterior of case) that is cooling this setup - what would your recommendations be to keep this setup leak-free? I was thinking 2 tiny holes for the wires, a small bit of RTV silicone (clear) and a black heat-shrink slid over where the wires enter the cooling tube. Anybody tried this?

 

[Jiggaman2576]

You will need to add some fins somewhere to this thing. It will run for a good while until the copper heats up to the point to where it can't cool off fast enough anymore. That could be hours, but it will happen. This is going to be a neat trick if you can pull it off, please keep the forums updated with your progress. Maybe start a worklog? I've been dabling with making my won water cooling cold plates for ram and soon my hard drive cage, its pretty easy to do, and if you paint all but the copper that needs to be touching a surface to cool it, you can get some nice results. Copper by itself is only pretty until it oxidizes, then it's kinda gross looking. Clear coat may be a good choice when you are finished, but that will make it remove heat that much less.

 

[Erasmus354]

I agree that copper pipe alone will not be enough to dissipate the heat. Although it does depend upon how much copper pipe and what your components are. A sketch of your idea would help to determine its cooling merits.