Help with Dell T320 cooler replacement

[RTX 3090]

Hi, I wanted to replace my CPU cooler in my Dell t320 and wanted to water cool it. Does anybody know if it uses a standard mount and if a cheapy aliexpress water block would work. My idea is to have a massive 200 liter lreservoir of water (big plastic tub) and have no radiators and just use the thermal momentum of the water, as I will only be using if for a few hours at a time and it can cool down at night. tia

PS I have the 1 CPU version (8 core E5-2440 V2) and 32GB of RAM

[Guest]

https://www.newegg.com/supermicro-snk-p0050ap4-heatsink/p/N82E16816101683?item=N82E16816101683&source=region&nm_mc=knc-googleadwords-pc&cm_mmc=knc-googleadwords-pc-_-pla-_-server+-+accessories-_-N82E16816101683&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIg4a5mr6u8AIVW21vBB2Vpw9WEAQYASABEgKONvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds

[jaslion]

32 minutes ago, RTX 3090 said:

Hi, I wanted to replace my CPU cooler in my Dell t320 and wanted to water cool it. Does anybody know if it uses a standard mount and if a cheapy aliexpress water block would work. My idea is to have a massive 200 liter lreservoir of water (big plastic tub) and have no radiators and just use the thermal momentum of the water, as I will only be using if for a few hours at a time and it can cool down at night. tia

PS I have the 1 CPU version (8 core E5-2440 V2) and 32GB of RAM

Not a standard socket mount so outta luck there. Also why do this? Basically makes the system unusable and very annoying to use.

[Guest]

3 minutes ago, jaslion said:

Not a standard socket mount so outta luck there. Also why do this? Basically makes the system unusable and very annoying to use.

Without a pump, it would be a fast over heat.

With a pump and no rads, he would have heat soaked in 1 to 2 hours.

With a pump and radiators, he could go fanless, but with extended radiator surface area..... But this costs more than a tub of water.

 

He's looking for cheap and silent cooling. It doesn't exist unfortunately. Neither does free power, which will be my next hat trick.  

[RTX 3090]

11 minutes ago, jaslion said:

Not a standard socket mount so outta luck there. Also why do this? Basically makes the system unusable and very annoying to use.

It's because it is being used in my studio and it fully silent. I am also going to water cool my Ryzen 3600 PC in the same manner, and GPU, so the full room is fully silent when recording with microphones. 

5 minutes ago, ShrimpBrime said:

Without a pump, it would be a fast over heat.

I will use a pump, but just use a massive thermal mass instead of trying to dissipate all of that heat. A plastic tub is a lot cheaper than 2 radiators

6 minutes ago, ShrimpBrime said:

he would have heat soaked in 1 to 2 hours.

That would be perfect, I will only be using it for a few hours and if I need more time I can chuck some of the old water out and fill it with fresh water from a tap

 

17 minutes ago, jaslion said:

Also why do this? Basically makes the system unusable and very annoying to use

It's being used as more of a PC than a server

[Guest]

1 hour ago, RTX 3090 said:

It's because it is being used in my studio and it fully silent. I am also going to water cool my Ryzen 3600 PC in the same manner, and GPU, so the full room is fully silent when recording with microphones. 

I will use a pump, but just use a massive thermal mass instead of trying to dissipate all of that heat. A plastic tub is a lot cheaper than 2 radiators

That would be perfect, I will only be using it for a few hours and if I need more time I can chuck some of the old water out and fill it with fresh water from a tap

 

It's being used as more of a PC than a server

You'd be surprised how fast 200L of water can get hot. It's exponential. Very little will dissipate from the water surface, however you could use a fan to blow air onto the water. That might get you additional time before a complete heat soak, or perhaps get lucky and be able to dissipate enough heat to continuously run the system. Won't know till you try something I suppose. 

[RTX 3090]

7 hours ago, ShrimpBrime said:

You'd be surprised how fast 200L of water can get hot. It's exponential. Very little will dissipate from the water surface, however you could use a fan to blow air onto the water. That might get you additional time before a complete heat soak, or perhaps get lucky and be able to dissipate enough heat to continuously run the system. Won't know till you try something I suppose. 

Would the large surface area of the plastic not dissipate the heat. The T320 is pretty power efficient and takes around 25w with light work being run on it, and I am fine with the iGPU to save extra power. My main concern is just the mount for the waterblock

[--SID--]

9 hours ago, RTX 3090 said:

Does anybody know if it uses a standard mount

Measure the distance from the mountiung holes. The standard for s1356 is 80mm from hole to hole.

[Guest]

3 hours ago, RTX 3090 said:

Would the large surface area of the plastic not dissipate the heat. The T320 is pretty power efficient and takes around 25w with light work being run on it, and I am fine with the iGPU to save extra power. My main concern is just the mount for the waterblock

Plastic is an insulator. No, it will not dissipate any heat.

May have to fabricate a mount.

[jaslion]

17 hours ago, RTX 3090 said:

That would be perfect, I will only be using it for a few hours and if I need more time I can chuck some of the old water out and fill it with fresh water from a tap

This will kill your loop in mere months. There is a VERY good reason why distilled water is used, no mineral deposits that will clog up everything.

 

Legit just use a radiator with some arctic p12 fans set at like 600 rpm. My room is 19db at the lowest and my pc even when running full throttle DOES NOT make a dent in the noise level. I literally cannot hear it over the ambient noise which there is near none of.

 

Either way you CANNOT watercooler the t320 it is simply put not supported. It uses a different socket.

 

That 200w of water is going to heat up FAST. I have a aquarium that is 180l with a 100w heater and when setting it up it took 15 minutes to go from 11c water to 28c water. Mind you there was a lot of surface movement which helps with temperature exchange and there were plenty of cold rocks in there so that will have hampered the temps rising. Oh and you CANNOT leave the water open to the air as it will get filthy. You'll also develop algea with changing water unless you keep dosing anti bacterial agents. Also sitting water will start smelling awful if no bioactivity can take place. Your big bucket thing has been done before and it just does not work. Last time I saw someone try was with a fx 6100 and a bathtub full of water took 4 hours for it to get too hot if I remember it right and that was whilst playing minecraft.

 

Also the xeon doesn't have a igpu.

 

So tl'dr. Can't watercool the t320 due to different socket mount and your reservoir watercooling idea will not work.

[RTX 3090]

18 hours ago, jaslion said:

Also the xeon doesn't have a igpu.

Mine does, the motherboard has a matrox GPU built into it

[jaslion]

5 hours ago, RTX 3090 said:

Mine does, the motherboard has a matrox GPU built into it

That isn't a igpu that is a motherboard integrated gpu or well a dedicated gpu. Either way all the reasons stated here have basically told you not possible, bad idea, cumbersome, lots of work, will cost easily as much as just a normal loop,...

[RTX 3090]

2 hours ago, jaslion said:

That isn't a igpu that is a motherboard integrated gpu or well a dedicated gpu. Either way all the reasons stated here have basically told you not possible, bad idea, cumbersome, lots of work, will cost easily as much as just a normal loop,...

what if I got a used car radiator or something and pump it out of the room (as mentioned before noise is a concern). If I have all of the water going to the 100 liter reservoir (from the Dell T320, Ryzen 3600 and some other low power equipement) and then the radiator cooling the water from the reservoir. 

[jaslion]

1 minute ago, RTX 3090 said:

what if I got a used car radiator or something and pump it out of the room (as mentioned before noise is a concern). If I have all of the water going to the 100 liter reservoir (from the Dell T320, Ryzen 3600 and some other low power equipement) and then the radiator cooling the water from the reservoir. 

There is literally no point for such a big rad then. Or even a car radiator. Literally just get a 360mm rad and some arctic p series fans at min speed. No noise and good cooling. Not to mention a normal FUNCTIONAL loop.

 

Also once again. THE DELL IS NOT A STANDAR SOCKET WATERBLOCKS WILL NOT FIT.

[RTX 3090]

7 hours ago, jaslion said:

There is literally no point for such a big rad then. Or even a car radiator.

If I have 2 PC's and a few other peices of equipment it works out a lot cheaper to buy one car radiator, then to get a 360 rad for each PC, as each rad will cost me £30-35, each pump will cost £10-15 (inc reservoir), and it also gives the advntage where I can put it in another room or maybe even outside. I prefer passively cooling rather than low RPM fans as fans are also pretty expensive (I would need 3 fans for each rad which would work out to around an extra £30 (£5x6) for just two PC's. 

7 hours ago, jaslion said:

Also once again. THE DELL IS NOT A STANDAR SOCKET WATERBLOCKS WILL NOT FIT.

This was my main concern with the idea, I was hoping I would maybe be able to modify a existing waterblock by drilling holes in the correct area in the mount, or maybe 3D printing a bracket for it if someone has ever done something like this before

7 hours ago, jaslion said:

Literally just get a 360mm rad and some arctic p series fans at min speed.

I would still face the problem of the non standard socket

 

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/124613123353?hash=item1d03855d19:g:F88AAOSw3PJevCq4
This one looks like it has the correct mount and if not could i just drill holes in the correct location or 3D print a mount for some other sort of water block. 


https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/373503407394
Also this cooler here says its compatable with LGA 1356 which is my motherboards socket, has dell changed the mounting holes or is this just a rare socket with lower availability of coolers and water blocks. It says 775115011551156136 which I am translting to 775 1150 1155 1156 136 and I am assuming they have missed a digit for the last one

[jaslion]

14 hours ago, RTX 3090 said:

If I have 2 PC's and a few other peices of equipment it works out a lot cheaper to buy one car radiator, then to get a 360 rad for each PC, as each rad will cost me £30-35, each pump will cost £10-15 (inc reservoir), and it also gives the advntage where I can put it in another room or maybe even outside. I prefer passively cooling rather than low RPM fans as fans are also pretty expensive (I would need 3 fans for each rad which would work out to around an extra £30 (£5x6) for just two PC's. 

This was my main concern with the idea, I was hoping I would maybe be able to modify a existing waterblock by drilling holes in the correct area in the mount, or maybe 3D printing a bracket for it if someone has ever done something like this before

I would still face the problem of the non standard socket

 

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/124613123353?hash=item1d03855d19:g:F88AAOSw3PJevCq4
This one looks like it has the correct mount and if not could i just drill holes in the correct location or 3D print a mount for some other sort of water block. 


https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/373503407394
Also this cooler here says its compatable with LGA 1356 which is my motherboards socket, has dell changed the mounting holes or is this just a rare socket with lower availability of coolers and water blocks. It says 775115011551156136 which I am translting to 775 1150 1155 1156 136 and I am assuming they have missed a digit for the last one

A car radiator is over 100 pounds for a not crap one that can cool your system. So yeah it is at best just as expensive for a worse solution. Putting it outside is also just a bad idea. Also you will still have the noise of your gpu in the ryzen system none of the cooling fixes that. The amount of adapters will more than make up the additional cost in fans don't you doubt that.

 

Sure all blocks can work if you drill them enough.

 

As far as I know dell did it's own mounting points. It also normally tightens into the back of the case.

 

At this point literally put the computers in another room and run some cables. Will be cheaper.

[RTX 3090]

4 hours ago, jaslion said:

At this point literally put the computers in another room and run some cables. Will be cheaper.

Yes I think that may be the easiest solution, but then I dont have access to IO but I will figure a way around that

[RTX 3090]

4 hours ago, jaslion said:

A car radiator is over 100 pounds for a not crap one that can cool your system.

There are plenty of decent ones for £30-40 in the UK. Some even new

 

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/333974148411?hash=item4dc269153b:g:tGwAAOSw9OFghKYS

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/333936429825?epid=2253881055&hash=item4dc0298b01:g:rqYAAOSwqKRgXyiB

[jaslion]

3 minutes ago, RTX 3090 said:

There are plenty of decent ones for £30-40 in the UK. Some even new

 

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/333974148411?hash=item4dc269153b:g:tGwAAOSw9OFghKYS

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/333936429825?epid=2253881055&hash=item4dc0298b01:g:rqYAAOSwqKRgXyiB

Still the plubming to do it properly isn't cheap. These are also not at all easy to use and you will need a really strong pump or multiple. Also this is not a lot of surface area for passive cooling as these are not the same as pc rads.

[jaslion]

I want to add to this too. You need to make sure everything is made out of THE SAME metal. Otherwise you will have corrosion. Either way always add a anti corrosive no matter what.

 

Your proposed way of doing things is going to simply put cost you a lot in maintenance over time. Just move the systems to another room and call it quits.

 

As for no IO access. I doubt you'll ever need more than a usb port if you set things up right. All music stuff is normal permanently hooked up to a desktop system anyways. If you need ports get a hub they cost next to nothing for full featured ones.

[Ninemeister]

I recently upgraded a Dell T320 to a T420 dual CPU motherboard.

 

Do what I did. Just get a Noctua NH-D9DX i4 3U cooler, which fits underneath the factory cooling shroud, and enjoy the low temps.

 

Here's a snippet of my temps with two E5-2470 V2 with Noctua NH-D9DX i4 3U coolers and a Noctua NA-RC7 resistor inline with factory case fan to slow it way down (noise).

 

The overall result is a whisper quiet case that's a freakin powerhouse, with low temps!

 

Ambient: 21c. Idle

Proc#0: 31c, 31c, 30c, 30c, 30c, 30c, 30c, 30c, 31c, 26c

Proc#1: 30c, 25c, 27c, 29c, 35c, 34c, 28c, 34c, 29c, 28c

 

Ambient: 21c. 100% CPU load, 30min, Prime95.

Proc#0: 45c, 47c, 47c, 46c, 46c, 48c, 47c, 49c, 47c, 45c

Proc#1: 49c, 48c, 47c, 46c, 50c, 48c, 46c, 51c, 46c, 46c

 

[Ninemeister]

Link to a gallery I threw together real quick. Again i'd highly advise utilizing the factory cooling duct. With the rear case fan at low speed and each processor with it's own (quiet) fan, it's a darn efficient blow-thru setup. Cools the memory as well. By my previous CPU temps you can just barely tell which CPU is downstream of the other (heat removal from upstream processor). That speaks volumes for the level of airflow/efficiency at the low speeds.

For thermal paste I used Thermal Grizzly Kryonaut on the CPUs, southbridge an H310 Raid processor. When still just a T320 motherboard I lapped the original E5-2430 and factory heatsink. It made about 5deg difference in temps with that setup. I haven't lapped the new 2470 V2's or the Noctua coolers (already flat), but with the temps i'm getting, honestly i see no need to.

 

https://photos.app.goo.gl/nsdJJpS1e9ZnbLAQ8

[RTX 3090]

5 hours ago, Ninemeister said:

Link to a gallery I threw together real quick. Again i'd highly advise utilizing the factory cooling duct. With the rear case fan at low speed and each processor with it's own (quiet) fan, it's a darn efficient blow-thru setup. Cools the memory as well. By my previous CPU temps you can just barely tell which CPU is downstream of the other (heat removal from upstream processor). That speaks volumes for the level of airflow/efficiency at the low speeds.

For thermal paste I used Thermal Grizzly Kryonaut on the CPUs, southbridge an H310 Raid processor. When still just a T320 motherboard I lapped the original E5-2430 and factory heatsink. It made about 5deg difference in temps with that setup. I haven't lapped the new 2470 V2's or the Noctua coolers (already flat), but with the temps i'm getting, honestly i see no need to.

 

https://photos.app.goo.gl/nsdJJpS1e9ZnbLAQ8

WOW looks super clean

problem is a T420 motherboard is out of my budget

But my 8c16t CPU is more than capable, I think I may just get a noktua or other slient cooler for it.

thanks for advice

[Ninemeister]

On 5/31/2021 at 6:37 PM, RTX 3090 said:

WOW looks super clean

problem is a T420 motherboard is out of my budget

But my 8c16t CPU is more than capable, I think I may just get a noktua or other slient cooler for it.

thanks for advice

Thank you! I've since given everything a better cleaning. The one cooling shroud pic looked horrendous lol.

 

You'd be surprised! I found my T420 board for $150. It does add up though. $155 ea. for the E5-2470 V2's. $275 to upgrade from the 350w power supply to the dual failover 1100w psu's. $60 ea for heatsinks. $390 for 192gb ECC DDR3. That makes $1,245 invested. Thankfully I got the original T320 on a trade that ended up being free. Not bad I guess cost-wise for a home VM/screwaround server.

Keep a lookout for any E5-2470 V2's for the cheap. You'd notice a difference. 1.9-to-2.4ghz, 2 more cores, 5mb more L3, 25% better single core performance and about 50% better multi.

[RTX 3090]

11 hours ago, Ninemeister said:

You'd be surprised! I found my T420 board for $150. It does add up though. $155 ea. for the E5-2470 V2's. $275 to upgrade from the 350w power supply to the dual failover 1100w psu's. $60 ea for heatsinks. $390 for 192gb ECC DDR3. That makes $1,245 invested. Thankfully I got the original T320 on a trade that ended up being free. Not bad I guess cost-wise for a home VM/screwaround server.

Yeah, the costs quickly add up. I got my server with 4 core CPU and 32gb RAM for only £100 and threw a new 8 core V2 CPU in

11 hours ago, Ninemeister said:

Keep a lookout for any E5-2470 V2's for the cheap. You'd notice a difference. 1.9-to-2.4ghz, 2 more cores, 5mb more L3, 25% better single core performance and about 50% better multi.

Found one for £30, not sure weather it is a worthwhile upgrade since I already have 8 cores, is two more really going to make that much of a difference