Help me cool my build

[MyAdler]

First post!

My story:

I recently decided that I was going to try building a budget server out of components from years gone by. It was to be a high end computer from around 2009 and it was to cost under $100 all in. Pretty optomistic budget, I know.

I picked up two L5410 xeons and 8GB of ram for $20 bucks at an electronics recycler.
Got a Supermicro X7DWN+ motherboard on ebay for $30.
Fancy shmancy 1200w power supply for $10.

Things were good until I started assembly.

Everything was going in a case I already owned. An Antec somethingorother full tower.

The motherboard is not a standard ATX mobo. Its some fancy Enhanced Extended ATX that Supermicro invented. Not only would it not fit, I couldn't get it inside the case because of all the brackets for HDDs. So I took off the back panel, cut out the motherboard plate, fashioned a custom plate, cut off some of the drive bay area, and riveted the motherboard in place. Take that roadblock.

So I excitedly power it on for the first time. Everything is going great. I'm browsing through the BIOS options when I hear a piercing shriek from the motherboard, a non-stop scream of pain. I check in the BIOS and sure enough... its overheating.

I should have anticipated this. The MoBo is clearly from a rack-mount system. The heatsinks are passive, and it probably used to have a hurricane pushed through it.

I managed to put some fans in place that get the system to idle at around 60-65 but I can easily push it up to 80 by running torture tests. This is bad, it needs better cooling.

I have considered attempting to modify the passive fans to be active, but that would be rather difficult. I don't really want to buy two new LGA771 heatsinks because that would put me over budget and who ever heard of the most expensive component in a system being the heatsinks?! There are two more spaces for fans that are unpopulated and I plan on putting some fans in, but I dont think they will affect the processors so much.

TL;DR
I built a cheap computer system and it runs too hot... idea me to cool it cheaply.

Some pics of the build...





Ouch... tight fit...

 

[EarthDog]

Put a fan on the heatsinks or at least blowing across them.

Top/rear = exhaust
front/sides = intake

 

[MyAdler]

Put a fan on the heatsinks or at least blowing across them.

Top/rear = exhaust
front/sides = intake

The heatsinks are closed on the top, I think a fan on top without cutting it open would do very little.

I would love to have a fan positioned to blow over them but the case doesn't make this easy.

Here are some shots from the back of the case looking forward over the processors.

With both drive bays in place. (There are two bays, one is for the harddrives and has a fan, the other is for floppy's and other drives of that size.)


Floppy drive bay removed


HDD bay moved to the floppy bay spot.

 

[EarthDog]

... "or at least blowing across them"

I cannot see any of your pictures as they are hosted 3rd party and my office blocks that type of thing...

 

[MyAdler]

... "or at least blowing across them"

I cannot see any of your pictures as they are hosted 3rd party and my office blocks that type of thing...

Didn't even occur to me that there might be issues with hosted images.

Heres the one that shows both drive bays in place. The wind from any fans in the drive bays is too high to really hit the heatsinks.

 

[Conumdrum]

Those HS need LOTS of airflow. Meaning they will need direct fans like a server has. The case can help exhaust flow but your gonna need some 80mm fans somehow mounted across the SIDE of those HS to push air across the HS fins.

 

[NiHaoMike]

Get a nice Delta or two and experiment with making ducting from cardboard. Once you have it down, make permanent ones from plastic.

One possible arrangement is to have the fan over the RAM area with a "box" to let it suck air through the heatsinks. And maybe a second "box" over the voltage regulator area with a fan blowing into it.

 

[MyAdler]

I have 2 ideas I've been toying with that I think could work. Tell me what you think.

One is to bend the tines of the current heatsinks on top to allow me to mount a fan directly to it. I'm not usually crazy about destructive mods though, I prefer to make things work how they are.
Like this... (I only have one of these fans though, so I'd have to find another.)


The other idea is to use some squirrel cage fans mounted on top of the heatsinks with a small duct to redirect the air thought the heatsinks. My understanding is that squirrel cages are quite effective at pushing high volumes of air through a small space.

Get a nice Delta or two and experiment with making ducting from cardboard. Once you have it down, make permanent ones from plastic.

One possible arrangement is to have the fan over the RAM area with a "box" to let it suck air through the heatsinks. And maybe a second "box" over the voltage regulator area with a fan blowing into it.

You hang around the EEVBlog forums also, don't you? I'd recognize that handle anywhere...

Do you think two fans will be needed? I'd like to avoid making all that ducting.

 

[RC9012Apples]

Maybe these will help? I don't know, worth a try!

http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2102824

http://www.digikey.com/product-sear...=0&page=1&quantity=0&ptm=0&fid=0&pageSize=500

 

[NiHaoMike]

A fan that low power will not work too well.

 

[MyAdler]

This product seems like it would work really well, I just wish it had some PWM control or at least a tachometer. It will be mighty loud...

http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835119067

 

[yamaharacer19]

I'd say get 2 aftermarket coolers for it. Some can be had cheaply.

 

[RnRollie]

its a MB which is supposed to be used in a BTX design case... there are 3 options besides taking a hacksaw to the HSs:
1. replace the HSs with aftermarket HSs
2. do some ducting and use VERY powerfull (squirrel) fans (will become loud)
3. relocate to a place above the artic polar circle and put the case outside

 

[NiHaoMike]

This product seems like it would work really well, I just wish it had some PWM control or at least a tachometer. It will be mighty loud...

http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835119067

That fan is low enough power that it's not going to make much noise, but it probably won't cool enough either.

 

[MyAdler]

What I think I have decided to do is a little over-ambitious, I think.

I will buy a liquid cooling unit from an old powermac G5 and modify it to work here. This should be cheap (about 30 bucks) and have all the components Ill need to make a custom loop (besides a reservoir, which is easy to add).

No doubt Ill find out that this is a huge mistake when I get it, but Ive always been curious about liquid cooling.

Thoughts?

 

[EarthDog]

The problem with that is how much it can/cannot cool exactly. Not to mention how powerful the pump is when adding a radiator or another block. I do not think that is a good idea... that said, prove me wrong and let's see if it works.

 

[MyAdler]

The problem with that is how much it can/cannot cool exactly. Not to mention how powerful the pump is when adding a radiator or another block. I do not think that is a good idea... that said, prove me wrong and let's see if it works.

Thats the beauty of this solution! The powermac G5 had two powerpc 970 processors so I have 2 blocks already. Its kinda hard to find max TDP for powerpc's but the processors I have (L5410's) are 50w and I have no doubt that is less than the powerpc's.

 

[MyAdler]

I have been collecting parts to complete this build...

I have been using the computer in the meantime. With all fans installed it idles at around 50 and maxes out (normal usage, nothing intense) at 62. With stress testing I can make it exceed 80. I think that's kinda high and it is pretty damn loud.

All I have left to acquire is a reservoir. I'd like a pump top reservoir but this is an extreme low budget build and I doubt that fits my extreme low budget. I think I'm still under 50 bucks.

 

[NiHaoMike]

Get a plastic bottle at Walmart and drill holes near the top for the pipes. Use zip ties to mount it.

 

[MyAdler]

Get a plastic bottle at Walmart and drill holes near the top for the pipes. Use zip ties to mount it.

That'll probably work.

I was thinking to gut an old cd drive and build a custom box inside out of acrylic (or some similar plastic) with barbs and all. Classy but a lot of work especially considering how I haven't worked with acrylic sheet before.

Maybe Ill start with a cheap bottle for now.