# Ok, I'm Chilled. I'm Chilled. Relax....56K Warning!



## Naja002

*There are updates with pictures throughout this thread*

Well, I've had a lot of fun with my other projects, but I realized a while back that a chiller would probably be my best bet all the way around. So, after doing the car rad(s)--indoor/outdoor, geothermal, bongs and HVC....I finally decided to do the chiller-thing.







Of course, the chiller scraps everything else...except the indoor rad--I can still use that for winter heat.









I started surfing around checking out this years A/Cs, rechecking on coolers, etc. I wanted one of the Coleman 150qt. 5-day coolers....but I ended up going with an Igloo Polar 120qt., because of price and availability.







Still a good cooler, but the Coleman 5-day's (Extreme/Marine) reviews are outstanding!









Anyway, I ran into a snag with the window that I had always intended to mount the A/C in (yeah, I've been thinking about this for a long time)--most/many of the smaller A/Cs require a minimum 14" window opening (height), but there are a few that don't. In the end though it didn't matter, because I said screw the window, I'll pull the rads and reverse the fans and blow some of the heat out the window.









So, while still trying to talk myself out of this for at least a while longer (







)--I started surfing craiglist. I found a small Frigidaire 5KBTU locally for $50. Said: "Screw it". Picked up the cooler. Picked up the A/C. So, this was done....just a little assembly required...









So, this is what I've come up with:



















Plumbing coming out of the chiller headed toward the PCs:










Return to the chiller:










I really wanted electronic thermostat/controls and "Energy Saver", but I would have had to buy a new A/C, so that would have about doubled the cost.










I cut a small opening in the lid for the wires, etc to pass through:










Filled it with weather stripping foam just to help prevent the transfer of air:










Marked my spot for when I close the lid:










Pix of the guts:




























I added a small 11w 200gph pump to help circulation inside the cooler. It definitely helps even out temps:










2 temp probes side-by-side:










These are the low end temps that I have it set for--the compressor kicks on:



















And then kicks off at:



















I set this up in the morning and it ran fine all day. No problems whatsoever. About 20 hrs later--I had alarms going off. I checked the coolant temp=116F/46C. I'm not 100% sure what the cause of it was, but I think and guessed that it was the temp probe. I'm assuming that the part exposed to the outside of the cooler was effected by the low ambient temps--so the compressor didn't kick on. So, I put some tubing over the probe length to help it read the temp inside the cooler only. Seems to have worked:









I haven't had any problems since....:up:

When the compressor is off the unit uses 47-48w for the fan motor. When the compressor is running it uses right at:










I took some on/off cycle times. The off cycle averaged 11min 55sec and the on cycle averaged 12min 12secs. So, for me that's close enough to say that it's going to run ~50% of the time. Problem is: that's ~5 cycles every 2 hours or 60 cycles/day. Seems like a bit much. So, I added 6 more gals of water. Hopefully that will help it cycle just a bit less. I encountered a small leak toward the top of the return bulkhead fitting. So, before I can add anymore (water or anti-freeze) I am going to have to remove a bit of the fluid and tighten that sucker up a bit more. Once it's sealed properly I can add quite a bit more fluid. Physics says that there isn't much I can do about the 50% run time. But it also says that more fluid mass *should* reduce the number of cycles/day.









Here's a 38sec video showing the circulation and return flow:



*No, I'm not interested in sub-zero, etc. I'm sub-ambient now....just above the dewpoint<--worst case. Hoping I stay just above the dewpoint.*









*Cost:*

A/C--$50
Cooler--$57
Anti-freeze--$55
I had everything else.

Other then a few very minor issues....I really didn't have any problems setting this up. My estimate is that it should cost ~$20.29/month to run this, so:

*Looks like I'm ready for summer!*

*ApogeeGT water blocks:*



























Goes from the chiller/pvc to this manifold and then to the PCs:










Crunchin' Boinc: WCG + GpuGrid:










*Index of prior Projects:*

Yes, Another Car Radiator Thread....Major 56K Warning!

Bong! Bong! Bong! --56K Warning!

Horizontal Volenti Cooler.....56K Warning!

The Hole&#8230;Geothermal Loop&#8230;56K Warning!


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## corky dorkelson

Wow great work! Really great temps on the 775 quads! Boy your i7 sure is a volcano, though. Man those suckers run HOT!


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## Naja002

Quote:


Originally Posted by *corky dorkelson* 
Wow great work! Really great temps on the 775 quads! Boy your i7 sure is a volcano, though. Man those suckers run HOT!

Thanx! and Agreed! But the i7 is running 4.1 on an ApogeeGT block at 70C or under....highest core average is 68C. ApogeeGT Blocks really just can't handle the i7. Once spring/summer temps started showing up I moved it from 3.8 to 3.4. Now I'm at 4.1 24/7.....


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## Daney

Those temps are awesome man, great job.

I wish I could do something like that









Keep it up, +rep.


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## eclipseaudio4

Nice build! But you gotta do a sub zero run just for some benchies and to see what your chip will do. Plus It's cool to see your temps @ -*c with full load at a very high OC.


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## Gill..

Awesome job, learned a bit....

Love that you use BOINC too, I think you and I are in the minority. I use it for benching and stability testing (enigma and Seti enhanced). I do this responsibly though (so as to not screw up the crunching).

I just installed Ubuntu first time recently and was able to bench BOINC in Linux versus Vista.... interesting observation - when run in Linux, it trounced my numbers from Vista... trounced it!

If you're interested (if you haven't run this test yourself - which I'm guessing you have)
Linux Ubuntu x64 (AMD 940 BE @ 3.7)
Measured floating point speed3577.99 million ops/secMeasured integer speed11408.74 million ops/sec

Vista x 64 (AMD 940 BE @3.7)
Measured floating point speed2957.14 million ops/secMeasured integer speed9096.79 million ops/sec

Pretty crazy huh?

Again good work and good post.


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## Naja002

Quote:


Originally Posted by *Daney* 
Those temps are awesome man, great job.

I wish I could do something like that









Keep it up, +rep.


Thanx!









Quote:


Originally Posted by *eclipseaudio4* 
Nice build! But you gotta do a sub zero run just for some benchies and to see what your chip will do. Plus It's cool to see your temps @ -*c with full load at a very high OC.

Thanx!







, but: Sorry, not gunna happen. There are 3 rigs on this cooling system, so I would have to prep for condensation for: 3x CPUs, 3x NB, 5x GPUs. Too much work. I'm a Cruncher, not a Bencher.









Quote:


Originally Posted by *Gill..* 
Awesome job, learned a bit....

Love that you use BOINC too, I think you and I are in the minority. I use it for benching and stability testing (enigma and Seti enhanced). I do this responsibly though (so as to not screw up the crunching).

I just installed Ubuntu first time recently and was able to bench BOINC in Linux versus Vista.... interesting observation - when run in Linux, it trounced my numbers from Vista... trounced it!

If you're interested (if you haven't run this test yourself - which I'm guessing you have)
Linux Ubuntu x64 (AMD 940 BE @ 3.7)
Measured floating point speed3577.99 million ops/secMeasured integer speed11408.74 million ops/sec

Vista x 64 (AMD 940 BE @3.7)
Measured floating point speed2957.14 million ops/secMeasured integer speed9096.79 million ops/sec

Pretty crazy huh?

Again good work and good post.

From what I understand Linux 64 is faster than windows. I checked out Ubuntu, but moved away from it after about 5hrs of head banging. Synaptic Manager? Uh, sorry, but there's nothing "intuitive" about that. Personally, I would think that with all of the people working on it worldwide--it would be much more "user-friendly". I OC my crunchers, so I need to keep an eye on temps--especially when setting up the OC. I could not get the dohicky installed to display temps. Nobody else could seem to understand what the issue was....so, it didn't get fixed and I moved away from linux. I guess I just really need a guide that will take me by the hand and walk me through the park. I've found one or 2 since, but lack the motivation to "embrace" linux again. I will sooner or later, but right now it looks like later.....









A bit of an update:

Putting the tubing over the temp probe seemed to help, but only some. Ambient temps in the out-building directly effect the mechanical thermostat, so when temps outside (/in the out-building) get below the set temp--the mechanical thermostat shuts the compressor off and leaves it off.







I've thought and thought, tried to insulate the thermostat, etc. I have quite a bit of experience from my +30yrs dealing with reptiles, aquariums, etc. I cannot see any reasonable, simple way to overcome this. So, I went ahead and bought 1 of these:










Ranco 111000

I looked at the Johnson Controls. I have a couple of Helix Proportional Controllers, but they are Proportional, so they won't work in this situation. Anyway, the Ranco have been around for a long, long time. They are used by zoos and aquaruims worldwide. Many, many animal keepers (public or private) use them. Convenience stores, restaurants for their coolers/freezers. In all: they are tried and true. Very reliable units.

They offer heating or cooling (not both on single stage), temp range from -30 to 220F, and a Differential range: 1Â° to 30Â°F.

They are designed for use with resistive loads (motors) and will resolve this issue 100%. The differential range will allow me to set the temps at which the compressor kicks on and off. With the mechanical thermostat it's 5F. Now I will be able to set it anywhere from 1-30F.

I'm hoping it gets here this coming week. I did not buy the wired shown, so I need to pick up the wiring, get it wired up and installed. Until then: My water temps are 63-68F and humidity stays ~50% in here, so condensation starts forming at about 84-85F/30C in here. I'll have to keep the A/Cs running until I get this setup. I usually turn them up to 82F when I'm not here/working. The ambient right at the PCs goes up to 85-86F which is too high=condensation.

Fingers crossed on no more major issues between now and then....


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## Naja002

Well, the controller arrived a couple of days ago. I had picked up the wiring--went with 14 gauge. Call me crazy, but I would rather burn up the controller then burn down the building! I'm just kinda quirky like that!







I got it wired up, no problem, but had 1 minor issue. While waiting for it to arrive, I learned that the probe (sensor) is not supposed to be submerged. Well, that kinda screws things up!







So, I had a choice:

1) Purchase a $30 "Bulb Well Assembly", pay another shipping charge and wait a bit longer, Or....

2) Improvise.









I chose #2.







First was coming up with at least a temporary fix. I considered siliconing, epoxying, etc the sensor and wiring, but I really didn't want to do that. So, I got out a couple of aquarium heater holders and some pvc:










I knew this was going to be temporary, so I glued the bottom submersed cap on, but not the top cap. Drilled a hole in the top cap that the sensor would squeeze through and then babysat the system for a little while. Actually worked pretty good really.







The thermal conductivity of pvc is like 0.19 or something low, so I was curious what my temp range was going to be. I set the differential for 2F--it turned out not to be more then ~4F which is actually pretty darn good. But not good enough.....









I knew I had a +1Ft piece of 1/2" copper pipe laying around, but also knew that I did not have any caps for it. So, a stop by lowes fixed that and while I was there I went ahead and picked up a rubber grommet. Yesterday I was pretty tired and I knew things could hold another day, so I procrastinated until today. Got my butt out there and got this fix fixed!









Sweated on the bottom copper cap:










Got the grommet over the sensor and a hole drilled through the top cap:










Even though I could have sweat the top cap on and inserted the probe after things cooled--I knew that some time in the future I would want to remove that probe--the hole is tight, so I can't necessarily just get it back out. I chose to silicone the cap on and silicone over the grommet and wiring:










I have no intention of submersing the top of this thing, so the silicone should do a good job of keeping the moisture out long term--that's all that's really needed.









So, next I needed to mount it into the cooler. Why not go with a good thing already? I knew that the heater holders would not clip onto the copper pipe because it's just too narrow. So, time to improvise again.







Took a small scrap piece of 3/4" pvc, cut it into 4 pieces, clipped 1 piece into each heater clip and slid the copper setup right down in there:










Picked up a couple more gals of anti-freeze at walmart when I hit lowes, so I added that:



















So, now there is ~7.75 gals of anti-freeze and 17 gals of water.







I need to do another time study to see how long my on/off cycles times are now. I doubt I'll do it today, but hopefully some time this weekend.









Just a larger view:



















Oh, yeah, I fixed the return bulkhead leak by loosening the bulkhead and siliconing under and all around it. Not the preferred way to go, but useful in these types of situations. The preferred route is no leaking bulkhead to start with....









So far so good:










Max temp over the last 30+ mins is 70C. The mins kinda worry me though. I may move everything up a couple of degrees after everything settles in. I would rather move my max temp up to say 75C than deal with condensation!









Oh, and I lowered my OC down to ~4.0 for now.....









*More Updates at Post #25*


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## assaulth3ro911

AWESOME SETUP!!!

=]]]
Good luck!

Wish I had a nice setup like you.. >.>


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## phospholipid

lolwut


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## Thedark1337

i love the fact you are the one with all cooling equipment in one dedicated house, me thinks not a lot of people have one


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## Lord Xeb

Those are really fine temps there man. Great job! Also, just to see if you can get lower temps, go and run a pump in the res you have.


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## Xx_xBLADEx_xX

What happens if you move? LOL... Just a thought.


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## JoeyTB

Pictures are dead for me :S


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## Naja002

Quote:


Originally Posted by *assaulth3ro911* 
AWESOME SETUP!!!

=]]]
Good luck!

Wish I had a nice setup like you.. >.>

Thanx!

Quote:


Originally Posted by *Thedark1337* 
i love the fact you are the one with all cooling equipment in one dedicated house, me thinks not a lot of people have one










I've been having a lot of fun over the last yr checking out a lot of different things!









Quote:


Originally Posted by *Lord Xeb* 
Those are really fine temps there man. Great job! Also, just to see if you can get lower temps, go and run a pump in the res you have.

There is a circulation pump running in the res to help even out the res temp....

Quote:


Originally Posted by *Xx_xBLADEx_xX* 
What happens if you move? LOL... Just a thought.

The disposable stuff (pvc) goes to the dump, and the reusable stuff goes with me.







To be setup however the situation permits.....









Quote:


Originally Posted by *JoeyTB* 
Pictures are dead for me :S

I exceeded the bandwidth (25GB) on my photobucket account. I went ahead and paid the $11.85 for 3 months. I've put up a lot of pix in a lot of different places recently (and a ton over the years). Hopefully things will level out some in the next 3 months and I won't have to pay the $40/yr.....


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## mmparkskier

How do you do it?

I patiently await your next project.


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## Socom

Why must people resurrect dead threads?


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## Naja002

Quote:


Originally Posted by *mmparkskier* 
How do you do it?

I patiently await your next project.


















Quote:


Originally Posted by *Socom* 
Why must people resurrect dead threads?

There's nothing at all dead about this thread....


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## RaBidRaBit

Yeah, that is pretty cool. I hadn't seen this thread before. Don't know how I missed it.

Thanks for bumping it, guy.

Nice work OP!!


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## Rampage Jackson

Good stuff Naja. I'm about to attempt your Volenti Cooler at some point soon...


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## Naja002

Quote:


Originally Posted by *RaBidRaBit* 
Yeah, that is pretty cool. I hadn't seen this thread before. Don't know how I missed it.

Thanks for bumping it, guy.

Nice work OP!!


















Quote:


Originally Posted by *Rampage Jackson* 
Good stuff Naja. I'm about to attempt your Volenti Cooler at some point soon...


Cool. If you want any thoughts...just let me know. What I did was just an experiment, so use your imagination! nub built one and is very happy with it...not sure of the details of it though....









Nub....you need to document it!


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## ira-k

You do some really nice work, I'm a chronic long term cooling nut and your builds make me drool and give me the warm fuzzies...







...Temps and flow, I can loose sleep over either one if they aren't where I think they should be.

Plain old fashioned over-kill is such a beautiful thing...


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## Naja002

Quote:


Originally Posted by *ira-k* 
You do some really nice work, I'm a chronic long term cooling nut and your builds make me drool and give me the warm fuzzies...







...Temps and flow, I can loose sleep over either one if they aren't where I think they should be.

Plain old fashioned over-kill is such a beautiful thing...









I'll tell ya: I really like this chiller setup. Temps are stable 24/7, no need to worry about ambient, humidity or anything else. It just does it's thing 24/7/365....set it and forget it.

I just got done hooking up my plateHX chiller in here. So, I'll be able to conserve the heat this winter and maintain stable chilled temps all yr round. I'll leave the outside chiller hooked up, plugged in and ready to go. Whenever it's a bit warm in here....I'll just turn this indoor chiller off and then the outdoor chiller will take over and pump the heat outside. When it starts cooling down in here....just turn the indoor chiller on...and it will start pumping the heat inside again. This is the long-term future for me. I love it!









Overkill? With 4 quads and 6 Gpus OCed and crunching full bore 24/7/365....there's really not much overkill here...


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## ira-k

Quote:


Originally Posted by *Naja002* 
I'll tell ya: I really like this chiller setup. Temps are stable 24/7, no need to worry about ambient, humidity or anything else. It just does it's thing 24/7/365....set it and forget it.

I just got done hooking up my plateHX chiller in here. So, I'll be able to conserve the heat this winter and maintain stable chilled temps all yr round. I'll leave the outside chiller hooked up, plugged in and ready to go. Whenever it's a bit warm in here....I'll just turn this indoor chiller off and then the outdoor chiller will take over and pump the heat outside. When it starts cooling down in here....just turn the indoor chiller on...and it will start pumping the heat inside again. This is the long-term future for me. I love it!









Overkill? With 4 quads and 6 Gpus OCed and crunching full bore 24/7/365....there's really not much overkill here...










HaHa...







..It's one of the classiest chiller builds I've ever seen, very nice! But me I'd have to take it as low as it would go!

And you even have it plumbed for HVAC! Well done!

Thanks for documenting all your builds so well, I know it's a pain to stop and take pic's, upload and all that...







...It's a great example of what a person can do with some ingenuity, time and just plain old fashioned "Want To" power!


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## Naja002

Just wanted to update this:

As many of you know, I try to conserve energy by pumping the heat from my rigs outside during the warmer months, and pumping it inside during the colder months. In the past I did this with indoor/outdoor rads. Early this last summer I did the ghetto chiller that this thread has been about (above). Well, during this last summer I converted a 5K BTU AC to a plateHX chiller. Winter is here, so now I'm wanting to pump the heat inside again, but I really don't want to give up the chilled water. So, I've connected the plateHX chiller to my manifold for indoor/outdoor chillers!







When it's too warm in here I turn off the indoor chiller and the outdoor chiller automatically takes over. When it's cool in here I just reach over and push the On button for the indoor chiller....and it starts pumping the heat inside here. At first it was like: Holy Cow that's Loud!







But now I barely even notice it.







It does not bother me while I'm sleeping, but I sleep like a rock anyway, so......







:

First a quick rehash of the plateHX chiller:

*I took a standard 5K BTU AC:*


















*Yanked the Evap and installed a plateHX:*



























*And put it back together again:*


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## Naja002

*Then I ordered another Ranco controller like above and got it wired up and ready to go:*



















*Covered the probe with 2 layers of super-duper heat shrink and got it installed into a pvc tee and ready to be connected up:*





































*Added some plumbing to my manifold, since I was short 1 connection:*










*Set the chiller up where I wanted it and ran the tubing:*



















*Added some filter material:*










At a 75F ambient in here the unit uses ~ 500w after the compressor warms up. It runs at the current heat load: 41mins on, 19mins off. So, it's on ~16hrs/day which equals ~$20.74/month at my current electric cost. That's a loss during the warmer months, but not during the colder months....helps keep me from paying to run the main heater, and supplements it when I do.









So, it's a done deal! Works *great!* With the single push of a button I can direct the heat where I want it to go. Since it's fall right now the days are often warm enough that I don't want to be adding any more heat inside. But the nights are definitely getting cool. I've not turned on my main heating unit for the year yet.

And best of all, I get to maintain constant stable temps all yr round. No messing with overclocks, turning valves, going outside to turn a pump on or off.







Nothing. Just push a frickin' Button!







Oh, Happy Days!


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## ira-k

Well your styling now, fancy push button guy that you are..







..Thats pretty slick, I really like that..









How expensive are the HX plates? They really do make a cleaner looking rig then a slush-box. I bet you loose a lot less cold with one to. $20 a month is great for all that! I run around $30 a month on TEC or just single stage, and that's just for one chip!

I wish I didn't braze like a drunk chimp, it looks like fun...







...Keep those updates coming as you do them, were loving it!


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## Naja002

For the type of stuff we do a 10 plate HX is all that would ever be needed. The best place to get one is from DudaDesiel on ebay. You won't find a better shipped price ($45 shipped) or seller. He's very well known for these....

I had never done any brazing or welding before converting that. I got a lot of very expensive and nifty tools that I can now do all kinds of nifty stuff with!









Yeah, personally, I think $20/month is very cheap for what I get. And, Again, that's a loss during the warmer months, but a "gain" during the cooler months!

Not sure what I'm going to be doing next or when....been thinking about a farm-size chillbox for a long time now. But I've been upgrading the GPU aspect of my crunching farm. Picked up 3x 5850s and 1x 5870. Still need to get water blocks. And GpuGrid is going ATI finally (!), so I'm going to need a family pack of Win7.

Needless to say, poverty is knocking on the door!








I'm hiding, I'm hiding! But they're coming to get me!


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## nub

This is pretty inspiring. Think it should be in the phase section though









What is this gpu grid thing you mention?


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## Lord Xeb

Kick ass!


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## Naja002

Quote:


Originally Posted by *nub* 
This is pretty inspiring. Think it should be in the phase section though









What is this gpu grid thing you mention?


GpuGrid

I know you do some Folding, but not sure how familiar you are with the Distributed Computing (DC) world. Folding is just 1 DC project. There are many, many others. Folding was the first to get GPU computing working. GpuGrid was the first to get it working within BOINC. Now there's Seti, Milkway, Collatz, Einstein. It's the future....here today!









Check it out. I've been doing GpuGrid almost from it's Gpu beginning. It started on PS3....which was before my time. I'm running Collatz right now....just being a points-whore atm. (







) But I normally try to run humanitarian oriented projects, or DC tech advancement oriented, or both when possible. WCG (world Community Grid) is my main project, but it's still cpu only. [email protected] and GpuGrid have made huge strides in the advancement of Gpu computing technology......And both of their projects should benefit humanity medically and/or scientifically in addition to computer science.

This may be uptodate or outofdate, but:

Wikipedia-List of distributed computing projects

What was the question again?


















Quote:


Originally Posted by *Lord Xeb* 
Kick ass!

Thanx!!


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## ira-k

Quote:

For the type of stuff we do a 10 plate HX is all that would ever be needed. The best place to get one is from DudaDesiel on ebay. You won't find a better shipped price ($45 shipped) or seller. He's very well known for these....
Oh Man, That's not bad at all, I was expecting something much more expensive! Thanks for the link.

Quote:

I had never done any brazing or welding before converting that. I got a lot of very expensive and nifty tools that I can now do all kinds of nifty stuff with!








Hey tools are something you'll have for a long time and a skill is something that once learned can never be taken away.

I can half-way braze, and or glob it together depending on you point of view..







..







..I can also burn holes through 1/2" steel plate with a stick welder, I'm a multi talented globber togetherer...







...I can sweat solder half way decently though, go figure huh.

Quote:

Yeah, personally, I think $20/month is very cheap for what I get. And, Again, that's a loss during the warmer months, but a "gain" during the cooler months!
Your not kidding that's cheap to cool all that, it goes to show just how efficiently you've built this. And that added heat in winter is a real big plus to, you most likely get more then a straight $20 bux to a utility company would get you.

Quote:

Not sure what I'm going to be doing next or when....been thinking about a farm-size chillbox for a long time now. But I've been upgrading the GPU aspect of my crunching farm. Picked up 3x 5850s and 1x 5870. Still need to get water blocks. And GpuGrid is going ATI finally (!), so I'm going to need a family pack of Win7.
That would be cool, and in the case of a crunching farm the extra cooling should extend the life of your components.

Quote:

Needless to say, poverty is knocking on the door!







I'm hiding, I'm hiding! But they're coming to get me!








Man I hear you there, this stuff gets expensive for me and I don't even try to stay on the bleeding edge.

But it is good clean fun, we could have a lot worse habits and hobbies...







..At least cooling gear is durable, it lasts for years, that helps off-set some of the cost, or at least I keep telling myself that.

I may have to try one of those HX plates. I have a 5000BTU window AC that I've been intending to make a slush-box out of for a couple years now..







..I may just have to glob one on it. It would be great to sub zero cool the entire mobo. I kill a lot of mobo's running dice, if I could cool it all down a some I bet it would help to prevent that a little.

Don't forget us when you do a farm chiller or whatever you do decide on, we all love seeing nicely done well thought out cooling rigs!


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## Naja002

Quote:


Originally Posted by *ira-k* 
Oh Man, That's not bad at all, I was expecting something much more expensive! Thanks for the link.

As you already know--that's _cheap_ for what they do. They are very effective and their small size is a huge benefit. As long as someone is willing to recover, braze and tune....they are definitely the way to go. For the average joe, a ghetto chiller or slush box as you call it, can't be beat for ease of construction/setup. But that plateHX chiller that I did is designed to still be window mountable as it was originally designed by the manufacturer. Mounted in a window...I'd say....it would be the quietest chiller you'll ever find!

Quote:


Originally Posted by *ira-k* 
Hey tools are something you'll have for a long time and a skill is something that once learned can never be taken away.

Agreed. But these tools are _cool_, IMO. It's nice to be able to cut a piece of wood, turn a nut, screw a screw. But brazing? Man, that opens up a whole new world of possibilities for me! Pulling a vacuum? Hehehe, the best insulation around today is a vacuum. I already had C02. Now I have N2. If I do a chillbox....I'll just replace the "air" with C02 or N2...both of which are heavier then air.







Closed environment, little to no "air"....bye, bye condensation.

Quote:


Originally Posted by *ira-k* 
I can half-way braze, and or glob it together depending on you point of view..







..







..I can also burn holes through 1/2" steel plate with a stick welder, I'm a multi talented globber togetherer...







...I can sweat solder half way decently though, go figure huh.

You would need to braze for the chiller, but you can pull most of it off with simple Mapp. For the mixed metal...SS to copper...of the plateHX, you would need atleast oxy/mapp. Oxy/acet if you have access to it.

Quote:


Originally Posted by *ira-k* 
Your not kidding that's cheap to cool all that, it goes to show just how efficiently you've built this. And that added heat in winter is a real big plus to, you most likely get more then a straight $20 bux to a utility company would get you.

It's probably about $22/month during the summer, so if that's averaged out over the yr...it should work out to ~$21/month. That's ~$252/yr. For me, that's well worth the reduced hassle factor! I was beating myself up with the card rads during spring and fall....now? All those hassles are _gone!_ And it was costing ~$6/month to run the 2 fans. And did not offer the 24/7/365 stability that I have now. So, for about $15/month more I get great sub ambient-zero condensation temps....virtually hassle-free!

I was up to ~$135/month in electric costs to run 3 rigs chilled. Now I've added another quad and 5850, so that's going to add ~$25/month. I'm adding 2x 5850, and 1x 5870 as soon as they get here (this coming week), but I'm going to pull 3x 8800s, so I'm not quite sure what my electric cost is going to look like! Best guess atm is that I will be adding ~534w running the cards at stock....which won't happen!







Best guess: add $34/month total for the upgrades. (not including added runtime on the chillers.)
Did I miss the part where I talk about _conserving_ energy???









Quote:


Originally Posted by *ira-k* 
That would be cool, and in the case of a crunching farm the extra cooling should extend the life of your components.

Agreed. That's one of the reasons that I do it. This stuff all starts adding up pretty fast. These new ATI cards for example, I have no idea how long I am going to run these. When Fermi comes out....maybe I'll swap them out--but that's not normal for me. Usually I ride this stuff until I look like the dudes on the minibike in "Dumb and Dumber"!







So, I want it to last for personal reasons and for whatever resale that happens.

Quote:


Originally Posted by *ira-k* 
Man I hear you there, this stuff gets expensive for me and I don't even try to stay on the bleeding edge.

Trust me--I don't either. I run 5x 8800GSs and 1x 8800GT.....mopeds. Now they weren't necessarily mopeds when I started, but they have been for a while now. But it's time to upgrade! These new 58xx series ATI cards are _monsters_ for the cost. I've been running these 8800s for over a yr now.....that's a millennium or more in GPU time.









I've definitely gotten my $$ worth out of them and hopefully can get a few bucks back on them also. They have done very well at helping to advance the GPU computing technology, provided many hrs of entertainment, etc, etc, etc. Made all of my WCing project a reality. So, now it's time to upgrade. ATI is still fairly new to GPU computing. My main GPU project is just now going ATI, but by a different path then the few others. GpuGrid is porting CUDA to OpenGL. What exactly that means in English....I'm not so sure, but you can bank that it's hot "futuristic" stuff!







(cue startrek theme)

Quote:


Originally Posted by *ira-k* 
But it is good clean fun, we could have a lot worse habits and hobbies...







..At least cooling gear is durable, it lasts for years, that helps off-set some of the cost, or at least I keep telling myself that.

Honestly, for a ghetto chiller....used ACs are a dime a dozen on craigslist. With this new upgrade....I might max out one of these chillers. That won't be a problem until the warmer days start showing up again. And you're right....with little maintenance/thought...these should run for yrs--trouble-free.

Now if you are referring to WCing blocks! Then 1 of the worst investments is GPU blocks. I'm still running ApogeeGT blocks on my quads and they do just fine still, except on the i7. But with the chilled water--it's in good shape! But because of the speed of GPU advancement and the constantly changing pcb layout....GPU cooling is a nightmare! But that's why I try to get good cards and just run them to their usable life. I may take a large hit in $$$ in the end, but I get a lot of mileage out of the stuff.

Quote:


Originally Posted by *ira-k* 
I may have to try one of those HX plates. I have a 5000BTU window AC that I've been intending to make a slush-box out of for a couple years now..







..I may just have to glob one on it. It would be great to sub zero cool the entire mobo. I kill a lot of mobo's running dice, if I could cool it all down a some I bet it would help to prevent that a little.

Dice is a different world, of course. I've never done Dice/LN2 myself, been busy with all this WCing, crunching, etc For some reason I have very little personal interest in Dice/LN2/Phase, but I'm not a bencher, plus the setup costs, etc. But I do think it's all very cool from a spectator's chair!

I would say give the chiller a whirl. Either a ghetto chiller or a plateHX. I think you would like it.

Quote:


Originally Posted by *ira-k* 
Don't forget us when you do a farm chiller or whatever you do decide on, we all love seeing nicely done well thought out cooling rigs!

Oh, I won't. Sharing is half the fun!


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## ira-k

^^HaHa..







..No one can say your not enthusiastic! That's what I like to see...







..I love cooling gear and OC'ing, there's always something to make or something to try, it never ends and the possibilities are actually endless. Thats what makes it such a great hobby!

There was a guy here named JKenzie (?) that had a chiller set-up, he had each of his blocks in a little air tight plexi box that he made for them. I may be mistaken but I think he pulled a vacum on them and added a heavy gas. he said he had 0 condensation with them and you could still see the nice copper blocks that he made.

Maybe try a Swifty 60 on your cards, they are usually real good about bringing out new mount brackets for them as needed. Maybe make some little straight through WB's for your card ram, it wouldn't take much to keep them well cooled..


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## Imglidinhere

Whoa.... Just looked at this and I'm just curious about the last picture on the first post... are those 4 separate motherboards linked or something?


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## Naja002

Yep. I'm a cruncher and I run 5 quads plus Gpus....4 of which are on this chilled water. If you look @ pic #7 of post #26 it shows where I hooked up this indoor chiller to the setup, and the cheapo re-enforced braided tubing from Lowes goes to the 4th quad. The 5th quad is on it's own loop.


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## Caedis

Quote:


Originally Posted by *Naja002* 
From what I understand Linux 64 is faster than windows. I checked out Ubuntu, but moved away from it after about 5hrs of head banging. Synaptic Manager? Uh, sorry, but there's nothing "intuitive" about that. Personally, I would think that with all of the people working on it worldwide--it would be much more "user-friendly". I OC my crunchers, so I need to keep an eye on temps--especially when setting up the OC. I could not get the dohicky installed to display temps. Nobody else could seem to understand what the issue was....so, it didn't get fixed and I moved away from linux. I guess I just really need a guide that will take me by the hand and walk me through the park. I've found one or 2 since, but lack the motivation to "embrace" linux again. I will sooner or later, but right now it looks like later.....









I know your all setup and your systems are tweaked perfectly... buuuuut, you seem like a man who enjoys the pursuit of perfection. And you are right, Linux x64 generally dominates BOINC vs Windows (from what I hear) I don't think I had posted my Linux temps threads when you were working on this so I just thought I'd volunteer my services and offer a potential avenue of improvement.

If you do want to give Ubuntu Linux another shot, I'd recommend checking out my Linux threads, they may be able to smooth out some of the rough patches in Linux and make your farm even more streamlined.

How-to: Linux Temps and System Monitors

Oh and btw, +rep for having the balls to make a psychotically overkill Liquid cooling rig that I would only dream of.


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## king_play334

my dad would punch me in the face if i even asked him about doing something like that! awsome setup bro!


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## shurik06_83

what are the temps u get at the exchnager when u run the ac full out

been toying with an idea like this for a long time and i have 3 ac units to choose from and i have all the tools


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## shurik06_83

sorry for posting againe what did the system evac cost u or did u evac ur self useing another compresor


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## Naja002

Quote:


Originally Posted by *shurik06_83* 
sorry for posting againe what did the system evac cost u or did u evac ur self useing another compresor

I used a recovery unit that I bought...

Quote:


Originally Posted by *shurik06_83* 
what are the temps u get at the exchnager when u run the ac full out

been toying with an idea like this for a long time and i have 3 ac units to choose from and i have all the tools


Basically with R-22 you're only going to get down to ~ -25 to -30C. A larger unit will offer more capacity. A different refrigerant will offer a higher or lower low-end temp.


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## chunkII123

Quote:


Originally Posted by *Naja002* 
I exceeded the bandwidth (25GB) on my photobucket account. I went ahead and paid the $11.85 for 3 months. I've put up a lot of pix in a lot of different places recently (and a ton over the years). Hopefully things will level out some in the next 3 months and I won't have to pay the $40/yr.....









These are some *AMAZING* builds. I have an unlimited hosting account, I would be willing to host your pics for you... Lemme know.


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## Naja002

Quote:


Originally Posted by *chunkII123* 
These are some *AMAZING* builds. I have an unlimited hosting account, I would be willing to host your pics for you... Lemme know.
















Thanx! And Thanx for the offer!







Right now I'm good until Sept. When the 3 months ran out...I managed to ride free for a bit, and then exceeded the bandwidth again. But this time they offered me a yr for $25....so I went for it. I simply have too many posts, in too many places, over too much time to be fiddling with it much. I have a website...hence, ability to host my own pictures, but trying to relink all of the pix in all of the threads, etc, etc, etc....just not worth it.









Just wanted to say a few things:

1) This is definitely the way to go for 24/7/365 stability and convenience.














Winter is coming to a close and spring temp variance will be arriving shortly. So, I will be going to pushing that single button probably twice a day for a few months.







Been thinking about adding either another ranco controller or an AC thermostat to turn this indoor chiller on/off via the temp in this room....that would automate the spring/fall situation.
















2) I've barely run my main heater this yr....Yes, as cold as it's been. I ran it for ~10 days in Jan when we had a stretch where the days were in the 20s and the nights in the teens. Then recently for just a few days while temps were in the same range. If ya factor in the "productivity" of my PCs, hobby value, etc....this has more then paid for itself. Note: I spend most of my time in this room, so the focus is heating this room to my comfort zone. The door stays wide open. The temp in this room is normally ~80F and in the rest of the place....it's probably around 68F to low 70's.

3) I've been tossing some project ideas around in my head. Not sure what, or If, I'm going to pursue anything atm. I seriously doubt I will pursue a farm-sized chill box....just way too inconvenient when anything hardware related is required. Maybe a chillbox for 1 or 2 rigs just to check it out, but I seriously doubt I'll do anything for 4 or all 5 rigs. Contemplating converting my ghetto chiller into a dual plateHX chiller. That would free up a 5K btu condenser for a single-unit indoor/outdoor window mountable chiller I've been thinking about. But by converting my ghetto chiller into a dual plateHX....I would be able to cool the condensing side via my car rads, Bongs, HVC or any combo. Considering that I now have the tools and supplies, it wouldn't be that expensive to pursue these things.....just a lot of work. Which I guess is the point of a "project", huh?







But, atm, I'm feeling quite lazy, burnt out, distracted....and enjoying this current setup!


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## ira-k

Glad to hear your still satisfied with it since it has settled in for a bit. Amazingly nice build!...









Hey I hear you Naj, kick back and enjoy it for a while, don't turn it into work! I never rush anymore, thats a good way to get burned out on a hobby for sure.


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## Naja002

Thanx, ira-k! I checked with dudadesiel and he's out of the plateHXs that I would need (10 plate x 3/8" cusweat x 3/4"NPT) to convert the ghetto chiller into a dual plateHX WCed chiller....so, that will have to wait a bit at least.


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## shurik06_83

why not make ur own coile heat EX some 3/8 ref tubeing inside 1/2 water tubeing make a nice coile and ur set

just an idea might be worth a shot if u have tubeing laying around
if not then a plate is the way to go


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## Naja002

Just ordered the unisinks, etc to put these 58xx series cards under water. I should be pushing ~1Kw once that's done. That's a lot of heat. With a plateHX....I don't need to worry or determine whether it will handle the load....it will handle whatever load I throw at it, so it's a no brainer. Don't have to deal with flow or anything else. Just keeps it simple. Since I'm over the impact of buying all the tools and supplies....~$90 for a couple of plateHXs...doesn't seem so bad to me. Well worth the money...and really no "better" option available.

I could do 3/8" or 1/4" coil inside of 4" pvc....x2.....that would be a bit of a project.


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## shurik06_83

A/C chillers kick as5 if i set myne up like urs with a big rez and make it cut in and out before freezing it would be good but i dont have the space


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## shurik06_83

what did u use to get ur chiller to cut out and come back on at pre set temps the oil turnd out to be a pita i wana go with a block on the cpu and the vid card and use a huge rez and my chiller

summer i will have to set it 15c off temp and 20c on temp right now i can do 10c and still no condensation

anywho i want to know where u got the thingy and what the thingy is called

thanks a bunch from now on i will call u the chiller master cause u got urs working and myne is kicking my As5 at evry turn


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## Naja002

Check out Post #7, and then click the link. There are other controllers available, but the rancos are tried and true...used in many, many applications world-wide for many yrs. The link is to just the controller...unwired. Wiring is easy. If you get one just let me know and I'll give you a link on how to wire it.









Seriously thinking about turning the ghetto chiller into an evaporative cooled chiller. Seriously enough that I'd say it's going to happen before too long....


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## shurik06_83

u going for something like this ?









if its not what ur going for bang up a sketch cause ur ideas are alwayse good and i am interested in the ur new ideas


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## Naja002

Honestly, I don't understand your diagram, but no it will be a bit more straight forward. I suspect I will check it out with the bongs first, then the HVC and then maybe the rad(s). There's no real point in doing this other then just to check it out and piddle with a new project....


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## Naja002

Just a few pix of a simple upgrade...

I got tired of the old zip-tied prefilter for the pump, so I decided to put together something a little better. Seems to have actually increased flow a little bit.
*
The Parts (4" pvc):*









I really like the double grating idea. The inside grating keeps the filter material away from the 3/4" pump intake and allows the pump to draw water through the entire diameter of the filter:









Cut to fit the micro-fine filter material....3 layers:









Shot of the micro-fine....this end goes inside toward the pump intake:









Other end with the blue filter material installed:









The filter assembled:









And installed, ( Apologies for the light reflection and the murkiness):









Cost without filter material: ~$16

Simple, durable, fast and easy dis/assembly.....


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## shurik06_83

awsome idea but whats the evap doing thier ? forgot to take it out when u converted to the plate


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## Naja002

Nope, no conversion yet. Just a little mental masturbation with the filter upgrade to keep me occupied for a bit....







Whether I WC the chiller or not....I'm definitely going to get the aluminum out of there....


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## shurik06_83

so when we going to see pics of the chillers upgrade?


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## Naja002

Been working on it as you know. Think I've finally gotten my charge issue identified....checking things now. Pix will come when I get done and ready to post it up here.....









Just an evap change....no WCed condenser.


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## shurik06_83

good to hear u finaly got it workt out







,wat was the problem that was makeing go all screwy


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## Naja002

The res was not filling completely. You'll understand when I post pix of it. Common sense thing, but easy to over look and didn't cross my mind until this morning. Still working on it, but things are already looking better....


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## shurik06_83

i had an idea so my chiller is going under the knife to make even better and smaller but who cares my special charge gas is cheap i can cut into it every few days if i like for $3 i can fill it a dozen times









just hope that 3L rez is big enoghf to give the chiller time to eqelize before it has to start againe i will have 20c off 30c on my guestemit it should take about 5 min to climb 10 c on 3l rez what u think


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## Naja002

Not sure, but once you get it up and running, I'd cut the differential in half if you can. 6F-8F (4-5C) is all the differential that you need...if it will shut the compressor off long enough.

Tuned:

Superheat: 10F
Subcooling: 18F
Ambient: ~70F/21C

Temps will be in the 60'sF on Sat, so I expect to haul it out there and put it under full load, check the tune and go from there....then check it again when temps get up into the 80'sF in ~ a month.


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## shurik06_83

Quote:


Originally Posted by *Naja002* 
Not sure, but once you get it up and running, I'd cut the differential in half if you can. 6F-8F (4-5C) is all the differential that you need...if it will shut the compressor off long enough.

Tuned:

Superheat: 10F
Subcooling: 18F

Temps will be in the 60'sF on Sat, so I expect to haul it out there and put it under full load, check the tune and go from there....then check it again when temps get up into the 80'sF in ~ a month.










u can still tune the system to extreame conditions by runing a space heater in ur garage and makeing the room temp hit 35c and then runing the ac at full load and then do the fine tune but u have to make shure ur fill is dead on cause if it gets cool outside u might get flood back ,
but if the temp rapidly drops really low outside and ur geting flood back u can slow down the condenssor fan and it will get rid of flood back


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## shurik06_83

thanks for telling about the ranco i just got it and wow its simpel but verry afective for what i need


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## Naja002

Ok, let's see....







This "conversion" has been wrought with issues.







I'm not going to bother to detail each and every one though. Had problems with the charging, evac, water tight seals...the list goes on. Seems as though I've struggled through them successfully though. The chiller has not been taken out to it's home yet, but is ready for that....probably tomorrow.









So, on with the show:

Rolled my evap = At least 2 dozen feet of 1/4" copper...2 separate paths/coils....3/8" in and out:










Pulled the ghetto chiler, brought it inside, got out the piercing valve and got setup for the recovery:










That went well enough, so it was time to put the evap together and get it mounted. My first attempt looked like this, but I'll tell ya--trying to get 3/8" copper through those 1/2" holes...without creasing it--is a task I could not seem to accomplish







:










So, a 1 hr round trip to Lowes and it came out looking more like this:










Of course, I knew I should have left a few more inches of copper on the evap ends, but for some reason I thought I left enough (







) So, I ended up improvising a solution to get the evap/res mounted to the chiller:










I used these water tight sealing doodads for the evap lines in and out. Of course they gave me seapage/leakage issues, but I've managed to get them leak-free:










While attaching the res/evap I added the low side port as seen in the vacuum pump pic above. And removed the manufacturer crimped off access port and attached a shrader valve there for the high side access port:



















So, now it's ready for the evac.....


----------



## Naja002

Same pic as above. Hooked up for evac with the micron meter dead ended:










I had issues with the evacing, but let's cut to the chase with the first signs of life:










Followed by the next sign of life:



















Went round and round with the charging/evacing...back and forth...round and round. Many Thanx! to shurik who was there to try to help a fella out!







But in the end the top portion of the res was not filling with water (trapped air). It wasn't until after I realized this (







)that everything started jumping into place. Once I tilted the chiller to get the trapped air out....charging was a breeze!


















I decided to go with R290 (the ghetto version







). Modified a torch valve/tip:










I did not modify the teeny, tiny little hole, so filling was super-duper slow....needed to fix that, so I did--unbrazed the mod, took apart the torch valve and cut the tip off. Now it charges vapor and/or liquid...and super-fast:



















Put it back together again:










She ain't purdy, but she works right nice....


----------



## Naja002

So, it was time to get some other stuff done. As stated earlier, I managed to get the water tight fittings actually, uh, _water tight!_ (







) Decided to go ahead and remove the original a/c thermostat and just connected the 2 leads together via this little buss bar (red/white, right side):










Got most, maybe all, of the res insulation completed....I may insulate the tee ends...maybe not, we'll see:



















And that's it for the moment. Need to haul it out to the building, get the plumbing hooked up (no biggie) check the tune under load ( at the current low ambients) and then check it a bit later after things warm up a bit.







Next up will be getting the blocks and unisinks mounted on these 58xx series cards....


----------



## shurik06_83

as alwayse u make ghetto modding look clean when ur done









to draine the system and not make Al Gore ur enemy u need
1-2 perecing valve depends on the system
1 empty gas botel under vacume
1nitrogen /argon botel
1 bucket big enoghf to fit ur empty botel
1 bag of ice

mount the pireing valve on the high side after ur conny
mount the other valve on the low line after the evap

run the system with conny fan on high open ur high side valve R22 runs up the hose thre the manny to ur vact gas botel place botel in bucket with ice gas at preshure will liqife
after ur high side preshure has dropt and ur low side is a really good vac pinch the cap tube at the evap and introduse a very lite trikel of nirogen or argone in the low side ths will help not damage the compressor and compleetly get all the gas out

no need to rent reclameing pump all u need is just to get the botel from them
return reclaimed botel and ur done and AL Gore has no reason to hate u


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## shurik06_83

my ghetto filler is nicer then urs









and yea i told u to cut the torch tip off and when u wer talking about the littel hole i thot u ment the needel that depreses the valve in the botel i thot u wanted to make that hole bigger


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## underdog1425

Mine is nicer than both of [email protected]@34



















Great work Naja, I hope you don't mind me taking some inspiration from your chiller


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## guinaom1

imagina that with a D0 stepping you could go 4,8ghz or something like that


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## bonan123

AWESOME Watercooling Setup ...


----------

