Game Rig Cooling.

[Joe]

Well the time is growing near! My Dual Athlon is reaching retirement age ( 2 years old), and is about to be sent into other uses (everyone needs a dual 1.4Ghz file server with 1Gb of ram dont they? hehehe). So my next major project/machine is being developed...

Currently its planned to be a Dual 2.66 - 2.8 Ghz Xeon, w/2GB of CL2 PC2700, and using my existing 3x36GB U160 SCSI array. The machine will have hardware U320 RAID ( dual channel), Gbit Ethernet, and use my existing Sony 500XA DVD+/-R Writer / AOpen DVD ROM. All this will sit in my Chenbro Junior case I have my Dual Athlon in. This is my main workstation/gaming rig, and for now will sport my Ti4600 Golden Sample board ( works just fine currently), in Fall I will be upgrading to what ever is the bestest... more than likely an ATi board ( if nV keeps being retarded that is... I have no need for a product from a company that is more concerned about lying to its customers, than improving their product... but I digress)

Why no Opteron? simple... 64bit is still a pipe dream.. just cause AMD released a 64bit chip doesnt mean there will be jack to run on it... remember DEC? yeh their AXP rocked it all... (/me Alpha fan boy) yet was never meant and barely got its nose into even the Windows server market. to get 64bit to be worth the investment on a PC there needs to be a well established app offering. Buying hardware before there is a need for it just asks for you to be totally obsolete by the time there is a useful app wrote. but I digree again

Now... here comes the question... Silent cooling of 2 Xeon CPU's. I work around high end multi processor Xeon boxes daily.. they are ANYTHING but quiet, infact some of them are well over the 60dB OSHA limit for working around for extended periods of time.

Some ideas I am pondering:
1. Dell PowerEdge 2600 Heatsinks. These are impressive Heatsinks to say the least... 3 heat pipes rising from a hard to ID material at its base, probably copper, up through a mesh of paper thin aluminum fins all the way up about 6" tall. Very impressive and well designed HSF's. using these with a hand made air tunnel with some nice low speed 120mm fans pulling air past them could result in a very quiet and very efficient cooling.

Problem: getting the HSF's is hard... working my contacts at Dell and have had no success at all. (you’d think someone who has purchasing authority and has pushed to order well over 300,000$ in hardware this year alone from them would get some service! )


2. Swiftec Socket 603 (Xeon) HSF. This is the prime "normal" HSF I am looking at. since its got the mountings for the socket 603, it wont be hard to get this setup working. Pondering doing a 92mm to 80mm conversion and do some testing with having a slower 92mm sucking air trough the HSF with a small skirt around the top of the HSF similar to what Alpha does with their HSF's. I do believe that its better to suck air through the HSF rather than blow into it from a systems stand point. Blowing air through just throws very hot air onto all your system components, where sucking the air past the HSF will give you the ability to route the heat out of the case, and keep other system components/video card nice and cool. Only problem is these HSF's are damn heavy... and when I haul this rig to LAN's its already freaking heavy enough as is

3.Modify a P4 Alpha to fit on a Xeon mounting point. for all the reasons above.

4. Water.... Now I want to explain that I do NOT want water in this rig. I am a firm believer that quiet air cooling can give me everything I want and at a fraction of the price/complexity/time investment in setup and maint. So I overall do NOT want to go with this option.


So that’s that, over the next months I am going to be buying all the parts for this rather massive investment in hardware, but when I am done it should be a rig capable to handle'n what ever physics/reality that any game throws at it there will be an article wrote about the cooling of this beast since I know MANY people are upgrading later this summer in preparation for HL2 and D3. What you think this is for?! hehe

let me know what your thoughts are on cooling 2 DAMN hot CPU's like this in a small space

[KnightElite]

Prometeia?

Seriously, most server systems are super noisy just because they are designed to run in generally warm rooms, filled with other computers, and because rackmount cases are usually not that big and require small, noisy fans. I would think that using a good heatsink with quiet fans woud probably do the trick, and if you're ducting, that will definitely not be a problem.

[Crosstrack16]

Good Luck

[Zhentar]

Your ability to silence your computer depends mostly on what you want to do with it. If you don't mind holding high temps under load (like 60°C) and no overclocking, you can easily drop your computer down to a whisper; leave a suspension mounted FDB 7200 RPM hard drive screamingly loud in comparison to the rest of your system. Despite your high heat output there, it should be easy to get it silent in overclocker terms; for everything you could want to know I have to recommend silentpcreview.com. I think for your heatsink you should get #2, but duct a 120mm fan to it, not 92.

[ItsSoLARGE]

<sigh> it's a sad period when Joe doesn't wanna watercool...

[Joe]

heheh Sorry but I dont see much of a need to OC a Dual Xeon... I mean ... is there anything that wont run at dual 2.8ghz w/ HT on both CPU's? I think not. Also, it may be a sign of my old age creeping up on me (I'm a whole 24 hehe), but stability, and simplicity is a good thing I mean.. I just sit down to surf porn, game, or read email ( oh and do website thing now and then) hehe... I have far too many other hobbies to maintain right now

[Joe]

let me clarify one thing. this is my main machine and I have long had a rule about not doing anything "crazy" wiht my main rig since I do so much on it, cant afford to have it down or torched.

When the Dual Athlon comes out of this machine... I am sure some fun will happen with it and watercooling and OC'n

[Zhentar]

I know how you feel Joe; the number one thing I like most about my lap top is that I don't do crazy crap with it, so I can count on it working

[ItsSoLARGE]

old geezers....

[Yo-DUH_87]

Yeah, I can understand your position. Why mess with it, when you have way too much speed to ever use in the first place?

/me starts placing bets on how long Joe's resolve lasts

[brucoman]

Actually the dual xeon HP xw4000 & xw6000's (passive/ducted)are nearly silent. I have installed 6 of them in small office rooms and do not "hear" increased noise levels over original pc's/mac's.

On dual xeons I have built here I use the Swiftech HSF with a variety of fans and always are noiser, but cooler. Tried variable speed with a Nexus fan controller - was a disaster - caused intermitant reboots when changing fan speeds (yes, I know of the reported issues with those).

Watercooled blocks are few, generally I don't like them.

My opinion...........

[Joe]

Thanks for the info!! I will check out those HP HSF's.

#rotor got me thinking about Resin Ducts... and a Duct along with the Dell passive Tri-heatpipe heatsinks could make a rather awesome cooling setup

[Khledar]

Originally posted by Joe
a Duct along with the Dell passive Tri-heatpipe heatsinks could make a rather awesome cooling setup

Hehe, you just want them cause you can't have them.

But then again - they do rock

Hopefully you'll be able to get your hands on some, do a little ducting and make it look sweeeet .... .

Goodluck!

[Joe]

I am just going to call them and tell them that I was working on a 2600 and accidentally broke both HSF's by stepping on them while they were on the floor and I would like to buy 2 replacements

[Zhentar]

good luck with the heatsinks; my own experience tells me that ducting with large heatsinks can get you a pretty quiet machine, maybe even silent with the right PSU.

As for ducting, I'll recommend my material of choice- the cardboard box the heatsink was shipped in

and the old geezer part, if it was at all referring to me.... I'm 18.

[Brad]

why don't you buy an asus/supermicro pp-dls board, and get two of the supermicro fan-042 with it. Those are silent, and will do up to 3.06ghz.

The swifty 603/423 heatsinks are fine too. Just run a panaflo 80mm on them.

[pissboy]

wait.. if you have your work buy a lot of hw from them why not have them buy a dual 2.4 box.. or 2 single cpu boxes and swap in some different heatsinks?

[Joe]

Umm because that would be unethical, and I would NEVER compromise the warranty, or stability of a 12 - 15k$ server just for some HSF's... since the box has a duct made exactly for hose.

You dont work in a real IT shop, or with high end servers do you? Ripping them apart is a sin.

[pissboy]

I guess.. I dont consider x86/windows to be *REAL* IT

[msv]

Originally posted by Joe
heheh Sorry but I dont see much of a need to OC a Dual Xeon... I mean ... is there anything that wont run at dual 2.8ghz w/ HT on both CPU's? I think not. Also, it may be a sign of my old age creeping up on me (I'm a whole 24 hehe), but stability, and simplicity is a good thing I mean.. I just sit down to surf porn, game, or read email ( oh and do website thing now and then) hehe... I have far too many other hobbies to maintain right now

You´re not old until You try to surf porn with LYNX.
regards
Mikael S.

[Joe]

Hey ASCII porn on BBS's was LEET!

[pissboy]

funny thing is I remember when ascii porn loaded SLOW

[Tweekster]

I think the Swiftech Xeon heatsinks would be a good start. With the thick copper base and the pin configuration you wouldn't necessarily have to blow/suck directly over the proc........you could try more of a cross-flow ducted system.........or duct the air in at a 45 degree angle.

Maybe it's time to re-think heatsink design entirely and come up with a design that is just for ducting. With all the talent this forum has in copper machinists, somebody could fabricate it, Joe could test it.

Another thought, I would like to see all the fans at the rear of the case only, a complete draw through arrangement with the proper ducting. Fans on the front always seem noisier. And maybe the fans are something like a high volume, low RPM squirrel cage blower. Axial fans aren't the only way to move air, explore other possibilities.

Take a page from the military, and use sound absorption materials to the line the ductwork.

Just my 2 cents

[jaydee]

Game rig eh? Who cares about noise? What no speakers?

Talk about heat pipes, my buddy just got done designing a 75Ft long one. It's what he does for a living. Designing heat exchangers. I asked him the other day about making some small heat pipes for PC's and he said they might be able to make them. Next time I see him I will hit him up on it again. He said he has all the software to simulate the design and calculate what is needed by an estimated heat load.

[Seyeklopz]

This heatsink supports 92mm fans stock. I have the SLK-800 and it works very well. Weighs over a pound tho.

SLK-900

PS
I was wondering where you got the sweet little radiator on this article. MagDrive Tips - Joe : 3/31/00