1st WC project - Dual Xeon - any rad/loop advice appreciated - Overclock.net

pharaohspaw · 08-09-08

Hello,

I'm new to the forums, and glad to be here.

I'm about to start my first watercooling project. I've been doing a lot of reading, but do have a couple questions regarding radiator and loop setup since this is a little complex. I apologize in advance for such a long post but I know people need decent information to give a decent answer. Any advice from the gurus would definitely be appreciated.

This will be a completely watercooled machine - processors, RAM, video, and NB/SB.

THE MACHINE
The rig is a Tyan S5396 i5400XT dual Xeon motherboard, with the Intel 5400 Northbridge and 6321ESB Southbridge, running a pair of Harpertown Quad-Core E5450's. Similar to a Skulltrail but not quite as sexy - it does suffer from being laid out like a typical server board. Here's a mfgr pic of the board:

(note, the small chip and HS below and left of SB is a SAS controller but I didn't buy the SAS model)

Case - Coolermaster Stacker 830 Evolution

RAM - 8GB (8x1GB) Kingston DDR2-667 FBDIMM RAM

Video - (1) BFG 8800GTX OC2E

COOLING BLOCKS

CPU Blocks Under Consideration
- D-Tek Fusion v2
- Swiftech Apogee GTX or GTZ - IF the "Xeon" bracket for either will clear adjacent components
- WaterCool HeatKiller rev2.5 w/Xeon plate
- (possibly) Aquacomputer Cuplex DI, Xeon G1/4

While there are other CPU blocks with Socket 771 Xeon support, space and clearance around the 771 sockets and nearby components are a factor that have forced me to rule out some blocks I would have otherwise been very interested in.

Video Block
- EK FC-8800 full-cover waterblock for G80-series

RAM Cooler
- (2x) MIPS RAM Freezer 4

FBDIMM's run VERY hot at stock speeds -- so watercooling my RAM is out of necessity, not vanity.

NB/SB Blocks Under Consideration
- XSPC Delta
- Koolance CHC-122 for NB, Koolance CHC-125 for SB

The location of both NB and SB chips severely limit my options (see pic). Also, both NB and SB sinks attach to the board via 2 diagonal-opposed spring clip hooks. So I'm probably going to have to limit my choices of NB/SB blocks to those which are round in shape, and which have "keeper" grooves on the block top to help hold the spring clip in place. I'm pretty seriously considering using the Koolance CHC-125 on the SB.

I've read about Koolance and the non-stellar reputation their older products have, but Koolance tells me there is no aluminum on either of these chipset block models.

THE QUESTIONS

The plan is to use 1/2 hose throughout, or 7/16 for tigher fit on 1/2 fittings.

Radiator(s)
I understand that with the amount of heat I'm dealing with, I'm going to need some fairly hefty heat exchange capacity (and will be looking at the calculators). I'm most interested in a rad setup that works well with low-to-medium fan speeds, and would rather have too much radiator capacity than not enough.

The plan is to build an external rad/pump/fan box. I don't want to impose limits on myself by only doing things I can fit inside or attach to the outside of the Stacker 830.

So I seem to have two main options:

1) One VERY large radiator (9x120) that all loops merge and run through, with several fans. It would also make a nice bottom for the external rad/pump/fan box.

2) Multiple smaller radiators (2 or 3 3x120mm for example) - either one per separate loop, or all loops merged and run through radiators looped together in series.

Radiator Brands
From my reading, I've ruled out Black Ice GTX's due to the higher fin density and thus higher required fan speeds, and ruled out the Thermochills due to bad packaging and resulting dings, bad painting, and needing a lot of cleanout before you can use them.

So I'm considering the following rads:

- (2) TFC/Feser 4x120's or (2-3) TFC/Feser 3x120's

- (1) Watercool MO-RA 2 Pro with addon 9-fan shroud

Here's a couple of pics of the MO-RA 2 Pro:

I can see this is the type of radiator that has lots of tubes making 180 turns on the ends (which has been spoken poorly of by some), but they also say it is a low restriction setup specifically designed for passive cooling. I will be using fans though.

Code:

Technical data:
Material: copper pipes, aluminum slats
External dimensions (length x wxh): 424 x 385 x 54mm
Weight: about 2500g
Pressure Tested: 20 Bar
Surface: black-coated
Connection: 2x thread G 1 / 4 inch

No pressure drop data though, unfortunately.

Loop(s)
I'm basically looking at 2 cpu blocks, 2 memory blocks, 2 chipset blocks, and 1 (possibly 2 later) video card block.

I'm torn between having one giant series loop, running separate loops with separate rads (and separate pumps......), or using the MORA 2 rad with probably 2 pumps, and using splitters to separate the cooled water coming off the rad into separate cooled water feeds going to each of the groups.

I've also thought about further splitting the cooled feed for the two memory blocks and CPU's so each processor and each memory block gets freshly-cooled water, rather than putting them in series and having one processor and one memory block getting warmer water because they come after the previous ones in the loop. Is this reasonable or just a really bad idea?

I know folks generally recommend against using T-splitters because of the flow resistance they add, so I've thought about using Y-splitters instead where I can, if running parallel make sense at all, and also using Y-splitters to merge the returns before we go back to the rad(s).

Can running this many parallel loops work at all, or is this a recipe for disaster, like having one or more parallel loops getting hardly any flow because of resistance?

I've seen folks recommend just doing one big loop with all the blocks in series, and understand this would be best as far as flow is concerned -- but it seems like a bad idea for this rig as there are multiple high heat generators on the box. Do I stand much or any chance of the water in/water out temps being very close together if I put everything in one big series loop on this project?

One external rad box, multiple computers connected?
Admittedly, I am also considering building the external rad box and fitting the in/out so I can possibly tie my wife's machine into it also, should we decide to watercool her box at a later time. This is another reason I guess I am more partial to the idea of one very large radiator.

Does this make any logical sense at all?

Yay! The end of my babbling and silly questions!

Seriously, thanks in advance for any advice folks can offer.

PharaohsPaw

pharaohspaw · 08-09-08

Made a couple edits, typo errors fixed, etc.

PharaohsPaw

startekee · 08-09-08

That is one long post. you should pm syrillian, and some other wc gurus

pharaohspaw · 08-09-08

Nod, lemme see what I can chop out.

PharaohsPaw

Butterbum · 08-09-08

So, correct me if im wrong, but this would be a 8 core rig? And all 8 cores would register in windows? And it would run as you would expect? (Not be fail due to the fact its a server mobo?)

If so, i do believe i just came.

startekee · 08-09-08

wow. What case would you be using with this

pharaohspaw · 08-09-08

Alright, chopped some stuff out.

cuy50 · 08-09-08

Holy crap. Contact CyberDruid...He has a Skulltrail rig.

pharaohspaw · 08-09-08

Quote:

Originally Posted by Butterbum

So, correct me if im wrong, but this would be a 8 core rig? And all 8 cores would register in windows? And it would run as you would expect? (Not be fail due to the fact its a server mobo?)

If so, i do believe i just came.

*hands butterbum a napkin*

Yep its a dual Quadcore. All 8 cores register in Windows XP SP2 (x64 edition).

It runs pretty incredibly. My MPEG2 100% constant quality video encodes of 42 minute TV episodes dropped from 45-50 minutes per encode (with a 3.2GHz Prescott) down to just over 5 minutes (using TMPGEnc Xpress).

Tax rebates, work bonus, and selling my laptop and a few other things came together at just the right time to swing it all.

Only prob is, it runs pretty warm, as Xeons generally do. The Stacker 830 is full of fans (7x 120mm) plus 2x OCZ XTC RAM coolers, etc. but it just doesn't get rid of all the heat.

PharaohsPaw

pharaohspaw · 08-09-08

Yeah I've seen some really sweet looking/sounding Skulltrail watercooling projects out there, like DarthBeavis'. If I'd had ANY idea I was going to end up needing to watercool Pharaoh I would have probably got a Skulltrail mobo and one of those DD Tower 26 cases.

But it's OK, it'll work out alright. Just gotta figure out what kind of radiator(s) to go with and loop organization.

I'll get a couple of "pre-W/C" pics posted.

PharaohsPaw

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1st WC project - Dual Xeon - any rad/loop advice appreciated

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