cooling computers and heating water / thermal store??

[Agile]

CPUs generate a lot of heat!

This needs to be removed quickly and efficiently. I don't see how immersing in oil would ever remove much heat unless the oil was pumped at high velocity.

Traditionally by fast moving fanned air although I think that Peltier effect heat pumps have also been used to transfer the heat to liquids.

Tony

 

[oilboffin]

It may seem a long shot but given the fact that heat rises maybe a small air source heat pump above the comps may work if there's 5kw of heat to scavenge it's not to be sniffed at. Only a thought

 

[miless2111s]

CPUs generate a lot of heat!

This needs to be removed quickly and efficiently. I don't see how immersing in oil would ever remove much heat unless the oil was pumped at high velocity.

Traditionally by fast moving fanned air although I think that Peltier effect heat pumps have also been used to transfer the heat to liquids.

Tony

I don't think that logic works given that
1) Oil can move more heat than air and so you need a lower flow for a given amount of heat to be removed
2) Heat sinks exist which don't required a fan so I can use one of these if the heat removal is an issue (though this will add yet more expense to the situation)
3) In a miner the CPU isn't working very hard - the muscle is in the GPUs

I am to have quite a reasonable level of flow across the cards but I need to work on that when I do the prototype experiment that one of the other posters has suggested.

Miles

 

[miless2111s]

I would pose this question on http://ask.slashdot.org

Given the other topics posted on the page you linked to I strongly suspect that they're not going to be very interested in advising on connecting a heat source to the central heating / DHW system.

 

[miless2111s]

Yes, DIMMs CPU are plug in items and rely on gold contact touching gold contact. Gold is used because it does not tarnish. If you plug in a DIMM and it makes it's 200 or so connections then yes there will be gold touching gold. When immersed in oil then gold will still touch gold...fine. But as the items heat and cool and expand and contract then eventually oil would be introduced between the contacts.
Same with the CPU, all physical contacts. Same with any PCI cards. Same with the BIOS battery.
Looking at it a different way, would you take a good computer and wipe oil over all of the clean gold CPU and DIMM connections and then put it back together and expect it to work ? I wouldn't for one.

Have you googled cooling computers in oil. I haven't, but would suggest you are out on a very thin limb with this one.

andytw

I'll grant that there isn't a huge body of information out there Some seem to be able to make it work, more as a hobby or for the fun of it. One company selling kits is http://www.pugetsystems.com/submerged.php however they're not exactly pushing hard given they don't know when they'll be stocking them again...
The question of submerged server farms is one that intel believes has promise and will be doing more trials on following a successful one however there is a difference between my resources and that of intel and they do mention that to fully optimise cooling the current heat sink design should be looked at for oil rather than air optimisation.
All in all I think it's possible however the concerns around longevity, re-sale and just general mess are all valid which is why I am still digging around and thinking rather than chucking expensive computers in vats of oil for fun
I also really do need to understand how to work out what is needed to make a difference to the hot water system and what is needed to cool the computers
Miles

 

[Norcon]

A small oil cooled welder uses about 3 kw to run but you won't be heating any cylinders of water from that.
But then most of the energy is expended at the arc.
The metal casing is enough for the heat generated in the coil to dissipate to the surrounding air.

I think your idea would be the same. Not a lot of useful energy to be harvested in other words.
Because like the welder it not designed as a heat producing appliance.

Once you have it tanked and pump connected you could calculate the energy output.

 

[AdrianUK]

how many kWh do your systems use, in total, per day?

Are you seriously saying that your computers use 1kW each?

What sort of machines are they?

At the moment I have two computers up using a peak of 1200 and 1600 watts and generally running fairly close to these figures. A third should be on line in a week or so. They run 24/7.

Thanks

Miles.

Miles, how did you come about these figure? I seriously doubt the computers are drawing anything remotely near this figure..... You aren't by any chance reasoning that a server with twin 650W PSUs draws 1300W are you......?

 

[miless2111s]

how many kWh do your systems use, in total, per day?

Are you seriously saying that your computers use 1kW each?

What sort of machines are they?

At the moment I have two computers up using a peak of 1200 and 1600 watts and generally running fairly close to these figures. A third should be on line in a week or so. They run 24/7.

Thanks

Miles.

Miles, how did you come about these figure? I seriously doubt the computers are drawing anything remotely near this figure..... You aren't by any chance reasoning that a server with twin 650W PSUs draws 1300W are you......?

Lol the figures come from plugging it in via a meter which records watts, amps etc. Those are Max figures but the miner runs close most of the time.

 

[AdrianUK]

how many kWh do your systems use, in total, per day?

Are you seriously saying that your computers use 1kW each?

What sort of machines are they?

At the moment I have two computers up using a peak of 1200 and 1600 watts and generally running fairly close to these figures. A third should be on line in a week or so. They run 24/7.

Thanks

Miles.

Miles, how did you come about these figure? I seriously doubt the computers are drawing anything remotely near this figure..... You aren't by any chance reasoning that a server with twin 650W PSUs draws 1300W are you......?

Lol the figures come from plugging it in via a meter which records watts, amps etc. Those are Max figures but the miner runs close most of the time.

OK ...how good is this meter? Is it actually measuring Watts or does it measure amps & then multiply to get an assumed watts? If its doing this then you are really seeing VA ... the actual watts (ie heat) can be much less.

I still cant believe that this machine is pullin 1300W.... none of the servers at work (and we have 12 rack mount dell servers all with twin PSUs) pull anywhere near that amount of power

 

[NotAgainFFS]

Your rack mount Dells will not have multiple 3D GPUs which can burn 300-400W a piece.

 

[Dan Robinson]

I gave up doing CUDA based processing for a couple of charities because of the thrashing my PC was getting overnight. Sounded like a jet was taking off in the old office.

If I were to do it in the new office I think the paint would be peeling off the walls

 

[NotAgainFFS]

I don't have time to read all of this but the graphs show some cards using 700W

http://forums.atomicmpc.com.au/index.php?showtopic=264

 

[miless2111s]

how many kWh do your systems use, in total, per day?

Are you seriously saying that your computers use 1kW each?

What sort of machines are they?

At the moment I have two computers up using a peak of 1200 and 1600 watts and generally running fairly close to these figures. A third should be on line in a week or so. They run 24/7.

Thanks

Miles.

Miles, how did you come about these figure? I seriously doubt the computers are drawing anything remotely near this figure..... You aren't by any chance reasoning that a server with twin 650W PSUs draws 1300W are you......?

Lol the figures come from plugging it in via a meter which records watts, amps etc. Those are Max figures but the miner runs close most of the time.

OK ...how good is this meter? Is it actually measuring Watts or does it measure amps & then multiply to get an assumed watts? If its doing this then you are really seeing VA ... the actual watts (ie heat) can be much less.

I still cant believe that this machine is pullin 1300W.... none of the servers at work (and we have 12 rack mount dell servers all with twin PSUs) pull anywhere near that amount of power

I have no way of proving the accuracy of the meter but given that two of these miners are heating a four bed house I don't doubt they're chewing through power Edited to add - well they're at least heating the hall, landing, back spare room and my office to an uncomfortable level

 

[NotAgainFFS]

Via slashdot.org. I really recommend posing your question there. Even if you don't get a good answer you'll get a lot of fun answers:

http://www.markusleonhardt.de.nyud.net:8090/oelbilder.html

 

[NotAgainFFS]

Here's another example from 2003

http://slashdot.org/story/03/03/16/2023221/oil-cooling-80211-infrastructure