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Watercooling for 8 computers simultaneously

P

PPI Typhoon

n00b
Joined
Apr 2, 2008
Messages
30
Ok, so I'm a gamer.......a multibox gamer. I currently run 6 computers, but adding two more to my mix and running them in a rackmount configuration. With all those computers, it gets a bit loud and interested in water cooling for both efficiency and noise reduction.

The main computer is the Q9450/TriSLI/790i which is the biggest generator of heat, but the slaves are anything from a single core P4 to a dual core 2.2, all running 8400GS cards or less.

My question is......does anyone have any info on cooling multiple computers at once with one system?? I could have one reasonably big tank and a fairly powerful pump taking up a 4-8U section of my rack. I was then thinking of a radiator about 20x25" mounted up on top of the rack with fans pulling upward.

Think this is an efficient use of watercooling or do you think the cascading effect is going to hurt me in the long run??

Thanks all for any input you can provide, I just joined this forum and love it so far.

:D
 
I would suggest some thing like this:
Koolance ERM-3K4U5 (5 Pumps) especially if they are in rack mount too!
"It can provide up to 3000W of potential heat dissipation"
"20 or more computer processors might be connected to a single ERM-3K4U5 system if within the total dissipation rating."
The MSRP is $1400 from koolance.com

But if you want an all in one system that has already been balanced for multiple computers and fan speed controlled.... the whole thang I would recommend it.
Well you will need to balance you system with that my tubes/pipes running around. Making sure you get the proper flow for each channel and calculate the head for the pump as well. If you are a Mechanical Eng. like myself it would be a fun challenge to do, but if you haven't taken fuilds or worked with a Mechanical Contractor i would not recommend it - You could easily disappoint yourself if you set it up wrong.
because if you do one massive pump (not recommended) you will need a distribution block at the beginning at least and let the rest dump out into the reservoir....
I believe I am thinking on the right course though if anyone else has done this please correct me.

Do you have a picture of your setup by change?



Or I could sell you a stand alone Leibert MCR Mini Computer Room Enclosure Server Rack :D ;P
It has a built is AC unit to is specifically made to handle cooling down servers in its rack:
http://www.liebert.com/product_pages/Product.aspx?id=78&hz=60
 
it seems like you could do exactly what that koolance unit does for a lot less than 1400. it doesn't even include blocks.

I'd set up multiple loops in parallel with redundant pumps for each loop, all sucking out of a gigantic res (probably the easiest way to do it). I'd probably also keep the res/pumps up high; use gravity to your advantage.

a pic would be helpful. also, you're talking about just cpu cooling here right?
 
thrawn86 said:
a pic would be helpful. also, you're talking about just cpu cooling here right?
Click to expand...
I thought he might cool his GPU and more is why. I would start buying water blocks off of eBay too, because you are giong to need eight right?

Well if you are going to what that large of a reservoir and a couple of pumps I would cool more then just CPU - but that is just my opinion.
CPU, GPU, & HD - then you would just need a light breeze for the motherboard components. and you would have one silent server rack.

How do you manage all the heat given off by your computers right now? Almost sounds like you need an exhaust fan to move air out of that room to the hall or another room (to just circulate the air better)
Good luck!!!
 
I think you're better off sticking to air with the lower end machines -- just pick up a bunch of huge HSFs and slap them on. With PWM fans I bet they'd hardly ever spin up. WC on the high end makes more sense.
 
silent-circuit said:
I think you're better off sticking to air with the lower end machines -- just pick up a bunch of huge HSFs and slap them on. With PWM fans I bet they'd hardly ever spin up. WC on the high end makes more sense.
Click to expand...

I agree, but thats not very [H]ard :D

8 blocks isn't too much. a couple of monster pumps into a y-splitter should do you, wouldn't even need to fool with a distribution block. depending on height it might be hard to get the system primed, which is why I suggested using gravity.
 
Ok, here is what you want.

Iwaki pumps, at least 2 but better to have 4. You will want to run all of the computers in parallel configuration. Serial inside the computer, but parallel to each computer. Also you will want to choose components which have very low flow restriction. The DangerDen MC-TDX is a good choice for CPU block.

The radiator your thinking of will not be nearly enough. Your going to want the equivalent of a 2x120mm radiator for each computer. That 20x25 is the equivalent of about 7.5 120mm radiators, so not even halfway there.

Also, Koolance is garbage and their numbers are shit dont trust them. In the words of the internet... ITS A TRAP!
 
^^ assuming he's doing all gpus and the nb, yeah definitely. if not he could get away with a single 3x120

silent-circuit said:
There is, at times, a fine line between being [H]ard and just being stupid. I try not to cross it too often. ;)
Click to expand...

ln2 is stupid, this is awesome :)
 
Well the idea is to definately cool the GPU's as well, at a minimum, my main machine. I'm more going for the quiet factor. I could go with fanless heatsinks on the slave machines, but I might as well water cool them all if I'm going to do one.......

$1400 seems a bit extreme for cooling my computers, but that is a very slick setup. I imagine taking a 4U case, I could fashion something up very similar to that. I'm guess if I had a distribution to run the cooling in parallel rather than series, that should alieve the cascading heat issue.

I'll take some more pics soon. I just got my 6th monitor and it's on my hex-LCD stand. I can't find my charging cord though, as soon as I do, I'll post up some pics.

Thanks all for the advice.

Here is a pic of the setup in it's infancy. (looks much better now with the LCD setup)

nisch-comp3.JPG
 
Lets price it out, I am curious as well :)

5 pumps averaging at $80 = $400
(assuming you have a dedicated pump for 2 (?) of your high end machines)
8 CPU WBs averaging at $50 = $400
8 GPU WBs averaging at $50 = $400
2 MagiCool XTREME Nova 1080 Radiator at $150 = $300
80 ft of tubing at $2 (Tygon 1/2" ID) = $160
280 Clamps at $1 a peice = $250

Just a rough estimated total of $1910.00

Do you have 18x 120mm fans? I bet you want some serious fan controllers for them to keep them quiet: Zalman ZM-MFC1 Plus Multi Fan Controller at $45 (need three) = $135
Do you have a 4U rack enclosure? :)

Please correct any of this if I missed something.. but just a rough look puts you over $2G's easy for a good water cooled setup.

you might want to look at trying to do Silent setup for you none high end PC's.
A massive heat sink would be around $50 each
And the same for GPU is still around $50 each
Get some 120mm fans and a small fan controllers for each case...
and it looks like you could save a quite bit of money, if your other PC's are not large heat dissipating beasts, becuase it doesn't sound like you are hurting for room at all with a full server rack setup :)

I hope this helps :D
 
PPI Typhoon said:
Well the idea is to definately cool the GPU's as well, at a minimum, my main machine. I'm more going for the quiet factor. I could go with fanless heatsinks on the slave machines, but I might as well water cool them all if I'm going to do one.......

$1400 seems a bit extreme for cooling my computers, but that is a very slick setup. I imagine taking a 4U case, I could fashion something up very similar to that. I'm guess if I had a distribution to run the cooling in parallel rather than series, that should alieve the cascading heat issue.

I'll take some more pics soon. I just got my 6th monitor and it's on my hex-LCD stand. I can't find my charging cord though, as soon as I do, I'll post up some pics.

Thanks all for the advice.

Here is a pic of the setup in it's infancy. (looks much better now with the LCD setup)

nisch-comp3.JPG
Click to expand...

that setup is disgusting. in a good way.
 
POLO said:
Lets price it out, I am curious as well :)

5 pumps averaging at $80 = $400 Get 2 Iwaki's instead
(assuming you have a dedicated pump for 2 (?) of your high end machines)
8 CPU WBs averaging at $50 = $400
8 GPU WBs averaging at $50 = $400
2 MagiCool XTREME Nova 1080 Radiator at $150 = $300
80 ft of tubing at $2 (Tygon 1/2" ID) = $160
Get MasterKleer tubing straight from www.mcmaster.com 34 cents a foot or cheaper.
280 Clamps at $1 a peice = $250
Same, buy direct from www.mcmaster.com and save over 50%, also 280 is huge overkill.
Click to expand...


Also look into some Colder Quick Disconnect valves for the computers. Would make servicing them easier if you ever had to take them out of the rack.

If you are serious about this though you really need to tell us what is in the computers and what you want to cool. There is no way we can help you beyond vague generalities without knowing this.
 
Erasmus354 5 pumps averaging at $80 = $400 Get 2 Iwaki's instead [/QUOTE said:
This sounds like it could be the becoming of a Chill Water Loop done in office buildings my company does, but there would be much tube sizing to do.
You could put the two pumps in parallel and then have a distribution block for 1/2" to all 8 PC's and have them all return and dump back in the reservoir..... would be awesome to see if you complete it!!!
Click to expand...
 
I was gonna say, if you had 8800gts cards (320mb or 640mb), I currently have (2) EK waterblocks for sale.. But, looks like you are running other vid cards.. lol
 
POLO said:
This sounds like it could be the becoming of a Chill Water Loop done in office buildings my company does, but there would be much tube sizing to do.
You could put the two pumps in parallel and then have a distribution block for 1/2" to all 8 PC's and have them all return and dump back in the reservoir..... would be awesome to see if you complete it!!!
Click to expand...

Exactly, two Iwaki RD-30's in parallel. Then run all 8 computers in parallel. You want the Iwaki's in parallel because you want more max flow because the restriction will actually be very low and you don't need more head pressure provided by putting the pumps in series.
 
Why not fashion some sort of copper 5-to-1 (or 6-1 or 7-1 junction), buy a fuel pump http://www.magnumforce.com/store/detail.asp?ProductID=2519&CategoryID=33&BrandID=&Category=&SubCategory=&Search=&Page=
, a pressure regulator, and a radiator for a diesel truck. A large low powered fan should be able to dissipate the heat.:p Run the pump to a 1/4" to 2" (or whatever it would be) junction then to the radiator, then from the radiator to a 1-5 junction and then to each block. You'd have to do some major fabrication and test each block for pressure and adjust the voltage to the pump to find the best flow vs. safest pressure.
 
Dethred said:
Why not fashion some sort of copper 5-to-1 (or 6-1 or 7-1 junction), buy a fuel pump http://www.magnumforce.com/store/detail.asp?ProductID=2519&CategoryID=33&BrandID=&Category=&SubCategory=&Search=&Page=
, a pressure regulator, and a radiator for a diesel truck. A large low powered fan should be able to dissipate the heat.:p Run the pump to a 1/4" to 2" (or whatever it would be) junction then to the radiator, then from the radiator to a 1-5 junction and then to each block. You'd have to do some major fabrication and test each block for pressure and adjust the voltage to the pump to find the best flow vs. safest pressure.
Click to expand...

The two Iwaki's are more than enough, that pump is expensive and probably would not work nearly as well (too much heat dump). Also the radiator from a diesel truck is designed to work with much higher CFM than you will be getting from a fan, it is designed to work being driven down the road at 60mph.
 
silent-circuit said:
Dare I ask what the point of having nearly the same thing on 5 different screens is?
Click to expand...

Well, if my main character dies, I have mouse sharing setup on the machines, so I just move the mouse to the screen of the toon that is still a live and I can still fight.

It's also for getting reported. People think I macro the characters, when I actually don't use anything but a keyboard broadcaster to send out keystroke simultaneously. Sometimes I get reported and one of the toons gets "jailed" temporarily while I get asked questions to see if I'm afk "botting".

Also......just for the hell of it. It looks cool. :eek:
 
POLO said:
Lets price it out, I am curious as well :)

5 pumps averaging at $80 = $400
(assuming you have a dedicated pump for 2 (?) of your high end machines)
8 CPU WBs averaging at $50 = $400
8 GPU WBs averaging at $50 = $400
2 MagiCool XTREME Nova 1080 Radiator at $150 = $300
80 ft of tubing at $2 (Tygon 1/2" ID) = $160
280 Clamps at $1 a peice = $250

Just a rough estimated total of $1910.00

Do you have 18x 120mm fans? I bet you want some serious fan controllers for them to keep them quiet: Zalman ZM-MFC1 Plus Multi Fan Controller at $45 (need three) = $135
Do you have a 4U rack enclosure? :)

Please correct any of this if I missed something.. but just a rough look puts you over $2G's easy for a good water cooled setup.

you might want to look at trying to do Silent setup for you none high end PC's.
A massive heat sink would be around $50 each
And the same for GPU is still around $50 each
Get some 120mm fans and a small fan controllers for each case...
and it looks like you could save a quite bit of money, if your other PC's are not large heat dissipating beasts, becuase it doesn't sound like you are hurting for room at all with a full server rack setup :)

I hope this helps :D
Click to expand...

Well, for a complete setup, 2k isn't out of the question. I understand there are variables like the blocks that I'm not going to get around, but I think with the lower end machines, I'm not going to need them on the GPU's for those machines. I don't ever see my 8400's get too hot, but for the main machine, it will certainly be needed.

I don't have 18 120mm fans, but I have at least 12 in my setups so far, so that's not much more of an inveestment.

I think the pump system can be designed to not need more than 2 or 3 pumps max. Having a dedicated pump per machine........then I just might as well have an individual setup for each machine. If I have one pump dedicated to the main machine, and then maybe a couple dedicated to the slave computers, that might work out as well in a series/parallel setup. The slaves are 1.8-2.2GHz dual core, so they're not massive, no are they overclocked. My 6LCD's put off more heat than my 6 slaves do just by the seat of my pants comparison.

Actually space is a factor which is why I'm going to this rack setup. I am transitioning them all from mid towers to 4U cases as we speak, and the nice thing about a rack......the footprint doesn't change the more computers I add (to a point). The wife has one computer, and is going to be controlling another after I build my new main and retire one of the slaves to her, which is going to be my total of 8, so having two desks all run off of the rack will be a nice savings in space.

I'm starting to wonder if a phase change setup would be better......:confused:
 
...how would phase be better? A single off-the-shelf phase unit that will cool /only/ the CPU of /one/ machine is going to run $1000+ new, $600+ used. Custom work would be far, far more. I do not think phase is what you need here, unless you're referring to something more mundane like A/C for the rack.
 
I've considered doing this. Mostly for servers or folding boxes. For your equipment's sake you'd want a minimum of tubing and a maximum number of discrete pumps (in case of failure). And big cooling. The old cooling bongs would be a good method if you live in an arid environment or have easy access to the outdoors... though they require constant refilling. To keep it closed - or if you live in a humid environment or don't have a balcony handy - you could go with dual heatercores, in parallel. 5 Eheims all over the place. It would be a logistical challenge and a single leak could mess you up big time.

silent-circuit said:
There is, at times, a fine line between being [H]ard and just being stupid. I try not to cross it too often. ;)
Click to expand...

Probably the most relevant post in this thread, mine included.
 
I think it would be cool if you had basically a fish tank of water up top and bottom, have tubing from the top lead through your components and dump in the bottom one just via gravity, then just have a sump or pond pump move the water from the bottom tank to the top tank. Like.. pond waterfalls! It would probably be atrocious for temps if the restriction is high enough to thwart gravity (it probably would be), but it would be the coolest rack anyone's ever seen.
 
silent-circuit said:
...how would phase be better? A single off-the-shelf phase unit that will cool /only/ the CPU of /one/ machine is going to run $1000+ new, $600+ used. Custom work would be far, far more. I do not think phase is what you need here, unless you're referring to something more mundane like A/C for the rack.
Click to expand...
I thought they cost less:
http://www.frozencpu.com/cat/l3/g41...nge-Vapochill-Vapochill_LightSpeed-Page1.html
but still not worth it at all ;)

thrawn86 said:
I'd probably also keep the res/pumps up high; use gravity to your advantage.
Click to expand...
I don't think so, because your pump is going to have to pump it back up.
I would put a WC'ing setup at the top though... hell I could put together a package for you for lefvel control and leak protection, but it would cost ya a bit, but would he completely awesome!

I work for a Mechanical Contractor in their Automation and Control Solutions department, and we have done plenty of leak detection and level control. We do High end office buildings in Atlanta, GA and there are customers you put some really expensive furniture in their offices, so if there is a bathroom above them, we have to put all this leak protection all over the pipes so if it does start to leak it would ruinin all the high end office furniture in their office :)

Quick Disconnects are a GREAT idea, as posted before as well, though they are more prone to leaking then other connections, but I think if you have all of the quick disconnects at the back of each case then it would really reduce the chance of damage if there is a drop or two :)
But I have never had a leak when i use:
ex-tub-124.jpg
 
astyler said:
I think it would be cool if you had basically a fish tank of water up top and bottom, have tubing from the top lead through your components and dump in the bottom one just via gravity, then just have a sump or pond pump move the water from the bottom tank to the top tank. Like.. pond waterfalls! It would probably be atrocious for temps if the restriction is high enough to thwart gravity (it probably would be), but it would be the coolest rack anyone's ever seen.
Click to expand...

I would keep it close loop, letting it be an open loop would be more maintenance and dangerous :)
 
POLO said:
I would keep it close loop, letting it be an open loop would be more maintenance and dangerous :)
Click to expand...

Oh that would be very dangerous :D. Phase is much more expensive as that's for a single processor (the $869). Water can be done for a CPU for about $100.
 
Yeah.. I own a Vapochill LS.. I love it but I am considering selling it. I have been thru all sorts of cooling solutions: high end air, TEC, Water, Phase change.. Times are getting a little tough.. LOL.
 
Erasmus354 said:
Exactly, two Iwaki RD-30's in parallel. Then run all 8 computers in parallel. You want the Iwaki's in parallel because you want more max flow because the restriction will actually be very low and you don't need more head pressure provided by putting the pumps in series.
Click to expand...

Except you would have to turn down all the computers to service the loop which isn't very effective.
 
astyler said:
wat?
Click to expand...

I misspoke. once its filled its no problem because there will be a constant pressure in the loop, but I guess I was thinking he had a really tall server rack. for a smaller pump it would just be easier to fill from the top, is what i meant. obviously for these monster pumps its not an issue.
 
In all honesty, I'd probably get a 24v Iwaki RD30, a good double bay reservoir, and 2 of those copper manifolds from home depot... They're about 20$, have 8 outlets, and are 1/2".

Throw it all onto one/two of those 9.120mm radiators loaded with yates, and go to town.
 
PPI Typhoon said:
Well, if my main character dies, I have mouse sharing setup on the machines, so I just move the mouse to the screen of the toon that is still a live and I can still fight.

It's also for getting reported. People think I macro the characters, when I actually don't use anything but a keyboard broadcaster to send out keystroke simultaneously. Sometimes I get reported and one of the toons gets "jailed" temporarily while I get asked questions to see if I'm afk "botting".

Also......just for the hell of it. It looks cool. :eek:
Click to expand...

wouldn't "friends" fix this problem too? ;)

I thought maybe there was some way to share the load of a computer to 5.
 
w1ngzer0 said:
wouldn't "friends" fix this problem too? ;)
I thought maybe there was some way to share the load of a computer to 5.
Click to expand...

Staying on topic would also help, not bashing
rant and rave somewhere else

back on topic:

Just like stated above, a nice MagiCool XTREME Nova 1080 Radiator = 9.120 would do wonders for you with distribution blocks.
That is the way to go, also plenty of isolation valves or quick disconnects just in case you need to do maintenance on any one computer :)
 
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