• Some users have recently had their accounts hijacked. It seems that the now defunct EVGA forums might have compromised your password there and seems many are using the same PW here. We would suggest you UPDATE YOUR PASSWORD and TURN ON 2FA for your account here to further secure it. None of the compromised accounts had 2FA turned on.
    Once you have enabled 2FA, your account will be updated soon to show a badge, letting other members know that you use 2FA to protect your account. This should be beneficial for everyone that uses FSFT.

Large reservoirs?

X

Xunqualyn

Limp Gawd
Joined
Dec 22, 2002
Messages
135
I know this has been done before but I don't see much discussion about it... why does everyone use smallish or no reservoirs in their system?

I'm starting to plan out a build and had the idea to just use one of those huge chemical drums - wouldn't it take a long time for that to heat up, making a radiator only required after a certain amount of time? Is there some other reason this is never done, such as cost/pressure/etc? Just a pain in the ass?

:confused:
 
im thinking most average joes who get into pc modding as a hobby would not want a large chemical drum next to the pc maybe??
 
With a proper setup difference between water temps and ambient are pretty minimal between 2-5 degrees with a full load on the system and it's not possible to get water temps below ambient without using some sort of chiller setup so there is really not much to gain by using a larger res.
 
Well, for starters I have no idea of the heat dissipating capabilities that a large chemical drum would have. It will be able to passively dissipate some heat through sheer size. How big a drum are you talking about? 20 gallons?

That would be 75 liters of water, for the sake of argument lets say that your system generates 400W of heat dump and the drum can dissipate about half that during the process of heating up.

Q = cm(deltaT)

It takes about 30 minutes to raise that 20 gallons in temperature by one degree. So it would take some number of hours before you reached any kind of equilibrium. But you have the added hassle of a giant drum of water that might spill and flood your computer room at any second ;)
 
Thanks everyone, that is pretty much exactly the information I was looking for. I was actually going to place the drum outside and just run a pipe out there. 55 gallons is about the standard size I can find for free... I was thinking plastic since the steel ones are always a bit rusty.

So by your calculations... it looks like I'd be able to run it quite a long time without cooling the water, especially if the outside ambient temp starts to drop. I'd definitely have to not run it like that in the winter though. I'll have to put some sort of valve in to cool it in the same room. This would just be a fun optional part of the loop(s).
 
Xunqualyn said:
Thanks everyone, that is pretty much exactly the information I was looking for. I was actually going to place the drum outside and just run a pipe out there. 55 gallons is about the standard size I can find for free... I was thinking plastic since the steel ones are always a bit rusty.

So by your calculations... it looks like I'd be able to run it quite a long time without cooling the water, especially if the outside ambient temp starts to drop. I'd definitely have to not run it like that in the winter though. I'll have to put some sort of valve in to cool it in the same room. This would just be a fun optional part of the loop(s).
Click to expand...

You might want to think about a geothermal loop. Get some copper tubing, dig a hole about 6 feet into the ground and put a snake of copper tubing in the ground. The ground temperature will be constant throughout the year somewhere around 60 degrees or so, depending upon your geographical location.
 
You could build a velonti cooler, just look at everything ninja002 did, he did some really serious stuff
Posted via [H] Mobile Device
 
Sorry for the delay, I've been looking into all these other crazy projects people have been working on. Looks like I'm not the only one to think about a cooling system that dumps the heat somewhere else.

I've been writing lots of notes on the planning stages of this build... I'll post a thread once I get everything squared away and unforeseen consequences make the story actually interesting to anyone but me. :D

Anyway I would really like to do the geothermal loop but I'm not sure if I have the ability to dig. The location is a wall apart from a yard, so that might work. It really would be the most ideal solution. I just have to get that cleared, which could be hard. I still have using a large (possibly car) radiator on the proverbial table as well.

The velonti and various styles of bong coolers were eliminated since I can't be bothered to deal with the construction and evaporation or whatever. Sounds annoying. I'm avoiding any sub-ambient setups for a similar reason - condensation just sounds like too much of a pain the ass. An important requirement for this system is it must be hassle-free once its built. I plan on using a variety of sensors so I know if something is wrong (hopefully) before I destroy something. It can be a pain in the ass to make, just not when want to use it. I would prefer to play my games and watch my movies without wondering if everything is working properly.

*starts daydreaming of a panel next to the screen filled with pressure gauges and temp sensors*

The only caveat is that I would consider a chiller setup (not sub-ambient) if I can get some information on how efficient it is. There's just something sexy to me about cooling my computers by just running some pipe under the ground though... and it's "free".

Anyway, I plan on using this to cool several computers and possibly some other things - quiet/silently. Should be fun. Like I said I'll post more in another thread later, but back on topic -- I have another reservoir related question.

[prepare yourself for some mad mspaint]

 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top