Extreme TEC chiller experiment with Antec

MrAdamski said:
Absolutely love that coolant :D
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Thanks, I really do too :D

ecksmen said:
So ignoring the power requirements, and the extra heat this will produce what are you going to do about condensation issues?

Back in the day (I'm taking 10+ years ago when tecs / phase change was popular with the likes of prometia / vapochill) good tec loops require lots of insulation for condensation.

I had a TEC directly on my graphics card, a x800xt pro flashed to pe. I had a lot of insulation on it to prevent condensation.
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I'm going to isolate the hardware that will get cooled down.
(not sure about the CPU yet, since that have been getting paint and Plastik 70 coat. So don't know if it can be isolated properly).

But the GPU will get some isolations (just like you do with ln2), and it will be the main thing I will overclock/chill with this chiller :p
(just no sure which GFX to get yet for the job :cool:)

colinmcr said:
Very intriguing and sounds like quite a challenge you've set yourself. Good luck
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Yea I know. The problem isn't building the chiller (should be straight forward, even the blocks), but isolating the GFX (and perhaps motherboard) so it doesn't goes down is more the challenge for me :eek:
 
So that last of the watercooling gear have arrived :D
As I said, I do no believe that radiator cooling will be my bottleneck, and here's why:
http://www.overclock.net/content/type/61/id/1871804/width/500/height/1000

One big, fat 9x120mm radiator (60mm thick) ;)
http://www.overclock.net/content/type/61/id/1871858/width/500/height/1000
And when you place that in a Phobya radiator stand along 18 Antec fans it looks like this:
http://www.overclock.net/content/type/61/id/1871844/width/500/height/1000

http://www.overclock.net/content/type/61/id/1871845/width/500/height/1000
That is a heavy setup, and there is one more of those along the white/green radiator (45mm) posted above :D

And they cool really well.
Right now the green/white radiator + D5 pump is cooling a mining rig with a HD 7990 + 2x HD 7970 down to the cores are at only 44 degrees and water around 37 degrees (and that is a 24/7 setup) :D
And that is with only four 180mm fans at 700 rpm.
So the three of these radiators with push pull configuration with the 2000 rpm should be more than enough for this chiller :p

I also got some extra stuff, like an extra D5 pump to help in the cold loop and four temperature sensors (green LCD of course) and a lot of screws for the fans:
http://www.overclock.net/content/type/61/id/1871848/width/500/height/1000

** No hotlinked images **
Some of the Monsoon fittings also arrived, and quite a lot of them;
http://www.overclock.net/content/type/61/id/1871849/width/500/height/1000

And when taken out and assembled it looks like this;
http://www.overclock.net/content/type/61/id/1871850/width/500/height/1000

Beautiful :D

But this is not all of them, actually these are just around half of what I need for this chiller and SG09 build (around 30 pcs. both fittings and angle adaptors).
Some of the are in the mining rig, others are not yet bought due to uncertainties of how many TEC waterblocks that will be made (how many fittings is needed).

And once again, thanks to Monsoon for sponsoring some of their fine fittings, and I must say you are right;
http://www.overclock.net/content/type/61/id/1871851/width/500/height/1000

"Bling is good" :D

As for the TEC waterblocks I will go with the long thin lines, but have had time yet to design/draw them.
But should happen soon and hopefully I will find some cheap (but good) copper at that time.
(if you got a link to a seller in EU (that ships to Denmark) please post it :D)

I don't have that much more, except that I got a new pump for the SG09 (other one burst into flames) and I swapped out the GTX 670 4gb cards for a new;
http://www.overclock.net/content/type/61/id/1871853/width/500/height/1000

A nice Gigabyte GTX 780 TI :D
http://www.overclock.net/content/type/61/id/1871854/width/500/height/1000

It came as rev 1.0, so thought It was the reference PCB design, but luckily it was the custom more powerfull design :D
http://www.overclock.net/content/type/61/id/1871855/width/500/height/1000

http://www.overclock.net/content/type/61/id/1871856/width/500/height/1000

I tried the card, and I must say it performs well and is really silent. Even in game after many hours of play, I cant hear it even with the case open (bot only at stock clocks for now and 1.5 meters away from case).
So that will be the card that will get chilled :D
(maybe another one will come along as well if my wallet is up for it).

And EKWB is making a full cover waterblock for it (yea), bot it will first get released in late February :-/
But when under the chiller it will be with a core block only (either custom one or a EKWB block), and with heatsinks on Vram and VRM.

So that's it for this time, any questions is welcome, and link to a good but cheap copper retailer is appreciated :D
 
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So, long time no see.
I'm sorry for this interruption in this build log/experiment but my studies and personal situation needed some attention.
And sadly I haven't been able to locate anyone with in Denmark that could and would help me making the waterblocks (had one for a few months until he backed out...) :mad:

But the good news is that I have found a solution that I think/hope will work out just as well. Did cost a little extra, but what the heck ;)
So small package (though quite heavy) came this week:
** No hotlinked images **
http://www.overclock.net/content/type/61/id/2198537/width/500/height/1000

Which contains the rest of the stuff for cooling these TEC's.
Some 6 meters of tubing, a reservoir and some fansplitters for the 54 fans :D
http://www.overclock.net/content/type/61/id/2198538/width/500/height/1000

As for the solution to cool the TEC's I went ahead and bought 20 Alphacool CPU waterblocks :p
http://www.overclock.net/content/type/61/id/2198540/width/500/height/1000

http://www.overclock.net/content/type/61/id/2198541/width/500/height/1000

http://www.overclock.net/content/type/61/id/2198542/width/500/height/1000

http://www.overclock.net/content/type/61/id/2198543/width/500/height/1000

http://www.overclock.net/content/type/61/id/2198544/width/500/height/1000

Some nice blocks, though I have seen better surfaces on other blocks out there. But I believe these will do just well when sandwiched around a TEC :D

Since there is 20 waterblocks that means I would also need some fittings:
http://www.overclock.net/content/type/61/id/2198545/width/500/height/1000

http://www.overclock.net/content/type/61/id/2198546/width/500/height/1000
Some 50 pcs of 90 degrees fittings and 10 straight ones.

Also with all these CPU blocks and the three big radiators I needed some more pump power so I bought two more D5 pumps (four in total now).
http://www.overclock.net/content/type/61/id/2198547/width/500/height/1000

The plan is to get some of the 550W TEC's that is 62*62mm in size (found one from UK that would sell 10 of those to me): http://www.ebay.com/itm/TEC-Thermoe...D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557

They are a little bigger than the cooling surface area of the CPU coolers, so I will also get some 6mm thick 70*70mm copper plates, so the whole area of the TEC is in contact with the cooling surface.

I am open for suggestions if you believe there is a better TEC out there for this setup (will be running at 12V).

That was all for this time, the TEC's and copper plates will be bought in the upcoming week :D
And then a Classified 980 or similar when they arrive :p
 
So what's going to be powering 10 TECs? You're talking about something (even with the reduced voltage) that'll be pulling more than a three bar electric fire!

As I mentioned almost 12 months ago these ideas were tried and abandoned years ago (the Intel PII/PIII era). TECs are just too inefficient to work on this sort of scale.

If you want cold water buy an aquarium chiller.
 
Love the idea of this build - I miss playing with TECs - the last rig I used with them had an Old Mach 1 phase unit on the CPU (XP-m!) and a TEC unit on the GPU that was cooled by a chiller unit. As mentioned, it wasn't the most efficient system in the world - but then neither is a Veyron - doesn't mean it's not fun and worthwhile ;)

You are right that things have moved on a lot in the past few years - mostly in the understanding of how to get the best performance out of TECs. Interestingly this is actually done by undervolting the units and having lots of them - head over to xtremesystems if you want a bit of specialist knowledge - lots of really useful info there from guys who did and still do use this stuff.

The other one to watch out for is power. Your standard PC PSU won't cope with the loads on TECs - you will need to look into proper power units (we all used Meanwell units back in the day) - if you can find a good one with variable voltage supply that would be best. As mentioned above - these things draw a huge amount of Watts so do the maths carefully!

The biggest concern is overload - if your cooling isn't up to scratch the system overheats... very quickly and with spectacular results :cool: Have a dig around over at xtreme and you should be able to find a calculator that lets you know exactly how much cooling you need at each stage to ensure that the system doesn't melt.

Most of all - have fun - I know I did! :D

Edit: Make sure you pay particular attention to moisture control - having a pelt on the processor will mean that it needs to be properly lagged front and back the way the guys using phase or LN2 / CO2 do - lots of guides out there that I'm sure you've already read... ;) - don't forget the tubing - if your water temp is below ambient you're going to get condensation and will have to lag the tubes. You could avoid this by building a thermostat into the chiller to keep it just above ambient and allow the TEC on the chip to go sub-zero without affecting the rest of the system - depends how much time you've got!
 
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So putting all of the TEC's together takes a little more time than expected.
First apply a thin layer of Antec's Formula 7 Thermal paste to get the best transfer of heat :D
W161frD.jpg.png

And then make a sandwich of CPU coolers around it:
zIdzir4.jpg.png

bfaKZQp.jpg.png

And then connecting them all:
GhXFF6p.jpg.png

My fingers was quite sore after some 60 fittings :D
But all done and installed (takes up most of the table):
3EBl8gq.jpg.png

I decided to start with just the two thick radiator since the TEC wattage have been lowered a bit, and as I expected the pumps had a hard time pumping the water around with two radiators and 10 CPU block.
To night I started out with installing the chilled water on a older GTS 250 card:
WFsoWTp.jpg.png

A bit overkill I think, but it just a test card :D
With a little overclock I believe the card is pulling out 130-150W. A little less than the stock GTX 980.
However the TEC setup had no problem in cooling the card. With heaven bench running the temperature of the cold loop began going towards 0 degrees C.
It took a few minutes since it had to cool the ~1.5 liter of water that is running around in the cold loop.
The core temperature of the GTS 250 followed the temperature of the water nicely with around +5 degrees.
I have no anti freeze in the system yet so the plan was to stop a 0.5 degrees. But right at 0.6 the core temp shot up to ~35. Some water properly froze in one of the CPU coolers and blocked the water from running around.
hS4z2oK.jpg.png

The above shows how the core temp fell from ~36 to 6 degrees in 15 seconds when the water began flowing around again :D
So I should properly get some anti freeze in the systems. Any ideas what to get?

Also, how much does I need to insulate the GFX? Perhaps someone got a good guide?
Since it does get some condensation:
ED81KyR.jpg.png

The hot loop was at 32 degrees when I stopped, and the room temperature was 22.
So with a load of 250-300W I should be able to get the cold loop down to ~-10 degrees :D
 
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Dude! Great to see this starting to take shape - assuming XS are allowed there is a great TEC sticky HERE

For insulation have a look in their Phase section HERE - has everything you need

Are you planning on controlling the temps or going to just let it run at max?
 
Impressive stuff, how many fittings!!!! :eek:

Your gonna need some art eraser and some Armaflex for insulating etc. if you send me a message via trust i can send a link of where to get some cheap, not a competitor but better not post here ;)
 
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I would look into using Sugru as the insulator as it will work as a complete wrap around for the CPU blocks as well as the connectors and tubing.

It also appears to have very good insulating properties as it is silicone based so a moderate layer should hopefully stop condensation and still retain the flexible nature of the tubing.

You can also add to it once it as cured, so any changes you need to make to the setup you can just repatch with more of the product.
 
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