Project: Ghetto water chiller cooled Dell dual core xeon server that can go below ambient that cant OC

[thekeemo]

Fixed post below:

@Mr.Meerkat @theninja35 @Stefan1024

UPDATE:

Mostly bad news

one of the cables on the LED board came out, I tried re-soldering it and my hand slipped ruining the LED.

Closer look at some of the parts

Here is the troublesome PCI-E slots.

The X8 is a physical x8 slot and the other one has things in it preventing normal use.

But that is not all. The Dell server motherboard is a non standard form factor meaning I cant use the below case. There is also no 120mm fan spots. The cooler mounting is non standard meaning I have to HOLD the waterblock down. There is also no USB header meaning I cant control the chiller. The rad is 3/8th not 1/4th meaning I cant use it either because I dont have that much 3/8th tubing.

above is an example of my "conversions"

below is it installed

Things are taking shape

And finally how it ended up

3 sizes of tubing

4 types of tubing

nothing held in place with screws velcro or zip ties

 

It doesnt end there the motherboard cant run off a single dimm slot unless it is 512mb (weird right) and worst of all (as the astute of you will have noticed) there is water on the motherboard as there was some water still inside the tubing and parts that I did not realize so I will wait a few days and see if it did any damage. Ill be honest. Not looking so good for this project. I will wait a few days and try to turn it on as is (with liquid in the loop) and add the two other sticks of ddr2 I lent to a friend in a couple of weeks when I get them back.

Click here for a link to something that is almost guaranteed to actually work and really cool

[KSores]

ghetto watercooling is like my favorite thing ever

[Mr.Meerkat]

Ghetto water cooling for the win  but holy sh** those tubes/fluid makes me cringe...they look disgusting...(sorry ) 

[thekeemo]

1 hour ago, Mr.Meerkat said:

Ghetto water cooling for the win  but holy sh** those tubes/fluid makes me cringe...they look disgusting...(sorry ) 

They were cIear!

 

[Mr.Meerkat]

3 minutes ago, thekeemo said:

They were cIear!

 

hehe...you using coffee as the coolant? 

[thekeemo]

1 minute ago, Mr.Meerkat said:

hehe...you using coffee as the coolant? 

Maybe the guy I bought it off did..

[Mr.Meerkat]

1 minute ago, thekeemo said:

Maybe the guy I bought it off did..

 I'm sad that the watercooling gear I have isn't here in Britain...they're all stored in my room in the apartment we have in Beijing  

[thekeemo]

3 minutes ago, Mr.Meerkat said:

 I'm sad that the watercooling gear I have isn't here in Britain...they're all stored in my room in the apartment we have in Beijing  

To be fair this tubing is all at least 8 years old if not more

[Mr.Meerkat]

2 minutes ago, thekeemo said:

To be fair this tubing is all at least 8 years old if not more

Fair enough  I guess I shouldn't be surprised at the colour of the tubing then ...

Damn, I forgot to download windows just in case switching motherboards turns out to be disastrous...and my PSU is finally going to be here (15 mins according the the tracking) so expect hardly any posts today while I get my computer rebuilt  

[thekeemo]

hrrm http://www.kijiji.ca/v-computer-components/calgary/dell-dimentsion-9150-motherboard-with-intel-pentium-d-3-0g-cpu/1166069128?enableSearchNavigationFlag=true

[v-raze]

5 hours ago, thekeemo said:

hrrm http://www.kijiji.ca/v-computer-components/calgary/dell-dimentsion-9150-motherboard-with-intel-pentium-d-3-0g-cpu/1166069128?enableSearchNavigationFlag=true

Not bad, looks like they might even leave the RAM in it based on the picture. Have you tried booting the one you've got yet?

[thekeemo]

1 minute ago, v-raze said:

Not bad, looks like they might even leave the RAM in it based on the picture. Have you tried booting the one you've got yet?

Giving it one more day just in case. Im worried that it also uses non standard stuff.

[v-raze]

2 minutes ago, thekeemo said:

Giving it one more day just in case. Im worried that it also uses non standard stuff.

The Dimension 9150 board? That's out of a desktop, I have a very similar Dimension E510 tower with pentium processor and all. Main difference with that lineup is the motherboards are all BTX, but other than that they're standard consumer mobos. The PCI-E slot is a normal 16x, but IIRC can only supply a limited wattage through the slot (think it was 25 or 35W?), so you would want a GPU with external power if you were to use one. You shouldn't need any specific RAM or anything though.

[thekeemo]

1 minute ago, v-raze said:

The Dimension 9150 board? That's out of a desktop, I have a very similar Dimension E510 tower with pentium processor and all. Main difference with that lineup is the motherboards are all BTX, but other than that they're standard consumer mobos. The PCI-E slot is a normal 16x, but IIRC can only supply a limited wattage through the slot (think it was 25 or 35W?), so you would want a GPU with external power if you were to use one. You shouldn't need any specific RAM or anything though.

Not that. Look at the CPU socket it is at an angle meaning clearance is a possible issue.

[v-raze]

1 minute ago, thekeemo said:

Not that. Look at the CPU socket it is at an angle meaning clearance is a possible issue.

Yes, it's at an angle, which is standard for the BTX format. I meant to mention that specifically, sorry. The mounting holes are probably the same as the one you've currently got.

[thekeemo]

12 minutes ago, v-raze said:

Yes, it's at an angle, which is standard for the BTX format. I meant to mention that specifically, sorry. The mounting holes are probably the same as the one you've currently got.

The on I currently have is HUGE compared to normal 775

 

edit: BTX is ~130mm x 110mm standard 775 is 72mm x 72mm

[thekeemo]

Update coming sometime today

[v-raze]

2 minutes ago, thekeemo said:

Update coming sometime today

Looking forward to it!

[thekeemo]

Whats this? A (half) decent photo? Don't get used to it.

[theninja35]

That's quite the update. I need a TL:DR for that one.

[thekeemo]

1 minute ago, theninja35 said:

That's quite the update. I need a TL:DR for that one.

nah bigger update coming

let the liquid.. FLOW!!!!!

[thekeemo]

UPDATE 2:

Well it happened again..

(photos are uploading)

 

After adding the ram I added 8 year old noname paste

I got it all setup

And then water spilled when I was filling up the res  alot more than last time

 

next update monday I guess..

[thekeemo]

Mini update: the cause of the leak was NOT filling the red and some of it leaking. It was the water block (not the ghetto adapters either) but the actual g4 maybe its NPT? I'll try putting some string around the threads.

[thekeemo]

GOOD NEWS

the LEDs are not dead as I had assumed (need to hot glue them back on though)

the leaks have been dealt with

Found a copy of the software

(connected to my main system but the actual loop is just on its own)

And I got all but the fan noise gone.. tempted to get a noctua just for this..

 

EDIT: at 40% turns out the noise I was hearing was all from the PSU!!

[thekeemo]

The final update..

System boots so no water damage BUT dell decided that it needs ecc memory to work... So here is a picture dump