I shouldn’t have kept the $1,000,000 computer

this is the million dooll PC a very

expensive collection of servers that are

linked together with an incredible piece

of software called WCA that allows them

to act like one giant storage server

with the ability to reach speeds

measured in the 100s of gigabytes per

second watch this

and damn boy wa a second that's a little

faster than it used to be that's because

the million dooll PC has

glowed up a little bit we've scaled from

six to nine storage machines giving us a

whopping 2.2 pedabytes of raw kokia

powered pcie Gen 4 storage it's almost

as much storage as we have on hard

drives in our mother Vault but orders of

magnitude faster which means it's also

really power hungry which means it's

also really hot even with 3 tons of air

conditioning in here it's still 40

flipping de which is terrible for

hardware and terrible for any humans who

need to work in here now we could add

more air conditioning but that would be

even more expensive than this already is

you know what's not expensive the not

one but six APC Tower coolers that we

inherited for free from a local data

center that's right folks we are doing

whole server room water cooling and this

time I swear we are going to do it right

so where are the plumbers well we're not

we're not really doing it right today

we'll do it right later that's fine

right we're just going to DIY that is

not what I had in mind when I sold this

to our sponsor build Redux they make it

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link down below now under normal

circumstances you would run chilled

water in the unit in your data center

and use that chilled water to cool the

air but chilling the water costs money

and that's what we're trying to avoid

right so since we also spend money

heating our warehouse and we have so

many of these things kicking around

anyway we were thinking why not cool the

server room and heat the warehouse in

the winter turning this one into less of

a cooling tower and more of a heating

Tower yeah it was designed for that

right I mean this should work great like

in theory this is a mint plan in

practice well I guess we're about to

find out yeah in practice we have a

giant cooling tower on a forklift on a

not storage rated uh

mezzanine water's not heavy 3 2 1 oh

okay yeah that feels

great where do we want it exactly in

theory it blows hot out that side mhm so

probably pointing that way sure that

might not be intuitive because this is

obviously the front of the unit so you

would think that's where it draws air in

but in a data center deployment these

cooling towers sit in between the

servers and servers will typically pull

cold air in from the cold aisle in front

of them and then heat up the air and

blow it out the back so by having these

towers in between your servers what

happens is that hot air comes out gets

sucked into the cooling tower and then

gets blown through this Radiator in the

middle blown out the front and sucked

back into the server let's put it in the

corner pointing that way Hey Jake yeah

what I figured out what one of the

things we thought might be a temp probe

before is what it must have gotten

jostled loose at some point but these

guys right here they have little floats

on them oh they're the like the water

level they're for an excess condensation

meter yeah when you're running chilled

water through them they can start to

condensate pretty aggressively we're not

doing that so it should be fine yeah I

saw the drip trays before and I also saw

that there was rust everywhere in the

bottom of the units but I didn't realize

that that was by Design as cool as it is

is though that this unit is more intact

it also means that we haven't modified

the fittings yet so well you did such a

great job last time so uh you want to

have a chance to try to do such a great

job too oh okay boom Uno

reverse see you later before we solder

on those fittings I want to give you

guys a bit of a background the tubing

inside the unit is 1 in which is a

pretty standard size which is nice um

except what I found out getting 1in

tubing it's not that common and also all

of the fittings are very expensive and

since this is like our DIY approach even

though my original plan was to use

garden hoses uh I found out garden hoses

are really expensive so we might as well

use the stuff we're going to use in the

long term and since we're going to have

to take it down anyways we're going to

use shark bites and shark bites are

really cool they're basically like you

push the tubing in and that's all you do

it's now a fixed it's warrantied for 25

years it's it's sick they're just really

really

expensive that's smells delicious it was

taking too

long

one and a two you got to make sure it's

clean before you solder otherwise the

solder doesn't stick at least that's

what Plumbing tick Tok told me naturally

this is going to be what you'd call a

closed loop system meaning it's filled

with a certain amount of water and

closed off but only to a point when you

have Radiant Heating in your house for

instance there is some amount of

evaporative loss so you fill the coolant

up and over time slowly you lose some of

it the way that they get around that is

by using a check valve that's basically

just hooked up to your House's water

pressure which automatically as some

evaporates a little bit comes into fill

I didn't really want to do that because

I want to do it today and I'm not a

plumber but fortunately our mechanical

room is right below us and it has a hose

bib so we were like why don't we just

hook the hose bib up to the tank but

then if you just turn it on the Tank's

going to overflow and explode and

whatever it's like how can we fill a

tank I could like design a custom system

or I could just buy a toilet fill valve

we have this tank from McMaster Car

which we're going to add fittings to

with these fancy bulkhead fittings but

in the meantime this has got to come out

the bottom which means we need to drill

a

hole it just knew the job was done I bet

you this stuff is tasty there's Supply

sparingly oh oops we're putting the

threaded ones on here we'll solder those

and then twist the female shark bites on

and then the tubing can just go like

that in

theory a she's mint

Bud it occurs to me we never tested this

thing I mean we have spare parts it

would probably be faster just to pull

another one up here right Jamie oh yeah

absolutely luckily there just so happens

to be the exact plug we need right here

20 amp 120 volt we got some adapters and

extension cords from infinite cables

thanks guys pluggy

plug hey you hear that

that's the condensation pump running at

the

start that's not too loud right sounds

great it's actually not that heavy when

there's nothing in it as he struggles to

move it what's the worst that could

happen I drop the

thing mint let's go over this one more

time pump right below the reservoir that

way it gets fed directly we had a

problem trying to Prime in at Linus's

house with the pool trying to avoid that

then it will go down to the cooler come

all the way back up blah blah blah into

our heater what I'm calling it and then

out the heater into a filter before the

reservoir so we catch all the gunk

before the reservoir reservoir back to

the pump and the Vicious Cycle continues

cool are we expecting a lot of Gunk no I

feel like we should have also filtered

the water coming

in we'll put a valve down here so that

when the water comes in well at the

start we can close this and the water

will go into the reservoir which will

make it easier to bleed then once the

system is running we just open this

valve

and most of the water will just go

directly into the pump and kind of

ignore the reservoir when it's coming

back up here that way we don't have like

the full force of the pump just like

gushing into the reservoir constantly

making a bunch of noise I wish we had

like straps this Mak this much easier

unless we use the LT Cable Management

things to this metal pipe oh hell yeah

the reason that we're putting valves

here and actually at every piece is a so

we can service a piece individually you

shut off the valves and then we can take

it out and swap it or change it or

replace it whatever we're doing and B

because it's like like I said before

this is all going to get redone properly

and I want it to be easy for him to just

take apart whoa it's like it's designed

for dude it's mint male a te and a valve

and a valve yeah this isn't going to

leak no it's going to be great they're

shark

bites sick before we had this Grand idea

of water cooling the server room we

tried to mitigate this problem by adding

a duct and a fan which was pretty easy

to do because right where we are right

here is about 10 ft from the server room

and there's just a hallway so we added

like this insulated duct between and a

big fan and it did help but ultimately

once it gets up to equilibrium it wasn't

enough hey it's through oh that wasn't

even that hard huh huh mint we forgot

about the filter I realized Alex is

putting this all together I'm like oh

yeah where are we putting the filter

damn it right where Alex is

working oh no brother brother did they

sell me the mother oh my God why

didn't I check this no filter it

is since a long-term plan is to rip the

RADS out of these giant units and just

stick it right on the back of the rack

so it captures the heat directly uh I

don't care that much about where this

goes since it's probably only going to

be here for a couple months later so

we're thinking we just leave it up

against the back here that way the hot

air comes out get get sucked in on the

back and shoots out cool air in the

front and because of that we're thinking

we just leave the back door off and then

I can just pull this tubing kind

of right in there beautiful look at that

that's mint good job Alex I'm excited to

see if it leaks or not the great thing

is we won't know until it's far too late

on the bottom side yeah oh shut it off

here's the problem we're running into

this tank is thick down the middle

Middle where the seam is and when this

is sitting in here it looks good like

that except when you tighten it down

that extra material pushes it out on an

angle and now the seals can't seal I

walk back into this project and I'm

immediately told well it leaked um oh

who whoa whoa be careful there's

fittings on the bottom but we have a fix

for the leak and it's glue no not that

not that it's the the

ooo this stuff is like $40 a tube it

does not leak it's a nice non hardening

so it stays kind of plasticky and goopy

solution silicone yeah I wasn't able to

do it exactly how I was hoping because

it's still kind of cockeyed but I don't

think it's going to leak I put I put a

lot in there but I have a job for you

cool I uh spent some of your money and

got the wrong thing so we have to do it

again if I had a dollar for every time

he said that wasn't I would be able to

afford all these mistakes what are we

building uh a filter housing they sold

me the wrong size of PVC even though I

was like I just need to connect these

two things and they were like okay we're

going to give you one inch PVC because

it's one inch well it's supposed to be

inch and a quarter cool uh so I have 20t

of 1in PVC that I have no use for and

then we went to the store they were like

okay we could we can tell you this it'll

probably be long enough so you have to

cut the threads off and then cut it in

half and

hopefully that is like enough oh man

that's going to be uh you have one shot

at this don't screw it up and this is my

saw yeah look this is what the

professionals told us to buy they might

have told us the wrong thing last time

but here we are again surely that

wouldn't happen twice no got the

clamps not really what this is for but

it's working I cut off part of the

threads I sanded down the little nubbins

now they fit in here which is why I was

doing that by the way really uh oh wait

oh balls we have to cut this down the

middle too okay well um I have to go do

a conference call so what I mean you

only got one thing done and so you

didn't even get it done I don't know if

you're getting your minutely bonus

minutely

[Music]

bonus look at that worky oh nice yeah I

didn't know that this glue set up in 10

minutes there's your filter perfect

um damn it I looked in the manual for

the cooling tower things and I did

randomly stumble upon uh them mentioning

a filter and they said a 20 mesh and I

think this is 100 so it's a lot finer

should be fine as long as our pump has

enough power for it it doesn't really

matter it I mean it's not that fine yeah

also it's still it's still like a mint

for 1in tubing so it should be fine now

we just have to find out where we can

put it now we just have to pose with

it like not everyone's a poser don't

worry can you walk me through what's

going on here a little bit because I

missed the part where you guys drilled

holes in the building we've got the

cooling tower over there we've got the

tubes coming off of that and we already

have the tubes in the server room

already hooked up we had previously cut

a hole for our ducting solution so we

just stuffed the tubes down the duct

that goes through the like hallway there

into the Ser oh wow and these awesome

Cable Management things the magnet is so

strong that it just it's kind of

perfect in terms of pump this is not our

end game this is like a cast iron pump

and we're using oxyard tubing which it

limits the amount of oxygen it's

probably f look your house is probably

the same cast iron pump in it for like

20 years and it's fine but it isn't the

end game I picked up a stainless version

of the one step up from this pump this

one I think does around 20 gallons per

minute and the big boy that we're

getting does around 40 wow which is a

lot of gallons a lot of gallons per

minute okay are we ready to hook this up

in theory yeah I mean let's do it we

tried before so let's try again hold on

before you do that that tube is plugged

into the wrong thing on the top of that

oh did you guys anything right on the

first attempt or that is a excellent

question and we decided to not Mount the

filter up

there he always chirps me for doing

things like kind of the easy way and

then fixing it later and he's literally

just like purposely doing that right now

well we're just not going to fix it

later it's fine I'm going to fix it

later what no don't waste time on that

it's fine well you I'm not the one that

wasted time don't move it it doesn't

matter you told me it doesn't matter I'm

going to send you a video of me moving

it later no that is going to be a huge

waste of time cuz you'll have to

disconnect the tubes in order to you

could have just fixed it right now let's

put the tubes in come on I'm coming back

here with a rotary tool I'm actually

going to shave off the tops of these

screws let's give ourselves a little bit

of breathing a lot of breathing room

that's fine I like to breathe a lot we

we

know I plan to keep doing

it easy peasy by the way I found an

easier way to do this just take the

white thing out first oh okay okay this

is bothering me do you hear that now is

everyone hearing that I don't know what

you're talking about every just said

it's bothering me editor's note cut out

this entire story line okay it's on the

wall filtered what I dropped one of the

little shark bite white thingies and it

fell down the hole hey

lonus no you

suck oh my God Jake did you turn the

water on no why is it wet I don't

know where's the water shut off is this

valve broken

I I was dumping water down the hole oh

my God you suck do you want me to turn

the water on okay that actually does

pour down into an electrical box so you

really shouldn't do that oh what really

uh yeah I I honestly have no idea where

the shark bite thing went

taada what oh she's on no it's in it's

in somebody needs to go in the server

room and watch okay in case that leaks

because if that starts leaking it's

going to be a while before it all stops

leaking

ooh

dick ah a dick I get it no stop you a

his first is my loging in high school

was a. dick okay and then you want it

one click apparently right 7/8 inch

ballcock let's turn this thing on yeah

go for it see you later okay it's on I I

got water coming that's good do it full

send let's go I can't believe this tank

is not leak

are you ready Mr Dick I ready it's

coming whoa it sell fills how's it

looking why didn't we do this at my

house this is awesome no idea it's

actually great you know V2

right is it fine yeah like everything's

fine down there Jake we have a leak oh

God uh where uh on on the uh the return

fitting no we got it we got it I got it

I tell you guys standing right at the

back of the air output of these servers

it's

exhausting Alex Alex Alex he may be a

dick but he's our dick this is the

world's slowest leak at this point ready

one more and nice note that every

fitting I did is not leaking this is the

one you did I didn't do that one yeah

you did you stuck the tote I don't know

what you're talking about we managed to

fix our leaks I replaced the fittings

down here on both sides I think we just

used Too Much Teflon tape uh the first

time we hooked it up and it kind of just

like bunged up the threads and then

upstairs I just cut the PEX sanded it

down stuck it back in and everything's

good no more leaks now I've got the

million dollar PC hooked up and running

again and I want to test something

before Linus gets here uh one of the big

things you want to do in a setup like

this especially if you were doing this

in a data center is contain the hot air

so we're going to make ourselves a

little bit of a hot aisle with some

cardboard right now it says 31 is De on

the intake maybe it's 31.1 31.2

let's see if it goes up any Higher by

just adding the cardboard I want to just

kind of proof of concept before I spend

the time doing a better job of this

obviously still a giant Gap here but

let's see if it makes a difference oh

31.3 31.4 it's going

up5 6 okay maybe it's only like half a

degree but half a degree is important

because the whole game here is

temperature differential the larger we

can make the difference in temperature

on this side to the temperature out in

the warehouse the better this system

will work hey that's not

bad we have our hot aisle which is going

through the cooler and the rest of the

server room is our cold aisle it's not a

perfect science but it's better than

when it was

open oh oh god look I wanted optimal

circumstances for our very scientific

test it's definitely hot how do you like

it I have so many questions that's great

it's hot in here hey it's really hot hot

in here but would you believe me if I

told you the air conditioning's off

really it's 32° in here don't get me

wrong it is hot but the AC is off off

and this has been running for like hours

that's actually kind of cool so look at

the UPS we're drawing 4.95 Kow except no

we're not half of these servers are

hooked up to the Main's power so we're

probably drawing more like probably like

8 to 10 Kow however the can we turn the

AC on yes aren't we going to be taking

cold air that's been heated up a little

and running it through our heat

exchanger potentially cooling the

warehouse look I don't know if it's

going to get that cold uh I don't know

if you've stood Behind these things at

all they're hot it's quite hot the exit

temperature of these servers is probably

like 40° even with air condition air

coming through it but you are right it

will be colder that being said before

when these actually running with just

the air conditioning it was 40° in here

I think we should turn that off and see

how hot it gets in here okay cuz it's

been 32 for over an hour this is a cool

software called check MK it's a

monitoring tool that's open source very

awesome we've hooked up the systems with

SNMP which is a monitoring protocol and

you can see the coolant coming in is 28°

from coming from the warehouse yes after

it's been cooled with air that's around

21° and then and leaving here it's 32°

that's a 4° difference that's a lot of

heat it doesn't sound like a crazy

number but at the fluid flow rate that

we've got that's a freak ton of heat

yeah clearly we have a problem of it not

quite getting cooled over there as much

but I had a brilliant idea we have six

of the bloody things let's just put

another up there we could why not or

hear me out we bury a coil in the

parking lot oh I'm totally down for that

give me the approval I will find a

contractor today that is not that's

above my pay grade these days oh I got

to ask paren yes hi Money free cooling

lus said it was a good idea anyway yeah

we could throw another one up there for

sure like pretty easily we just actually

need two T's that's it interestingly too

the return versus Supply Air is a 3°

difference right now so the air coming

into the back is almost 40° 37 and then

the air coming out of the front is 33.6

they are still going up a bit but like I

said it's been at 30 2 for an hour uh I

imagine if we left this overnight we

probably come back and it might be like

34 or 35 in here but considering we're

not air conditioning this at all let's

see what happens if we turn it off oh

God I don't think the air conditioning

is going to make that much of a

difference in terms of the air coming

out of here the metal on the back of

this rack is up to

46° the air coming out of the back of

this power supply is as high as

60° oh 76 it's uh 33 .2 now this may not

be safe for this hardware for much

longer it's 33.3 now it's gone up a full

degree in like 3 minutes it's getting

warmer

34.1 I'm getting quite uncomfortable I

think what I want to see now is if the

air conditioner can actually work

cooperatively with the heat exchanger to

get it down to like normal temperature

in here yeah okay all right let's do it

so our Baseline is when we started this

project it was hitting about 40° in here

with just the air conditioner running if

we can beat that it means that somehow

through the magic of thermodynamics they

are working together 34 and2 plug the

goddamn thing back in

a sweet relief so our Peak was

42 with the AC off and now it's come

down

to

37 37.8 and up here is equally as mint

you like my sound ding yeah I mean it'll

do something not much in this config

that's what I was going for is something

something long term we get sheet of

plywood and attach the rock wall on the

inside of it to kind of make a baffle if

I stand here it's pretty loud but if I

go behind this

thing it's a pretty substantial

difference we just have to create kind

of a a sound blocking maze that air can

move through but um block sound from

reaching people below us and it's also

at like 80% fan right now if we put a

second one up here and run them like

half the speed should be tolerable all

right wait we should look at the filter

oh is there shoo in there not too bad

and we're back so not as good as it was

before no it says 1.8 th000 Watts on the

readout which oh no which is a lot given

the amount of power that we're putting

into it what one pump in some fans huh

22° in here right now Supply versus

return air is still like a Delta of more

than 2° that's solid

and interestingly the cooling

temperature is lower but what I realized

look at this the fan speed is lower oh

what I also realized after looking at

this is that there's a valve I remember

when you guys did the thread R cooling

there's a manual valve right that's like

the bypass valve and you guys were like