I've been reading up on a lot of the various builds here since before I registered, and I've read the stickies. I'm mostly interested in the geothermal cooling set ups as I have the yard and the house for it, but there are a few things I didn't quite see addressed in any of the builds. Or if they were, I failed to notice them.
I refinished the basement when I bought the house as it's generally the coolest and quietest area of any house, so if I were to do a geothermal grid, there's a good chance that the computers would be below the radiator, possibly by as much as four feet. Would that constitute a problem with sealing the heat sinks and plumbing inside the case? I would assume that compression fittings could take it no problem, but that isn't something I want to find out the hard way if someone else already knows. If it is a problem, I know a couple ways around it, but they would lower the efficiency and increase complexity a bit.
I understand that GT cooling can create a much larger temperature drop than normale air radiative cooling, and that can lead to condensation issues. I'm confident I can seal the case against that. However, I'm not sure what to do about the DVD drive. Would that not get cold as well, creating a moisture vulnerability? I assume I could insullate that separately. Would it be worth having a radiator inside the case to blow cold air around, or would I be better served water cooling the chipset and hard drives directly? If it matters, I use aluminum server tower cases, so the thing isn't thermally insulative at all. That might be nice in the summer, and I could put a cover over them in the winter.
I realise that it's probably foolish to plan something this advanced for my first foray into watercooling, but with the summer's upcoming landscaping projects, there won't be a better time to get the outside part done, even if the indoors part is a year away.
I hope my questions weren't horribly stupid, as I've been thinking about this for quite some time, but I'm at the point where some knowledge from the experts would be much appreciated. If my plan is unworkable or way too impractical, I would at least like to know why so I can stop thinking about it.
I refinished the basement when I bought the house as it's generally the coolest and quietest area of any house, so if I were to do a geothermal grid, there's a good chance that the computers would be below the radiator, possibly by as much as four feet. Would that constitute a problem with sealing the heat sinks and plumbing inside the case? I would assume that compression fittings could take it no problem, but that isn't something I want to find out the hard way if someone else already knows. If it is a problem, I know a couple ways around it, but they would lower the efficiency and increase complexity a bit.
I understand that GT cooling can create a much larger temperature drop than normale air radiative cooling, and that can lead to condensation issues. I'm confident I can seal the case against that. However, I'm not sure what to do about the DVD drive. Would that not get cold as well, creating a moisture vulnerability? I assume I could insullate that separately. Would it be worth having a radiator inside the case to blow cold air around, or would I be better served water cooling the chipset and hard drives directly? If it matters, I use aluminum server tower cases, so the thing isn't thermally insulative at all. That might be nice in the summer, and I could put a cover over them in the winter.
I realise that it's probably foolish to plan something this advanced for my first foray into watercooling, but with the summer's upcoming landscaping projects, there won't be a better time to get the outside part done, even if the indoors part is a year away.
I hope my questions weren't horribly stupid, as I've been thinking about this for quite some time, but I'm at the point where some knowledge from the experts would be much appreciated. If my plan is unworkable or way too impractical, I would at least like to know why so I can stop thinking about it.