Cheap radiators

[_tucker_]

I’m looking for about 6 360 or 420 radiators for a desk build, money’s a bit tight so I don’t fancy spending around £80 a rad. I’ve found some cheap ones around £35 each.
Has anyone used cheap radiators with any success? Any recommendations?
Cheers

 

[pastymuncher]

What make and model are they? Any specs such as fins per inch (FPI) or dimensions? Being cheap there is a good chance they are aluminium which you want to avoid mixing with other metals.

 

[_tucker_]

Well I have been looking at a couple, overclockers sell one by Magicool or something like that for £35 15fpi and made of copper. I’m going to have a push pull set up and I’ll match the rads with the correct fans for static pressure ect.
I also seen some on AliExpress made by barrow and there was another brand I can’t remember but had good ratings online for fittings but not sure on their rads, they are all copper with the usual brass threads for the fittings.
I’m contemplating spraying them all or cutting some acrylic around the outside edge with some engraving of some sort or even hydro dipping a design on them so style isn’t of a factor too much. All these cheap ones have the same design build where the side plates are welded on to the ends rather than the black ice rads for example where it’s made from one piece.

 

[pastymuncher]

The Barrow ones are copper with brass tanks so they are ok. The Magicool ones are fine as well. Magicool and Coolgate are part of the same company with Magicool being the value range and Coolgate being the performance range. I believe they are copper with brass tanks as well. Like you say, Barrow and Magicool are pretty squre with lot's of flat surfaces so should be easy to vinyl wrap and that could look very nice when finished. Just remember that the tighter together the fins are the more important high static pressure fans become and you may need to run them faster to get the best out the rads. I would take a look at some radiator roundups to see how they perform although I can't say I have seen Barrow rads in any of them. There are a couple of Magicool rad in Bundymania's 360mm radiator roundup, another in Xtremerigs radiator roundup and there is a in depth review of the Magicool G2 Slim 360mm here.


Barrow fittings are of excellent quality and for the price are unbeatable. I have several Barrow 14mm hardline compression fittings in my loop and they are top quality. I wouldn't hesitate to recommend their fittings and other components come to that.

 

[_tucker_]

The Barrow ones are copper with brass tanks so they are ok. The Magicool ones are fine as well. Magicool and Coolgate are part of the same company with Magicool being the value range and Coolgate being the performance range. I believe they are copper with brass tanks as well. Like you say, Barrow and Magicool are pretty squre with lot's of flat surfaces so should be easy to vinyl wrap and that could look very nice when finished. Just remember that the tighter together the fins are the more important high static pressure fans become and you may need to run them faster to get the best out the rads. I would take a look at some radiator roundups to see how they perform although I can't say I have seen Barrow rads in any of them. There are a couple of Magicool rad in Bundymania's 360mm radiator roundup, another in Xtremerigs radiator roundup and there is a in depth review of the Magicool G2 Slim 360mm here.


Barrow fittings are of excellent quality and for the price are unbeatable. I have several Barrow 14mm hardline compression fittings in my loop and they are top quality. I wouldn't hesitate to recommend their fittings and other components come to that.

Cheers for the links pal
I’ve never heard of Coolgate if I’m honest, there’s a ton of new brands since I last built a rig so I’m seeing names crop up everywhere which is good to see as all the top brands have crept up in price.
I actually just found a Alphacool nexxxus 45mm 420mm rad brand new in my loft that I forgot I had. I looked for some prices online and they are not too bad cost wise so perhaps I will get a couple more of these. I’ve got a few other rads I could sell to help fund it so it’s not all so bad.
I went and ordered lots of barrow fittings the other week from Aliexpress so I’ll give them a go, 4 ring seal so can’t be too bad at all really.

 

[MikeTimbers]

I bought a "copper 240mm" radiator from wish.com so a chinese copy of better known brands and although I've not actually used it yet, it looks good, the inside does appear to be copper, it weighs the same as an Alphacool 240mm, the G1/4 threads are good. And it was less than £25.

 

[pastymuncher]

Cheers for the links pal
I’ve never heard of Coolgate if I’m honest, there’s a ton of new brands since I last built a rig so I’m seeing names crop up everywhere which is good to see as all the top brands have crept up in price.
I actually just found a Alphacool nexxxus 45mm 420mm rad brand new in my loft that I forgot I had. I looked for some prices online and they are not too bad cost wise so perhaps I will get a couple more of these. I’ve got a few other rads I could sell to help fund it so it’s not all so bad.
I went and ordered lots of barrow fittings the other week from Aliexpress so I’ll give them a go, 4 ring seal so can’t be too bad at all really.

Both my rads are Coolgate and I got them back when you could get decent thick 360mm rads for around £50. It's shocking how much prices have shot up for the best rads. It sounds like you have ordered the same Barrow fittings I am using. You going PETG hardline? If so those fittings do not leak if done properly. You need to chamfer the end of the tube and wet the O rings inside the fittings or you could nick the O rings and you don't want that. Each fitting comes with a pair of extra O rings as well, excellent value!!

 

[_tucker_]

Both my rads are Coolgate and I got them back when you could get decent thick 360mm rads for around £50. It's shocking how much prices have shot up for the best rads. It sounds like you have ordered the same Barrow fittings I am using. You going PETG hardline? If so those fittings do not leak if done properly. You need to chamfer the end of the tube and wet the O rings inside the fittings or you could nick the O rings and you don't want that. Each fitting comes with a pair of extra O rings as well, excellent value!!

I mean most rads are in the range of at least £70 now that’s crazy, I know metal prices rise all the time but not that amount.
Where do you even buy Coolgate rads I’ve not seen them anywhere?
I will be going PETG hardline I have the chamfer tool and I’ll also use some very fine set and dry to be on the safe side I’ve done a fair bit of plumbing in houses in the past so I know the importance of a rubber seal so I can only imagine the ones used in the fittings are very soft as there so small. I think we did if I remember you posted a picture in the post I put up about what tube to use. The mat black compression ones with the smooth spot in the middle and knurled bit top and bottom.
Think the best price I’ve seen for them at the moment is £34 delivered for 12. eBay is actually dearer from what I’ve found too.

 

[Ross Thomson]

no complaints for my magicool 240x45 rad

 

[pastymuncher]

Where do you even buy Coolgate rads I’ve not seen them anywhere? The mat black compression ones with the smooth spot in the middle and knurled bit top and bottom.
Think the best price I’ve seen for them at the moment is £34 delivered for 12. eBay is actually dearer from what I’ve found too.

I actually got my Coolgate rads from OCUK but they only sell the 240mm G2 now. I just had a look around the main watercooling retailers and none of them have Coolgate rads so maybe Magicool and Coolgate have gone back to being the same company. One thing I did notice though was that one of the main UK watercooling specialists are stocking Bykski stuff now so that's good.

I think Mizucool on Ebay put the price of the Barrow fittings up not long after I got mine from him because I only paid £3 each for them.

 

[Smffy]

If you were going to paint them you could consider buying used and spraying to restore them.

I’ve sold a lot of good condition rads recently which are really as new once painted... Prices can be attractive also.

 

[_tucker_]

If you were going to paint them you could consider buying used and spraying to restore them.

I’ve sold a lot of good condition rads recently which are really as new once painted... Prices can be attractive also.

I decided to bite the bullet and buy some nexxxos rads, I thought sod it I want them all to match and they look quite smart from standard, I may paint them once it’s all built if I don’t think they look right but for now at least they all match.
5 large rads was not cheap .

Where did you sell your rads if you dont mind me asking? I’ve got some to sell and a ton of bitspower fittings
Ideally I don’t want to use ebay it’s a ball ache unless I do collection only

 

[pastymuncher]

If I remember right he had a for sale thread in our members market. You have a long way to go to get access though as you need 1000 posts.

 

[Smffy]

If I remember right he had a for sale thread in our members market. You have a long way to go to get access though as you need 1000 posts.

Correct, some on the bay also as mostly I had 480s and nobody really interested in buying that size. Still got two 480s spare xD

MM is less hassle, generally things will sell on eBay but not many of the larger rads.

 

[LePhuronn]

Alphacool have released Nexxos V2 radiators so there's always the possibility of price reductions on the originals to shift stock.

 

[_tucker_]

Correct, some on the bay also as mostly I had 480s and nobody really interested in buying that size. Still got two 480s spare xD

MM is less hassle, generally things will sell on eBay but not many of the larger rads.

Bugger I have 2 480’s for sale too lol got a few other sizes as well so I’ll just try gumtree at first then I suppose