

Don’t Eat Too Much Three Bean Salad. The Server Will Crash. - AdamGibbins
http://thenubbyadmin.com/2012/03/30/dont-eat-too-much-three-bean-salad-the-server-will-cras/

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fsckin
Novelty aside, tap water will slowly corrode the water block and cause a
catastrophic failure long before a more conventional cooling method would
fail. Toilet tanks aren't known for being algae free, and treating it would be
difficult, if not impossible.

Please don't do this.

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bryogenic
The toilet water is just being used as a heat exchanger. The liquid cooling
system is an isolated system. See here:
[http://www.clearfoundation.com/Community/Photos/Faucon/37/Ph...](http://www.clearfoundation.com/Community/Photos/Faucon/37/Photo.html#photoid=152)

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arthurbrown
Are you sure? In that picture it specifically looks like only one hose end is
attached to the pump while the other is dangling and emptying out into the
tank.

edit: They've even zip tied it to that PVC to keep it from coming loose, which
wouldn't be an issue if it was in fact attached to the pump.

~~~
pmjordan
The cable tie is presumably so it doesn't shift when the cistern empties and
refills when flushing.

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jpiasetz
This reminds me of the saying "just because you can do something, doesn't mean
you should", on the other hand it's a cool hack.

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shabble
If you want to take it one step further,
[http://www.dwpg.com/content.php?contid=3&artid=57&or...](http://www.dwpg.com/content.php?contid=3&artid=57&orgartid=57)
is a thread by a guy using a buried water tank as a sink for his watercooling
setup (Interesting pics start around here:
[http://www.dwpg.com/content.php?contid=3&artid=77&or...](http://www.dwpg.com/content.php?contid=3&artid=77&orgartid=57))

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marshray
It looks like the Linux penguin guy has a catheter.

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sp332
If you like the idea of computers-as-art, Darren Kitchen over at Hak.5 made a
pretty cool server inside an IKEA picture frame, and kept it on the back wall
of the set all last season. Part one:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oIeKnB_5u2U&time=18m50s](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oIeKnB_5u2U&time=18m50s)
Part two:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z2lHc_MFIZs&t=15m30s](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z2lHc_MFIZs&t=15m30s)

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schwap
The system goes into the toilet _tank_ , which is separate from whatever may
happen in the bowl and contains clean tap water (which still isn't the best
idea for watercooling).

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darklajid
If you put the emphasis like that to counter the bean 'joke':

I think the point was that if you flush (or - repeatedly flush) your cooling
reservoir is empty now for a short while.

Funny? Not really.

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lsb
Water cooling feels like brute force. Why not give it plenty of air, and have
the apparatus underclock itself enough until it's within a designated
temperature envelope?

~~~
shabble
It's exactly brute force. And the why of it is simple: performance.

There's an upper limit on the heat dissipation capability of a directly
mounted heatsink, no matter how much air you throw at it. Water has a much
greater heat capacity, and hence is better at removing heat from your
{C,G}PUs.

In addition, the relatively lesser amount of water needed for the same cooling
capacity makes it much quieter. Many people water-cool purely to build a
'silent' PC.

The next step up is thermioelectric (Peltier effect) assisted water-cooling,
followed by phase-change refrigeration (same principles as household
refrigerator).

The upper limit is probably(?) open-loop evaporation of cryogenic liquified
gases like nitrogen, but that's mostly a gimmick for overclocking contests.

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Dylan16807
It's a file server and firewall, what does it need high-clocked CPUs for?
Stick a big heat sink on it and you can go with no fan or a silent fan.

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yock
Well, for one, dust. There's a strong case against mounting the electronics on
a piece of wood and hanging it on the wall in open air, but if the builder is
oddly inflexible on that point then liquid-cooling is probably the most
practical way to avoid the daily-or-more-often process of removing dust and
debris.

~~~
adrianN
I don't know about your place, but in a typical home dust buildup shouldn't be
a problem for a long time.

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StavrosK
Why don't people know how toilets work? The water comes from the cistern (and
it appears that it's only even used for heat exchange). The article author
mentions how "the murky water creeps [him] out" and then links to a photo of a
tube with _completely_ clean water.

The cistern contains drinkable water. Sure, it's not clean enough to drink out
of, but it's tap water. It's not where the poo goes. The water is not murky,
it's tap water.

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DHowett
I can't tell if this is brilliant or terrifying.

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switz
Why can't it be both?

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ORioN63
This is actually pretty cool. Makes me think of the potato powered server
posted a few months ago.

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jvoorhis
Looks like the SA was taking the piss...

