I may be able to get a Sunfire X2200 server from work. Dual quad code AMD Opeteron CPU's, 32GB RAM, etc. Since it is a 1U server, its pretty loud. I was thinking that if I could put in a water cooling setup, it would make a better desktop server. Does anyone have experience doing this? Thanks
Water cooling doesn't eliminate heat, just lets you move it somewhere else. So you could use much bigger passive elements outside the case, or similarly sized (and loud) active coolers.
Right. It goes back to the second law of thermodynamics. I would need a cooling unit outside the server and tubing to bring water into and out of the server. I was hoping that someone figured this out. I realize also that it would be bad if the water cooling system leaked.
Just a question: put it into a rack somewhere in your cellar and connect it to your home network, so that the noise is elsewhere. Wouldn't that be a lot easier than to install water-cooling? And it would be a lot easier to put other noisy systems (like storage) near the server too, which would further reduce noise at your workplace.
Ask yourself how often you need physical access to a server and you hae your answer for where to place it.
Regarding water-cooling: rule of thumb in data centers is to avoid water cooling as long as possible, because it creates more problems than it solves in the long run. I.e. this was one of the biggest reasons for the success of the Hitachi- and Comparex-CPUs in the mainframe world.
I hope this helps.
bakunin
Thanks Bakunin. I was thinking that it would be a good desktop machine. I'm not a gamer, but it would be better than the desktop that I have. Unfortunately, it's just too loud. But I could stuff it in the basement, and use it as a server.
OK, i could have been more verbose: i think a slim desktop is sufficient if you have a fat system in the background which you can use. Your desktop only has to shoulder the X-server and the windowmanager, all the applications could run on the server and use the desktop system only as a means to display their window.
I hope this helps.
bakunin