Ok you water cooling guru's I need help
I have a TWO dually AMD servers in a 7 foot tall rack system witha glass front door etc..
I am thinking about building a water cooling system to cool BOTH rack mount servers and must be EXTREMELY fault tolerant and able to cool all four cpus obviously. Size within reason is not an issue. I can run multiple large radiaters/fans etc.. I would rather have one large reservoir.
But dependability and fault tolerance is a must here. These systems run 24/7. So mulitiple pumps as well as some way to sense a drop in flow preasure to knock these systems down for pump failures is a must.
Has anyone ever seen a very large system like this? Most the water cooled systems I have seen are used when an operator is at the console but these are run 24/7 365 so they must be very dependable and have backup pumps online etc..
Tex
I am thinking about building a water cooling system to cool BOTH rack mount servers and must be EXTREMELY fault tolerant and able to cool all four cpus obviously. Size within reason is not an issue. I can run multiple large radiaters/fans etc.. I would rather have one large reservoir.
But dependability and fault tolerance is a must here. These systems run 24/7. So mulitiple pumps as well as some way to sense a drop in flow preasure to knock these systems down for pump failures is a must.
Has anyone ever seen a very large system like this? Most the water cooled systems I have seen are used when an operator is at the console but these are run 24/7 365 so they must be very dependable and have backup pumps online etc..
Tex
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Comments
If tank is lowest point in system, water level in tank will rise when less water is being forced through pumps-- so, a water level switch might be used if it could be mounted in the supply tank.
The second idea is a tib nebulous, depends on your circuitry skills-- but basicly, if a switch could be rigged that was triggered by a circuit sensing very great increase in draw in pump power circuit (which would happen when bearings went, and should happen just before a cutoff due to pump failure unless the pump shaft breaks and it cuts off with internal safety cutoff) and which then cut over to the second pump, that would do what you want if you had a water level circuit also.
You could use a thermally activated switch which probed the water output line from pump to kill things if the pump water gets radically overheated. (If pump loses bearings, or otherwise fails due to friction, water temp will go up as it absorbs heat from hot pump parts).
Any ways to make a digitaldoc5 type circuit work to shut down computers based on computer internal temps???
Excellent ideas
Never thought to try, you'd have to create a circuit interface to send something to windows through the serial or USB, probably imitating a UPS signal... too much work IMO. You're first idea was probably best, just cut power to everything should the water level rise too much rather than deal with having to create curcuit board switches and such (the easier solution is usually the most practical
I have some watercooling experience (decided to go back to air for cost). If you're only looking to have a decent cooling setup with less nosie, then a single, high output pump should do, use 1/2" tubing and use the best quick connects you can find. The reservoir should be at least a gallon with that many processors, and leave enough in case the pump fails and the systems shut down, the water has somewhere to fall back into (some will remain in the lines, but a percentage will fall back into the res.
As for radiator, get dual car heater cores. May need to use some jb weld to mount some 1/2" barbs (unless you know someone who welds for cheap), but that stuff holds real well. Run a pair of stealth 120mm through each of them... mounting the fans is your problem
You probably won't get great temps with this setup, but it will run them year round as good as air cooling with a lot less noise. If you're looking to supercool then watercooling is NOT the ay to go.
Here's my only H2O claim to fame, a ghetto mod...
http://www.overclockers.com/tips1067/
Kevin
The only way I know to have hoses handle the pressure from two pumps is to use something like Tygon milspec pressure tubing, and that is a real pain to pay for if you have longer runs as one would have for a RACK closet cooler. Once you paid for all that WC gear, you could pay for a small AC unit for the closet or rack case and just air cool.This is one reason why APC now has rack temp conditioners available which are very baby-scaled HVAC systems.
I could have MBM5 shut them down using shutdown now but I saw a flow meter thing before that would shut down the computer if the pump wasnt running. Just don't know where to get the sucker?
Tex
http://www.frozencpu.com/cgi-bin/frozencpu/ex-flo-02.html
Tex
Only thing I know that would take anywhere near that draw through it (which it would need to absent a bunch of circuitry and\or software) and accomplish this is an external sump pump switch physically turned upside down and used with a float rod so if water is not getting pumped out of tank fast enough and rises the circuit would open instead of close(the switch gets mounted bottom up, float rod is mounted in a way that makes it push up to turn switch off when water level rises). The switches can be purchased at hardware stores, Lowes, and Home Depot. Reverse a flood control switch, turn computers off instead of pump on. Get or look at in a store a lever actuated switch for a 5-8 HP sump pump which is float activated(they use a rod run through the lever with stops on rod to trigger lever movement by rod movement as rod is forced to move up and down based on float position relative to switch), look at its wattage rating.
I do not know of a good way to pass the power needed for two blades plus other gear through a flow sense switch, they usually are not able to take the wattage flow for what you want to do. Then you would need something else to act on the sensor results to shut off a circuit. The shutoff would need to be between the UPS and the computers(or they will stay on uncooled until the UPS drains its battery and dies)-- thus a 110 compatible switch. Can you give us an idea of the total amperage your equipment draws-- or the UPS wattage rating, for the input side????
I do know that this kind of switch does this, worked for a hardware store chain for 13 years-- and had to reassmeble improperly assembled sump pumps that ran when water got low and stopped when sump filled up as someone had stuck switch on pump shaft bracket UPSIDE DOWN. In this case you want lack of water being pumped up out of tank to trigger a shutoff of gear that draws heaps of power.
If you used one right side up set for slightly lower water level than the upside down one, you would then have a cutin if a second pump were wired to the switch triggered. If power dropped to both, water would rise and upside down switch would chop power from UPS to computers.
You can build a hydrostatic control system based on NEGATIVE pressure activation, but it would be a lot more expensive than this way.