Subject: Re: Watercooling?
From: Mike Tibor (tibor@lib.uaa.alaska.edu)
Date: Mon Jan 21 2002 - 23:27:08 AKST
On Mon, 21 Jan 2002, Scott Johnson wrote:
> I *was* doing water cooling on my comp until it had a melt down and I lost
> some hardware :(. I would defiantly NOT recommend doing this on a server.
> I really don't see the need unless you're overclocking. Besides being
> pretty expensive, it's a LOT simpler to just get a good Heat-sink fan combo.
> For anyone who is interested though, email me and I'll tell you what to do
> (and not do.) I have pics of my former setup on my site at
> http://coolcase.akghetto.com if you're interested.
Can I ask how you toasted the hardware?
The most recent server I built included a solid copper cpu heatsink (the
"Millennium Glaciator" from www.pcnut.com) with a decent ball bearing fan.
While I haven't really been interested in overclocking my systems
recently, the overclocking community has some cooling methods that are
nothing less than pure genius.
The reason I'm looking at this is that most of the setups I've seen (I
haven't looked at the URL you mention yet, so you may have already
overcome this) seem to have a closed system with a small reservoir
volume. This means that in a server environment when the admin takes a 2
week vacation, the water level drops according to whatever loss rate there
may be in the system due to either evaporation, or leakage (usually very
unlikely), or possibly corrosion if differing metals are used (aluminum +
copper is one example).
What I was thinking was a very simple system where the reservior was a 5
gallon bucket or something else of adequate volume placed in the crawl
space of my house (about 40 deg. F. in the winter; no more than 60 deg.
in the summer), with a toilet fill valve screwed into the lid, and no
radiator--or possibly one without fans. The fill valve would draw water
from a spigot that was constantly on, and would eliminate coolant loss in
the system. I have personally seen many toilet fill valves last 30+
years, so they should be a reliable way of ensuring adequent coolant
supply. This plan would require a higher powered pump that most I've
seen in order to overcome the height difference between the first floor
level (computer) and the crawl space (water reservior).
My goal with this would be to increase cooling reliability as well as
efficiency while also reducing computer room noise (my server has a pretty
loud cpu fan, as well as two 80mm case fans--with this setup I should be
able to eliminate at least one, perhaps both, of the 80mm case fans in
addition to the cpu fan).
What kind of problems would you forsee in this kind of setup?
Thanks,
Mike
-- Mike Tibor Univ. of Alaska Anchorage (907) 786-1001 voice Network Technician Consortium Library (907) 786-6050 fax tibor@lib.uaa.alaska.edu http://www.lib.uaa.alaska.edu/~tibor/ http://www.lib.uaa.alaska.edu/~tibor/pgpkey for PGP public key
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