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Journey to geothermal

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Thick8

Member
Joined
Apr 29, 2015
Wow it's been a couple of busy weeks. Final exams for my students; and me aqua-boring a deep *** hole in my back yard. In my excitement I did not get any pictures of my cooling manifold but I did get some of the process. So without further adieu:

First three feet with a post hole digger.
ccDay6_0430hrs.PNG

Then to put together the machine.
ccDay6_0630hrs.PNG

A nice cutting tip.
cpuz-spd.PNG

4" casing going in.
Capture17.PNG

4" casing pounded 15 feet down.
cpux2-mem.PNG

3" pipe going in...
cpuz2-spd.PNG

and in
MarriageReception.jpg

Fast forward to 35' down.
MarriageComputers.jpg

I was so worn out and dirty by the end of the day I didn't get any pics of my copper manifold. I'll draw up a picture of what I made later. Here's the PEX coming out of the 3" pipe. The red lines on the PEX marks 36'
IMG_3738.JPG

And the final test. Will my Apogee Drive II be able to push this much water.

Why yes, yes it can. 1 GPM measured 4 times.
test3.6ghz.PNG
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I have had a pair of GPU blocks in my shopping cart at FrozenCPU for a month. Time to get them on the way
 
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I have had a pair of GPU blocks in my shopping cart at FrozenCPU for a month. Time to get them on the way
Pretty sure FCPU is out of business, try Performance Pc's. I'm looking forward to seeing more.
 
Pretty sure FCPU is out of business, try Performance Pc's. I'm looking forward to seeing more.

This is correct. FrozenCPU is gone for good AFAIK. Performance-PCS is your next best bet.

Also, that's great to see the pump work really well with your geothermal loop. That technically is a MCP-35X pump.
 
This is correct. FrozenCPU is gone for good AFAIK. Performance-PCS is your next best bet.

Also, that's great to see the pump work really well with your geothermal loop. That technically is a MCP-35X pump.


Oh oh. The list of things in my cart has grown exponentially...
Thanks.
John
 
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Just curious, what if you had encountered a large rock or something while making the hole? Would you have just tried in a new spot? Or how would that work?
 
I live in the low country of South Carolina so running into a rock was unlikely. It's mostly sand and clay.
 
So are the PEX tubes just in that pipe? Or are they surrounded by gycol or water?
 
Did my first test today. Ran the tubes in through the window and hooked to the CPU. It was 95f out today and the tubes had the sun beating down on them but I'm pleased with the results. CPU never went over 51c in the default prime and 54c in the large and small fft's. I had to put a fan on the MOFET heatsink as the temp was getting over 80c. I have a waterblock for it. I'm going to put it on tomorrow and see how it works. Here's a pic. I ran prime for a little over an hour but forgot to take a screen shot.

amd6201.jpg
 
So are the PEX tubes just in that pipe? Or are they surrounded by gycol or water?

The PEX tubes go down into the hole 25 ft. where they hook to a copper manifold that I built. The bottom 10 feet of the 3" pipe is is perforated to allow for (hopefully) a convective current in the ground water to flow around the manifold. The cooling loop is filled with distilled water.
 
OK, so here are some numbers.
Indoor ambient (10ft un-insulated hose): 23.5c
Outdoor ambient (15ft un-insulated hose, no sun load): 20.3c
Water temp with just the pump running at 100% from remote PS : 19.8c
1 hour prime [email protected] (210 +- watts): CPU temp 51c, water temp 21.2c
I'm using the Swiftech TIM that came with my pump as I ran out of AS5.
Water temps were taken in the reservoir that is hooked to the pump inlet.
Pump speed during Prime tests was kept at 20%.
I think it's safe to insulate and run the hoses under the house with these temps. I've ordered the GPU blocks and will hook them and the MOFET and northbridge blocks. I was thinking of coming off of the pump with a splitter to feed the GPUs separate from the MB blocks. Input?
It occurred to me that I will need to run the pump for a good 5 minutes before the computer turns on. There is a plug and play device that allows for this I think. Recommendations?

John
 
20C water temps at 20'+ down? Yikes, if I knew that was the temps, I wouldn't have done this. Cool exercise regardless!

Are you getting at least 1GPM flow?
 
20C water temps at 20'+ down? Yikes, if I knew that was the temps, I wouldn't have done this. Cool exercise regardless!

Are you getting at least 1GPM flow?

The purpose of this system is to remove all of the fan noise and heat load from the room without having to worry about condensation. Mission accomplished!
I get 1GPM with the pump at 100% but found that running the pump at 20-30% lowers the CPU temp by about 10c.

The 2x120x60mm radiator that I was using got hot to the touch. Not sure what the water temperature was was rising to but it heated the room up by about 10f. It was uncomfortably warm after a couple of hours gaming. With any luck the geothermal unit will absorb all/most of the heat so my incoming water temp will remain at a constant 20-25c.
 
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I get 1GPM with the pump at 100% but found that running the pump at 20-30% lowers the CPU temp by about 10c
Odd. That counter intuitive to all the testing people have seen... I wonder since you do not have a radiator in the loop that it needs more time in the loop to cool off...
 
Ground temperature varies by location E_D so someone in a more northern climate will have a better result. Here's something I found for an illustration it's in Fahrenheit.

US-ground-temps.gif
 
Well aware. :)

I did not catch, until I saw his post earlier in the thread - after I saw his water temps, where he was located.
 
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