Project Density

[KuniD]

Evenin' all First post after 3.5yrs of lurking in the shadows!

Its been a while since I built a system completely from scratch, so I thought I'd have a bit of fun this time I started to collect parts/components for the system about six weeks ago, when I've collected them all (probably end of Jan) the specs'll look something like this:

Iwill DK8ES EATX Motherboard (Dual Opteron, nForce4) ~ Jan (edit // between DK8EW & Tyan K8WE, will buy after Cebit.)
2x AMD Opteron 250 (2.4Ghz) ~ Arrived (edit// Sold on, need to replace)
4x 512Mb PC3200 ECC/Registered ~ Buy with mobo
Promice SATAII150 SX8 (8-port SATAII controller) ~ Jan (edit// scrapped for LSI Logic SATA300-8x)
4x WD Raptor 74Gb ~ Jan
8x Maxtor DM+10 300Gb SATA ~ Arrived
NEC 3500A DVD DL RW ~ Arrived
Lian Li PC-V2000 ~ Arrived
Antec TruePower 550w ESP12V ~ Arrived

I'm not worrying about the GFX card for now, can deal with that once I worked out the cooling issues.

As you can tell by the specs, its going to be a pretty crowded system with 12 hard drives and an E-ATX motherboard, here's a pic of the layout:



As I'm sure you've noticed, there's still quite a bit of realestate left in this case; hmmm what shall we fill it up with

Here's Project Densities specification:

• 1. Watercooling for both CPU's.
• 2. Watercooling infrastructure able to handle upto two graphics cards.(Motherboard is SLI capable)
• 3. Watercooling for hard drives.
• 4. All cooling parts must be inside or attached to case.

Ambitious? Maybe I don't expect this to happen over night, so I plan to do it in stages (CPU cooling being ready for use as soon as I recieve the remaining components.) I run my own hardware/machinery business, so I have access to pretty much any tool, and the companies got good relationships with quite a few local engineering firms, so if I need anything specific made up it shouldn't be a problem.

What I'd like to do upto the end of this year, is meticulously plan out the cooling system, with a little help from the most experienced cooling-addicts - you lot!

Now I've been looking over the case, and here are ALL the locations that I think radiators, pumps and reservoirs could be kept:



Now bear in mind I've noted all the spots, doesn't mean we have to use them all Only if we want to

Apart from one optical drive, all the 5.25" bays will be clear - I'll even remove the floppy from the bottom; 150 x 200 x 250 empty space.



I got donated a Black Ice Pro II (dual 120) radiator, which should be here on Mon/Tues; there should be enough space for it and a pump as well. Along with the perspex reservoir (which should be able to hold 4litre's) this should do the trick for the CPU's.

Now onto the hard drives; as all the drives are SATA, cabling won't get in the way, and with the way that Lian Li have designed the case, there's about 15mm gap between all the drives.



Enough space for some slimline drive blocks?

There's a 120mm fan mounted at the front of the hard drive compartment:



There's 1" clearance infront and behind the fan, so a possible location for a single 120 rad.

There's also quite a bit of space in the PSU section:



Space here for a dual 80 rad, and pump, like Club OC showed in their article on this case:



Then again there's a good chance I'll need to squeeze another small PSU in there as well just for some more ampage on the 12v line. (12x drives, dual opties and SLI gfx is gonna require soooooo much juice)

If all this isn't enough, there is one last option; I could attach a reservoir to the back of the case, like the one that WetAndChillyChips have developed. 550mm one.

Would dual graphics cards need their own radiator, or could I run that loop through the dual 120 / perspex res?

With the hard drives, I'm not too sure how to go about in terms of tube ordering. Three loops, each handling four drives in parallel? Should I use the WACC's external res for the drive cooling?

The dual 80 rad and the single 120 rads at the bottom of the case - what should they be used for? Both for drives, or would one be enough? If one is enough I could use the other for the graphics cards. Shame I can't use the heatercore I used on my TEC'd XP1900's; its far too big at 360x120.

Am I mad? Yep! Lets make this work people!

[KuniD]

Doh forgot a vital question!

I need recommendations for blocks, pumps and radiators of course!

[9mmCensor]

MCW6000-64 blocks.

sick rig

[killernoodle]

Dont bother watercooling the drives, you have plenty of airflow over them with the 120mm intake and the big exhaust.

You need another radiator in there, I'll say a 120mm one on the rear 120mm fan hole. So, get the new laing DCC pump, 2 swifty mcp6000 waterblocks, 3/8" tubing, and a black ice pro 120.

[Cranky]

Swifty blocks are in agreement i thinks......

[KuniD]

I wasn't sure if the single 120 fan would be able to take care of 12 drives - watercooling those would definitely be the biggest challenge - if I can sidestep that one it would make things a lot simpler

OK, so concentrating on the CPU/GPU problem.

Swifttech MCW6000-64's are at the top of my list - do the DangerDen copper TDX A64 blocks compare well?

About the using the rear 120 for a radiator spot as well - rather not do that, as it'd be cutting it very close to one of the CPU's, and I'd have to make the reservoir smaller.

If the dual 120 can take care of both the CPU's, would a dual 80 be able to deal with the heat of two high end GPU's?

Just thinking about how to map the system out - Parallel or series? And where should the pump go etc.

Here's a few early idea's - I've never setup a multi block, multi rad system like this, so I'm not sure on ordering etc.





What would you change?

[killernoodle]

There have been more dense arrays of hard drives with less cooling. I have never heard of any hard drive suffering a heat related problem, even in laptops where cooling is next to nothing.

And run everything inline, dont break it up like that. It adds complications and has no performance benefit.

Also, dont put the pump before the resevior, it is very difficult to prime it like that and restricts the inlet.

[HammerSandwich]

Another vote for aircooling the HDs. With 12 drives, your system's going to be loud regardless, so just use a little more fan if you need it.

Originally Posted by KuniD

About the using the rear 120 for a radiator spot as well - rather not do that, as it'd be cutting it very close to one of the CPU's, and I'd have to make the reservoir smaller.

Put the fan on the outside to buy another inch.

[Tamale]

holy 2.7 terabytes batman...

[killernoodle]

Lol, I'm having problems filling up my 1 terrabyte

[CoolROD]

Originally Posted by killernoodle

Also, dont put the pump before the resevior, it is very difficult to prime it like that and restricts the inlet.

I think his flow might be CCW.

[killernoodle]

Oh, I see. I guess that makes it all better

[Nicepants42]

Your 'series' diagram is definitely the one to use. However, I think that it would benefit from a second pump, such that both the GPU loop and the CPU loop will each have their own pump, located between the res and the respective blocks.

Aside from that, the only thing you're missing is storage.

edit: Actually, (and this may sound crazy) depending on the video cards you plan to use, it may be worth while investigating the heat dissipation of the GPUs to CPUs. If you end up using dual 6800 Ultras, for example, I would consider using the dual 80mm rad for the CPUs and the dual 120mm rad for the GPUs. I haven't done the research yet though, so I'm not sure.

[KuniD]

flow direction >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

~ ---[PUMP1]--[CPU1]--[CPU2]---[DUAL RAD]----|-------|--- ~ (back to pump)
                                             |  RES  |
~ ---[PUMP2]--[GPU1]--[GPU2]---[DUAL RAD]----|-------|--- ~ (back to pump)

How about that?

If I use two pumps instead of one which would you lot recommend?

About the rad; I'll probably run some tests and switch them between CPU/GPU, see which way performs the best.

New problem - the BIP II turned up this morning;



(ignore floppy)

Width wise its a perfect fit, buuuuttt..... the Black Ice Pro II's height is 277mm and the clearance is 256mm ! DOH!

The rad has to go there, its just the perfect spot esp with room for one of the pumps to go next to it...

Then again there has to be one optical in this machine....

Anyone got any ideas?

Here's two of mine, although both involve cutting the case (*gulp, not the new case!)

1) Cut a hole in the divider between the 5.25" bays and hard drive segment, the size (d x w) of the rad, so it just drops into the hard drive area



2) (now this ones a lot more ambitious ) Cut a hole in the top of the case, so that the optical drive pops up, when a release buttom is pushed.



I think no2 might be a bit ott/hard to do, but boy would that look cool popping up Like one of those 80's VHS/BetaMax top loading players.

Anyone got any other ideas to solve the rad placing issue? Oh revised pump recommendations now that' we're planning two

[scopEDog]

So that the rad would fit...maybe switch to a slimline dvd? Just might work..

[HammerSandwich]

Won't the rad fit if you put it in at an angle? Put a screen over the intake, and it'll look fine.

[killernoodle]

Put the optical on the bottom and then see how much room you have

[Nicepants42]

As for pumps, I just got me an AquaXtreme 50Z (swiftech mcp600). I haven't used it yet since I'm working on constructing my first WC setup, but I certainly don't think that anyone could find fault with my choice.

check out Cathar's awesome pump thread for more info that you might find interesting

[KuniD]

Originally Posted by killernoodle

Put the optical on the bottom and then see how much room you have

Mate... I seriously can't believe how much of a dumba$$ I am for not thinking of that!

DOH!

[KuniD]

Originally Posted by Nicepants42

As for pumps, I just got me an AquaXtreme 50Z (swiftech mcp600). I haven't used it yet since I'm working on constructing my first WC setup, but I certainly don't think that anyone could find fault with my choice.

check out Cathar's awesome pump thread for more info that you might find interesting

Aye, I found that thread a while back - its on my "to read" list - damn long thread!!

I've been looking at some of the stuff on http://www.watercool.de/

They ship to the UK, but its all in German, so I'm google'translating as much of it as I can.

For the dual 80's I think I may go for this:







185 x 83 x 62 (mm)

49.95 Euros (£35.57 + shipping )

[Cranky]

nice rad tbhwu.... go for the Swiftys on the blocks.

[superart]

i still say go for the betamax popup thing.

not because you need the space, jsut because it would look cool.

You can use like a liniar actuator, and make it come out by itself. That would pwn all.

[killernoodle]

That looks like one flowkiller of a radiator. It is a triple pass, not all inline, so it isnt too bad, but those inlet tubes look to be the same diameter as the rest of them, so it may not be compatible with the rest of your system.

[Remote Man]

a black ice micro dual would do far better I think.

[KuniD]

Ok, Black Ice Micro II (10mm fittings) instead.

I'm leaning towards 2x Laing DDC pumps (maybe the Pro ones, they look kinda cool )