Looking at watercooling my Xeons...

PinkFloyd

PinkFloyd

PinkFloyd

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Planning on Watercooling my server, its mainly used for rendering in 3dsmax and temps get really high under full load (only a degree or 2 off of orphos)
Thats before I even mention the amount of noise the Dual 60mm fans make on the cpu coolers.
The specs are Dual Xeons, Asus PCH-DL with 2 gig ram.
You may have seen BilltheImpaler's worklog of cooling and re-casing his Voltmodded overclocked xeons. I'm planning on doing the same thing, but taking my first step into watercooling at the same time.


I've been looking into the blocks and stuff I would need. Currently the XSPC H2O 1/2" barbed blocks are looking favourites. As they can fit all manner of sockets, so I can later put the same kit onto my core2duo setup if I wanted too. Also, I have seen them for sale for a tenner.

Where I start getting lost at is with what pump I would need aswell as how big a rad I would need. At a later date I may also be wanting to watercool the Vregs and Chipset as these both get extremely hot too. Would I be needing a 120.2 to cool this at temps as good or better than the effective but noisy current air cooling system.

Would fittings needed be pretty standard?

My biggest issue at the moment is the current case doesn't have room for a 120.1, let alone a 120.2. So I'm going to have to replace my lovely ATC 200, probably with a Lian Li PC7 (unless I mod another case I have lying around)

Would using my Eclipse for this rig be more appropriate for this?!

Any pointers would be great.
 
Why not have the rad external? Then you can get as big as you want.

As for your pump, any decent pump will do; I would recommend DDC-Ultra but a D5 would be just as good.
 
I'd be worried about knocking it and perhaps damaging it, especially if the tubing came out away from the case. How much of a knock could a big external rad take?

I'd prefer to go with the DDC ultra looking at prices, on the site I'm looking at its quite a bit cheaper.

Looking at the pumps they're a lot more expensive than I was hoping, guess it is one of the most vital parts, and I'd be gutted if I ended up with a really noisy one so the money will probably be well spent. Is Depreciation high on water pumps? (if I decide I don't want to watercool as a permanent solution)

As to pumps with 3/8 tubing fittings rather than 1/2 fittings. Can these be changed or would I need adapters, should I try and avoid use of adapters?
 
I would recommend the DDC-Ultra but use it with a plexi top with input on the top and output on the side and choose the size fittings you want. You can mount them with anti vibration mounts in a 5" drive bay and they are very quiet and powerful.
I would not recommend using the res with it though. Much pain in the backside to fill and bleed the system with it!
Also I would recommend the Thermochill 120.2 rad. Plenty of cooling and it has a bleed screw (I believe) making bleed the system much easier.
 
One easy option for difficult cases is to put everything into a second case and just have the tubing going to the active case. This is called a "radbox" and then you can do all kinds of clever things such as quick-release tubing and humongous radiators or ginormous pumps. This allows you to use cheaper parts that are not designed specifically for PC water-cooling.

For example, here is one I made for fun that hasn't ever been connected up but illustrates the possibilities. It's an old case with a pair of Eheim 1250 pond pumps (very quiet and super reliable) with a Vauxhall Nova heater-core and a 172mm 24v fan run at 12v. An old PSU supplies the 12v for the fan.
 
A 120.2 rad can fit in the roof of a PC-7 dependant on the position and flexibility of the PSU outgoing wiring.

If you relocate the PSU to the bottom front in lieu of the HDD rack, you can easily accomodate a 120.3, though this will depend on how many drives etc are also required to fit inside the case.

As the heatload is unknown, very roughly speaking a larger rad will result in cooler temps at lower fan speeds/noise levels, so if you fit the biggest you can it will allow for future expansion. Thermochill PA series set the benchmark with proven test results.

Pump wise, the 18w DDC (ultra) is small, powerful, quiet and versatile with an aftermarket top, highly recommended as stated above.
 
What's the advantage of having the input into the pump at the top rather than the side. It adds quite a lot to the price of the pump. At a quick glance it may have been the choice of fittings - would I be correct in thinking this?
Also the blocks I'm looking at are low flow, would the DDC ultra count as low flow? (no ideas where the boundaries are on that :p)

Think I'll be retiring the ATC case for something with a little more space, will see if I can track down a PC7 with the holes already cut in the top for a 120.2 :)

I'm not sure the whole radbox idea will be too convenient for me, mainly due to space, would like to keep it all in one box as it would look smarter too.

Cheers all :)



edit.... .would I need a shroud for the radiator?
 
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Seeing as you don't have the PC-7 yet, would you consider getting a larger case in which to work? The PC-7 would be an OK place to start if you already had one but since you're starting from scratch I'd imagine it'd be better to start with something larger so that you aren't immediately faced with space issues.
 
Something larger would be ok, but price is a concern, aswell as its got to be something nice!

I'm replacing an ATCS 200 here :p

if I could find a Lian Li V1000 for a fair bit under £100 it would be hard to say no!
 
XSPC is pooh... avoid.

CPU Blocks :
D-Tek Fuzion, Swiftech Apogee GT, Swiftech 6002, DangerDen TDX.
IMO, the 6002 would be my choice, since its VERY free flowing, and since you will have two blocks in this loop, this is fairly important.

Pump :
DangerDen DDC Ultra /Swiftech 355+. Petra's top if possible, but if you want to leave it stock.

Rad :
Thermochill. No question. I'd use the CM20x elsewhere, and get a PC7+ tbh. PA120.2 in the roof, PA160 or PA120 at the front. Possible both. Go for the PA120.2 IMO.

GPU block :
Dunno if you have a quadro or whatever, but a Maze4 would be my choice.

Tubing :
Go 3/8" or 7/16" (ideally 7/16" with 1/2" barbs all round). It WILL be cramped with 1/2".

Hope that helps. You WILL regret it if you scrimp on important parts. Go 2nd hand ideally... saves a decent amount of cash.
 
jellybeard999 said:
XSPC is pooh... avoid
Click to expand...
What's wrong with XSPC?

From what I have read they are pretty solid blocks, only a degree or two warmer than a top block at worst. They are a good price, and they fit every socket that I'm likely to be using for a while!

I've had a look around for the Swiftech 6002, but I can barely find anything on it, certainly no mention of it fitting socket 603/4. Although I'm pretty sure I saw that block or a very similar one on a dual setup like mine....

Rst of the stuff you have said seems good to me, dunno If I will be watercooling the graphics in my server, since its barely used, I'll just mount a quiet fan on it.

There is going to need to still be a pretty decent airflow in this case to keep the mosfets and chipsets cool, might watercool them at a later date, but want to keep this as simple as possible since its my first time watercooling :)
 
Thought about getting a cheap rack mount server case? Then you could add more CPUs to the render farm as you need them. You could also get an empty 3U or 4U chassis, strip it out and use it as a radbox. :)
 
messiah khan said:
Thought about getting a cheap rack mount server case? Then you could add more CPUs to the render farm as you need them. You could also get an empty 3U or 4U chassis, strip it out and use it as a radbox. :)
Click to expand...
No I haven't, and I don't plan to either :p

I just want to make this server quieter without making it much larger!
Plus I want it to carry on looking nice as a pc, as it might get used for LANs occasionally.

What with going back and forth to uni a separate radbox or a case a lot larger it really isn't convenient, my Eclipse is bad enough!
 
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