Hi gurus,
If money is no object.. whats the coolest/quietest options for cooling a dual system? I'm new to this forum. I've read up on nice solutions that seem to only be talking about single chip setups. Some of the heatsinks/fans are too big for dual board/chips.
Any input please?
Many thanks.
PS. Money is not an issue.
Newbie - How do I cool a Ultra Fast DUAL AMD MP 2800++?
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supersteve3d
- Posts: 1
- Joined: Thu Jul 10, 2003 9:15 pm
Have you seen this article as a starting point?
Quiet MP Dual-CPU Workstation
Also try searching the forums on "dualie" (or "dual" but there's more to wade through) there are a few folks dealing with dualie systems.
Quiet MP Dual-CPU Workstation
Also try searching the forums on "dualie" (or "dual" but there's more to wade through) there are a few folks dealing with dualie systems.
I'm far from an expert, but having owned and operated a few dual CPU systems, I'll take a stab at it. I know some forum regulars have dual CPU rigs (Athlon MPs, if memory serves me).
The dual P3 Coppermine systems don't have the phenomenal heat output of the high clock P4s, so air cooling should be sufficient. I have a dual P3 933 MHz that is fairly quiet (except for the 10k RPM SCSI). I think the HSF has 40mm fans, but they don't have to spin too fast.
I had a dual P3 500 MHz (slot 1) machine too. Again, nothing exotic was needed. The Intel HSF was more than sufficient. In fact, it was running on a very quiet 250W Fortron OEM PSU.
I've also seen dual P3 600 MHz mounted with gigantic heat sinks and one 60mm fan used to cool both CPU. There was a shroud over the heat sinks to force the air over the heat sinks.
The dual Xeon P4s at work now are air cooled too, and each monstrous heat sink has a 60mm mounted at the side (instead of at the top in most HSF I've seen). There's also 4 80mm fans mounted along the center blowing air from the front towards the MB (this is a rack mounted unit). And the PSU fan is a 60mm Delta screamer that I replaced in order not to lose my hearing (it's 6 ft behind me). The MB is very spacious, and other than form factor restrictions (what kind of HSF fits a Xeon?) I don't think there'll be any problem with large HSFs.
I'd think it's a good candidate for water cooling, however.
No experience with Athlon MPs or Opterons.
I wish I can say money is not an issue for me
If return for money is not a concern, look into water cooling. Even though one CPU will get warmer water than the other (unless you have two pumps) I don't think it'll matter much.
The dual P3 Coppermine systems don't have the phenomenal heat output of the high clock P4s, so air cooling should be sufficient. I have a dual P3 933 MHz that is fairly quiet (except for the 10k RPM SCSI). I think the HSF has 40mm fans, but they don't have to spin too fast.
I had a dual P3 500 MHz (slot 1) machine too. Again, nothing exotic was needed. The Intel HSF was more than sufficient. In fact, it was running on a very quiet 250W Fortron OEM PSU.
I've also seen dual P3 600 MHz mounted with gigantic heat sinks and one 60mm fan used to cool both CPU. There was a shroud over the heat sinks to force the air over the heat sinks.
The dual Xeon P4s at work now are air cooled too, and each monstrous heat sink has a 60mm mounted at the side (instead of at the top in most HSF I've seen). There's also 4 80mm fans mounted along the center blowing air from the front towards the MB (this is a rack mounted unit). And the PSU fan is a 60mm Delta screamer that I replaced in order not to lose my hearing (it's 6 ft behind me). The MB is very spacious, and other than form factor restrictions (what kind of HSF fits a Xeon?) I don't think there'll be any problem with large HSFs.
I'd think it's a good candidate for water cooling, however.
No experience with Athlon MPs or Opterons.
I wish I can say money is not an issue for me
If return for money is not a concern, look into water cooling. Even though one CPU will get warmer water than the other (unless you have two pumps) I don't think it'll matter much.-
UrbanVoyeur
- Posts: 94
- Joined: Sat May 03, 2003 4:02 pm
- Location: Brooklyn, NY, USA
- Contact:
I run dual p3's. One rig is an dual 850 MHz Slot one, the other a dual 1 GHz flip chip. SO I'm not exactly running the latest & greatest here.
But heat is a big factor.
Here's what I did: (both are pretty much set up the same)
- Got a pair of LianLi cases - easy to work on, since quiet coolin mean you'll be in and out alot at first
- quiet case fans all around. Pabst, Panflo and a few PC Power Cooling Silencers
- HUGE heat sinks. On the slot 1, massive Al ones which take 2 60 mm fans each, trimmed a bit to fit.
On the flip chip, Copper Thermalright 800's
- Lapped the heatsinks and used Artic Silver
- very quiet fans on the cpu heat sinks - Pabst 80' s on the 800's and dual 60's on each of the slot 1's
- modded PSU. Swapped out the stock fans for panaflow and pabst. Hooked them to external speed control.
- zalman mc fan controller - it has 4 knowb 7-12 v and 2 swithces 12/5 v. Very useful, no buzzing.
- new hardrives (WD & maxtor) put in qiuet mode via software. Next upgrade is to Seagates.
- case dampening material. Akusa is only moderatley useful. Go for the good stuff.
- EAR fan isolator mounts. Cheap & effective.
- Rubber HD isolator mounts form verax/silenmaxx.net
- high quality GPU cooler - basically a slab of copper w/ a quiet 60 mm fan on top. $50 from verax, $10 DIY
- rounded cables & zip ties for better air flow
- top mounted case exhaust fan, turning very slowly.
- Memory heat spreaders (w/ fan on the slot 1) - fan mainly cools northbridge.
- blue orb cooler mounted on the northbridge flip chip.
- a post shut down fan timer to run the cpu fans at low sped for several minutes after shut down, until the case heat disappates.
The key to keep all this quiet is
- picking quiet fans
- running all th fans a low voltage
- planning and optimizing air flow - in front, low; out top, back and across PSU. on the Next one, I'll do bottom intake.
This station has been on most of the day. My temps right now on the slot 1 (850 OC'd to 950) with an ambient in the low 20's:
- Proc 1 (under PSU) 43
- Proc 2: 39
- MB board 34
If I run 100 proc util, I'll get upt to 52 C proc 1, 44 proc 2 and 41 C MB.
A faint hum and up close, a slight whoosh from the front intake is all you hear.
But heat is a big factor.
Here's what I did: (both are pretty much set up the same)
- Got a pair of LianLi cases - easy to work on, since quiet coolin mean you'll be in and out alot at first
- quiet case fans all around. Pabst, Panflo and a few PC Power Cooling Silencers
- HUGE heat sinks. On the slot 1, massive Al ones which take 2 60 mm fans each, trimmed a bit to fit.
On the flip chip, Copper Thermalright 800's
- Lapped the heatsinks and used Artic Silver
- very quiet fans on the cpu heat sinks - Pabst 80' s on the 800's and dual 60's on each of the slot 1's
- modded PSU. Swapped out the stock fans for panaflow and pabst. Hooked them to external speed control.
- zalman mc fan controller - it has 4 knowb 7-12 v and 2 swithces 12/5 v. Very useful, no buzzing.
- new hardrives (WD & maxtor) put in qiuet mode via software. Next upgrade is to Seagates.
- case dampening material. Akusa is only moderatley useful. Go for the good stuff.
- EAR fan isolator mounts. Cheap & effective.
- Rubber HD isolator mounts form verax/silenmaxx.net
- high quality GPU cooler - basically a slab of copper w/ a quiet 60 mm fan on top. $50 from verax, $10 DIY
- rounded cables & zip ties for better air flow
- top mounted case exhaust fan, turning very slowly.
- Memory heat spreaders (w/ fan on the slot 1) - fan mainly cools northbridge.
- blue orb cooler mounted on the northbridge flip chip.
- a post shut down fan timer to run the cpu fans at low sped for several minutes after shut down, until the case heat disappates.
The key to keep all this quiet is
- picking quiet fans
- running all th fans a low voltage
- planning and optimizing air flow - in front, low; out top, back and across PSU. on the Next one, I'll do bottom intake.
This station has been on most of the day. My temps right now on the slot 1 (850 OC'd to 950) with an ambient in the low 20's:
- Proc 1 (under PSU) 43
- Proc 2: 39
- MB board 34
If I run 100 proc util, I'll get upt to 52 C proc 1, 44 proc 2 and 41 C MB.
A faint hum and up close, a slight whoosh from the front intake is all you hear.
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SometimesWarrior
- Patron of SPCR
- Posts: 700
- Joined: Thu Mar 13, 2003 2:38 pm
- Location: California, US
- Contact:
Well, there's going to be so much heat built up in the case with those two processors, your goal in air-cooling should be to get it out as quickly as possible. I have dual XP1600's, and temperatures improved noticeably when I flipped one of my CPU heatsink fans and ducted it to a case exhaust fan. By "noticeable", I mean in a 25C room, idle temperatures dropped from 51C to 48C, or thereabouts. Load temperatures saw a slightly better drop, and the temperature of the other processor fell as well. Those temperatures don't change if I remove the case side door.
But since money is no object, I think water cooling might be a better choice for you. With watercooling, the processor heat is piped out of the case immediately, before it can recirculate and boil all your components. But I don't know a thing about how to install water cooling, except that you probably want a big tube of water that's split into two, so the water cools the processors in parallel, rather than cooling them in series. Then you can run those tubes around your case and hit the GPU, northbridge, hard drive, voltage regulators, RAM, IDE controller, power connectors, motherboard traces, USB ports, the processors again... whatever. The only problem is, although water cooling is oftentimes more effective than air cooling, it also looks much more daunting to set up and maintain.
Powergyoza is the guy who's written an MP article on this site, so he might have some better suggestions for you. I would also refer you to 2cpu.com, except they don't seem to give a rat's ass about silent computing there. Other than that, you can take one of the previously-written articles about a silent single-CPU system, and just think "bigger"!
But since money is no object, I think water cooling might be a better choice for you. With watercooling, the processor heat is piped out of the case immediately, before it can recirculate and boil all your components. But I don't know a thing about how to install water cooling, except that you probably want a big tube of water that's split into two, so the water cools the processors in parallel, rather than cooling them in series. Then you can run those tubes around your case and hit the GPU, northbridge, hard drive, voltage regulators, RAM, IDE controller, power connectors, motherboard traces, USB ports, the processors again... whatever. The only problem is, although water cooling is oftentimes more effective than air cooling, it also looks much more daunting to set up and maintain.
Powergyoza is the guy who's written an MP article on this site, so he might have some better suggestions for you. I would also refer you to 2cpu.com, except they don't seem to give a rat's ass about silent computing there. Other than that, you can take one of the previously-written articles about a silent single-CPU system, and just think "bigger"!