5 ms·

Don’t Eat Too Much Three Bean Salad. The Server Will Crash.

100 points by AdamGibbins 15y ago

marshray 15y ago
It looks like the Linux penguin guy has a catheter.
ORioN63 15y ago
This is actually pretty cool. Makes me think of the potato powered server posted a few months ago.
lsb 15y ago
Water cooling feels like brute force. Why not give it plenty of air, and have the apparatus underclock itself enough until it's within a designated temperature envelope?
- shabble 15y ago
  It's exactly brute force. And the why of it is simple: performance. There's an upper limit on the heat dissipation capability of a directly mounted heatsink, no matter how much air you throw at it. Water has a much greater heat capacity, and hence is better at removing heat from your {C,G}PUs. In addition, the relatively lesser amount of water needed for the same cooling capacity makes it much quieter. Many people water-cool purely to build a 'silent' PC. The next step up is thermioelectric (Peltier effect) assisted water-cooling, followed by phase-change refrigeration (same principles as household refrigerator). The upper limit is probably(?) open-loop evaporation of cryogenic liquified gases like nitrogen, but that's mostly a gimmick for overclocking contests.
  - Dylan16807 15y ago
    It's a file server and firewall, what does it need high-clocked CPUs for? Stick a big heat sink on it and you can go with no fan or a silent fan.
    - yock 15y ago
      Well, for one, dust. There's a strong case against mounting the electronics on a piece of wood and hanging it on the wall in open air, but if the builder is oddly inflexible on that point then liquid-cooling is probably the most practical way to avoid the daily-or-more-often process of removing dust and debris.
      - adrianN 15y ago
        I don't know about your place, but in a typical home dust buildup shouldn't be a problem for a long time.
jpiasetz 15y ago
This reminds me of the saying "just because you can do something, doesn't mean you should", on the other hand it's a cool hack.
DHowett 15y ago
I can't tell if this is brilliant or terrifying.
- switz 15y ago
  Why can't it be both?
schwap 15y ago
The system goes into the toilet tank, which is separate from whatever may happen in the bowl and contains clean tap water (which still isn't the best idea for watercooling).
- sciurus 15y ago
  It goes through the toilet tank for heat exchange. I don't think it actually draws water from it.
- darklajid 15y ago
  If you put the emphasis like that to counter the bean 'joke': I think the point was that if you flush (or - repeatedly flush) your cooling reservoir is empty now for a short while. Funny? Not really.
fsckin 15y ago
Novelty aside, tap water will slowly corrode the water block and cause a catastrophic failure long before a more conventional cooling method would fail. Toilet tanks aren't known for being algae free, and treating it would be difficult, if not impossible. Please don't do this.
bryogenic 15y ago
The toilet water is just being used as a heat exchanger. The liquid cooling system is an isolated system. See here: http://www.clearfoundation.com/Community/Photos/Faucon/37/Photo.html#photoid=152 http://www.clearfoundation.com/Community/Photos/Faucon/37/Ph...
- epaik 15y ago
  Thank you. This makes infinite more sense than the original post.
- arthurbrown 15y ago
  Are you sure? In that picture it specifically looks like only one hose end is attached to the pump while the other is dangling and emptying out into the tank. edit: They've even zip tied it to that PVC to keep it from coming loose, which wouldn't be an issue if it was in fact attached to the pump.
  - pmjordan 15y ago
    The cable tie is presumably so it doesn't shift when the cistern empties and refills when flushing.
sp332 15y ago
If you like the idea of computers-as-art, Darren Kitchen over at Hak.5 made a pretty cool server inside an IKEA picture frame, and kept it on the back wall of the set all last season. Part one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oIeKnB_5u2U&time=18m50s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oIeKnB_5u2U&time=18m50s Part two: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z2lHc_MFIZs&t=15m30s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z2lHc_MFIZs&t=15m30s
neuroelectronic 15y ago
Whay
shabble 15y ago
If you want to take it one step further, http://www.dwpg.com/content.php?contid=3&artid=57&orgartid=57 http://www.dwpg.com/content.php?contid=3&artid=57&or... is a thread by a guy using a buried water tank as a sink for his watercooling setup (Interesting pics start around here: http://www.dwpg.com/content.php?contid=3&artid=77&orgartid=57 http://www.dwpg.com/content.php?contid=3&artid=77&or...)
jvoorhis 15y ago
Looks like the SA was taking the piss...
StavrosK 15y ago
Why don't people know how toilets work? The water comes from the cistern (and it appears that it's only even used for heat exchange). The article author mentions how "the murky water creeps [him] out" and then links to a photo of a tube with completely clean water. The cistern contains drinkable water. Sure, it's not clean enough to drink out of, but it's tap water. It's not where the poo goes. The water is not murky, it's tap water.

100 points by AdamGibbins 15y ago

marshray 15y ago

It looks like the Linux penguin guy has a catheter.

ORioN63 15y ago

This is actually pretty cool. Makes me think of the potato powered server posted a few months ago.

lsb 15y ago

Water cooling feels like brute force. Why not give it plenty of air, and have the apparatus underclock itself enough until it's within a designated temperature envelope?

shabble 15y ago
It's exactly brute force. And the why of it is simple: performance. There's an upper limit on the heat dissipation capability of a directly mounted heatsink, no matter how much air you throw at it. Water has a much greater heat capacity, and hence is better at removing heat from your {C,G}PUs. In addition, the relatively lesser amount of water needed for the same cooling capacity makes it much quieter. Many people water-cool purely to build a 'silent' PC. The next step up is thermioelectric (Peltier effect) assisted water-cooling, followed by phase-change refrigeration (same principles as household refrigerator). The upper limit is probably(?) open-loop evaporation of cryogenic liquified gases like nitrogen, but that's mostly a gimmick for overclocking contests.
- Dylan16807 15y ago
  It's a file server and firewall, what does it need high-clocked CPUs for? Stick a big heat sink on it and you can go with no fan or a silent fan.
  - yock 15y ago
    Well, for one, dust. There's a strong case against mounting the electronics on a piece of wood and hanging it on the wall in open air, but if the builder is oddly inflexible on that point then liquid-cooling is probably the most practical way to avoid the daily-or-more-often process of removing dust and debris.
    - adrianN 15y ago
      I don't know about your place, but in a typical home dust buildup shouldn't be a problem for a long time.

jpiasetz 15y ago

This reminds me of the saying "just because you can do something, doesn't mean you should", on the other hand it's a cool hack.

DHowett 15y ago

I can't tell if this is brilliant or terrifying.

switz 15y ago
Why can't it be both?

schwap 15y ago

The system goes into the toilet tank, which is separate from whatever may happen in the bowl and contains clean tap water (which still isn't the best idea for watercooling).

sciurus 15y ago
It goes through the toilet tank for heat exchange. I don't think it actually draws water from it.
darklajid 15y ago
If you put the emphasis like that to counter the bean 'joke': I think the point was that if you flush (or - repeatedly flush) your cooling reservoir is empty now for a short while. Funny? Not really.

fsckin 15y ago

Novelty aside, tap water will slowly corrode the water block and cause a catastrophic failure long before a more conventional cooling method would fail. Toilet tanks aren't known for being algae free, and treating it would be difficult, if not impossible. Please don't do this.

bryogenic 15y ago

The toilet water is just being used as a heat exchanger. The liquid cooling system is an isolated system. See here: http://www.clearfoundation.com/Community/Photos/Faucon/37/Photo.html#photoid=152 http://www.clearfoundation.com/Community/Photos/Faucon/37/Ph...

epaik 15y ago
Thank you. This makes infinite more sense than the original post.
arthurbrown 15y ago
Are you sure? In that picture it specifically looks like only one hose end is attached to the pump while the other is dangling and emptying out into the tank. edit: They've even zip tied it to that PVC to keep it from coming loose, which wouldn't be an issue if it was in fact attached to the pump.
- pmjordan 15y ago
  The cable tie is presumably so it doesn't shift when the cistern empties and refills when flushing.

sp332 15y ago

If you like the idea of computers-as-art, Darren Kitchen over at Hak.5 made a pretty cool server inside an IKEA picture frame, and kept it on the back wall of the set all last season. Part one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oIeKnB_5u2U&time=18m50s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oIeKnB_5u2U&time=18m50s Part two: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z2lHc_MFIZs&t=15m30s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z2lHc_MFIZs&t=15m30s

neuroelectronic 15y ago

Whay

shabble 15y ago

If you want to take it one step further, http://www.dwpg.com/content.php?contid=3&artid=57&orgartid=57 http://www.dwpg.com/content.php?contid=3&artid=57&or... is a thread by a guy using a buried water tank as a sink for his watercooling setup (Interesting pics start around here: http://www.dwpg.com/content.php?contid=3&artid=77&orgartid=57 http://www.dwpg.com/content.php?contid=3&artid=77&or...)

jvoorhis 15y ago

Looks like the SA was taking the piss...

StavrosK 15y ago

Why don't people know how toilets work? The water comes from the cistern (and it appears that it's only even used for heat exchange). The article author mentions how "the murky water creeps [him] out" and then links to a photo of a tube with completely clean water. The cistern contains drinkable water. Sure, it's not clean enough to drink out of, but it's tap water. It's not where the poo goes. The water is not murky, it's tap water.