server conversion Project Cheapass | Dual-CPU Ghetto Watercooling

[ARikozuM]

25 minutes ago, legopc said:

You could have done a little bit of research and come to that conclusion, instead of doing what Linus does and jump on the first eBay listing that says "dual Xeon"... What you want to do isn't going to work unless you want to put a stupid amount of time and research into this, the motherboard/PSU's are anything but atx and will not ever fit in an atx chassis, the PSU won't have the Molex connectors you need and you are going to need to keep the load fans, seeing as the system will freak out without them and it doesn't exactly have basic 3 pin connectors. 

That's the fun of these endeavors! We can learn by hearing but practice is a much better instructor. It's fun to dismantle a system and learn the intricacies that lie therein and, so long as the OP keeps attentive, his project might help us all if we try it for ourselves.

[ARikozuM]

4 hours ago, legopc said:

You could have done a little bit of research and come to that conclusion, instead of doing what Linus does and jump on the first eBay listing that says "dual Xeon"... What you want to do isn't going to work unless you want to put a stupid amount of time and research into this, the motherboard/PSU's are anything but atx and will not ever fit in an atx chassis, the PSU won't have the Molex connectors you need and you are going to need to keep the load fans, seeing as the system will freak out without them and it doesn't exactly have basic 3 pin connectors. 

That's the fun of these endeavors! We can learn by hearing but practice is a much better instructor. It's fun to dismantle a system and learn the intricacies that lie therein and, so long as the OP keeps attentive, his project might help us all if we try it for ourselves.

[The Flying Sloth]

UPDATE 3
ALL PARTS ORDERED!!
FINAL MOTOR CHOICE

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/291810427267?_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT
 

240L/H and can be mounted outside reservoir unlike the original option

FINAL BLOCK CHOICE
 http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/231783344599?_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

Cheapest copper block available.

5M of vinyl piping was bought from the local Bunnings

5V blue LED's were bought to go in the CPU blocks

Blue food colouring will be used with distilled water and car radiator liquid as coolant
Sandpaper bought to begin planning side window of case

Waiting on delivery

Copper heating core will be bought once other parts are all in as it can be picked up anytime (will work out which core to get based on leftover budget)

[The Flying Sloth]

UPDATE 4

Have received all components, sellers made some large mistakes, will repost this build log once everything is present and correct

[DocShay]

Woah woah woah, loose the food coloring dye! I believe it was in a video Luke presented (Maybe jayz2cents? Can't recall) Food coloring has sugar in it, which will gum and gunk up eventually! 

[The Flying Sloth]

 

3 hours ago, DocShay said:

Woah woah woah, loose the food coloring dye! I believe it was in a video Luke presented (Maybe jayz2cents? Can't recall) Food coloring has sugar in it, which will gum and gunk up eventually! 

http://www.overclockers.com/forums/showthread.php/108255-Food-Coloring-in-a-Water-Cooling-System

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/274585-29-dyes-safe

http://www.overclock.net/t/485390/food-coloring-okay-with-loops

Food colouring can contain trace amounts of glucose, this much is true. Fortunately there are fully synthetic options available (in my local supermarket) that negate any possibl problems that glucose could cause (not that it would matter much to me anyway). 

By the time I come back to adding content to this build log I will have a spare set of CPU blocks and prettymuch everything else anyway so it really wouldn't matter much to me. Using car antifreeze (like I am) causes the same issues with tubing being stained anyway.

[AlienALX]

Be careful with that PSU. In servers like that they can lack headroom for adding anything. I remember I used to have a server and it only had one molex so I added a couple more with a splitter and then it refused to post, just going around in loops at boot.

 

You may need a external PSU if you are running a GPU on it, and be careful about the GPU you choose also because that server was probably never designed at the pen and paper stage to put any serious power through the PCIE slot so  you could burn it up.

 

Believe it or not a ghetto rig takes serious, serious planning. More so than an expensive build, because you are taking parts and using them beyond their initial purpose. 

 

How big is that heater core? I am not sure that those pumps will have the power needed for the pressure needed to pump water around the rig. Also be careful if it's old as it will probably be caked with scale. White distilled vinegar is your friend there.

[AlienALX]

Oh also dude. 3/8 tubing? are you having a laugh?!?! that would like tying to pee through the eye of a needle. And it won't fit your barbs, ever, either. And how on earth you are expecting to get it onto the heater core.

 

If you need help man ask for it, better than pissing money down the toilet.

[The Flying Sloth]

14 hours ago, AlienALX said:

Oh also dude. 3/8 tubing? are you having a laugh?!?! that would like tying to pee through the eye of a needle.

Nah, I have G 1/4 fittings and other clear tubing to go with it. The plan has changed drastically since the original updates.

 

On 10/13/2016 at 7:07 PM, AlienALX said:

Be careful with that PSU. In servers like that they can lack headroom for adding anything. I remember I used to have a server and it only had one molex so I added a couple more with a splitter and then it refused to post, just going around in loops at boot.

The PSU's are 720 Watts and have AMPLE headroom for use with a GPU even if I wasn't planning to use an auxiliary PSU. The reason yours refused to post is exactly as you said, you're using a splitter. I am running power from the sata power in the HDD cage (converted to 4 pin). 

 

On 10/13/2016 at 7:07 PM, AlienALX said:

How big is that heater core? I am not sure that those pumps will have the power needed for the pressure needed to pump water around the rig. Also be careful if it's old as it will probably be caked with scale. White distilled vinegar is your friend there.

Heater core is clean (as expected) and the pumps have surprising pressure. All tested and working fine. May be getting a different core if my block supplier doesn't pull through, they accidentally sent me aluminium blocks and even though I would rather copper blocks, car antifreeze should deal with mixed metal issue pretty quickly. I bought a couple of grams of pure silver which I will be forging into a kill coil.

 

On 10/13/2016 at 7:07 PM, AlienALX said:

Believe it or not a ghetto rig takes serious, serious planning. More so than an expensive build, because you are taking parts and using them beyond their initial purpose.

Believe me, I have planned this more that I care to admit and as previously stated I am redesigning to fit the incorrect parts shipped to me. Maybe you should have taken some of your own advice (and a basic electrical engineering course) before you tried to do yours.


I have a pretty good idea what I'm doing mate

Remember this is just a 'for fun' build, no money is being "Piss[ed] down the toilet"

Yeah sure I'm pushing the thing beyond the original purpose but TBH the hardest thing will be to get it to recognize the GPU (and I already have a friend working on solving that for me).

Thanks for your $.02 but it really added no value


As Previously stated, I am redesigning the system to fit the incorrect parts that were shipped to me. I am very happy for this build log to die, I will be reposting when I have all of the correct components present and ready to install 

[AlienALX]

10 hours ago, The Flying Sloth said:

I have a pretty good idea what I'm doing mate
 

It seems so yes (note the huge dollop of sarcasm there).

[The Flying Sloth]

8 hours ago, AlienALX said:

It seems so yes (note the huge dollop of sarcasm there).

mmmmkay

[AlienALX]

On 10/16/2016 at 5:40 AM, The Flying Sloth said:

I have a pretty good idea what I'm doing mate

 

Have come across some slight issues.

1. The motherboard is not a standard form factor (I am including server form factors in this statement)
 

 

 

So you know what you are doing yet ordered a completely proprietary system with a completely proprietary motherboard in it. You didn't even have the foresight to Google the model number and look over it before you bought it?

 

And of course you were going to run it on 3/8 hosing.

 

Whatever man.

[The Flying Sloth]

Cool

[ItsTheDuckAgain]

It's totally ghetto like hell from what I read. Like it. Hope you got some rust-paint to color the case with. Also, when done, kill a small animal and let it bleed out while holding it over the rig, that will give it a more natural touch. (If you lack such an animal I can send you my EFFFFFFING cat - no cost involved / totally free of charge)...

[The Flying Sloth]

17 hours ago, ItsTheDuckAgain said:

It's totally ghetto like hell from what I read. Like it. Hope you got some rust-paint to color the case with. Also, when done, kill a small animal and let it bleed out while holding it over the rig, that will give it a more natural touch. (If you lack such an animal I can send you my EFFFFFFING cat - no cost involved / totally free of charge)...

Thanks,

Yeah, I'm going for a steampunk/rustic theme on the case. 
Can't wait for my new parts to arrive so I can continue the log

[c8h10o2n4]

On 9/11/2016 at 4:19 AM, ARikozuM said:

Not enough duct tape... "But Proto"... Clamps are better... Duct tape! If it's good for drift car bumpers it's good for water cooling.

Why not zipties <whynotzoidberg.gif>

[The Flying Sloth]

Haven't updated in a while.
Still waiting on some parts
Here's some porn of the parts that have arrived thus far

[The Flying Sloth]

I DON'T KNOW WHAT I DID BUT IT BOOTED FIRST TRY !!!!!!!

Damn, everyone had me thinking it would be so much harder, all I had to do was remove the remote access card and everything went perfectly

That's part 1 over, now to stop it from sounding like a vacuum cleaner!!

[The Flying Sloth]

All ordered parts have been sent, waiting on delivery. 

So, lots of changes have been made in regards to the watercooling setup, First of all being my realization that the watercooling system would be almost the same volume as shoving some 47 ohm resistors on the fans. So those have been bought to be used until the Liquid loop is ready to go in.

Using a heater core was a great idea but it was far too difficult to find one with a decent fin density that wouldn't cause massive flow rate drops in the system.
Instead I am using 2 80mm radiators.

 

Without fans on the Chipset gets pretty damn hot so a supplementary WC system to the NB is being worked on ATM. Heatsinks have also been fitted to various VRM's that were getting a bit hot.

New Parts List:
Resistors: http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/261649719769?_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT
Pump: http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/131632036773?_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT
Res: http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/291864702927?_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

Rad 2x : http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/252599901180?_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

 

Basic flow diagram

Res - Pump-Rad 1- Block 1 - Rad 2 - Block 2 - Res

I studied basic thermodynamics but I don't claim to be a watercooling expert. If you have any suggestions on loop order let me know.

 

[The Flying Sloth]

FAN MOD COMPLETE!!!

Soldered some 20 ohm resistors onto the fans and PSU. The thing is damn near silent and I haven't even watercooled it yet

Excuse the potatocam but OMFG after all this long it is useable as a daily driver PC

Now we wait for the Watercooling parts to finally arrive
@ARikozuM It is possible !!!

Another update coming soon once I find the Ipad I took the pics of me modifying the CPU Blocks to fit around Capacitors and non-standard mounting holed
 

[The Flying Sloth]

Just drilled a hole through the PCI riser, new one arriving in a week

Oh well, now I have no excuse not to start putting together the watercooling. 

[The Flying Sloth]

So, I think it's time for an update
Been working on this thing for too long, bought a GTX 770 classified 4GB to go with it.
It is almost over. 
Cutting the side panel (sheet steel) was what made this take so long
excuse potato camera, that's my phone

 

[toastfacegrillah]

Keep at it man, love me some ghetto engineering you learn, build, problem solve and you eventually get to roll in your hard work once it finally pays offs, satisfying AF. interested to see how the water-cooling turns out.

[The Flying Sloth]

20 hours ago, toastfacegrillah said:

Keep at it man, love me some ghetto engineering you learn, build, problem solve and you eventually get to roll in your hard work once it finally pays offs, satisfying AF. interested to see how the water-cooling turns out.

Thanks man, the Watercooling is coming along great, everything that can be done at this point has been done. 
Here's some pics.
Unfortunately (as expected) the project took far longer than I would have liked and as such I got bored and upgraded the parts, and blew out the budget.
Excuse the bed, we're in the process of redoing the downstairs area and the bed had the best lighting in the room.

[toastfacegrillah]

Looking good man, however is that piping butt joint with silicone onto the pump in pic 5!?