Outdoor radiator, getting the heat outside

[rangerco1]

Hello,

I've got several computer rigs made up of dual R9 290 Radeons and AMD FX8350's running at 100% load. I'm looking to water cool these and hopefully get the heat outside of the house. I was thinking of mounting the radiators outside in a covered box and getting high powered pumps to pump the water to them. Is this idea feasible? Has anyone else looked into methods for getting the water cooling heat out of the house. I've also considered mounting the radiators in the furnace ducting, cold air return side, to use the furnace to distribute the heat throughout the house. I'm not sure how my central AC will handle this in the summer. Either way, I'm open to any thoughts and brainstorming to get the heat out of my house using water cooling methods.

Please feel free to throw out any suggestions, as I'm trying to encourage a good brainstorming sessions. And I can provide more information if needed.

Thanks
Chris

[bungwirez]

wow. ambitious.

"several rigs".. gotta be pretty warm. I can only assume that you are mining something?

just keep in mind that your system will never get below ambient temp, of course Edmonton does have its share of cold weather.

that being said, it would be easy enough to make a Rad box, like for example: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jsw-qonfklI
and just run tube to wherever your CPU is.

honestly, I think that once you put water on these rigs, you won't have to worry too much about the heat.

[gdesmo]

Could use it to pre-heat water to your hot water tank or like you said a heat exchanger in the heating ducts with a bypass to a series of rads outside for the summer.

[rangerco1]

I am indeed mining crypto coins. The GPUs are obviously mining scrypt based coins and the FX8350s are mining quark based coins. I also have a few SHA256 ASICS as well, but they don't put out much heat and I have no need to water cool them.

I have a small "server" room in the basement to house everything, so it's a small area and it's sealed up from the rest of the house with an AC unit "trying" to keep everything cool. My thinking originally was to just start water cooling the GPU/CPU miners, however, I suspect that the heat will still build up. Am I wrong to assume that the heat output for those machines will be the same for water vs air cooling? The water cooling just takes it away more easily I suspect. My concern is that with the radiators running in that server room, the room will still heat up like it currently does. Hence my reason to get the heat out somehow. As for ambient temperature, I don't think that will be an issue since the R9 290's are designed to run up to 90C, even if the outside air is 30C, the cards should be sufficiently cooled. Though in Edmonton, in the summer in the shade, I doubt the ambient temp will be much above 25C.

Are there any limitations to putting the radiators/fans outside? That box from the YouTube video was interesting, but not weather proofed. I'm thinking maybe a wooden/metal box that's a bit more weather proofed or maybe a car radiator/fan that's meant for outdoor use would be appropriate. I do like the idea of a dual system that runs the heated water through the furnace ducting in the winter and then has a bypass to an outside radiator in the summer. From the basement to outside would be maybe 4-5 feet in height, what kind of pump would be required? I'm guessing that I would need a loop for each system and a rad for each system, is there anyway to combine them all into one large radiator/pump system?

[DazMode]

Just curios is it even worth it mining? Good idea for tread in off-topic...

On a subject. The problem to cool liquid below room temperature is dealing with condensation inside your computer. Can cost you...

[rangerco1]

Right now a Radeon R9 290 hashes at 870KH/s without any serious overclocking. Water cooling can buy me a bit more speed, but ultimately it buys me running at a lower voltage at the same speed. Based on some tests I've seen, it can save 50watts of power per card. Each card mining litecoin can make $240 per month (after power costs), more if you mine alternate coins. So, yes it's fairly profitable. And the CPUs mining quark coins can make another $150 profit per month.

The difficulty is getting rid of the heat, I'm figuring, based on my AC unit, that 10 cards plus CPUS puts out almost 14,000 BTU/hrs.

How can I deal with condensation? would insulating the run do the trick? Or would I be better off with 2 loops, one outside, one to each computer with a heat exchanging tank in between?

[bungwirez]

Now I'm totally fascinated Ranger.
and I don't think you are trying to get to subzero temps as Daz queries, just something reasonable so you aren't sweating while you mine.

sounds like you've tried to get better ventilation in your server room.
as for putting that rad box outside, I think its unnecessary.

can someone show off the math on heat distribution for 3x360 rads vs CPU and SLI??

[rangerco1]

Where would you recommend placing the radiators?

[rangerco1]

My concern is that placing the rads in the same room as the miners would still put out the same BTUs. Am I wrong in assuming that water cooling still outputs the same amount of BTUs as air cooling? I'm thinking that by the laws of thermodynamics, 14,000 BTUs of heat output by the GPUs is still 14,000 BTUs of heat that needs to go somewhere.

I think that it worth my effort to vent the heat outside, even if it's not strictly needed. I think that it would be a fun project to try. What do I need to know about condensation and about long tube runs to make this successful?

[Hooded]

I was thinking I would put a couple rads in my basements cold room for a smaller HTPC case I have.
That room is about 5º - 10º cooler than rest of the house.

[gdesmo]

My concern is that placing the rads in the same room as the miners would still put out the same BTUs. Am I wrong in assuming that water cooling still outputs the same amount of BTUs as air cooling? I'm thinking that by the laws of thermodynamics, 14,000 BTUs of heat output by the GPUs is still 14,000 BTUs of heat that needs to go somewhere.

I think that it worth my effort to vent the heat outside, even if it's not strictly needed. I think that it would be a fun project to try. What do I need to know about condensation and about long tube runs to make this successful?

Yes, energy is not lost or created. What goes in must come out somewhere.BTW 10 gpu's will put out about7-8 thousand BTU's. Other heat sources are the psu's which run at 80-90 % eff. mobo, cpu, hdd's, fan motors, it is a culmination of all these components that add up.

[Father Fuzzy]

some good ideas here

I was going to run a 1080 rad to my unheated garage so the heat could be put there instead of the server room also be easy to vent by opening door if its too stuffy

like hooded says 10 degrees cooler roughly than the liveable area I think this would work well and cool without condensation

interesting thread

[Scruff40]

My buddy and I played with a couple of water chillers on our rigs a couple of years ago and what we found was that so long as your supply water temps were above 50 degrees F condensation wasn't a problem ,50 to 60 degrees will give you really good cooling without worries . I have also installed several Mitubishi mini split AC systems in server rooms for different graphics studios with really good success.
They are quiet , wireless remote and very reliable , easy clean installation.

[gdesmo]

It is the humidity in the air that will determine how cool you can bring your temps. 68 degrees 70 % Hum. allows 58 deg--68 D @ 50 % = 49 degrees and 68 ambient @ 30 % = 35 degrees coolant without condensation. Please remember that basements tend to have higher humidity levels because of lower air circulation levels and transfer. Use a good quality digital Hygrometer to get accurate readings.

[DazMode]

I had few customers in the past who drilled holes in first floor room and run tube to basement for cooler air temperatures and zero noise. Also no worries about condensation.

I also had customers who had rads on balcony. One thing to remember most Glycol pre-mixes will freeze at about -15-17c