Avalon Water Cooling

[el_rlee]

Hello All,

 I've made some water cooling elements for my hopefully soon arriving batch 2 Avalon. As it isn't here yet I have no chance of testing...
However I post the manufacturing drawing, if anybody feels like making his own - please go ahead and take my design if you wish to.
Also I want to gauge interest if somebody would like to buy some - the offers I have from my vendors are about 150US$/pc.
The amount of M3 threads on this is roughly double than the original Avalon heat sink (the PCB's have the holes, god knows why they didn't execute it on the heat sink).

I am in China, if there is some other Avalon user here who wants to have a try on water cooling please contact me. I would be interested about noise level and over clocking potential.
As a chiller I was thinking about http://item.taobao.com/item.htm?spm=2013.1.w31-17520194789.4.legfcf&id=10299146223. Additionally you need some hose, fittings and a pump (a central heating pump should do fine).

I would prefer to put the whole setup on my balcony (still need a solution for the PSU), but if only the chiller is outside and two small hoses come in it's also fine. The PSU shouldn't be as loud as the rest is supposed to be.

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[ummas]

You`re kidding, right??
1. Alu ??
2. It`s 2,5Kg?
3. Haw can i fit it into avalon case, sorry - 3 or 4 of them to cool it ?


Think about Cu/Plexi sandwitch. It`s much more lighter. Sommethink like fullcover for GPU.
This brick is ussles IMHO.

[el_rlee]

You`re kidding, right??
1. Alu ??
2. It`s 2,5Kg?
3. Haw can i fit it into avalon case, sorry - 3 or 4 of them to cool it ?


Think about Cu/Plexi sandwitch. It`s much more lighter. Sommethink like fullcover for GPU.
This brick is ussles IMHO.

1. Yes, a very good heat conductor
2. Yes. Original one is 1.6kg
3. It's smaller than the original.

Cu/Plexi? Please make us a sample...

Advantages of my solution: less leakages, much appreciated by experienced water coolers.

[Wayne_Chang]

What's the material you used for this water block?
Is the hole 1/4' standard?
What kind of water channel inside?
I believe a normal water cooling system is enough.

[el_rlee]

What's the material you used for this water block?
Is the hole 1/4' standard?
What kind of water channel inside?
I believe a normal water cooling system is enough.

Aluminium
Yes, straight 1/4 inch (for flat sealing)
Round
How would that differ?

[Kernel32]

This is very nice, you might try some overclocking without fans disturbing the whole neighbourhood.

I want one if it comes with the Avalon unit.

[el_rlee]

This is very nice, you might try some overclocking without fans disturbing the whole neighbourhood.

I want one if it comes with the Avalon unit.

The chiller I posted can make 2 centigrade Celsius water - would be curious if my Avalon hashes faster then...

[Wayne_Chang]

What's the material you used for this water block?
Is the hole 1/4' standard?
What kind of water channel inside?
I believe a normal water cooling system is enough.

Aluminium
Yes, straight 1/4 inch (for flat sealing)
Round
How would that differ?

I mean no need to use a refrigerator. Use normal water cooling system with radiator, reservoir, and pump is enough.

[el_rlee]

What's the material you used for this water block?
Is the hole 1/4' standard?
What kind of water channel inside?
I believe a normal water cooling system is enough.

Aluminium
Yes, straight 1/4 inch (for flat sealing)
Round
How would that differ?

I mean no need to use a refrigerator. Use normal water cooling system with radiator, reservoir, and pump is enough.

It can get pretty hot where I live and I don't want to keep my Avalon inside all the time (and the air con on 24/7...) because I guess it will be pretty noisy.
I guess I would need pretty big radiators for passive cooling, and the chiller I posted is not expensive. Also it's set value can be adjusted up to 40 degree - than it shouldn't use so much electricity any more. I'm still fantasying about putting the whole setup on the balcony...

[Kartaiv]

Tag.

Nice work, looking forward to seeing the results of using this versus the stock heatsink!

[Bitcoiner_cph]

Very cool cooler!!

[Kernel32]

fantasying about putting the whole setup on the balcony...

Or you could put only the chiller outside to keep your mining gear safe (to cuttle pivately) and heat out.

[Icoin]

el_rlee: Thanks for your work!
We didnt receive our avalons yet, so i was able to finish the Qcool element with your measurements.


https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=164742.msg2259881#msg2259881

[el_rlee]

you are aware that yifu published their heatsink in dxf format on github?

[AvenG]

I'm very interested in this project, I 'll definitely switch to water cooling and use a chiller. I'm living in a hot place and my unit restarts every time it surpasses 46°C, the heat is very bad.. it reduces productivity and shortens the lifetime of the chips. Also the noise of the fans is very annoying.

BTW, I would suggest making at least 1 hole for placing the temperature sensor that every Avalon has:



Doing this, you'll need to use a waterproof temp sensor like this one:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/2pcs-10K-1-NTC-1meter-Thermistor-Temperature-Temp-Sensor-Waterproof-arduino-/121005378819?pt=US_Weather_Meters&hash=item1c2c7b8d03

Also note that the Avalon came with only 1 sensor and each unit itself allows you up to 2 sensors:

[Loredo]

For what it's worth, lemme give you my encouragement and +1.  If there hasn't been already, you're probably going to find postings that say "don't be an idiot; well designed air cooling always surpasses water cooling."   Water cooling became the bastard child of computers when the big iron mainframes gave way to the VAX and other minis in the late 70's, and has been that way ever since.

But when stuff has to run in less than pristine conditions, like non-air-conditioned locales, or high dust environments,  water always has had its place, regardless of what they teach in school.

Good luck. 

[el_rlee]

I was thinking about fixing the thermo probe on the board instead of the heatsink. Maybe I design myself some sheet metal bracket to directly clamp it on a chip over two of the M3 threads.

Also I haven't yet designed the cabinet I want to put in the whole setup. it would be nice if it where air tight and insulated so I can run temperatures below condensing point... that's a little tricky.


Thanks for the nice replies!

[PulsedMedia]

water always wins air hands down in terms of cooling efficiency and capacity. That's why engines are water and not air cooled (except for some low output exceptions, lawn mowers, mopeds, old VWs etc.)
Infact, air is more like an insulator, you can infact use air as an insulator and has been used for ever since human learned to make clothing, and all animals with hair prior to that.
If you live in a cold climate your winter clothes are likely designed to hold in tiny pockets of air which works as insulator.
YES, air's heat conductivity and capacity is that tiny.

Why does it work for cooling them? Abundance.
As long as you circulate it and efficiently, it works quite well for cooling small loads, like CPUs etc.

Water is not cost effective solution for small loads due to the extra work needed, and little capacity required. Thus A/C + air works quite well.
But as soon as you venture into the kilowatt range in high density OR simply BIG setups, water suddenly becomes the best choice by far.

[Tamerz]

I honestly don't think it is going to work all that well if you are just running straight "tubes" through the block. You are not going to get very much surface area covered with the water. The entire area that covers the chips should be covered in water.

[crumbs]

You might have considered this already, but unless you have an incredibly high rate of flow through that block, the inflow side is going to be substantially cooler than the outflow (as water snakes through your block, doing its thing & picking up heat).  Might want to reconsider using the standard "sandwich" approach -- milling out the metal would take minutes, you already have access to an end mill, and if you're worried about leakage, go with 1/8" alum. plate instead of plastic, i've never had problems with leaking o-rings.  What's good for a radiator is pretty lousy for a waterblock