Liquid cooling HD5970

[marcus_of_augustus]

Anybody gone down the liquid cooling path yet?

http://www.swiftnets.com/products/EPSILON-GTX295.asp

Comments, suggestions?

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[TheHoboHarvester]

Seems to be pretty expensive with little gain: the 5970's don't throttle if you can get good airflow on them.

[bitcool]

Somebody said don't mix wet with electricity.... Water in the box always make me nervous.
Stock fan works just fine, (a little noisy though).

[Cryptoman]

Spend your money on a properly-designed case and good fans.

[marcus_of_augustus]

Yeah, nervous about water in there too, was wondering if anybody had knowledge of how susceptible these things are to leaks in the system, etc.?

Noise would the big advantage for me with liquid cooling. Would be good to have quiet warm brick in the corner of the office, instead of shut away in the basement, fans howling. Back burner project for now ....

[Raulo]

I've never ever seen any liquid cooled rigs deployed in datacenters. There are must be a reason why pros do not do liquid cooling generally.

It's simple. Liquid cooling makes sense if you want silent machine. In datacenters nobody cares about noise. And liquid cooling is more expensive than air.

[Littleshop]

Somebody said don't mix wet with electricity.... Water in the box always make me nervous.
Stock fan works just fine, (a little noisy though).

With more then ten liquid rigs built I have not had any leaks,
But only 1 rig with a video cooler. With the custom blocks needed for video
cooling it really is not worth it for mining.  Just get a good case!


I would love to see a large gpu bank cooled with water and waste heat being used
for hot water supply. 

[bitcool]

I would love to see a large gpu bank cooled with water and waste heat being used
for hot water supply. 

Just become a seasonal miner, work in the winter and rest in the summer. so folks down south of the equator can have their chance too. 

[hippich]

i have small mobo and case.. so I am already ordered two water blocks for 5970 and in the process of hunting for the rest of wc system. I would say, my system is VERY noisy with stock air coolers. I am looking to use it not just for mining, but for regular use, so this is an issue for me.

[sturle]

Another thing: WAF!

I have a liquid cooled miner.  It is dead silent,  but the main point is that it heats our bathroom floor.  Pictures says more than words, so I attached a few.

My computer. An oldish Athlon64 X2 in a cabinet from a previous century.  Sorry about the mess.  The cabinet is usually closed for optimal airflow.  You see the water tube entering at the bottom, water passing through the 5970 water block (the shop were sold out of nipples fitting my tubing, and put in some 1/2" tubing and adapters, so it is a bit messy in there), then through my CPU block before heated water leaves at the top.  The direction has a purpose.  If I start the computer with no pump, the water will flow by itself due to convection.  Convection isn't enough for cooling the 5970 as well, so the pump must be running when mining.  And compare the size of the stock cooler in the lower right corner with the water block.  The card is now half as thick, and the PCI socket next to it is usable again!

Tubes going up through the roof above.  This is not finished.  I'll make better connectors closer to the ceiling and box them in later.  The thing on the tube to the right is a flow indicator.  The cable coming out of the same hole and going to a RJ45 socket (not connected yet), connects a series of temperature sensors embedded in the floor and walls, and a temperature and humidity sensor next to the fan in the bathroom.

Tubes under my bathroom floor and one of the temperature sensors (inside a blue shrink hose).  This is now buried in cement and covered with nice tiles.

Reservoir where the water returns.  Inside there is a small pump (300 l/min, 0.5m head), which keeps the water flow going and bubbles out of the tubes.  Water level inside here is 0-level.  In the tubes above the water level in the reservoir, there is actually a vacuum, and the water pressure inside my computer is low.

The best thing about my water cooling and floor heating is that my wife keeps nagging me to buy a second 5970 to make the floor warmer.  Beat this with a air cooled system. :-)

[sturle]

I've never ever seen any liquid cooled rigs deployed in datacenters. There are must be a reason why pros do not do liquid cooling generally.

I have.  LocalHost.  All the racks are water cooled with cold sea water from the North Sea.  Saves a lot of power.

[marcus_of_augustus]

Sturle, wow ... I was wondering about feasibility on this ... typical domestic hot water can be in 4-6 kWatt range ... about 7-8 HD 5970 cards ... combined heat and GPU power CHGPU solution (i.e. not CHP). Clever way to turn useless heater element resistor in hot water tank into GPU transistor and get computational power (bitcoins) as a bonus.

If you can run the chip at around 60-70 deg. celcius that would be fine for domestic hot water, is that what it comes off at with good lagging? I saw some people running them at 80-90 deg celcius but cooler is better right?

I know of at least two supercomputer installations that are liquid cooled but there are more for sure. Cray-2 was nick-named "Bubbles" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cray-2

"The cards were packed right on top of each other, so the resulting stack was only about 3 inches high. With this sort of density there was no way any conventional air-cooled system would work; there was too little room for air to flow between the ICs. Instead the system would be immersed in a tank of a new inert liquid from 3M, Fluorinert."

And there is this http://news.cnet.com/8301-11128_3-20004543-54.html
and this data centre
http://news.cnet.com/8301-11128_3-10405955-54.html

it's out there!

[bitcool]

WOW indeed. I though I was crazy enough... so I am guessing in Norway houses are heated year-around, correct? otherwise it would cost you a lot more if you have to use AC pumping those heat out.

[Littleshop]

Another thing: WAF!

I have a liquid cooled miner.  It is dead silent,  but the main point is that it heats our bathroom floor.  Pictures says more than words, so I attached a few.

OMFG!  WOW!  Thanks for sharing pics. 


!!!!!!!!!!! Did I saw wow? 

[Littleshop]

Sturle, wow ... I was wondering about feasibility on this ... typical domestic hot water can be in 4-6 kWatt range ... about 7-8 HD 5970 cards ... combined heat and GPU power CHGPU solution (i.e. not CHP). Clever way to turn useless heater element resistor in hot water tank into GPU transistor and get computational power (bitcoins) as a bonus.

In theory the way to do this is....

Have the GPU's heat water in a pre-heat tank maybe 50 gallons.  Then have a continuous on demand water heater (gas or electric) that can take variable water temp in and make constant temp out (they exist!) and you get most of your hot water for free.  Even 500W of continuous heating power could be utilized this way. 

[bitjet]

The best thing about my water cooling and floor heating is that my wife keeps nagging me to buy a second 5970 to make the floor warmer.  Beat this with a air cooled system. :-)

You are the friggen man... that is like the best idea i've seen lately. whats the watter temps upon entering the floor?

[sturle]

The best thing about my water cooling and floor heating is that my wife keeps nagging me to buy a second 5970 to make the floor warmer.  Beat this with a air cooled system. :-)

You are the friggen man... that is like the best idea i've seen lately. whats the watter temps upon entering the floor?

Thanks for the compliments, folks!  Water temperature is currently ~31°C when entering and 26°C when leaving the floor.  This morning the floor held ~23°C.  Outside temp is 0°C and the hall outside the door was ~15°C after a cold and snowy night.

WOW indeed. I though I was crazy enough... so I am guessing in Norway houses are heated year-around, correct? otherwise it would cost you a lot more if you have to use AC pumping those heat out.

We don't have AC.  The sun heats the house in summer, and we open a window or door if it gets too warm inside.  The bathroom floor will be heated all year, but we don't need as much heat in the summer.  I live on the western edge of the country, where we have mild winters (lowest I have measured is -10°C) and cold summers (seldom above 25°C, mostly 10-20°C).  Statistics here.  The plan is to measure temperature and humidity with my sensors, and regulate clock speed and fan according to that and weather on the outside.  I also have another plan..

Sturle, wow ... I was wondering about feasibility on this ... typical domestic hot water can be in 4-6 kWatt range ... about 7-8 HD 5970 cards ... combined heat and GPU power CHGPU solution (i.e. not CHP). Clever way to turn useless heater element resistor in hot water tank into GPU transistor and get computational power (bitcoins) as a bonus.

Step two in my plan is to let the water in the computer circulate through a heat exchanger which pre-heats water before entering our hot water tank.  In the loop I will also have a small used hot water tank, perhaps around 50l, to buffer the heat between showers and baths where a lot of hot water is used at once.  Is this drawing understandable? 

                    ____________     ____ pre-heated water to tank
                   /  _|_   buffer  ><
Computer /   |    | tank      <> -heat exchanger
                 \   |_ _|              ><
                   \__|__________<>_____ cold water in

This will not heat water all they way to hot tap water temperature, but it will do much of the work.

I will not have tap water circulating through my computer because of pressure conditions and the devastating results in case of a leak.  Total amount of water in my system is about 3l, and a leak will not do much damage.  Tap water in unlimited supply will.  I will have a plumber install the heat exchanger connected to my hot water tank.

[DarkMatter]

The best thing about my water cooling and floor heating is that my wife keeps nagging me to buy a second 5970 to make the floor warmer.  Beat this with a air cooled system. :-)

You are the friggen man... that is like the best idea i've seen lately. whats the watter temps upon entering the floor?

Thanks for the compliments, folks!  Water temperature is currently ~31°C when entering and 26°C when leaving the floor.  This morning the floor held ~23°C.  Outside temp is 0°C and the hall outside the door was ~15°C after a cold and snowy night.

WOW indeed. I though I was crazy enough... so I am guessing in Norway houses are heated year-around, correct? otherwise it would cost you a lot more if you have to use AC pumping those heat out.

We don't have AC.  The sun heats the house in summer, and we open a window or door if it gets too warm inside.  The bathroom floor will be heated all year, but we don't need as much heat in the summer.  I live on the western edge of the country, where we have mild winters (lowest I have measured is -10°C) and cold summers (seldom above 25°C, mostly 10-20°C).  Statistics here.  The plan is to measure temperature and humidity with my sensors, and regulate clock speed and fan according to that and weather on the outside.  I also have another plan..

Sturle, wow ... I was wondering about feasibility on this ... typical domestic hot water can be in 4-6 kWatt range ... about 7-8 HD 5970 cards ... combined heat and GPU power CHGPU solution (i.e. not CHP). Clever way to turn useless heater element resistor in hot water tank into GPU transistor and get computational power (bitcoins) as a bonus.

Step two in my plan is to let the water in the computer circulate through a heat exchanger which pre-heats water before entering our hot water tank.  In the loop I will also have a small used hot water tank, perhaps around 50l, to buffer the heat between showers and baths where a lot of hot water is used at once.  Is this drawing understandable? 

                    ____________     ____ pre-heated water to tank
                   /  _|_   buffer  ><
Computer /   |    | tank      <> -heat exchanger
                 \   |_ _|              ><
                   \__|__________<>_____ cold water in

This will not heat water all they way to hot tap water temperature, but it will do much of the work.

I will not have tap water circulating through my computer because of pressure conditions and the devastating results in case of a leak.  Total amount of water in my system is about 3l, and a leak will not do much damage.  Tap water in unlimited supply will.  I will have a plumber install the heat exchanger connected to my hot water tank.

Can't wait to see this done, man.
Pics are just amazing!

[5970]

typical domestic hot water can be in 4-6 kWatt range ... about 7-8 HD 5970 cards ... combined heat and GPU power CHGPU solution (i.e. not CHP). Clever way to turn useless heater element resistor in hot water tank into GPU transistor and get computational power (bitcoins) as a bonus.

But the power of water heater is not always on, while those cards are.
Daily accumulative power consumption of multiple 5970s > water heater, this means either overheated computer or overheated water, unless you greatly under-utilize the cards.

[marcus_of_augustus]

Its a matter of matching the base load with intermittent draw. Nothing special just a bit of design, simple control system, a top-up heater element and some way to dump waste heat if need be.

Might be able to sell whole units as a going concern, mine your own bitcoins, heat your water with the same electricity ... imagine taking a hot shower on cold, wet night using the water from the roof-tank, the micro-hydroelectric power from the creek out back and knowing that the bitcoins are ticking over into an account somewhere down the hall.