Watercool high drive density system

[sdifox]

I am toying with the idea of building a high drive density enclosure for NAS/SAN duty. My problem is I don't have a datacentre with raised floor and dedicated hvac.

I do, however, have a pool. So I know someone pool watercooled their cpu and video card with headers. But that is not exactly feasible with drives. Drives need to be air cooled.


So, what if I have a closed system with a rad on computer side coupled with a fan and the other end is a heat exchanger (or two or three). Pump the water and off we go.




How feasible is this? Or am I completely bonkers? I'll need to figure out winter, but I guess I'll use glycol in the clean loop.

 

[T_Yamamoto]

HDDs can be watercooled.

see

 

[sdifox]

HDDs can be watercooled.

see

Think drive array. Like 15x4TB

 

[Railgun]

Think drive array. Like 15x4TB

So you get 15 of them and run them in parallel. Or three banks of five...or five of three...

The koolance one could be thin enough for your setup...but it depends on what you're using for the chassis.

 

[T_Yamamoto]

Think drive array. Like 15x4TB

So just have it on its own loop.

 

[Ayah]

So just have it on its own loop.

Crappy use of 400-800$.

I'd go with the heat exchanger idea. The idea is definitely feasible.

 

[sdifox]

So just have it on its own loop.

I have a propane heater for the pool... so I figure two bird one stone. Less heat where my server is, more heat in the pool water.

Quite a few places are pumping cold water from lake to cool buildings and data centres. I am just toying with diy.

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deep_water_source_cooling

 

[sdifox]

So you get 15 of them and run them in parallel. Or three banks of five...or five of three...

The koolance one could be thin enough for your setup...but it depends on what you're using for the chassis.

PCBs of the hdd get hot too. That is why I am not sure I can get out of air. Plus not sure I like liquid that can leak inside the enclosure.

 

[Railgun]

Distilled water is used for that very reason. Even IBM uses water cooling. You'll be fine.

 

[sdifox]

Distilled water is used for that very reason. Even IBM uses water cooling. You'll be fine.

I don't have the money IBM has. I thought they heat exchange too? As in still air cooled but air is cooled though heat exchange?

 

[sdifox]

this looks interesting

http://www.hotspotenergy.com/pool-heater/

 

[aigomorla]

this looks interesting

http://www.hotspotenergy.com/pool-heater/

now why would u want to dump heat into a pool on a day where ur AC goes on?
Id rather take cannon ball jump into a cold pool, vs a warm pool on a hot day.


Hard drive watercooling never took off as popular as motherboard watercooling.
The reason was in the case of a hard drive, fans are much better.

We havent found a concensus on where the blocks needed the most cooling on a drive.
We also realized it was overall better having fans blow over the entire drive.
We learn were not allowed to sandwitch the drive with 0 air holes due to the native air hole these drives have.

This is why when u look at almost every vendor in hard drive blocks, its different.
No one can get a clear and cut answer on how to cool these guys better then a straight fan.

 

[sdifox]

now why would u want to dump heat into a pool on a day where ur AC goes on?
Id rather take cannon ball jump into a cold pool, vs a warm pool on a hot day.


Hard drive watercooling never took off as popular as motherboard watercooling.
The reason was in the case of a hard drive, fans are much better.

We havent found a concensus on where the blocks needed the most cooling on a drive.
We also realized it was overall better having fans blow over the entire drive.
We learn were not allowed to sandwitch the drive with 0 air holes due to the native air hole these drives have.

This is why when u look at almost every vendor in hard drive blocks, its different.
No one can get a clear and cut answer on how to cool these guys better then a straight fan.

I am in Canada. Pool is the abomination, not the norm for our weather.
A slightly warmed up pool is still pretty cool. I have a 64k l pool. That is a pretty good sized heat sink. Raising that pool by 1C takes 64k kilocalories.

Me think conventional setup with cooled air blowing upward in a rack is the best option. That way even if the coolng system develops leak, it would not damage the computer.

I just need to figure out pressure, flow rate and heat exchange capacity.