I Can’t Believe They Threw This Away
Summary
TLDRIn this intriguing tech video, the host repurposes a UNIF flare inro acrc 100 server cooler from a local data center to create a water cooling system for their computer. The video showcases the challenges and creative solutions involved in adapting the large-scale air conditioning unit, originally designed to cool data center air, into a personal water cooling system. The host and their friend experiment with various modifications, including drilling, brazing, and repurposing components to fit their needs. They also address safety concerns, such as wearing eye protection and dealing with metal shavings. The result is a powerful and efficient cooling system capable of handling high-wattage components like a 96-core processor and an RTX 4090 graphics card. The video concludes with a successful demonstration of the system's cooling capacity, maintaining low temperatures even under heavy load, and a humorous cleanup with the help of their sponsor's robotic vacuum, the Roborock S8 Max V Ultra.
Takeaways
- 💡 The script describes a DIY project where a UNIF flare inro acrc 100 server cooler, discarded by a local data center, is repurposed for water cooling a personal computer.
- 🔍 The initial challenge was adapting a G14 PC water cooling fitting to the server cooler, which required drilling and brazing to create a compatible connection.
- 🏠 The server cooler is actually a chilled water modular air conditioning unit designed to cool the air in a data center, rather than cooling servers directly.
- 💰 The unit, discontinued in 2016, was priced at around $6,500 and is equipped with drip trays and insulation to handle condensation from the ambient air.
- 🔧 The water supply pipe is designed to carry coolant as low as 7° C, indicating the system's capability to handle significant cooling loads.
- 🤝 The process involved a collaborative effort with friends to overcome technical hurdles, such as short cables and the need for eye protection during certain procedures.
- 🔋 The server cooler was tested with a high-performance computer setup, including a 96-core processor and an RTX 4090 graphics card, to validate its cooling capacity.
- 🛠️ The team had to learn how to use new tools and techniques, like brazing and soldering, to modify and connect the cooling components.
- 💧 Concerns about the system's water flow and potential leaks were addressed by careful assembly and testing of the water cooling loop.
- 📈 The cooling system was benchmarked using stress tests like Prime 95, and it was observed that the CPU temperatures remained impressively low even under heavy load.
- 🧹 The script humorously includes a promotion for a robotic vacuum cleaner, the Roborock S8 Max V, which is capable of cleaning various messes effectively.
Q & A
What was the initial plan when the UNIF flare inro acrc 100 server cooler was found at a local data center?
-The initial plan was to repurpose the UNIF flare inro acrc 100 server cooler for personal use, specifically for water cooling a computer system, after discovering that the local data center was discarding it.
What was the main challenge faced when trying to adapt the server cooler for PC water cooling?
-The main challenge was that a standard G14 PC water cooling fitting wouldn't thread directly into the server cooler, requiring them to drill into it and adapt it, which was more complicated than initially anticipated.
How is the UNIF flare inro acrc 100 server cooler different from a regular water cooling system?
-The UNIF flare inro acrc 100 is a chilled water modular air conditioning unit designed to cool the air in a data center rather than cooling servers directly. It has features like drip trays and insulation to handle condensation, and it uses water as low as 7°C to cool the air blown out of the servers.
What was the purpose of the drip trays and insulation found on the server cooler?
-The drip trays and insulation were expected to collect a lot of condensation from the ambient air because the water supply pipe was meant to take coolant as low as 7°C, indicating that the system was designed to handle significant condensation.
What was the method used to get the water so cold in the server cooler system?
-The script does not specify the exact method used to chill the water, but it mentions that there are several solutions, including traditional refrigeration and evaporative cooling. However, it also humorously suggests plumping directly into the nearest glacier in Canada.
What was the issue with the cable length when setting up the server cooler?
-The cable provided with the server cooler was too short, causing inconvenience and requiring a solution to manage the slack without causing problems during operation.
What is the Roborock S8 Max VR Tru mentioned in the script?
-The Roborock S8 Max VR Tru is a robotic vacuum cleaner mentioned as a sponsor in the script. It is capable of vacuuming up debris in a single pass and even self-cleans, featuring a hyper force system with 10,000 pascals of suction power.
What was the final conclusion about the effectiveness of the UNIF flare inro acrc 100 server cooler for cooling?
-The conclusion was that the server cooler was extremely effective for cooling. Even with a high-power CPU under load, the maximum coolant temperature reached was only 56°, and the CPU temperatures remained low at 40°, demonstrating the system's capability to handle significant heat loads.
What was the power consumption of the CPU when the system was under stress with PBO on?
-With PBO (Precision Boost Overclocking) enabled, the CPU reached a power consumption of approximately 800 to 1100 watts under stress, as measured during the Prime 95 test.
What was the final setup for the server cooler in terms of water flow and fan speed?
-The final setup involved a high-volume water flow of around 1200 L per second and a fan speed that could be manually controlled, with the system capable of reaching up to 1400 L per second.
What was the intended use for the server cooler in a typical data center environment?
-In a typical data center, the server cooler is used to cool the air by taking hot air blown out of the servers, passing it through a radiator with chilled water, and then blowing it back out at a cooler temperature to be recycled into the server racks.
Outlines
🛠️ Custom Water Cooling with a Server Cooler
The video begins with the narrator discussing the process of repurposing a UNIF flare inro acrc 100 server cooler from a local data center for personal use. The narrator is excited about the potential of the cooler, which is revealed to be a chilled water modular air conditioning unit originally intended for cooling air in data centers. The video covers the challenges of adapting the unit for computer water cooling, including the need to drill and modify fittings to fit the G14 PC water cooling system. The narrator also humorously discusses the complexity of the task and the involvement of friends in overcoming obstacles. Additionally, a sponsored segment for a robotic vacuum, the Robot Rock sa Max VR Tru, is included, highlighting its self-cleaning capabilities.
🔧 Retrofitting and Testing the Server Cooler
The second paragraph details the process of retrofitting the server cooler for use with a computer system. The narrator and his friend Justin face challenges such as short cables and the need for brazing to create custom fittings. They also discuss the server cooler's original purpose and its features, like drip trays and insulation, indicating its design for condensation management. The video shows them successfully managing to power on the unit and adjust fan speeds, emphasizing the powerful cooling potential of the ISC 100. The narrator also touches on the importance of sealing the system properly and ensuring the water flow is smooth before connecting it to a computer.
💧 Water Cooling System Setup and Initial Tests
In this part, the narrator and Justin proceed with setting up the water cooling system. They discuss the need for regular maintenance of the cooling system and the challenges of dealing with rust and other issues from the system's previous use. The video demonstrates the process of circulating water through the system to check for leaks and functionality. They also explore the system's controls, including valves for the supply and bypass of the radiators. The narrator expresses excitement about the potential of the system to cool multiple computers and its effectiveness in handling a high volume of heat. The segment concludes with a successful test run of the system on a single computer, showing impressively low temperatures and the system's ability to handle high power loads.
📈 Benchmarking and Cleanup with Roborock
The final paragraph focuses on benchmarking the water cooling system's performance over an extended period. The narrator shares the results of stress tests using Prime 95 and Cinebench, noting the system's ability to maintain low temperatures even under heavy load. The video also discusses the power draw of the CPU and the impact of enabling PBO (Precision Boost Overclocking) on the system's performance. The narrator concludes by emphasizing the effectiveness of the cooling system, especially for large-scale deployments. The video ends with a sponsored segment for the Roborock S8 Max V, highlighting its cleaning capabilities and an upcoming release date.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Water Cooling
💡Data Center
💡UNIF flare inro acrc 100
💡Radiator
💡Threadripper
💡G14 PC Water Cooling Fitting
💡Brazing
💡Refrigeration
💡Evaporative Cooling
💡Prime95
💡Roborock S8 Max V
Highlights
The discovery of a UNIF flare inro acrc 100 server cooler being discarded by a local data center provided an opportunity to repurpose it for personal use.
The server cooler was initially tested with a power draw of 500 WS, which unexpectedly resulted in a reading of zero Watts, indicating a potential malfunction or error.
A G14 PC water cooling fitting was found to be incompatible with the server cooler, necessitating a DIY approach to modify the fittings.
The use of a high-powered vacuum cleaner, the Robot Rock sa Max VR Tru, was highlighted for its self-cleaning capabilities and effectiveness in handling various cleaning tasks.
The server cooler was revealed to be a chilled water modular air conditioning unit, not designed for direct server cooling but for cooling the air in the data center.
The system is capable of handling a significant amount of radiator space, indicating its potential for large-scale cooling applications.
The server cooler's water supply pipe is designed to use coolant as low as 7° C, showcasing its efficiency in heat transfer.
The process of repurposing the server cooler involved overcoming challenges such as short cables and the need for custom fabrication of parts.
A successful reset of the server cooler's password was achieved, allowing for full access and control over the system.
The server cooler's fans were tested and found to be extremely powerful, with the ability to reach speeds of 1200 L per second.
The importance of sealing and proper plumbing was emphasized to ensure the efficiency of the cooling system.
The use of brazing for attaching fittings to copper pipes was demonstrated, highlighting a new skill learned during the process.
A powerful pump was necessary to move the volume of water required for the cooling system, emphasizing the system's scale.
The cooling system was tested with a 96-core processor and an RTX 4090 graphics card, showing its potential for high-performance computing.
The system was able to maintain a CPU temperature of 40° even under heavy load, demonstrating its exceptional cooling capabilities.
The server cooler was also tested with Prime 95, a stress testing software, where it handled a power draw of up to 1100 watts without significant temperature increase.
The final conclusion was that the large fans used in the system were very effective for cooling, even with high thermal loads.
The sponsor's product, Rob Rock S8 Max V, was mentioned for its cleaning capabilities, highlighting its utility in maintaining a clean environment for tech projects.
Transcripts
while I could water cool my computer
with one of these when I found out that
a local data center was just throwing
away this UNIF flare inro acrc 100
server cooler I knew what had to be done
we're at 500 WS 995
Watts oh my God look at this it broke it
just says zero Watts I didn't know how
complicated it was going to be something
tells me that a G14 PC water cooling
fitting isn't going to exactly just
thread into this bad boy but hey that's
what friends are for right so let's
drill into
this and hope that we don't screw
anything up oh just like I screwed up
that segue to our sponsor cleaning the
house can be a dangerous exercise last I
used Robot Rock sa Max VR Tru which
vacuums them up only one go he loves to
clean so much it even clean itself good
job Rocky
wow look at this thing you can fit so
much Radiator in this bad boy but the
way that they're using it is not the way
that you would expect this is a chilled
water modular air conditioning unit
that's right it is intended to cool the
air in the data center rather than
cooling the servers directly it's
available in either a half rack that's
the one we're looking at here or a full
rack model and this older one disc
continued in 2016 goes for about
$6,500 and if you look there's all kinds
of indicators that this is not your
regular water cooling system for one
thing it's got these drip trays all over
the place and this insulation that seems
to indicate that they are expecting this
to collect a lot of condensation from
the ambient air that's because this
water in Supply pipe here is meant to
take coolant that's as low as 7°
C it's an air conditioner in the sense
that it takes the hot air that is blown
out of the servers on either side of it
sucks it into the back pulls it through
this radiator that's got super chilly
water running through it and then blows
it back out the front cooled to a
reasonable temperature where it can
be recycled into those server racks next
to it the only problem is how do you get
the water so cold
there are a number of solutions to that
you can use good old-fashioned
Refrigeration evaporative cooling here
in Canada we just Plum directly into the
nearest Glacier but realistically we
have a different goal and we're not
going to worry about any of that wow D
these ever look like finger jompers the
problem is our cable is just so short
but it's got all the slack yeah what are
they doing causing me nothing but
Discord right
now I didn't get that joke oh slack
Discord a got you what plug
into oh wow she just fires up like that
it feels great that does feel great oh
there we go hey inro okay cool check
this out check this out 530 L per second
that's ply have password no oh this is
why we have to look up resetting the
password I see well I guess we're going
to need to rip this off wear eye
protection this time
[Music]
hey see you later
buddy look at that take that lockpicking
lawyer I'm kidding we have no beef great
channel in order to reset the password
we're going to need this seral to usba
to USBC because modern laptops JK I use
a framework I can totally use usba let's
go boom investment disclosure also back
here we've got some of the enterpris
nature of this on full display we've got
Network control and redundant power
supplies press the reset button on the P
back of the electrical
panel okay immediately press enter
repeatedly if necessary to display the
username
prompt hey
username it's a me
Mario no no please choose a regular I'm
working on it I I think I pressed enter
a lot of times and it's really confused
boom we're in the main frame is hacked
boys username what no I'm going to go
admin admin that's great enter new
administrator authentication phrase
admin Tech tips oh my God I didn't
successfully do it
F do you want me to go get
shot no no it's fine it's fine it's done
bad authentication phrase I can't just
put admin as the authentication phrase
hey that's a good thing I know but I I
don't care right now you know minimum 15
characters this is really
dumb oh my God
can I just set it to full speed yeah try
fan speed
control man manual let's
go oh here we
go look at his
shorts 1200 l a
second and you want to replace these
fans look at how I could barely hear you
talking I'm we're yelling yeah I'm right
next to you 134 like almost 14 1400 L
that's the power of the whatever the
this thing ISC 100 now of course it's
not going to do basically anything with
the side panels off these fans are going
to pull the air from the point of least
resistance which is right here so you
got to put the side panels on you want
it nice and sealed up here in fact I'm
willing to bet that is one of the
reasons these
panels have this foam on the inside of
them we've got caps on the secondary
Supply and return right yeah so we don't
got to deal with anything down there all
we've got to deal with is this Supply
and this return neither of which appears
to be plumbed with any kind of threading
standard that Justin was able to
identify
thankfully we've got
this I've never brazed before oh sure
that makes sense fun fact I've also
never used a sawall before it's called a
sawall cuz it
saws
all are you even trying this week that
joke's actually from a Nicholas Cage
movie that's not even a joke that's just
why it's called that what's our level of
concern about the metal shavings and the
power supplies down there it's covered
it's fine so what I just go for
it hey uh Justin do you mind just
putting a hand on this okay I actually
don't want your hand right there there
though yeah there's good uh yeah that's
better wow I can see why burglars like
these man how did I do that so smoothly
the first time okay Justin you're up
okay I'm trusting you don't take out my
hands whoo whoa you should really hold
them further away no I'm good I'm good
he's he's cutting away from my hands
it's fine it's not okay
[Applause]
all right I feel less bad you had a bit
of trouble getting it started too what's
next we got some oh sick dang man that
looks professional check this out Justin
made G14 threaded endcap things that I
guess we got at Home Depot or something
what do I put these on though well on
one of these but you're going to have to
braze the other end on to those copper
pipes first
nice what could go wrong we got some of
thiso all right so what you want to do
is just it up until it starts to
discolor get it nice and even and then
push the solder into the joint oh yeah
and it should look all the way around oh
yeah oh yeah no no that's good that's
supposed to
happen oh God oh God oh
God I mean yeah what's it even dripping
on couldn't be that harmful looks great
well very generous thank you but it
looks on there
okay I may not have put quite enough
Teflon tape on this but I guess we're
about to find out now it should just be
like hooking it up to a computer
regularly okay you know you've done that
lots of times yeah what what is this uh
this is for the pump is for these Edge
these are the ones you want oh right we
should show you our pump and uh
okay sure so that kind of makes sense
because with the size of the tubing and
the volume of water that you're
expecting to move through a system like
this you need a ser ious pumping
solution and these things because they
have no idea what your deployment is
going to look like don't have any
pumping of their own wait so all that
power supply is just for those fans man
look at them though look at these fans
now how Yu tastic are we expecting the
water in this thing to be they should
have been serviced regularly yeah but I
think we all see the state of the inside
of this with rust andw everywhere that's
the inside of this not the inside of the
pipes we'll see how bad the rat is so
maybe for the start we don't actually
put it through the computer we just
circulate it and see what we get yeah
that sounds good are the O-rings going
to seal against this kind of rough
thing oh we're going to use a 2 and2 mm
hex key which is on there already turn
the float control actuator to the fully
open position and what's the fully open
position the other way oh God ah maybe
if someone hadn't gotten solder all over
it oh God oh God she's turning on her
own the screwdriver is going nice open
the two-way supply valve and the two-way
bypass shut off valve okay using a two
and a half that's probably these guys so
that's in a weird not open or closed
state so open it there you go all right
here we go pumpy let's turn our nice
Prime pum Merson here there we go look
at
that that's pretty clean actually yeah
right they did service it yeah you're
not wrong so we'll get the air bubbles
out let it go for a little while and
then hook it up to a computer freaking a
man okay now before before we do that I
want to play around with these valves a
little bit cuz I don't know I it's not
that I don't believe you it's just that
I think you're fullish me right now it's
working so right but then I do this and
it slows to a trickle and stops okay all
right all right so that was open look
we're we're learning okay we're learning
together okay what's this boy what's
this boy do this is a bypass to bypass
the radiators there's no valve for the
radiators but if for whatever reason you
wanted to not run through the rack
okay then you can bypass it here but we
want this closed because we don't want
it going straight from water in to water
out there you go yeah okay that makes
sense everything makes sense by the way
it's leaking I think I understand why
nobody else wanted them but boy do I
ever want them this is awesome hey look
at that magnetic Cable Management let's
go LTT store.com we're just we're just
Plumbing it up to the top of the why not
in this machine we've got a thread
Ripper Pro $79.95 WX this is a 96 core
processor that'll suck back I think
somewhere in the neighborhood of like
freaking 400 watts or something stupid
like that and and we've got an RTX 4090
one of a little it bitty cute ones a
more practical deployment for us since
we're not going to have water blocked
servers like this machine right here
would be to just take the hot air in the
server room use that hot air to heat up
water then carry that air somewhere else
and then dissipate the heat but for the
purposes of just kind of showing you
guys that it does work this will do us
nicely do we have any zip
ties mags oh my God that would totally
maybe work Andrew so he there you go all
right good enough magnets yeah just
let's let's see let's see let it cook oh
my God cook nothing it's running at 44°
42° so we were going to go with 14900 K
originally yeah but Jake figured that
the uh IHS would be too small that's not
going to tell us the full story because
realistically something like this is
about the sheer volume of heat that it
can move right it's not about how well
can it deal with a concentrated heat
Source like this where to your point
just the size of the Dy and the
bottleneck of moving that heat away
through the IHS is going to have more of
an impact than the actual like cooling
capacity of this giant unit here but in
terms of if we were to hook like half a
dozen computers up to this
thing it should conceivably be able to
do it
whole office water cooling anyone did I
mention already that we
uh might have gotten a few of
them now that this is running the only
reasonable way to Benchmark it is to I
don't know run it for an extremely long
period of time and see
if sorry I'm running 92 threads at Prime
95 this is amazing um and see if it
heats up so we've got our little
temperature graph on F Mark here that's
at a solid 46 it's gone up 2° and I
haven't even turned the fans on yet I
have a feeling this is just going to be
dead flat but let's go ahead we're going
to get it fired up
and it's quitting time so I'll see you
guys on the
tomorrow and good morning it's been
about 14 hours and things are looking
real good CPU usage still 100% from
Prime 95 ferm Mark's doing this weird
thing where it's kind of hitching for a
long time sometimes but uh it's still
using 93 to 99% power and you can see if
I move the window
around the the the render works properly
so I don't know what the heck it's doing
but really that's not what we care about
we're looking at temps here we've
reached a maximum of
56° which means with one system on here
we are still looking at coolant
temperatures that are barely lukewarm to
the touch that
is fantastic water tastic the last thing
I want to check is CPU temperatures
which I'm expecting to be oh a little
higher than this
WOW 40° I mean sure these thread Ripper
chips yeah they kick out a lot of power
but they're so big that like I was
talking about before the size of the die
isn't as much of a heat transfer
bottleneck that is H that is
fantastic H what kind of power is it
drawing woo 350 Watts I was out
yesterday when they were filming this
crazy thing and being the person that
sourced them I had to see it for myself
except I found out that lonus didn't
bother turning PBO on and I'm like the
thread rippers could draw like a th000
Watts by clicking one button in the buos
so we did that I think we start with
cine yeah it's
done it's drawing 800
watts but let's try 2024 just for
reference with PBO on on this CPU it
idles at 150 watts doing
nothing 450
600
600
what I don't know how optimized this is
May maybe it doesn't use like well okay
I mean it's running at
4.64 GHz on every single core it's
estimating like an 8,000 Point score in
2024 for reference a 32 core second gen
thread Ripper is 1,200
points this is the real test Prime 95
smallest fft is hyperthreaded this has
ABX 512 which means it is going to it is
going to hurt we're at 500 wats 9 95
Watts oh my God look at this it broke it
just say zero watts in the Bios we had
set the enhancement to limit it to 90°
so once it gets to that point it kind of
starts throttling down a bit not to say
that 1100 watts is really throttling
down a bit
but this is just actually ridiculous
it's still not running at Peak airf flow
we're definitely running into a
situation where we're just limited by
the thermal transfer Block in the
IHS but it's uh the inlet temperature is
20.7 De so we're not even
like above ambient really at all and the
fans are only running at it's like 900 L
per second through this thing and it can
do 1400 right
so this is too much I don't know how
many thread riers we' need to hook up to
like make this hurt but I imagine it's a
lot in conclusion then big fans very
very effective for cooling see you at
the next tech tip oh but not before I
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have the link below if you guys enjoyed
this video why not check out the one
where we did a precursor to what this
will become in my basement setting up
radiators inside and outside to move
heat out of the building
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