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Homebrew Rackmount Watercooling

Airspirit writes "For those of you who believe that bigger is always better and have multiple computers in your house, this system may be a way to keep them all cool and organized. As an added bonus, it will heat a medium sized apartment all by itself! This article at Pro/Cooling gives a step by step walkthrough describing the evolution of this five gallon monstrosity. Not only does this cover the construction of the cooling system, but the drawbacks such as algae prevention and maintenance as well."

213 comments

  1. Cool! by Pig+Hogger · · Score: 2, Funny
    How about coupling it with a water cooler? So when thirst call, you don't have to go to the faucet...

    What?

    Oh, Mountain Dew...

    Darn!

    1. Re:Cool! by richie2000 · · Score: 2, Funny

      Thirst post! No, wait...

      --
      Money for nothing, pix for free
    2. Re:Cool! by ikkonoishi · · Score: 0

      The water would be hot. Would be better for coffee and hot chocolate.

    3. Re:Cool! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Mountain Dew would probably make a good coolant. And just think of what a caffine rush to the CPU would be like!

    4. Re:Cool! by KingDaveRa · · Score: 1

      How about coupling it with a water cooler? So when thirst call, you don't have to go to the faucet...

      Even better, why not add a toilet, so you can pee into it, thus keeping it topped up, and some sort of filtration system. You could then live on pizzas ordered online, and never have to leave the computer!!!

      How bored would you get....

    5. Re:Cool! by Z4rd0Z · · Score: 1

      Better than a toilet would be a catheter. No effort at all!

      --
      You had me at "dicks fuck assholes".
    6. Re:Cool! by Pig+Hogger · · Score: 1
      Better than a toilet would be a catheter. No effort at all!
      Let's dispose of the food, drink and the computer. Just put an electrode in your pleasure center and you just sit there forever.
    7. Re:Cool! by infinite9 · · Score: 1

      Big racks with cold water on them? I'd like to see that!

      --
      Disconnect your television. Do your own research. Draw your own conclusions. They're probably lying. Don't be a sheep.
  2. AMD by graveyhead · · Score: 4, Funny

    You don't need a rackmount water cooler to heat a medium sized apartment, one AMD processor will do quite nicely ;)

    And for those who think I'm joking, I haven't run my heater in my apartment since I bought my AMD last winter.

    --
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    1. Re:AMD by greentree · · Score: 2, Insightful

      And just to be a little more mindful of what you are saying would you mind telling what region you live in? Winters vary quite a bit from place to place. Up here in Michigan the most recent winter was nearly record breaking with several below zero nights. I have a few computers that run 24/7 in my bedroom, but none of them can do much to improve the humidity when it's ten below zero outside. My room is upstairs, so I get a lot of heat from the lower levels anyways. Wouldn't a monitor provide a lot of heat too?

    2. Re:AMD by marcsiry · · Score: 4, Funny

      Similarly, just leaving my PowerMac dualie (Quicksilver, 2002) on at night has eliminated the need for a white noise generator.

      This famously loud machine drown out the street noise from outside- and I live on Amsterdam Ave., in Manhattan (a noisy street in a noisy town).

      Ironically, putting the computer to sleep (which spins down the drive and the fans) makes it more difficult for ME to sleep...

      --
      Marc Siry || interactive media professional, motorcycle enthusiast ||
    3. Re:AMD by MattRog · · Score: 2, Interesting

      That's why I leave my Athlon-based PC in my other room running 24/7 in the winter. It's cheaper than running the heater (my apt is old and doesn't have central air/heat, just crappy space heater things in each room) and less chance of catching something on fire, too.

      However here in the summertime it causes the room to be noticeably warmer than the rest of the apartment; the in-window a/c unit has to work overtime to keep that room cool.

      To be fair, the PC I had before this one (dual PIII500â(TM)s) allowed (forced?) me to *open a window* in the middle of winter and actually position a fan to bring cool/cold air from outside to chill the computer. Kind of ridiculous, but having dual CPUs (which were the fastest at the time) made up for it.

      Nowadays CPUs are so fast that for home use it would be extravagant, but when the dualie eventually caught fire (watch where you place jumpers -- don't short out motherboard fan pins) and was replaced with a single-CPU version (one of the procs was still salvageable) I was amazed at how much slower things became (trying to rip/encode a CD, listen to an MP3, and do something else at the same time resulted in data errors, skipping in MP3 playback, etc.).

      --

      Thanks,
      --
      Matt
    4. Re:AMD by MattRog · · Score: 1

      As I just noticed another poster talking about monitors: on my dual CPU system I also had two 19" monitors to kick out the heat as well. I've since switched to the perfect-text (sub-pixel font rendering 0wnz) DVI LCDs.

      --

      Thanks,
      --
      Matt
    5. Re:AMD by vadim_t · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Yeah, dual CPUs produce a *lot* of heat.

      I have here a dual Athlon MP 2000+. The temperature measured at the heatsinks is 56C and 62C. The difference is because one has arctic silver on the heatsink and the other the AMD thermal pad stuff.

      Anyway, this thing gets amazingly hot. A bit more, and I couldn't hold my hand on top of the case, and it's got 9 fans in it! When I enter the room I notice that it's noticeably hotter than the rest of the house, even though that the computer is near an open window.

      Now, it's really nice to use. Everything is *smooth* and I should not need to upgrade any time soon. When I do it'll probably be a dual system too.

    6. Re:AMD by TopShelf · · Score: 1

      AMD and Intel need to realize the tremendous potential here - within a few years, every family could have a supercomputer that not only meets all your gaming/surfing/ripping/video-editing needs, but also replaces your furnace and water heater!

      --
      Stop by my site where I write about ERP systems & more
    7. Re:AMD by Stargoat · · Score: 1

      My early P2 did the same thing. During the summer, I had no AC. I wouldn't turn the computer on during the day because the apartment got too hot.

      --
      Hoist Number One and Number Six.
    8. Re:AMD by Pfhreakaz0id · · Score: 1

      Wouldn't a monitor provide a lot of heat too?

      My cat sure thinks so, laying on top of the monitor is his favorite spot. He likes to use by wireless router/firewall as a pillow to rest his head on. It's hysterical.

    9. Re:AMD by MattRog · · Score: 1

      When I went to replace my aging PIII500 I considered getting another dualie, but really for what I do (email, gaming, Word, IM, etc.) I couldn't justify having two CPUs so I just got a fast Athlon (1.3GHz). Most games are not SMP-capable (nor are games really SMP-efficient given what they do) so the other CPU would essentially sit idle. As I said before CPUs are so fast now that they achieve pseudo-multitasking quite well (esp. given the new Hyper-Threading technology) so unless I had a need I canâ(TM)t justify spending the extra cost for a âcoolnessâ(TM) factor.

      I guess if I had the time Iâ(TM)d like to set up a Sybase ASE instance (weâ(TM)ve got a couple medium-sided ~30GB databases that Iâ(TM)d like to mine so as to not hit the pr0d servers) so a dualie AMD with lots of RAM running RedHat would be cool to set up, although it would have to have a pretty big business case if I was to actually spend my money on it.

      --

      Thanks,
      --
      Matt
    10. Re:AMD by alexre1 · · Score: 3, Interesting

      I live in Toronto, Canada. Most winters, the average temperature is ~ -15 degrees centigrade.
      This past winter, for some reason our central heating died for a few days. My room (with my
      lovely AMD Athlon 1.2GHz) was the only warm room in the house :) It actually got quite annoying...
      my room became a living room of sorts for the family that week.

      In any case, the point is that those AMD CPU's run QUITE hot :)

      I remember back when the AMD (socket not slot) Athlons were first released, some tech review
      website had a video of a Athlon burning out in 2 seconds. The CPU went from room temperature to
      300+ degrees in less than 2 seconds. Mind you, that was without any cooling (heatsink/fan), but
      still it gives you an indication of how hot those suckers can get.

    11. Re:AMD by ncc74656 · · Score: 1
      Wouldn't a monitor provide a lot of heat too?

      My cat sure thinks so, laying on top of the monitor is his favorite spot. He likes to use by wireless router/firewall as a pillow to rest his head on. It's hysterical.

      Just hope he doesn't get the idea to piss on your monitor, or you'll come home to fried kitty one day...zzzap!

      --
      20 January 2017: the End of an Error.
    12. Re:AMD by brakk · · Score: 1

      Just FYI, you can spend $2 at radioshack for a small tube of heatsink paste that works just as well as arctic silver and alot better than the thermal pad that comes with the CPU/fan.

    13. Re:AMD by ipsuid · · Score: 1

      When I first put my AMD together, it was the beginning of summer on a Sunday and all the computer stores in the area were closed.

      Unfortunately for me, the CPU fan and two case fans weren't enough to keep the CPU at a temperature to run the machine for more than about 10 minutes...

      Luckily, I hadn't put the window air conditioning unit in for the year at that point. The temporary solution was to open up the side of the case, stick the air conditioner right up to it, and set it full blast. My cpu hasn't run cooler since. (Something like 35 degrees C). Glad that it wasn't humid that day. ;-)

      --
      It appears Ockham lost his razor and grew a beard.
    14. Re:AMD by brakk · · Score: 1

      My cat loves to lay on the monitor too, the problem is that he kept falling asleep then falling on my keyboard (I saw him start to fall a couple times and caught him in mid air).

      I ended up putting the scanner on top to give him more area to lay on and it works much better.

    15. Re:AMD by phasm42 · · Score: 2, Informative

      It was in an article on Tom's Hardware Guide. An impressive display of how Intel and AMD processors responded to loss of heatsink. AMD's processors instantly turned to toast, while P3's locked, and P4's slowed down to reduce heat output until the heat sink was put back on (a really cool and useful ability). Since then, AMD's new processors will shutdown (similar to the P3's response I think) if on a motherboard that supports the ability. I'm not talking about the little heat sensor thing most MB's have, which couldn't respond to a 300 degree increase in temperature in 2 seconds.

      --
      "No one likes working in a hamster wheel, and your shop smells of cedar shavings from here." - TaleSpinner
    16. Re:AMD by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I've got an Alienware dual MP 2200s with the Dragon case at work(yes they bought me an Alienware machine at work) and the case is cool to the touch right now, and the air coming out isn't that warm.

      This room is pretty cool right now(actuall kind of cold), but loud. One of the guys in here is doing some tests at his desk so he brough a couple dual 2.8 Xeons in which are in 1U rack mount cases. Those tiny fans are loud, and my machine is pretty lound as well.

    17. Re:AMD by vadim_t · · Score: 1

      Yeah, I'm planning to install some better cooling later. At the moment I just use the fan and heatsink that came with the CPUs. I'm putting it off a bit though, those heatsinks required a quite scary amount of force to put them on.

    18. Re:AMD by Rosonowski · · Score: 1

      Care to elaborate?

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      01101001 01100001 01101101 01101110 01101111 01110100 01100001 01101100 01100001 01110111 01111001 01100101 01110010
    19. Re:AMD by velocipenguin · · Score: 1

      During the winter, I have to block the duct that supplies heat to my room - that way, the room is held at the perfect temperature by the insane amounts of heat put out by my Athlon XP 1700+ system. I have a fast video card, two hard drives, and a big 400W power supply all crammed into a mid-tower case, and it provides enough heat to keep my room at 75 degrees all winter.

      --

      Move 'sig'. For great justice!
    20. Re:AMD by vadim_t · · Score: 1

      HT will probably give you next to no benefit. If I understand correctly, it uses the idle parts of a CPU to emulate a second one. This might give you a bit more of speed, say 5%, but I've seen benchmarks where it turned out that it slowed things down. I doubt it'll ever get half as good as a real SMP system.

    21. Re:AMD by fshalor · · Score: 1

      Wierd... My dual AMD MP2000+'s run in the mid 40's under full load. Sure you've goot good ventillation? Our other AMD systems also usually max out at about 45 ^\circ C. (Antec 400W Fileservercase with 5 case fans. 2 antec and 3 coolmaster. ) Original AMD CPU fans.

      You should see this thing eat through climatology models with 3 gigs of ram :)

      --
      -=fshalor ::this post not spellchecked. move along::
    22. Re:AMD by vadim_t · · Score: 1

      Weird. This is what I've got:

      LianLi PC-68 case. 2 intake fans in front, 1 exhaust fan on top, 1 exhaust fan on back.
      Enermax 460W PS, 1 intake fan on bottom, 1 exhaust fan on back.
      GeForce 2 MX 400, 1 fan.
      Terratec DMX XFire 1024 sound card.
      2 hard disks: SAMSUNG SV4003H (5400 RPM), Maxtor 6Y080L0(7200 RPM), placed in front of the intake fans.
      Tyan Tiger MPX (S2466N-4M) motherboard.
      2x2000+ CPUs, original fans and heatsinks.
      1 GB ECC DDR RAM

      The top of the case is noticeably hot. The Lian Li thermometer shows 56.9C and 52.8C, measured at the heatsink. BIOS gives temperatures of about 60C. Ambient temperature here (Spain) is quite high, can easily get to 30-35C.

      I'm currently considering better fans, or maybe even water cooling, but the motherboard has no holes for heavy heatsinks.

    23. Re:AMD by Vaughn+Anderson · · Score: 1

      You live in California right? Try that in Minnesota...

    24. Re:AMD by brakk · · Score: 1
    25. Re:AMD by Pfhreakaz0id · · Score: 1

      so... have you ever ran a scanner test to wake him up? My cat slept on the scanner one day and I did that. freaked him out.

    26. Re:AMD by brakk · · Score: 1

      Actually it's been unplugged for almost a year. I never need any hard copy bad enough to want to scan it. The scanner still sits there just for the cat to lay on.

    27. Re:AMD by bninja_penguin · · Score: 1

      My main system is about the same as yours (except only a 300W power supply), and it doesn't get very warm at all. Even if I run that system, a 400Mhz K-6 III, two Power PC clones, (180MHZ and 225MHZ) three mac laptops (old and slow) an old 21" NEC monitor (94 pounds!!) and three 17" monitors in my 8' by 10' office, it doesn't get noticably warmer than any other room (77deg F) in the house, and I don't have air conditioning. What am I doing wrong? Every AMD system I've ever built is actually cooler(figuratively and literally) than any intel system I've built. I don't use cheap parts, but I don't use the latest greatest overclocker stuff (think volcano fans) either (I run stock AMD fans that come with the processor.) I want to experience the heat too! tell me what I can do to fix my problem! And, I live in the Rocky Mountains. (Yes, one last set of parenthesis, this is supposed to be humorous. It's very true as well.)

      --
      For those who describe their systems as 'boxen', do you order multiple 'boxen' of corn flakes also?
    28. Re:AMD by MattRog · · Score: 1

      Most (all?) the benchmarks I've seen show a small net gain in the PIV with HT enabled than without for most cases. It certainly is not a replacement for a 'real' SMP system, I think it is for home users who like to do things like rip CDs while watching a DVD and downloading MP3s all at the same time (or insert some other pseudo-commonplace scenario dreamed up by Intel here).

      All in all, if I was to have a PIV I'd rather have one *with* HT than without.

      --

      Thanks,
      --
      Matt
  3. How does it handle heat dissipation? by Gay+Nigger · · Score: 1

    You know, for when you don't want your computers heating your house, one way or the other.

  4. Ack... by BiteMeFanboy · · Score: 2, Funny

    ... hate to see the AC bill in the summer though. Especially here where there really is no spring, it just goes directly to hot and humid.

    1. Re:Ack... by imaginate · · Score: 1

      If one actually bothered to get all this plumbing hooked up, t'would be a relatively simple matter to install another radiator outside - in the shade, of course - with a bypass valve that would allow you to run the flow to one or the other (or both, for maximum cooling).

      And hey, with fast enough processors, you could just put the radiator in a little room, pour some water on it, and have your own personal sauna...

      +/-1 geeky

    2. Re:Ack... by drlock · · Score: 1
      t'would be a relatively simple matter to install another radiator outside

      This might take a little more maintenance than you would think at first. In Michigan, any external pipes, must be heated in the winter, or they will burst. You would have to continually run some of your hot water to the outside, to keep it from freezing, which would be very energy inefficient. Although I suppose you could take the suggestion, from an earlier poster and add anti-freeze. Although then you are running a highly toxic system through your house. If it ever burst you would have a real mess.

      What I really want to know is the actual cost. Seems to me that disipated heat from a computer would be a lot less efficient than a modern heating system.

    3. Re:Ack... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      someone MOD THIS DOWN allready

    4. Re:Ack... by brakk · · Score: 1

      If your computer is on 24/7, It would keep the pipes warm enough to keep from freezing. Unless you switched to an internal radiator durring the winter to help warm your house, then just unhook the external radiator and drain it.

      I wouldn't call antifreeze "highly toxic", it only kills you if you drink it. Although if you have pets it would be bad cause they love the stuff.

  5. Neat by SlayerofGods · · Score: 3, Funny

    I'd get one if for nothing else but the coolness of it.

    --

    Technology, the cause of and solution to all of life's problems.
    1. Re:Neat by a_timid_mouse · · Score: 5, Funny
      >I'd get one if for nothing else but the coolness of it.

      No pun intended, right? :-D

    2. Re:Neat by SlayerofGods · · Score: 1

      Very observant of you hehe ;)

      --

      Technology, the cause of and solution to all of life's problems.
  6. Please don't even remind me... by Mensa+Babe · · Score: 5, Funny

    Please don't even remind me about homebrew rackmount watercooling... Just remember to always check if the water is not leaking anywhere before you turn it on together with $15000 equipment. This is a lesson I learned the hard way...

    --
    Karma: Positive (probably because of superiour intellect)
    1. Re:Please don't even remind me... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
      Jesus Christ!

      Isn't a slashdot UID of "Mensa" "Babe" the very definition of a shoddy troll?!!

    2. Re:Please don't even remind me... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      is everybody in mensa as retarded as you?

    3. Re:Please don't even remind me... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I'm in Mensa, and I get laid all the time.

      Does anyone know how to clean a laptop key board?

    4. Re:Please don't even remind me... by DFossmeister · · Score: 2, Funny
      Please don't even remind me about homebrew rackmount watercooling... Just remember to always check if the water is not leaking anywhere before you turn it on together with $15000 equipment. This is a lesson I learned the hard way...

      I couldn't help but laugh as I looked at your message then looked at your sig about a superior intellect.
      --
      No Not Again! Its whats for dinner.
  7. graveyhead just failed to mention... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

    You don't need a rackmount water cooler to heat a medium sized apartment, one AMD processor will do quite nicely ;)

    And for those who think I'm joking, I haven't run my heater in my apartment since I bought my AMD last winter.


    ...that he lives in southern Florida too.

  8. energy consumption by jacquesm · · Score: 5, Interesting

    this makes you wonder how long it will be before information surpasses transportation as the largest consumer of energy on the planet

    1. Re:energy consumption by SlayerofGods · · Score: 1

      It probably already consume more electric energy then just about everything else I bet.

      --

      Technology, the cause of and solution to all of life's problems.
    2. Re:energy consumption by Dun+Malg · · Score: 1
      this makes you wonder how long it will be before information surpasses transportation as the largest consumer of energy on the planet

      for that to happen transportation will have to use a LOT less energy. The fuel I use to get to work every morning could run a small generator powering three racks of [routers/servers/DSLAMs] for HOURS. Multiply times (everyone else who's driving) and thats a lot of energy consumption.

      --
      If a job's not worth doing, it's not worth doing right.
    3. Re:energy consumption by jacquesm · · Score: 1

      yes, but most computers are on 24x7, not just a few hours per day

    4. Re:energy consumption by Sdrawcab · · Score: 1

      Nope, about 2/3 of all electricity is consumed by electric moters, which makes sense when you realize that one horsepower is 745.6999 watts and how many are in use. The next largest consumer is lighting.

    5. Re:energy consumption by confused+one · · Score: 1

      If I remember correctly, the numbers in one DOE newletter I read mentioned something like 15-20% of electrical generation is being used by computers (small computers, big computers, networks, etc, etc.)

    6. Re:energy consumption by Dun+Malg · · Score: 1
      yes, but most computers are on 24x7, not just a few hours per day

      Yes, and I'm not the only person driving to work! If [one person's daily fuel consumption] == several hours electricity, and (say) 100,000 people consume fuel like that one person, then we have (several * 100,000) several hundred thousand hours of electricity.

      --
      If a job's not worth doing, it's not worth doing right.
  9. Bring on the traditional /. jokes by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Ok, the web site is down. Bring on the traditional
    jokes! It has to do with water cooled systems. So,
    let's see...

    1. The water must be boiling! Har har har!

    2. Time for some more coolant! Har har har!

    3. The radiator must have blown a gasket! Har har har!

    4. Imagine a beowulf cluster of . . .

    5. They need to switch to a better coolant than water! har har har!

    Oy, this is sooooo predictable. Mod this down because I
    close with a traditional "slashdot sucks" comment.

    1. Re:Bring on the traditional /. jokes by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      And bring on the traditional "bring on the traditional posts" posts. I'd rather read the posts you mock than the countless number of shitty rehash posts.

    2. Re:Bring on the traditional /. jokes by ikkonoishi · · Score: 0

      You forgot: In Soviet Russia CPU coolant system cools YOU!

  10. Water Cooling by YomikoReadman · · Score: 1

    I first heard about this on an episode of the screensavers a couple years ago. Yoshi, the king of all Case Mods, built a case out of plexi and attached a resevoir which was filled with dry ice and an chemical of some sort from 3M. For cooling a PC with Liquid, that seems to be a much more viable, albeit expensive option than this. I don't have a link to Yoshi's mod, but a search on TechTV would turn one up.

    --
    I have no regrets, this is the only path.
    My whole life has been "UNLIMITED BLADE WORKS"
    1. Re:Water Cooling by while(true) · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Here is a link to Yoshi's Submersion Cooling Case. They used hydrofluoroether (HFE) from 3M.

    2. Re:Water Cooling by fshalor · · Score: 1

      My favorite thus far is mineral oil. A close second is Poly alkylene Glycol. (PAG, Union Carbide Heat Transfer Lubricant. 75-H-90000 is best for PC temperatures.) Cool part is, it's miscible with water if you want to make is a little less viscous. Third would require some back of the large notebook paper calculations involving boiling points of some alchohols. I think Hexanol is close for a PC. (To set up a complete refridgeration cycle.)

      --
      -=fshalor ::this post not spellchecked. move along::
    3. Re:Water Cooling by brakk · · Score: 1

      I saw someone do that one time using the same chemical (but in styrofoam ice chests). Instead of the dry ice, they used liqued nitrogen and got it so cold that the chemical gelled up and stopped flowing.

  11. algae prevention and maintenance by teamhasnoi · · Score: 0, Offtopic
    are lost on most slashdotters already! Why not an article about rackmount soap bars with shower cooling?

    *I can say this, for I too am in desperate need of a shower. :P

  12. Algae prevention? A plecostomos??? by beacher · · Score: 5, Funny

    I'm looking at the green water on the diagram and I see the blackish smudge and I'm wondering if that's a plecostomos???
    Now I suppose someone's gotta code Perl::FishFeed to make sure the algae prevention measures are in place....
    -B

  13. Slashdotted by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    Google Cache. Of course, no pictures....

  14. drawback? by grub · · Score: 5, Funny


    ..but the drawbacks such as algae prevention..
    Algae prevention is a drawback? Remind me to never eat from the submitter's refridgerator.

    --
    Trolling is a art,
    1. Re:drawback? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      I wonder if the algaes could be prevented by using something else than water, for instance chloromethane, freon or some sort of liquid alcohol/methane based substitute. In unsterile water, algaes often grow instantly when exposed to heat.

    2. Re:drawback? by Greedo · · Score: 2, Funny

      Of course I can't RTFA or LATFP (look at the feckin' pictures) cause the site is down. But what about combining a water-cooling system with a tropical aquarium?

      That way little bottom-feeders (and no, I don't mean CowboyNeal) can clean the algae for you. Salt-water might also help the cooling process ... have to check my physics textbook on that one.

      Oooh ... and combine it with some waterproofed hamster Habitrail stuff too! So your fish can swim all around the apartment, and the extra area will help dissapate the heat.

      And, at the very least you can say to the ladies: "I've got a rackmount system, homebrew cooling solution *and* tropical aquarium back at my place ... wanna see?"

      --
      Tuus crepidae innexilis sunt.
    3. Re:drawback? by p0ppe · · Score: 1

      And if you're running AMD, you can get fried fish for dinner!

      --


      "Democracy is three wolves and a sheep voting on what to have for dinner."
    4. Re:drawback? by phasm42 · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Saltwater... that sounds like it might be a bit corrosive to the metals. Probably not a good idea. How about some bleach, and combine the thing with a washing machine?

      --
      "No one likes working in a hamster wheel, and your shop smells of cedar shavings from here." - TaleSpinner
    5. Re:drawback? by schotty · · Score: 1

      I seriously think he had that misworded. I think what was intended to be said was that its a pain in the ass to try to prevent algae in a situation like his. Algae growing inside the piping has to becom problematic over 6-9 months I would guess.

      --
      Sigs are nice guns ...
    6. Re:drawback? by ncc74656 · · Score: 1
      Of course I can't RTFA or LATFP (look at the feckin' pictures) cause the site is down. But what about combining a water-cooling system with a tropical aquarium?

      That way little bottom-feeders (and no, I don't mean CowboyNeal) can clean the algae for you. Salt-water might also help the cooling process ... have to check my physics textbook on that one.

      It'd be cool as hell...but last time I checked, copper (the material used for most waterblocks/radiators/heater cores) isn't so good for fishes. You'd end up replacing them frequently, which I don't think would be a Good Idea.

      --
      20 January 2017: the End of an Error.
    7. Re:drawback? by Zorton · · Score: 1

      Something that always seems to slip by in all these discussions is the choice of coolant. Why bother with water or anything fancy? How about just simple antifreeze? Put it at like a 40 glycol - 60 distilled water mix and cool the sucker!

  15. Re:I don't understand by jemnery · · Score: 2, Insightful

    " Being that I'm in physics and I barely need a home computer, I'm always mystified by people who have things like rack-mount systems in their homes. I never manage to understand why you'd need that sort of thing."

    Oh, music, movies, games, web, chat, photos... you know - fun! ;-)

  16. Re:I don't understand by ciroknight · · Score: 3, Informative

    You, dear sir, are trolling. Plenty of people need lots of power in house. Some like to do 3D artwork which requires a lot of power for rendering. Others yet work at home, serving their websites and the such, and want to keep their computers managable and neatly tucked away somewhere so that their spouce doesn't lash them for all the cables running everywhere. I'de have a rackmount system myself if I could afford such a thing.

    I just feel sorry for the poor guy. The heat must get unbearable when those things start churning. Maybe he should use the water cooling system to cool himself off instead ;).

    --
    "Victory means exit strategy, and it's important for the President to explain to us what the exit strategy is." G.W.Bush
  17. Re:I don't understand by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

    Because desktops take up loads of space... And when you are developing for multiple platforms, rendering 3d or hardware testing you NEED access to multiple systems.

  18. biosphere project by Groote+Ka · · Score: 4, Funny
    "Not only does this cover the construction of the cooling system, but the drawbacks such as algae prevention and maintenance as well."

    Why prevent the growth of algae? With algae, this object fully supports your personal biosphere.

  19. And it's an alarm clock too! by bobdotorg · · Score: 5, Funny

    7:17 a.m. - article posted on Slashdot.

    7:19 a.m. - water cooling system begins to be put to the test

    7:27 a.m. - Slashdeath results in a high pitched whistle caused by steam venting from piping.

    7:27:05 a.m. - Apartment dweller wakes.

    Rube Goldberg would be proud.

    --
    __ Someday, but not this morning, I'll finally learn to use the preview button.
    1. Re:And it's an alarm clock too! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      7:17 a.m. - article posted on Slashdot.
      7:19 a.m. - water cooling system begins to be put to the test
      7:27 a.m. - Slashdeath results in a high pitched whistle caused by steam venting from piping.
      7:27:05 a.m. - Apartment dweller wakes.
      7:30 a.m. - Hot water from the steam vent is caught and used to brew a coffee -- *now it's geek worthy.. it's the how you get the caffine that matters, not that you get it.

    2. Re:And it's an alarm clock too! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      ... and Heath Robinson spinning in his grave.

      Goldberg was nothing but a plagerist of Robinson.

    3. Re:And it's an alarm clock too! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
      Ahhhh... Airstrip one chimes in!

      If we want your opinion, we'd tell your PM what it is!

    4. Re:And it's an alarm clock too! by ChaoS*Penguin · · Score: 1

      Should read...

      7:17 a.m. - article posted on Slashdot.

      6:43 a.m. - water cooling system begins to be put to the test

      6:44:30 a.m. - Slashdeath results in a high pitched whistle caused by steam venting from piping.

      6:45:05 a.m. - Apartment dweller wakes.

      Rube Goldberg would be proud.

      Haven't you studied basic retroactive /. relativity? The temporal time flux caused by massive datashifts forces the server into a short painful death long before an article is actually posted...

  20. Wouldn't it be nice if Slashdot included a copy? by xutopia · · Score: 1, Insightful

    wouldn't it be nice if Slashdot had a temporary copy /cached web sites they linked to instead of the original? I'm sure this would greatly reduce sladotting problems.

  21. Hombrew? by Geek+Boy · · Score: 5, Funny

    Argh I saw homebrew and excitedly clicked in because I thought it was a way to keep the PC cool while brewing your own beer. Boy was I surprised.

    1. Re:Hombrew? by AlgUSF · · Score: 1

      Now you know how I feel when they talk about "rolling your own" __________________.

      --


      I want my rights back. I was actually using them when our government stole them after 9/11.
  22. Well actually by Faust7 · · Score: 1

    before information surpasses transportation as the largest consumer of energy on the planet

    No, see, they'll be combined. We'll leave our bodies, transform ourselves into pure energy, and travel among the wires à la Matrix or Serial Experiments Lain.

    And instead of traffic jams, we'll have DoS jams.

  23. Re:Wouldn't it be nice if Slashdot included a copy by suso · · Score: 0, Redundant

    No, that would make too much sense.

    Ps. wouldn't it be nice if slashdot didn't make you wait 20 seconds to reply.

  24. Re:Wouldn't it be nice if Slashdot included a copy by davmoo · · Score: 1, Insightful

    It would be more than nice. With the current setup (no help from Slashdot) we show our appreciation for the pointed-to websites by crashing their servers, getting their sites shut down, or massively enlarging the owner's bill for bandwidth. In other words, currently we do to the people we like the same as we do to people we don't like. Its a shame that the majority of Slashdoters, as well as Slashdot themselves, can't seem to figure this out.

    --
    I want a new quote. One that won't spill. One that don't cost too much. Or come in a pill.
  25. New applications on the horizon by del_ctrl_alt · · Score: 3, Funny
    I can't wait for the next advancement in cooling technology....

    CPU heat exchange engine providing enough energy to power your PC.

    Behold the perpetual PC!

    1. Re:New applications on the horizon by alexre1 · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Thats actually a very interesting idea. I wonder if it's possible to channel some of the heat
      coming from the CPU, HDD's, RAM etc to power the computer. I'm not suggesting that this could
      possibly furnish all required power (IE not a perpetual computer :)). But perhaps the heat
      could be transferred so that it would contribute somewhat to the powering of the
      computer. If this was efficient, and significant enough, it could save us a lot of money on our
      power bills in the long run :) Plus, its a *very* elegant solution to the heating problem.

      Any thermal physicists out there? I don't know much on this subject. Is it possible at all?

    2. Re:New applications on the horizon by thebigmacd · · Score: 1

      Peltier junction. They work in reverse. ie: heat flow produces voltage.

    3. Re:New applications on the horizon by SlashDread · · Score: 1

      IANTP (I Am No Thermal Physicist) but why would that hold me back?
      Sure it works. Just create a small Steam Propelled electro motor, which outputs 12volts.. lets start with those case fans eh?

      Gr Dread

    4. Re:New applications on the horizon by LWATCDR · · Score: 1

      I did wonder if you could use one to power the cpu fan? the hotter it got the faster it would spin the fan.

      --
      See my blog http://ilovecookes.blogspot.com/ for light hearted technical information.
    5. Re:New applications on the horizon by alexre1 · · Score: 1

      I would imagine that it depends on how fast the unit could generate power. Actually, I'm not sure this system would work.

      In order for the Peltier junction/IANTP to work efficiently, they'd need a lot of heat. But the
      problem here is that CPU heatsinks are designed to spread the heat over the maximum amount of
      surface area. So you'd only be able to channel a small amount of the CPU heat to the Peltier
      junction/IANTP. So if you wanted an efficient heat-to-power unit, you'd need to eliminate the
      heatsink, or at least make it less eficient. Doing that would fry a hot CPU :)

      So even if we did install some Peltier junction/IANTP, it wouldn't work efficiently, and I'd bet that the power it generates would be negligable.

    6. Re:New applications on the horizon by thebigmacd · · Score: 1

      What you can do is sandwich the Peltier junction between the cpu and the sink. Since a Peltier junction is half copper, it is very efficient at flowing heat away from the source. The better the sink is, the heat flow through the Peltier increases.

    7. Re:New applications on the horizon by Gamasta · · Score: 1

      In terms of thermodynamics, you'd need a machine operating between 2 temperatures. The efficiency (and energy output) of your engine would depend on these temperatures. While in cold winter you could perhaps light your room, in summer it wouldn't give you a thing. I should remind you that in thermodynamics we calculate stuff (efficiencies) in Kelvin (not Celsius, so what even _is_ Fahrenheit?), so to operate a machine between 50ÂC and 25ÂC (~325K, 300K) isn't much worth all the trouble.
      For sure you couldn't have an eternal computer. Perhaps you could run 10 machines on normal power while 1 is driven by heat. I'd say that's technology for those room-sized mainframes of the whatever-year-i-wasn't-born.

      --
      reason defies logic
    8. Re:New applications on the horizon by thebigmacd · · Score: 1

      Yes, this would work, as long as the fan cooled the cool side of the junction. If the fan directly cooled say a heat sink in parallel with the junction, the temp difference across the junction would decrease and the fan would actually slow down.

    9. Re:New applications on the horizon by ajs318 · · Score: 4, Informative

      YES - it's called a thermocouple. There is one in every standing-pilot gas boiler, used as a flame-failure detector. The pilot flame heats the thermocouple probe, producing a current which holds in an electromagnet. This electromagnet operates a valve upstream of the other controls. If the pilot flame blows out, the thermocouple cools down, and the electromagnet releases. This blocks off the gas supply, preventing against an explosion hazard.

      The priming knob is a way to open the safety valve manually to get some gas to the pilot burner so you can light it in the first place.

      A modern boiler uses electronic ignition, and senses the flame electronically. This is easy. Fire is a chemical reaction; in a chemical reaction there are charged particles in motion; and where there are charged particles in motion, a current can be made to flow. In practice the current is about a microamp for a small pilot flame, or several uA if the main burner is lit directly {which is now becoming more common}. Lighting a bigger burner does not, of course, require a higher-energy spark, as the activation energy of a chemical reaction is independent of the quantities of reagents present. But it does allow you to get away with even simpler plumbing {only one gas valve instead of two} and it also saves one relay on the circuit board.

      I know all this from my previous employment .....

      Coming back to thermocouples, you can make a thermocouple junction from any two dissimilar metals. They only need to be twisted together; you can cold-weld them. Soldering introduces a third metal, but doesn't make any difference to the voltage as you then have 2 junctions: metal A to solder and solder to metal B, and the First Law of Thermodynamics says that Vas + Vsb = Vab.

      The problem with using thermocouples to generate electricity from a processor is simply that you need a large temperature differential for them to work well, and a processor is only reaching about 60 degrees or so with a heatsink -- it will melt at about 160 degrees, but the PTC {positive temperature coefficient} effect means it will stop working around 120 degrees, as the electrical resistance of the power and ground connections becomes too great for reliable operation.

      Even if you let the processor get up to 80 degrees, this is still only 60 degrees above room temperature, and this small difference won't produce a lot of millivoltage. Of course, you can connect thermocouples in series -- such an arrangement is known as a thermopile, and has been used to power a wireless set from the flame of a paraffin lamp. You need to put a hot thermocouple junction into series with a cold junction, and so on. The catch is that you need for there to be a large temperature difference between the hot and cold ends, but the more junctions you introduce into the thermopile then the more paths there are for heat to be conducted from the one side to the other.

      You could cool the cold junctions with liquid nitrogen, but you might as well just pour the N2 on the processor.

      Older processors with larger feature sizes were more immune to overheating, as the PTC effect was enough to protect the chip from meltdown. I've seen old pentium MMXes run with no heatsink -- they typically last just long enough to boot Windows 95, then seize up solid, but they can survive the experience! I wouldn't trust a modern Athlon without a heatsink, though.

      And, since not all of the electricity supplied into a processor is converted to heat in the processor {some of it is converted to other forms of energy and/or converted elsewhere}, then you won't get the full amount back.

      --
      Je fume. Tu fumes. Nous fûmes!
    10. Re:New applications on the horizon by BuckaBooBob · · Score: 1

      LOL... Hehe... Well.. It would be nice to have a system to suppliment City power.. Perpetual is really non-exsistant there is a oposing force for everything so you will allways loose energy.

      --
      Who needs WiFi when we can have Packet Over Sheep! http://datacomm.org/PoS-InternetDraft.txt
    11. Re:New applications on the horizon by pair-a-noyd · · Score: 1

      How about Sterling Engines??
      http://www.stirlingengine.com/

      I've always been fascinated by these.
      I want to rig one at the focal point of a BUD satellite dish (coated with mirrors) to generate free energy while tracking the sun.

      Put a temprature differential on the two cylinders and you get power output.
      Put power to the crankshaft and get hot and cold output.
      Here's a clip from the Stirling site,
      "It's not obvious but a Stirling engine is a reversible device. If you heat one end and cool the other, you get mechanical work out, but if you put mechanical work in, by connecting an electric motor, one end will get hot and the other end will get cold. If you design the machine correctly, the cold end will get extremely cold. In fact, Stirling coolers have been made that will cool below 10 degrees Kelvin. Micro Stirling coolers have been produced in large numbers for cooling infrared chips down to 80 degrees Kelvin for use in night vision devices."

      I think it would be neat as hell to incorporate one into a PC somehow and recover some otherwise lost BTU's...

    12. Re:New applications on the horizon by pair-a-noyd · · Score: 1
  26. Re:Wouldn't it be nice if Slashdot included a copy by ites · · Score: 0, Redundant

    No, no, no, Slashdot _can't_ do this, for one because it would simply be illegal to copy random sites like that, secondly because it might imply that Slashdot is somehow responsible for a 'quality of service' and if their copy does not work, could be sued, and lastly because if this was done, we couldn't enjoy ourselves flaming people like yourself who think that this obvious, useful, and practical solution to a real and annoying problem is worthwhile. Anyhow, the principle of caching web sites has probably been patented by Google. /irony

    --
    Sig for sale or rent. One previous user. Inquire within.
  27. Update::Servers Have Overheated by ellem · · Score: 5, Funny

    Apparently all 5 gallons of water evaporated due to the Slashdot effect.

    --
    This .sig is fake but accurate.
    1. Re:Update::Servers Have Overheated by evilviper · · Score: 1

      But what I have to wonder is, how well did it do it's job?

      Did the 5 gallons of water prevent the server from bursting into flames, or is it no better than fan cooling?

      --
      Slashdot gets worse every day... Pipedot: News for nerds, without the corporate slant
  28. Re:Wouldn't it be nice if Slashdot included a copy by SuperDuG · · Score: 5, Informative
    wouldn't it be nice if Slashdot had a temporary copy /cached web sites they linked to instead of the original? I'm sure this would greatly reduce sladotting problems.

    You are bound to have the following happen.

    1.) Be marked as overrated, troll, or offtopic to a -1 karma

    2.) If someone other than me does reply they will either mention the FAQ, or provide you with a link.

    3.) Someone will actually "tell" you what the FAQ Says
    Slashdot should cache pages to prevent the Slashdot Effect!

    Sure, it's a great idea, but it has a lot of implications. For example, commercial sites rely on their banner ads to generate revenue. If I cache one of their pages, this will mess with their statistics, and mess with their banner ads. In other words, this will piss them off.

    Of course, most of the time, the commercial sites that actually have income from banner ads easily withstand the Slashdot Effect. So perhaps we could draw the line at sites that don't have ads. They are, after all, much more likely to buckle under the pressure of all those unexpected hits. But what happens if I cache the site, and they update themselves? Once again, I'm transmitting data that I shouldn't be, only this time my cache is out of date!

    I could try asking permission, but do you want to wait 6 hours for a cool breaking story while we wait for permission to link someone?

    So the quick answer is: "Sure, caching would be neat." It would make things a lot easier when servers go down, but it's a complicated issue that would need to be thought through in great detail before being implemented.

    Answered by: CmdrTaco Last Modified: 6/14/00

    4.) Someone might actually answer your question ...

    Basically it all boils down to slashdot doesn't care if it causes an effect similar to that of a denial of service attack. They feel that since they are linking to a public webserver that they are doing no more harm than say a search engine. The caching of a webpage would mean that they would have to invest time and technology into a caching system (which they have neither the programming experience or capabilities) and not to mention money in the hardware (gotta store the things).

    It's a weird situation, slashdot publishes a story acknowledging That there are smaller servers that never intend to have the amount of traffic that they get. Just so happens that no one has actually sued slashdot yet, which happens to be the only thing the editors fear more than being fired.

    So will you see a change, no, and why? Because of the above mentioned reasons and because those responsible for building slashdot are lazy and not innovative. You want innovation and caching then I would highly reccomend google. Just post in the subject line of most slashdot stories, since most of them are usually a week old, they've already been cached.

    --
    Ignore the "p2p is theft" trolls, they're just uninformed
  29. Darn! by turgid · · Score: 3, Funny

    Every time I see a slashdot headline with the word "homebrew" in it I think that at last there's an article about beer, but no :-(

  30. Re:I don't understand by molarmass192 · · Score: 1

    I have 5 machines in my home office, it seems like overkill but I use these to replicate/test deployment environments. I deal with multi-tiered systems for a living and a single machine simply isn't close enough to the "real world" for developing/testing. That said, I'm not crazy about my rack being 6 feet aways from my desk since a) it's noisy and b) it generates heat, but longer monitor cables create pixel bleeding on my LCD so I tolerate it, well, at least until somebody comes out with a wireless monitor to go along with my wireless keyboard and mouse.

    --

    Good people do not need laws to tell them to act responsibly, while bad people will find a way around the laws-Plato
  31. Hope that coolant is kosher... by Ashen · · Score: 5, Funny

    It must be time to go to bed. I just worked all night and at first I read "Hebrew rackmount cooling." I was so confused.

  32. Your sig by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    There appears to be nothing 'superiour' about your spelling however.

  33. Even more important, algae - use waterbed disinfec by numbski · · Score: 4, Informative

    Warm water breeds all sorts of wildlife. Use waterbed disinfectant in there (or a small amount of bleach) to keep things clean.

    The trick then is that the water containment needs to be waterproof sealed, otherwise as the water evaporates, you'll have chemicals floating around in the air of your house.

    --

    Karma: Chameleon (mostly due to the fact that you come and go).

  34. Article Author by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    This is actually my system. I don't think Joe, the owner of Pro/Cooling (not hosted on a watercooled system, btw), had any warning that his server was about to be slashdotted. I suppose spraying your systems down with a fire extinguisher is not the best way to spend a Monday morning, but who am I to judge?

    And he always said he wanted more traffic, hehe.

    Anyway, the reason I have so many machines is that I do professional web design and database programming, an obscene amount of gaming, and host multiple network services. From top to bottom you have:

    PC 1: Gaming, development (WinXP/Mandrake 9.1)
    PC 2: Wife's office computer (WinXP/Mandrake 9.1)
    PC 3: Linux network server

    I host a mini-ISP out of my house for the neighborhood, so the Linux server helps keep bandwidth consumption down as well as providing other services my customers demand.

    I have a KVM that allows me to swap between PCs 1 and 3, and she has her own equipment for her PC (I just leave it alone ... oddly enough, she uses Windows for the "heavy lifting" and Linux because she loves the games!).

    Anyway, I better go run and hide before Joe hunts me down!

    Airspirit

    1. Re:Article Author by daBum · · Score: 1

      As a frequent lurker at the forums at ProCooling, I was wondering if you'd had Joe's blessing before hosing his boxes.

      As an aside, I thought it rather curious that you were plugging it here, after writing it & posting it there. But then again, I'm just jealous of your setup. :)

      --
      I am dyslexia of borg - your ass will be laminated.
    2. Re:Article Author by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Hehe this is Joe (owner of the offending website) ( to lazy to figure out my login info for this) and no I was not prepared or even in town today... at 6:00pm (10 hours after the server started having issues) I got it back up.

      Funny enough the "Slashdot" effect did not seem to be the cause. A background service running seemed to freak the hell out, and spawn ohh... 1200 copies of itself ;) the app had nothing to do with web serving, so it may have just been a freak deal.

      the servers up now and the nasty service has been put under much more restrictive control. the servers dishing out 10x the data currently without issue than it was all day with the service tanking the OS... there was a 5 min average of 480 queued processes at one point before I got a reboot command to it. quite bad.

      But its up and yes its not on a water cooled server :) in data centers the only machines they seem to want water cooled are big PDU's or mainframes.

    3. Re:Article Author by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      BTW, it is that long-ass single tube in the heat exchanger that is killing your flow, you'd get much better cooling from a tiny car radiatior, or a pair of heater cores in parallel, or a motorcycle radiator, or any heat exchanger that allows the water to flow through more than one tube. You have more coolant in that thing than you would in a ford f-350, and don't try to tell me that a trio of Athlons makes more heat than a big block V8.

  35. GODDAMN FUCKTARD MODS!!! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    You steaming piles of cat shit!!! Motherfucker has a fucking point....don't cry like little bitches and mod him down....

    fuck, i hope the meta-mods strap you over a 55gal barrel and sodomize your anuses with Garden Weasels (tm).

  36. Re:Wouldn't it be nice if Slashdot included a copy by SuperDuG · · Score: 1
    Moderation -1

    100% Offtopic

    Cute ...

    --
    Ignore the "p2p is theft" trolls, they're just uninformed
  37. Educated Escort! Anne Marie! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    We're sooo happy to see you!

  38. Yoshi's Mod by NeB_Zero · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Yoshi DeHerrera of TechTV has an article about how to use HFE from 3M to build a submerged cooling system for a computer. Find it here.

    1. Re:Yoshi's Mod by SkewlD00d · · Score: 1

      I'm currently building a water submerged computer to go into a real, operating fish tank. It will be quiet, O/Ced, and have nice little fishies. Anybody want to donate a used, fresh-water aquarium setup w/ pumps? (San Jose or Castro Valley areas) ;)

      --
      The biggest trick the devil pulled was letting lawyers become politicians so they can write the laws.
    2. Re:Yoshi's Mod by budgenator · · Score: 1

      Today I decided to make one too, the biggest problem I can forsee is that everybody that thinks they know something about electricity, are going to treat us like we are the anti-christ!

      One thing I haven't figured out is if water has enough thermal-conductivity to do without a heat-sink on the CPU. I'm not sure about fish, clean an aquarium is enough of a chore without trying to vacuume fish feces of the cpu and not knock a memory stick loose.

      --
      Apocalypse Cancelled, Sorry, No Ticket Refunds
  39. Google Cache view by greechneb · · Score: 2, Informative
  40. Re:I don't understand by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative
    I'm always mystified by people who have things like rack-mount systems in their homes. I never manage to understand why you'd need that sort of thing.

    Easy, one is a firewall for your internal LAN, one is a shell/web/irc/ftp/DNS/mail server for your friends and family, one is the backup mail and DNS server, one is a file server on your internal network for Samba/NFS sharing and general purpose Linux stuff, one is your desktop (not in the rack usually), one is your laptop, one is your wife's laptop, one is an old Sparc 20 you had lying around, one is an old AlphaStation 200 you had lying around, one is a P90 running Win95 used for nothing really, one is a PPro-150 box running Win98, one is a dual PPro-200 box running Linux... err, you get the idea. Add in networked printers and your wireless access point and you have a rack full of shit.

  41. Re:Free For Fun !!! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I almost spat beer on my monitor there :D

  42. That's Pro/Cooling. . . by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    .
    Obviously NOT Pro Hosting!

  43. Re:I don't understand by fubar1971 · · Score: 2, Funny

    ...so that their spouce doesn't lash them for all the cables running everywhere...

    That is the reason why I don't have a rackmount system.

    Wife: (dressed in red and black leather with 12" heels) Clean up this electronic mess CRACK!
    Me: (in a submisive, but slightly excited tone of voice) Yes mistress, thank you mistress, may I have another?

  44. "..for those of you that think you know .. by Darth+Fredd · · Score: 4, Informative

    ..how this works." "The white stuff requires two types of glue to form a seal. First you apply primer, rubbing the brush around until the PVC starts dissolving and looks milky (do this on both parts on all areas that will be connected), and then you apply PVC glue until the primer and glue are completely mixed (on both parts).." You don't /mix/ the primer and glue! The primer is a alchohol-based cleaning compound! If you don't wait until it dries, the joint won't bond. ".. and then you slide the parts together and hold on for dear life." Hell yes! He mixed the glue and primer: "Pal, you're going to be holding that for a loooong time.." Oh, and I /do/ work with Sch 40; think 200 psi pressure lines. Don't mix the primer, man. It ain't purty.

    --
    "The most looniest, zaniest, spontaneous, sporadic Impulsive thinker, compulsive drinker, addict"
  45. Re:Wouldn't it be nice if Slashdot included a copy by xutopia · · Score: 1

    We always hear people complain about the slashdot effect and I was earnestly asking for clarification which you provided and am happy with.

    Contrarily to some people that just mod me down and keep me in the dark you actually did something constructive by explaining things to me. Thank you.

  46. Water flow rate? Tubing size? by 1010011010 · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I've got conduit running from the second floor computer room in my house into both the attic and crawlspace. I'm thinking of doing something like this, and running the heat exchanger portion under the house, to take advantage of the cool climate under there, and provide and emergency outlet for leaks. I'm thinking of using copper tubing on the two heat-exchange ends, with polymer tubing in between (in the conduit). I'm wondering what the flow rate would need to be, and how big the tubing would need to be to support that flow rate. Not being a fluid-flow or heating/cooling engineer of any type, I'm posting this question. :) It would be convenient to be able to use ordinary fish-tank equipment. The height of the water loop will play into that -- it has to be pumped up and down about 20 feet.

    --
    Napster-to-go says "Fill and refill your compatible MP3 player", which is a lie. It's not MP3. It's WMA with DRM.
  47. "Hello Help Desk?" by Strange+Ranger · · Score: 4, Funny


    "My computer has an algae problem."

    HD: "Well, is it blue-green algae, or just regular green algae?

    "How do I tell?"

    HD: "Oh for pity sake! Go to START, Programs, Algae Management."

    "Ummm.. Maybe I should just shut down and go spend some time outdoors?"

    --

    Operator, give me the number for 911!
    1. Re:"Hello Help Desk?" by odaiwai · · Score: 1

      Helpdesk: "You've got a virus"

      User: "But I've just plut bleach into the water tank. Do I need anti-biotics too?"

      dave

  48. Re:I don't understand by squeegee_boy · · Score: 2, Informative

    "He is wise, but inexperienced. His pattern indicates two-dimensional thinking."

    -Mr. Spock

    I invested in rack mount cases and an enclosure a few years back, and haven't regretted it. If you have little floorspace and need several machines, racks can't be beat. They use airspace that is otherwise wasted. Mine uses a closet.

    But God Allmighty, it's not cheap.

  49. Oh grow up, get a haircut and get a job! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    "This is the greatest country on Earth!
    We've got a whole system set up just to guarantee that people like you don't become president!
    " -- Abe Simpson knows where it's at!

  50. Re:Damn... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    That is the first time I have _ever_ been moderated down. Can someone explain why it's offtopic?
    Other posts, same topic, moderated up...

  51. Re:Wouldn't it be nice if Slashdot included a copy by SuperDuG · · Score: 1
    We always hear people complain about the slashdot effect and I was earnestly asking for clarification which you provided and am happy with.

    Contrarily to some people that just mod me down and keep me in the dark you actually did something constructive by explaining things to me. Thank you.

    I stopped caring about karma and moderation a long time ago, I post how I feel and I figured you asked a decent question and deserved a decent answer.

    --
    Ignore the "p2p is theft" trolls, they're just uninformed
  52. Just the opposite for me. by Andy+Dodd · · Score: 5, Informative
    I've found that most computer noises (even HD/CPU fan whine) don't make good whitenoise for sleeping.

    The exception is if you use a large ventilation fan to blow into an open case. (been there done that.)

    I DO use my computer as a whitenoise generator at night though. I've seen people charge $100-200 for whitenoise generators, when a simple program on a PC can do the trick. Under Linux, do a search for "whitenoise". Nice small program.

    Under Windows, so far the best solution I have come up with is to use Octave to generate a white noise (actually, "pink" noise, i.e. white noise that has been lowpass filtered) waveform, save it to .wav, and set Winamp to play it in an infinite loop.

    Octave code to do this:

    noisy = rand(1,65536*2);
    noisy = noisy-mean(noisy);
    noisy = [noisy noisy noisy];
    noisy2 = rand(1,65536*2);
    noisy2 = noisy2-mean(noisy2);
    noisy2 = [noisy2 noisy2 noisy2];
    myfiltlo = fir1(512,.2);
    myfilthi = fir1(512,.4);
    lownoise = filtfilt(myfiltlo,1,noisy);
    highnoise = filtfilt(myfilthi,1,noisy);
    lownoise = lownoise + highnoise/48;
    mywave = lownoise(65536:65536+65536*2);
    mywave = mywave-mean(mywave);
    mywave = mywave/max(abs(mywave));
    mywave = mywave';
    ausave('whitenoise.wav',mywave,22050);
    This creates white noise at a high level up to abour 2.2 kHz, and then additional noise at a much lower volume up to 4.4 kHz or so. You can adjust the cutoff frequencies (Second arguments to both fir1() functions and the ratios of volumes to your preference.

    Note that I generate a noise array and then dupe it three times before filtering it and then truncating it again. This prevents discontinuities in the final waveform that would present audible clicks/pops after every loop. (Similar theory to some of the tricks used to make seamless tiles in The GIMP.)

    --
    retrorocket.o not found, launch anyway?
  53. Re:Free For Fun !!! by 3J · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    Thank God Algore took the initiative in inventing the internet!

  54. I love those things. by Andy+Dodd · · Score: 1

    Back when I was a kid, my fishtank had a nasty algae problem.

    So my parents bought a pleco. Tiny little thing, maybe 1-2 inches long. We called it "Lucky" due to the abundance of food in the tank.

    Lucky lived for 12 years, far longer than any other fish we've ever had. And man do those things GROW. By the time it died it was nearly a foot long and thicker than its original length. It probably would've been twice the size if we'd had a larger tank.

    --
    retrorocket.o not found, launch anyway?
    1. Re:I love those things. by budgenator · · Score: 1

      my pleco is 5yrs. old and about 14 inches already, but he has spend a couple summers in the outdoor aquarium. My outdoot aquarium is about 2K gallons in that picture, and I in the process of expanding it so that it'll be in the neighborhood of 4-5K gallons, Plecos will grow to 2 ft,

      --
      Apocalypse Cancelled, Sorry, No Ticket Refunds
  55. Re:Wouldn't it be nice if Slashdot included a copy by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
    "Basically it all boils down to slashdot doesn't care if it causes an effect similar to that of a denial of service attack. They feel that since they are linking to a public webserver that they are doing no more harm than say a search engine. The caching of a webpage would mean that they would have to invest time and technology into a caching system (which they have neither the programming experience or capabilities) and not to mention money in the hardware (gotta store the things).

    It's a weird situation, slashdot publishes a story acknowledging That there are smaller servers [slashdot.org] that never intend to have the amount of traffic that they get. Just so happens that no one has actually sued slashdot yet, which happens to be the only thing the editors fear more than being fired. "



    And they are wrong. Slashdot is different than and indexing service in that it produces a large number of hits in a short period of time. Google pushes traffic to you fairly evenly distributed over time.

    This kind of attitude is just more proof that the "editurs" are a bunch of amatures that just happened to luck into tapping into vibrant community.

  56. Re:I don't understand by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    key word being "shit". you need to invest in some new hardware bro.

  57. Apartment? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    As an added bonus, it will heat a medium sized apartment all by itself!

    It's not a design flaw, it's a feature!

  58. Re: Heating with CPU by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    I can hear it now.

    "Dad. It's getting cold in here. Can I run something computationally expensive?"

  59. Re:Even more important, algae - use waterbed disin by brakk · · Score: 1

    What about using antifreeze? would that work?

  60. Re:I don't understand by ender- · · Score: 1

    Easy, one is a firewall for your internal LAN, one is a shell/web/irc/ftp/DNS/mail server for your friends and family, one is the backup mail and DNS server, one is a file server on your internal network for Samba/NFS sharing and general purpose Linux stuff, one is your desktop (not in the rack usually), one is your laptop, one is your wife's laptop, one is an old Sparc 20 you had lying around, one is an old AlphaStation 200 you had lying around, one is a P90 running Win95 used for nothing really, one is a PPro-150 box running Win98, one is a dual PPro-200 box running Linux... err, you get the idea. Add in networked printers and your wireless access point and you have a rack full of shit.


    Damn! You've almost perfectly described my home network!

    Ender

  61. Geothermal Cooling by jaredmauch · · Score: 1

    Interesting as there are a few of us out there that use geothermal cooling for our households. Mine is an example. I have an open-loop geothermal system that pumps water out of my well and discharges it elsewhere on my property. It works very well in both the summer and winter to keep my house in my comfort zone. Now all I need to do is redirect some of that cooling power to my equipment in the basement.

    1. Re:Geothermal Cooling by brakk · · Score: 1

      What do you do with the disgharged water? Does it just seep back into the gound?

    2. Re:Geothermal Cooling by jaredmauch · · Score: 1

      Yes, a majority of it does seep back into the ground. Most of my neighbors have the same system and discharge it into ponds on their property.
      It should be noted that it is also possible to use a closed-loop system whereby you lay a series of underground pipes on your property far enough down that you take advantage of the moderating tempratures of the ground and have sufficent water to keep the temp down. Here's a link to more information. How it works I was very concerned when i bought the place last year about it but it's worked flawlessly. I'm located in Michigan so we do get our fair share of heat and cold as the seasons change.

  62. Re:I don't understand by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Viewsonic Airpanel

    http://www.viewsonic.com/products/airpanel_airpa ne lv150.htm

  63. I can't get to the page.... by pfleming · · Score: 1

    It must've overheated.

  64. Re:I don't understand by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    What benefit do you gain from having wireless input devices when you are cable-tied to your rack?

  65. Re:I don't understand by yack0 · · Score: 1

    But I've got about 100 8 foot racks in the back office that I've been trying to get rid of, cheap. :)

    (relay style racks)

    j

    --
    -- There is no sig line, only Zuul.
  66. Re:Even more important, algae - use waterbed disin by Rosonowski · · Score: 1

    Yep. I've got a water cooled machine sitting right next to me. I don't even have it cooled as a matter of overclocking (although that is a nice little bennie) I have it WC'd because I can't stand fan noise.

    --
    01101001 01100001 01101101 01101110 01101111 01110100 01100001 01101100 01100001 01110111 01111001 01100101 01110010
  67. Equipment placement is probably a cheaper solution by YetAnotherName · · Score: 1

    I set up my own very first rack (21U of space) in the equipment closet in my house (custom built so it'd have an equipment closet). The rack houses an Ethernet switch, patch panel, UPS, two 1U servers, and a 2U RAID server. (Yes, I need this much equipment.)

    I originally placed all the equipment right on top of each other, leaving 12U open. What a mistake! It was up about 30 minutes before the RAID array complained of multiple drive failures and one of the other servers was hung hard. The entire rack itself was painfully hot to the touch.

    Leaving 1U of space between the equipment was all it took to solve the problem. Convection---you gotta love it.

  68. East Lansing, Mi by lorenlal · · Score: 1

    I have an Athlon XP 2000 and a Pentium 3/500 in my room.

    This last winter, the heat in my old apartment died 10 times between January 1st and April 30th. Most notable was a week where the temperature outside never got above 15 Farenheit. I never noticed in the night because my room never went below 65, even with failed heat.

    My poor roommate was not so lucky, not only did he not have an Athlon room heater, the air intake from outside was in his closet, and the seals broke. He had a 1.5'x1.5' hole to the outside.

  69. Re:I don't understand by blibbleblobble · · Score: 1

    "The heat must get unbearable when those things start churning. Maybe he should use the water cooling system to cool himself off instead"

    Uh, isn't the point of water-cooling / air conditioning etc. that you put the radiators outside? Perhaps the next project will involve a steam-powered turbine to provide combined heat and power to the neighbour's home.

    10% discount for hosting your server-farm near to a power-station, water-cooling provided for free...

  70. Get yer pictures right here... by ncc74656 · · Score: 1
    http://63.164.39.162/watercooling.zip

    Their site was working enough that the page loaded from the Google cache would, after a (long) delay, pull in the images. I saved all three pages with Mozilla and zipped them up. Enjoy.

    --
    20 January 2017: the End of an Error.
    1. Re:Get yer pictures right here... by ncc74656 · · Score: 1
      I saved all three pages with Mozilla and zipped them up.

      Make that all six pages now (phases 2 and 3)...same URL as before.

      --
      20 January 2017: the End of an Error.
  71. Re:I don't understand by squeegee_boy · · Score: 1

    Yeah, I started with a relay rack, and the discovered why it was so cheap :) Damn thing did nothing for noise control or air circulation, and cable management sucked hard.

    So, I picked up a fully-enclosed rack at an auction, and haven't looked back.

    The "expensive" part I was referring to was the rack-cases themselves. I know you can just use a shelf, but sliding-drawer-style rails are soooo much nicer.

  72. If I were to implement caching by MillionthMonkey · · Score: 1

    This is how I would do it. During the period where only subscribers can see the story, Slashdot would quickly build a cache of the site.
    Then, every minute, it would send a small HTTP request (like for robots.txt) and keep track of the response time. Maybe it could even generate a small postage-stamp sized log-scale graph of the response time as a PNG and insert or link to it from the front page, so you'd know how the site is holding up before clicking on the links.
    Once the response time has increased by a certain factor, the bot assumes the site has crashed under load. It then automagically posts a comment to the story with the subject "uhhh... it seems to be slashdotted" and then spits the site (stripped of HTML) into the comment body. This would save karma whores a lot of time.

  73. Re:Wouldn't it be nice if Slashdot included a copy by hesiod · · Score: 1

    > currently we do to the people we like the same as we do to people we don't like

    I guess DRTFA should be a new common (polite) phrase...

  74. I just finished integrating my closet... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    (actually spare bedroom).

    From 5 machines (firewall/router, mail/directory, database/appserver for development, file/print server for music and crap and one more box I was not sure what it was running), it went to one giant antec case with lots of drives and dual PIII 450 and Linksys access point/router.

    Now I can actually enter the room and spend time in it and my electricity bill went down by about $20 a month.

    1. Re:I just finished integrating my closet... by pair-a-noyd · · Score: 1

      I have SEVEN PC's (all Linux of course), monitors, laserjet, all sorts of crap.

      It's HOT and NOISY in my computer room..
      Here's what I'm working on.

      I obtained an old soda water cooler from an out of biz conv. store for CHEAP. It even has a bullet hole in it from a robbery attempt.
      http://home.gt.rr.com/linuxzealot88/mvc-716f.jpg
      and
      http://home.gt.rr.com/linuxzealot88/mvc-717f.jpg

      I stripped it all down and going to repaint it and pimp it all out with those "etched glass" decals and cold cathode lights. It'll be a religious experiance.
      It has lots of very heavy duty adjustable racks and built in lights. I stripped out the compressor (and related gear) because it was broken anyway.

      I pulled the doors off and seperated the sheets of glass so I could scrape the Coca-Cola logo decals from the inside.
      http://home.gt.rr.com/linuxzealot88/door-orig.jpg


      The whole thing WAS designed to keep cold air in.
      Well, it's gonna keep the hot air out of my computer room and the noise too.
      It's heavily insulated and sound proof too.
      I'll put a 4" exhuast up through the top of it and into my attic through my ceiling. My cooling bills in the summer will go down. In the winter I'll redirect the hot air into the room.

      Yeah, it's big but it'll hold every computer I have plus additional equipment. I'm even going to seal the vents on my monitor and run a duct hose from the monitor case into the monstercase so that even that hot air is sucked away.

      I'm sick of screaming hard drives and hot equipment.

      This will do the trick. Once I've got it done I'll post finished pics on /. if anyone cares to see it finished..

  75. no not bleach. by chunkwhite86 · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I use 8 parts distilled water, 3 parts "G12" (pink colored) VW/Audi/Mercedes engine coolant* and 1 part denatured alcohol.

    I've been algae and critter free** for over year now with no maintenance required at all.

    * This is probably the best coolant you can buy. It is free of all corrosive chemicals that "regular" coolant has, and it prevents corrosion due to dissimilar metals better than other coolants. ** My PC watercooling rig is pristine and clear and free of bacteria and algae and small animals. If it weren't for the toxic coolant and alcohol, I could drink it.

    --
    I'd rather be a conservative nutjob than a liberal with no nuts and no job.
  76. Re:Wouldn't it be nice if Slashdot included a copy by lophophore · · Score: 1

    This is an excellent idea. I think it could be implemented like a caching proxy for all URLs referenced through slashdot.

    --
    there are 3 kinds of people:
    * those who can count
    * those who can't
  77. Solved already. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Get thee to the swimming pool section of your local Lawn & Garden. There you will find gallon bottles of 40% Algacide, about $12 US. Aqua Chem is the brand 'round here.

    Quatanary Ammonium - pretty useful stuff.

    Treats 200,000 gallons. A little dab will do 'ya. Safe and effective usage requires substantial dilution. Not only good for you swimming pools and CPU cooling loops either...

    1) Use the same stuff in your Waterbed. A few oz, every year or two.

    2) If you're really cheap, you can refill those hang on the back of the tank toilet cleaner bottles. No blueness, tho. Calculate dilution v. flush volume and dispenser's lifecycle. Add cheap laundry blue if you want blueness.

    3) It is also used in those disposable "sanitary' wipe dispensers, marketed at the kitchen and bath. I forget the brands, little plastic bottle from which you pull wet naps out of the top. Just use a regular rag and dilute in a squirty bottle.

    4) It is also used as a sanitizer dip/wash in the food trade. The machine the spit out that frosty Milk 'A Like(tm) shake you're sucking down probably soaked in the stuff just last night.

  78. Better medium for cooling? by gotr00t · · Score: 0, Troll
    Though water has a significantly higher specific heat than air, it has its disadvantages as a coolant as well. I have heard many accounts where the water cooling systems leaked and damaged computers, and others where the warm water has algae and other lifeforms growing in it, clogging up the system, causing pumps to fail and computers to overheat.

    What is needed is probably something more effective, an inert substance that has a extremely high specific heat. Liquid sodium in a high pressure system may be a good choice to convey the heat, as it has an extremely high specific heat, allowing for much more heat to be conveyed with less substance, though the results may be disasterous if the system loses containment. I have also heard about a really expensive inert liquid from 3M that electronics could be submerged in without any negative effects, though I'm not sure of its specific heat values.

    1. Re:Better medium for cooling? by brakk · · Score: 1

      I've always wanted a reasion to have an alarm that would warn me of a containment leak. (like in the movies, flashing lights, recorded female voice over intercom, men in white suits running by)

      And the 3M stuff you're looking for is here

    2. Re:Better medium for cooling? by confused+one · · Score: 1

      Ethylene / Propylene Glycol. i.e. Antifreeze.

    3. Re:Better medium for cooling? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Bug growth in water is cured using Quatanary Ammonium. A few drops of cheap swimming pool algicide will do quite nicely. It is stable in solution, it goes away mostly as the occasional new bug eats the stuff and dies. So, a dose will last a year, or two.

      Specific heat is compensated for with volume. Within a range based on CPU and radiator suface area, lots of air with its low specific heat is just as good as a dribble of water with its high specific heat. In US measure, Specific Heat is the number of BTU's it takes to heat 1 lb of the material 1deg F. For fresh water, the answer is 1BTU/lb.

      But water solutions are "instant death" to electronics, so a great deal of care is needed. But you don't likely need $220/gallon transfer fluids either. If you're thinking about the $220 stuff, you're also keenly thinking about how to build an absolute containment for this HIGHLY volatile material.

      As unsexy as it may be, a simple hydrocarbon is the likely answer. Mineral Oil has been suggested but is pretty viscous. Maybe one of the paint thinners. Acetone has half the specific heat of water and might pump twice as fast in the same system. Alas, Acetone will dissolve the MOBO's epoxy and a host of materials likely to be used in the cooling system. The upside is that it would take a few minutes/hours for warm Acetone to kill your MOBO (depending on the leak it may evaporate way before it reaches anything). You could add a good dose of purfume - you'll know of tiny leaks pretty quickly. Gasoline might work too.

      Of course, with Acetone and Gasoline, you sure wouldn't want to hit the power button (spark) if you ever smelled the purfume. Boom, as they say.

      Most of the paint thinners are less viscous than water, will pump faster, are non-conductive, and have specific heats in the .4 to .5 range. You just have to find one that will not affect your MOBO faster than you might discover the leak, is pumpable enough to offset the difference in specific heat (about double the GPH), will not disolve your cooling loop, and won't evaporate so quickly as to form an explosion hazzard. Maybe a low VOC paint thinner or lightweight food oil.

    4. Re:Better medium for cooling? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If algae growth is percieved as a negative, you'd better stick with ethylene glycol, it is much more poisonous

  79. You make noise? by Councilor+Hart · · Score: 2, Funny

    Hey, wait a moment.
    You make noise?
    I mean, you MAKE noise so that you can sleep?
    Hell, I turn off my Apple/PC to have NO noise.
    And I live in the middle of town.br.

  80. The twin towers of cooling. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    You can go with a cooling tower construction. The inner is your traditional rack. The outer is a metal plexiglass construction with a front door, and the top and bottom is open. Top and bottom fans (big and slow) optional. Also cuts down on noise[1]. For additional fun, run big diameter plastic pipe to the outdoors (don't forget to screen properly), intake and exhaust. There can be any number of variations. Cooling radiator at the bottom. For the more industrious, one can even cludge something together from say open wire metal shelving. mount some integrated mobo's vertically. Modified power supplies. HDDs are a dicier problem. SATA can help here, or try NAS.

    [1] Also makes it easier to control other parameters like humidity for example.

  81. Re:I don't understand by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    > Oh, music, movies, games, web, chat, photos... you know - fun! ;-)
    Man, you've forgotten the pr0n!!!

  82. Better medium for cooling?-Lava lamp computer. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Try paraffin wax (Guess what's used in lava lamps?). Or a light viscosity oil. Hey! It works for your transmission.

  83. Re:I don't understand by molarmass192 · · Score: 1

    Admittedly, not much, one less set of cables running across my desktop. When I purchased the mouse and keyboard (Logitech combo) I *had* expected to run a much longer monitor cable and move my rack into a closet about 10 feet away, but the pixel-bleed nixed that idea.

    --

    Good people do not need laws to tell them to act responsibly, while bad people will find a way around the laws-Plato
  84. Me too, smaller scale. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Our office has desks with little computer cubbyholes in them. One day I decided to burn a big stack of CDs to send off to customers (we make & sell small volumes of reference CDs). After about 4 disks, my machine (AMD Athlon XP 1800+, 52x CDR) kernel panicked. I burned my hand on the top of the case. I took the machine out of the cubbyhole and there hasn't been a problem since, even when burning many CDs in a row.

  85. Re:I don't understand by confused+one · · Score: 1
    Silly troll...

    You're "in physics"? I'm "in physics" and I can picture lots of reasons (simulations, data analysis) where I could justify a cluster. Well, OK my wife won't let me...

    But, more to the point: put in fast internet access. Add a hardware firewall. Run that into a Switch / Router. Have a machine for development. A test environment (a separate machine so we don't hose the development machine). And any number of machines for cross compiles. Oh, and we can't forget the machine for my wife to surf on. Add a UPS big enough to support all of the above.

    Now we're talking about a professional set-up that will easily take up a full rack.

  86. Re:I don't understand by molarmass192 · · Score: 1

    That's kinda cool but it's XP only and it's too small. I use 17" screens now and I'm considering 21" screens to get some more coding space. Also, since it's not wireless in the sense of "works just like a VGA monitor" it's not quite the solution I'm looking for.

    --

    Good people do not need laws to tell them to act responsibly, while bad people will find a way around the laws-Plato
  87. Re:Even more important, algae - use waterbed disin by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Funny, my house is already full of chemicals floating around. Nitrogen, oxygen, etc.

    Surprisingly, I am also made of chemicals.

  88. Yes I do. by Andy+Dodd · · Score: 1

    Some forms of noise are more pleasing to the human ear than others, and monotonous noises (like fans) can actually be soothing. I actually CAN'T sleep without some background noise such as a fan (or my PC's whitenoise generator) running.

    CPU fans are the exception, as these emit rather high-frequency narrowband noise. I'm talking about larger fans of the 2-foot+ variety. Hard drives are also too high pitched, plus the heads make all sorts of nice clicking sounds.

    The output of that program is broadband noise at low frequencies that sounds rather similar to a waterfall. It's a soothing sound, but more importantly, it masks out spurious background noises (birds chirping, cars passing by, etc.) all of which tend to keep you awake/wake you up. The code I put in to add the small amount of higher frequency noise makes the output LESS comfortable to hear, but helps because it assists in masking out some noises in the 2.2-4.4 kHz spectrum.

    Use of white noise to mask other noises is an established procedure in many office environments to mask out the sounds of things such as keys clicking. (In these cases the amplitude is VERY low so as to be not consciously noticeable.)

    Someone emailed me about some other aspects of noise, so I might be able to improve the program tonight. :)

    --
    retrorocket.o not found, launch anyway?
  89. Re:Wouldn't it be nice if Slashdot included a copy by budgenator · · Score: 1

    The other cool advatage about a /. caching system is that they could add a little bit to your karma for actualy loading the links in the article.

    --
    Apocalypse Cancelled, Sorry, No Ticket Refunds
  90. Re:Wouldn't it be nice if Slashdot included a copy by budgenator · · Score: 1

    For example, commercial sites rely on their banner ads to generate revenue.
    translation: We're to lazy to figure out how to write a caching script intelegent enough to realize that if it's caching example.com, the links to doubleclick.com are ad banners and should be drawn off the URL listed instead of the translated cache URL.

    --
    Apocalypse Cancelled, Sorry, No Ticket Refunds
  91. whaaaaa? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
    "Hebrew rack watercooling"?!!!

    Jewish wet t-shirt contests?

  92. Um, looks like a coding problem to me! by rkuris · · Score: 1
    The reason this site is down is not because of a CPU problem. Check out these errors:


    Warning: php_hostconnect: connect failed in /home/virtual/site1/fst/var/www/html/index.php on line 19
    Warning: Failed opening 'http://www.procooling.com/banners/top346.html' for inclusion (include_path='.:/php/includes:/usr/share/php') in /home/virtual/site1/fst/var/www/html/index.php on line 19
    Warning: php_hostconnect: connect failed in /home/virtual/site1/fst/var/www/html/index.php on line 21
    Warning: Failed opening 'http://www.procooling.com/banners/top144.html' for inclusion (include_path='.:/php/includes:/usr/share/php') in /home/virtual/site1/fst/var/www/html/index.php on line 21

    So it appears that they are doing something awful in their PHP -- trying to connect to themselves! Sigh -- if PHP were just more difficult to use maybe there would be fewer errors.
    --
    Get rid of everything Micro and Soft: Buy Viagra and/or Linux
  93. Re:Better medium for cooling? At what temperature? by temojen · · Score: 1
    Liquid sodium in a high pressure system

    Liquid sodium makes a great reactor-vesel coolant. It has a low viscosity, and a high specific heat. Unfortunately it's melting point is 97.72 C. You'll notice that this is about 27 C above the maximum operating temperature of almost all consumer electronics.

    Somebody else suggested parafin wax. I'm not sure, but I think they were also pointing out this flaw. Strangely, I had thought of experimenting with parafin to provide cooling... but not for a running system. I thought of useing a sealed case with hollow walls filled with solid parafin as a container for backup tapes inside a fireproof safe. Hopefully the melting parafin would absorb some of the heat, protecting the tapes longer. As long as it doesn't leak and catch on fire.

    Ethylene glycol also is not so good... It's most efficient at about 200 C, which is what makes it such a good coolant for car engines.

    Methanol works great at the temperatures you want to strive for in computer cooling. unfortunately, it's corosive, volatile, odourless, and extremely toxic.

    See this article for more.

  94. use Update by sbszine · · Score: 1

    At first I thought your comment was an obscure Perl module.

    --

    Vino, gyno, and techno -Bruce Sterling

  95. Water, "fancy"? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    First I've heard that one. You must spec "Avion, or better".

    Really, tho, the trouble with water is twofold.

    1) Bugs. Antifreeze will take care of that. But, you can still use 60% fancy water.

    2) Conductivity. If it leaks, ever, you will lose your gear a few microseconds later. Glycol and water, however fancy, won't help here.

    There are better (and cheap) fluids, mostly the low viscosity hydrocarbons. Low conductivity, no bugs, and they kill your MOBO quite a bit more slowly if they leak. But, you have to upsize the system's radiator and flow rate.

  96. Hey guy! a little science here please! by jefeweiss · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I don't claim to be a scientist, but one thing struck me when I was reading the page about your project. At the end you kind of complain about the ambient temperature in the room from your cooling system. But you also complain that your stage 3 temperatures were higher then your Stage 2 temperatures. Yeah, I'll bet. If you really want to know what is just from the cooling system you have to adjust the room temperature so it is constant.

    I mean, it it's the winter time in the first example and your temperature is low, but your room temperature is 65F, then that's one thing. But, if your temperature is high and it's the summer and your room temp is 85F then that's something else entirely.

    It seems to me it's possible you have an uncontrolled variable roaming around destroying your data.

  97. ...people like Mr. Airspirit... by i+chose+quality · · Score: 1

    his profession: sanitary engineering! ...
    his avocation: cooling!

    --
    the computer is online
    i am not at it
    what a waste of ressources
  98. Re:Wouldn't it be nice if Slashdot included a copy by i+chose+quality · · Score: 1

    i'll just remark, that this has been discussed a gazillion times before. now let me finish my hat, i didn't have breakfast today.
    *gnaw*

    %-)

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    the computer is online
    i am not at it
    what a waste of ressources
  99. Oh, one thing. by Andy+Dodd · · Score: 1

    A few people emailed me indicating that they were having problems getting the Matlab/Octave code to run.

    Most of those lines require Matlab's Signal Processing Toolbox or the Octave equivalent. Octave-Forge (http://octave.sf.net/) implements most SPT functionality. (Still no psd() function...)

    The ausave() function is Octave-specific and probably needs to be replaced if running the code under Matlab.

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    retrorocket.o not found, launch anyway?