Slashdot Mirror


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."

49 of 213 comments (clear)

  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. 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.

    --
    std::disclaimer<std::legalese> sig=new std::disclaimer; sig->dump(); delete sig;
    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 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.

    5. 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.

    6. 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
  3. 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.

  4. 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

  5. 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 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.
  6. 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.

  7. 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

  8. 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.

  9. 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

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

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

  11. 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 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
  12. 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! ;-)

  13. 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
  14. 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.

  15. 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.
  16. 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.

  17. 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 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!
  18. 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.
  19. 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
  20. 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 :-(

  21. 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.

  22. 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).

  23. 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

  24. 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.

  25. Google Cache view by greechneb · · Score: 2, Informative
  26. 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.

  27. 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?

  28. "..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"
  29. 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.
  30. "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!
  31. 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.

  32. 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?
  33. 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.
  34. 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.

  35. 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.