Travel PC cooler

[Vilacom]

I'm going to be building a threadripper system that will be traveling with me on airplanes a couple times a year, obviously it will have to be checked.  I'll be removing the GPU when flying but I am wondering about the CPU cooler, a large air cooler kind of worries be as if it gets bumped around a lot I'm worried about it pulling or snapping a bolt and bouncing around in the case, so I'm leaning towards water cooling the CPU and just draining the loop each time I fly(5-6 times per year)

Does anyone have any experience with this use case, are there any negative effects draining a loop that frequently?

 

[RageTester]

Have you thought about accessing server remotely? Might not have to build your own even. It's hard for me to imagine a use case that requires dragging a server along...

[Somerandomtechyboi]

8 minutes ago, RageTester said:

Have you thought about accessing server remotely? Might not have to build your own even. It's hard for me to imagine a use case that requires dragging a server along...

Yea i think remote access is the way to go here, unless you are going to destinations where theres no service/mobile data or wifi/lan then i dont really see why youd need to haul a threadripper system along with you

 

Maybe just use a laptop and have it remote access your threadripper rig so the laptop acts like a thin client while the threadripper rig does all the heavy lifting

 

consider amd epyc instead of tr as cpus like the 7742 can be had for relatively "cheap" on ebay, heck if you get one of those oem qs samples with 04 at the end of the cpu number then you can do some bios modding and overclock the cpu, though prob uneccesary. Best i could find is this

 

 

Btw what budget do you have? Country? What will you use it for? Partslist (if you have one)? Existing pc parts?

[Vilacom]

33 minutes ago, Somerandomtechyboi said:

Yea i think remote access is the way to go here, unless you are going to destinations where theres no service/mobile data or wifi/lan then i dont really see why youd need to haul a threadripper system along with you

 

Maybe just use a laptop and have it remote access your threadripper rig so the laptop acts like a thin client while the threadripper rig does all the heavy lifting

 

consider amd epyc instead of tr as cpus like the 7742 can be had for relatively "cheap" on ebay, heck if you get one of those oem qs samples with 04 at the end of the cpu number then you can do some bios modding and overclock the cpu, though prob uneccesary. Best i could find is this

 

33 minutes ago, Somerandomtechyboi said:

Btw what budget do you have? Country? What will you use it for? Partslist (if you have one)? Existing pc parts?

The machine is for an extremely heavy stream load, 6 simultaneous OBS instances streaming two recording five, three HDMI inputs on a PCI capture card, and multiple pieces of software to support the streams.

Budget is $10,000, completely new build but planning on a 32 core threadripper, united states, no current parts

[Molot]

Draining loop is not a danger on its own, but you would have to re-check or even rebuild your loop after each and every inspection, because TSA guys are known for things like not closing the lid of the urn with grandfather's ashes after inspection. I wouldn't expect your PC getting more careful treatment. Thus, you can't assume your loop to be in a good working order. And if there's any residual liquid left in the loop, be prepared to find it on your motherboard etc.

[Vilacom]

21 minutes ago, Molot said:

Draining loop is not a danger on its own, but you would have to re-check or even rebuild your loop after each and every inspection, because TSA guys are known for things like not closing the lid of the urn with grandfather's ashes after inspection. I wouldn't expect your PC getting more careful treatment. Thus, you can't assume your loop to be in a good working order. And if there's any residual liquid left in the loop, be prepared to find it on your motherboard etc.

Is there a good way to ensure the loop is completely drained?

 

[Mattias Edeslatt]

I would say the KISS-rule apply here.

 

As you are going to remove the GPU, remove the air-cooler and take that in the luggage to. Reapply thermal paste is way more easy then draining and refilling a full loop. 

 

Custom-builders that make complete systems stuff the case with foamy material to prevent accidents to happen. But the question is if you trust that in will be properly placed again after an inspection. 

[Vilacom]

52 minutes ago, Mattias Edeslatt said:

I would say the KISS-rule apply here.

 

As you are going to remove the GPU, remove the air-cooler and take that in the luggage to. Reapply thermal paste is way more easy then draining and refilling a full loop. 

 

Custom-builders that make complete systems stuff the case with foamy material to prevent accidents to happen. But the question is if you trust that in will be properly placed again after an inspection. 

Yeah I considered re applying thermal paste and the cooler each time but..i dunno I guess i trust myself to drain and fill a loop more than I trust myself to re apply thermal paste 12 times a year.