watercooled media server rig

[youri377]

hi all,

 

i'm want to build a custom PC for running video server software for large LED walls and projections (the one's you see at large concerts, festivals, etc). this system is going to get abused quite a bit, the whole thing will have to fit inside a 3unit 19 inch server case which will be inside a road/flight case for transport. during transport the case will be tipped on it's back which means the pc will be facing rear io to the floor. during use and in a worst case scenario it will be out in a field in direct sunlight running 12hours non-stop. compared to a regular desktop this thing is going to have a though life.

 

since i'm going to need something like a i7 8700 and a gtx 1080 to run my software smoothly and the case will only have air in/out at the front and back cooling is probably going to be an issue, therefore i think water cooling is going to be by best option. unfortunately i have no experience with custom loops etc so i'm looking at some kind of all-in-one solution and the EK phoenix products seem like a perfect match. my only worry is, will an AIO cooler like this survive the abuse of the road? has anyone got experience with this cooler and would you trust it in the conditions described above? 

 

any other tips and recommendations are welcome as well.

[factorialandha]

get it a nice sun umbrella and you should be fine, however without putting it through a test of outdoors in direct sunlight, you arent really going to know what the cooling will be like, most coolers are not designed to be used in such circumstances. 

 

The ambient temperature outside is 100 degrees then your cooler will have to work a lot harder to keep things cool enough. You also have to worry about other parts that might get hot and not necessarily be water cooled. Resistors and other chips on the board, RAM that could over heat, Hard Drives / Graphics cards (if they arent water cooled) that could over heat. 

 

So theres a lot more to this than just buying a couple of AIO coolers, if adequate air cooling isnt provided to other parts of the system that might require it. 

 

Someone else might be able to advise better as i am by far no expert.

[AngryBeaver]

If you plan on having this thing fly with you, then chances are water cooling is not going to be a good idea. All of those bumps and in the case of flying possibly freezing temps in the cargo of the plane is going to cause loop failures. You could use a antifreeze type solution, but then you hurt the amount of heat your liquid can absorb and also add issues with interaction with your tubing/blocks.

 

So this isn't to say it can't be done, but if temps are going to be high regardless then air and water are both going to struggle. Your water temp will never be lower than ambient so it doesn't have any huge advantages in this scenario.

[Thermosman]

Watercooling is the last thing you want in this use case. Watercooling even aios arent durable. You want an air cooler, perhaps a noctua cooler.

You also want very high rpm fans perhaps the 11000 rpm ones that ltt did a video on to give adequate airflow even in high temperatures

Lastly a quadro card may be good for your use case as they have up to 8 minidisplayports

[youri377]

5 minutes ago, AngryBeaver said:

If you plan on having this thing fly with you, then chances are water cooling is not going to be a good idea. All of those bumps and in the case of flying possibly freezing temps in the cargo of the plane is going to cause loop failures. You could use a antifreeze type solution, but then you hurt the amount of heat your liquid can absorb and also add issues with interaction with your tubing/blocks.

 

So this isn't to say it can't be done, but if temps are going to be high regardless then air and water are both going to struggle. Your water temp will never be lower than ambient so it doesn't have any huge advantages in this scenario.

it won't fly(flight case is just what we call these things). i get that i'll never get temps below ambient but the biggest advantage of water over air is that i can place my radiator to get optimal airflow, i can't do that with a aircooler mounted to the mobo.

[AngryBeaver]

 

2 minutes ago, youri377 said:

it won't fly(flight case is just what we call these things). i get that i'll never get temps below ambient but the biggest advantage of water over air is that i can place my radiator to get optimal airflow, i can't do that with a aircooler mounted to the mobo.

You could just place put case fans at different points to insure you are moving plenty of air through it. Depending on if you are willing to mod.. you could just add a couple larger fans and turn it into a nice little wind tunnel. 

[Thermosman]

1 minute ago, youri377 said:

it won't fly(flight case is just what we call these things). i get that i'll never get temps below ambient but the biggest advantage of water over air is that i can place my radiator to get optimal airflow, i can't do that with a aircooler mounted to the mobo.

Then it may be practical but will the cpu be under constant load? Also what about gpu temps

[Thermosman]

You could get delta pfr0912xhe fans and server heatsinks but it would sound like a jet engine

[youri377]

12 minutes ago, AngryBeaver said:

 

You could just place put case fans at different points to insure you are moving plenty of air through it. Depending on if you are willing to mod.. you could just add a couple larger fans and turn it into a nice little wind tunnel. 

might try the wind tunnel first, if it works i could save a buck. 

[Thermosman]

1 minute ago, youri377 said:

might try the wind tunnel first, if it works i could save a buck. 

Do you have a specific server rack case in mind?

[knightslugger]

52 minutes ago, youri377 said:

i'm want to build a custom PC for running video server software for large LED walls and projections (the one's you see at large concerts, festivals, etc)

I'm in the digital billboard business... and you really have me curious as to why in god's name you'd need that much power to drive a simple billboard picture...

[Thermosman]

look at the quadro nvs 810, its made specifically for your application, has 8 mini displayport