I have a couple racks I plan to do this with as well. there are 3 areas which i still have to work out details from. Since I hate 1u's except for a fattwin/blade usage Im putting my equipment in 2 and 4 u cases. frankenstining some dell 2650's and hp dl580's
I was hoping to cover memory as well as cpu/chipset. I plan to have a radiator in the crawl space for dumping the heat.
Hi Kendrick,
The main server I have is the Dell C6100, like many others who read here I suspect
, which is like a Fat Twin. The challenge with these is the lack of available space as the nodes have a 1U height and there is not a lot out there for 1U water cooling that is not 'call us for a quote' expensive
.
I finally bit the bullet and got a DL380 G6 and looking at the insides with the masses of space in its 2U chassis and the dual CPUs being next to each other, it is like a dream compared to trying to do the C6100 nodes but, if I am jumping in to this then may as well go both feet first and get the hard one out of the way so all the others will just be like a walk in the park...
1. swingarms/rail configurations. I have been looking in to making a couple brackets that attach to the swing arm for the hoses. I havent decided if im going to use swivel's or not. what were you thinking on that matter Im not sure i trust the tubing that much and it also makes for pinch points.
Yes, there would need to be enough space on the turn to allow the pipe to bend and not kink. Corrigated piping may help but it would mean the arm channels may need to be quite wide... unless there is a joint where the arm bends. I saw last night that Koolance does a 30Deg movable ball barb. Would not be perfect but may help. I am thinking of using these on the block so I can have an angled entry point. Alternatively, if the arm were made as a lower and upper part (rather then side by side) then a couple of swivel right angels could be used.
2. rack flow regulator presure/flow sensors. Im half way tempted to put a regulator on each branch possibly a fuel reg or some other dynamic flow control. that would allow me to limit pressure and rate by sensor rating. though may be stuck with just good ol pluming style valves. I would have to push the system to 100% set the flow rate to keep the temp to acceptable rates and run it on all servers that are liquid cooled at the same time to balance the flows for the different equipment loads.
Load may be variable so an automatic system would be prefered, but no doubt comes at a cost. I do have a concern when plumbing in more than one server of differing types that the flow though 1 server may be less constricted than another causing a higher flow rate and potentially starving other servers which have more difficult flow paths.
Flow regulation is probably well worth considering but for me this will be for a later date.
3. the auto shutoff also worries me. drip trays for lack of a better word would be about the only thing i can think of. maybe some 29 ga sheat metal with a light rubber coating at the bend to make a proper seal aginst the bottom of the case as it slides in to home position so that it would divert any liquid away from the back of the next pc. most cases are solid bottom and may have their first holes around 1/2 way up the case for the rails. back and front would be where it would leak out of possibly using some filter media for air conditioners to catch dust AND spray if it ever happens may be a way of dealing with it trying to go forwards. put a small rubber ridge just before the front fans so that the liquid doesnt try to go further forwards and a few drain holes in the back to the drip tray. since your setup looks to be a fattwin it wouldent work for you.
Koolance also do a leak detector, but it is fairly simple (wet contacts = red led and buzzer). A bit of hacking could probably wire it to a shutoff and dump valves.
As for the other stuff, it sort of turns it in to a very custom setup for each install. I am trying to make this as generic as possible (give or take custom waterblocks) so if someone else has an interest and gets in contact I can more easily provide a solution for them as well. This is early days though
. Most companies would rather not have their shiny new server drilled with holdes invalidating warranties (although watercooling them also probably has the same effect
).
Just looking at Koolances coolent flow rate meter, it can provide feedback like a fan. It could possibly be rigged to the server fan headers to allow for feedback and appropriate alarms to be set for warnings and shutdown should low pressure occur (ie, a leak). I would imagine the signal would have to be spit to the 4 fan headers for the C6100, in my case, with something worked in to the setup to take in to account the control wire to change fan speed. Maybe that could control a variable speed bpump built in to each branch off the main feed but that could get expensive and calibrating the pump speeds would be tricky.
hydro electric shutoffs are expensive I may look in to what it would take to make one. I have been thinking of looking in to beer/soda accesories as they may by less expeinsive since they are rated for fluid even though its high pressure. some hydroponics stuff may also work.
There is an aquarium shutoff valve here which may be good to take a look at. Thing is that it opens when energised which may be the wrong way round and also wastes power just to keep it open. May be interesting to look at and reverse engineer.
Far too much to do for me to do that at this point though.
RB