Chilling Threadripper 2!!!
Linus Tech Tips
·Linus Tech Tips
·2019-05-06
·
2,721 words · ~13 min read
0:00
So the main difference between today's video
0:02
and some of the bizarro random cooling experiments
0:06
that Alex and I have done over the last several months
0:09
is that this time we're not in the boardroom,
0:12
we're in the kitchen
0:13
because today's video is gonna be completely nuts.
0:15
Now, I showed you guys sub-zero cooling
0:18
on Threadripper Gen 1 with my own DIY water chiller.
0:23
But believe it or not,
0:25
there's actually a commercially available
0:27
all-in-one nice tidy little package version of that.
0:31
So we're gonna be taking this water chiller from Active Aqua
0:36
and we're gonna be hooking it up to Threadripper 2.
0:40
32 cores of sub-zero.
0:43
Have they gone mad?
0:45
Have we?
0:47
No, it seems fine.
0:48
Seems perfectly fine.
0:58
Origin PC's EVO 15S is under an inch thick
1:02
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1:05
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1:06
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1:09
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1:11
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1:13
Okay, so first order of business
1:16
is make sure all of our hardware actually works.
1:19
Yeah.
1:20
Okay, so do I get to unbox the chiller?
1:22
Sure, yeah, go for it.
1:23
One-tenth of a horsepower.
1:26
I could get into that.
1:28
That seems like a good thing.
1:30
I guess so.
1:32
Whoa, what the ?
1:33
What?
1:34
You said I could unbox it.
1:36
And then you literally moved immediately to the scissors
1:40
and immediately started unboxing it without me.
1:43
Well, you're wasting a lot of time right here, so.
1:44
Would I get to unbox the tubing?
1:46
I guess so, yeah.
1:47
Fine, you know what?
1:48
I'm not gonna do that then.
1:49
You do it yourself.
1:50
There you go.
1:51
Here's Alex's first unboxing.
1:51
I'm not even helping him.
1:53
All right, so we've got some fittings here.
1:54
They look-
1:55
Boring.
1:56
Fine.
1:57
Boring.
1:58
Ow.
1:59
Damn it, that's heavy.
2:01
Well, that's more than you need to know.
2:03
So power cord, it's a heavy power cord.
2:05
And we've got the chiller here, which, normally,
2:07
you'd flip around, but you can't flip around chillers, so.
2:11
You've got your back to the audience.
2:12
You're failing right now.
2:13
You're failing.
2:14
Okay, so hold on.
2:15
This has a compressor in it, right?
2:16
So we don't wanna tip it over?
2:17
Yeah, that's what I was just saying.
2:19
Oh, well, it wasn't clear.
2:21
Do you want to grab an end?
2:25
Okay.
2:26
Wow, that is a lot more compact
2:29
than the one that I made out of a window-mounted AC unit.
2:34
Recommended water reservoir size, 13 to 50 gallons.
2:38
Okay.
2:39
What is this for?
2:40
It's for chilling aquariums.
2:43
Oh, okay.
2:44
So it's designed for a continuous load, so that's good.
2:48
We considered in advance that these are fittings
2:51
that we probably don't have already, right?
2:53
Right.
2:54
Oh, good work.
2:55
Or did that come in the box?
2:56
Yeah, this came in the box.
2:57
You thought of nothing.
2:57
No, I looked at the thing and-
2:59
Well, maybe the audience would know
3:01
about all the things that are on the box
3:03
if maybe you told them during the unboxing experience.
3:06
I did.
3:06
Terrible.
3:07
The first thing that I said was, there are fittings.
3:10
Yes, is that the right size for this?
3:14
Yes.
3:14
All right, fine.
3:15
Yeah, and I figured that this can go
3:17
between this and the pump,
3:19
and then we can put it into good stuff
3:22
between here and there.
3:23
Did we buy a pump?
3:24
Yes.
3:25
You know we have lots of pumps, right?
3:26
Yep.
3:27
But this one has more gallons per hour
3:29
or whatever the measurement is.
3:31
Really?
3:31
Then the little giants?
3:32
Well, I don't know what the little giants are, but-
3:34
You don't know what the little giants are.
3:36
Hold on, can we still return this?
3:38
Is this still in like new condition?
3:40
Yeah. I'm gonna go get a little giant.
3:41
Trust me, you'll like my little giant.
3:45
See?
3:46
That is a real man's pump.
3:48
It'll give you lots of head pressure.
3:51
Guessing zip ties aren't good enough?
3:53
Yeah, zip ties, fine.
3:55
Okay, here.
3:56
I can do that if you wanna get the next one going.
3:58
So for the reservoir, I was kind of thinking,
4:01
instead of bothering with doing a whole lot,
4:03
we could just stick the tubes right into here
4:06
and duct tape it on.
4:09
Okay.
4:10
I mean, the most important thing when you're going sub-zero
4:12
with some kind of
4:13
alcohol-based coolant is making sure that
4:16
any plastics that you're using
4:18
are not going to get destroyed by it,
4:20
any seals or gaskets.
4:22
This is that new MSI board, the Creation.
4:27
Do we wanna use this one or the Zenith
4:30
that already has all the residue and crap all over it?
4:32
Apparently the VRMs on that one
4:34
are better for Threadripper too.
4:36
Ah, well, this is just the first test,
4:37
so let's just kind of see what happens and go from there.
4:39
Cool.
4:40
Here goes nothing.
4:42
Can I have some fittings for the block here?
4:44
Thanks.
4:45
We can probably just like goatsy stretch
4:48
a three-eighths inch over there.
4:49
Yeah, that's what I was thinking.
4:50
Yep.
4:52
You got it?
4:53
Oh, it doesn't have to go on up.
4:54
We're never gonna get that off.
4:57
Well, I guess do we just turn the pump on now
5:02
and make sure or hope that nothing leaks?
5:04
That's kind of what I was planning to do.
5:06
All right.
5:07
To those watching at home,
5:07
the worst part of all of this
5:09
is that this loop will perform
5:10
significantly better than yours.
5:12
Okay.
5:13
I'll try not to drink windshield de-icer here.
5:18
Okay.
5:19
The pump is now primed.
5:20
Cool.
5:23
Is this thing broken?
5:24
Your little giant's really impressing me.
5:26
Fortunately, I have another.
5:30
You could have had this running by now.
5:31
This one's even bigger.
5:33
Oh, great.
5:34
Yeah, this is the big giant.
5:36
Now I wish we'd left a little more slack on the lines.
5:39
Let's do a quick tubing swap here.
5:41
Okay.
5:42
Perfect.
5:43
Dang it, Alex.
5:44
How do I avoid drinking windshield de-icer now?
5:47
Ooh, man.
5:48
Yeah, that's...
5:48
That's what I told you.
5:53
Yay.
5:53
There we go.
5:54
All right.
5:55
So hold on.
5:56
So right, this.
6:00
Okay, perfect.
6:01
Should be fine.
6:03
And we're not gonna put that on so tight this time.
6:05
Okay.
6:06
Good to go?
6:07
Hopefully.
6:07
Let's hope.
6:08
Power it on.
6:22
Success, TM.
6:25
Seems to be working.
6:27
Okay, so now what?
6:29
I guess we should just fire up the bench.
6:32
Boom.
6:33
Let's do it.
6:35
Oh, and it turned off.
6:37
That's okay.
6:37
It's probably just the classic double post.
6:40
So our system's already not posting.
6:42
That's a good sign.
6:44
You know what?
6:45
We're trapping the Zenith.
6:47
All right.
6:47
I don't actually know that that's the problem.
6:49
It's probably not, but...
6:51
Oh, I'm gonna go get some water,
6:53
cause I'm thirsty.
6:56
Go ahead and cut.
6:57
Hey, it booted up on like the fourth attempt.
6:59
Oh, and it...
7:05
Good job.
7:07
All right, I'm trying the other board.
7:08
Oh, wow.
7:09
That is a lot of...
7:10
I might have overdone the thermal compound
7:12
a little bit there.
7:12
It's just like Vaseline caked around the RAM.
7:16
Very poor quality Vaseline, by the way.
7:18
If you've never installed a thread,
7:20
I'd rip her CPU before.
7:21
It's like nerve wracking actually,
7:23
the way you gotta go at it.
7:26
Like if it didn't have a little torque stop,
7:27
I don't think I'd put it that tight.
7:29
See that flicker on the RGB lighting?
7:32
I don't think it is the GPU.
7:34
If we just lost a 2990 WX, I'm gonna be pretty choked.
7:38
Yeah, that would suck.
7:40
Like, is that how it's supposed to go?
7:43
Let's just, let's just go for it again.
7:49
Maybe it's the RAM.
7:51
Some days I feel really bad for the viewers at home.
7:53
It's like they're watching a horror movie.
7:55
No, don't go into that closet.
7:58
Why would you do that?
7:59
Everyone else who went in there died.
8:03
Ooh.
8:04
Okay, so it's just a bad mount.
8:06
All good.
8:08
Let's see if we get a post here.
8:10
How is that even possible?
8:11
Oh, there's a code right here.
8:12
Detect memory.
8:15
All right, do you want me to grab some other stuff?
8:17
Yeah.
8:18
I figured out the problem.
8:20
What was it?
8:21
Old BIOS.
8:23
Oh.
8:25
We need a Threadripper one.
8:27
USB drive.
8:28
Can we just use the other board?
8:32
At this point, I think it's faster to flash the BIOS.
8:35
Uh, okay.
8:36
I'm sorry.
8:38
All right, well, there's a bunch of RAM.
8:40
Yeah, thanks.
8:43
So we're an hour in,
8:45
and we have not yet booted Threadripper 2
8:48
to verify that our system does in fact work.
8:52
But we have the latest BIOS on our board now.
8:57
Theoretically, this is it.
9:01
Wait for it.
9:07
They don't put post codes in the manual anymore.
9:12
I have confidence that this time we will post.
9:20
Uh-huh!
9:23
I mean, we've achieved nothing because we still can't boot.
9:27
Okay, do you wanna run and grab the drive off my bench?
9:31
All right.
9:32
Okay, that's a good sign actually.
9:34
Okay.
9:35
And that noise is driving me knocking faults right now.
9:39
All right.
9:41
So.
9:44
Change graph to logical processors.
9:46
LOL!
9:47
So many CSS's!
9:48
GPUs.
9:49
So I've just got to put some GPU drivers on here still.
9:52
We've got Ryzen master software
9:55
and Alex has pulled out the thermal camera.
9:59
So right now our CPU is sitting at about 45 degrees
10:02
because it's had a considerable amount of time to warm up.
10:05
Like these tubes are warm to the touch.
10:07
So I think now is the time for us to turn this thing on.
10:14
Yeah, I guess so.
10:15
Okay.
10:22
Well, this is somewhat anticlimactic.
10:26
Where's it even taking the temperature from?
10:29
Oh, I did something.
10:32
39, that's the limit.
10:36
Four Celsius, I guess.
10:37
Four Celsius.
10:39
So how do we wanna use this?
10:41
Do we wanna use it in a way that's practical
10:43
to just chill water down to a little above the dew point
10:47
and say, okay, this is the best case scenario
10:50
for normal water cooling performance?
10:54
Or do we want it like chilled?
10:58
I think we should do chilled.
11:00
Okay.
11:00
Like we've already screwed up that motherboard.
11:02
So what do we have to lose besides time?
11:04
The CPU.
11:06
We have another one.
11:07
The RAM.
11:08
We have more.
11:10
We'd never recommend that anyone run below ambient
11:12
or below the dew point on an ongoing basis without protection.
11:16
But I mean, we're just doing a Threadripper
11:18
two overclocking experiments.
11:20
So where's that shop towel stuff you had?
11:23
We'll just put some of this around the socket.
11:26
This is a really bad idea.
11:29
Seemed like a...
11:31
Pro insulation job.
11:33
Oh boy.
11:36
Even with all this airflow over the CPU socket area
11:39
and the VRMs, our block is still...
11:42
That's pretty wet.
11:43
Sweating.
11:44
But on the plus side, our CPU is idling at what?
11:47
Five degrees?
11:49
Seven?
11:50
Yeah, seven.
11:51
Why does this just say overload watts?
11:55
Oh, it's like the max.
11:56
Yeah, here we go.
11:57
Okay.
11:58
Go ahead and hit it.
11:59
Oh, I just did.
12:00
Oh, you did.
12:01
Is it done?
12:02
Yeah.
12:03
What the hell?
12:04
Yeah, it was a pretty low score too, 4864.
12:07
So we're at about a hundred watts at idle.
12:09
Can you hit it again?
12:09
I wanna see what we peak at.
12:11
Sure.
12:15
Whoa, 335 watts while CineBenching.
12:21
Okay, so we got just over 5,000 CineBench,
12:24
which is about what we expect.
12:26
So that means our CPU is doing 250 watts already.
12:31
We haven't even overclocked it.
12:33
It hit a maximum of 24 degrees.
12:35
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
12:39
So what, you want 40?
12:40
Yeah, let's just go for 40.
12:42
All right.
12:43
All right, it's changing a lot of variables at once.
12:46
So we're at, whoa, we're idling at 140 watts now.
12:50
All right, I'm gonna hit it now.
12:56
40, 580.
13:00
Ooh, did we crash?
13:02
No, 6,229 CineBench.
13:08
That was too easy.
13:09
This CPU is sucking over 500 watts.
13:15
Oh, who does AMD think they are, Intel?
13:22
Maximum of 39 degrees.
13:26
Well, should we try and go faster?
13:29
I guess so.
13:30
So I tried to launch Adobe Premiere and it just turned off.
13:35
Yeah, I don't know if we're stable.
13:37
There is a lot of water on there.
13:40
Should we cut the power to this?
13:42
Let's do that.
13:44
It's possible that there's water on the underside.
13:46
Hard to say.
13:48
Yeah, we could pull that up and have a look at it.
13:51
Actually,
13:53
no, it's bone dry.
13:55
It's really wet in there.
13:58
So we might've killed our chip.
14:03
If we don't manage to revive it,
14:05
then this is the end of the video.
14:08
And we're back to life.
14:10
How long, how many hours did we leave it for?
14:12
It was fine after like three or so.
14:14
Yeah, okay, fantastic.
14:16
So we're not gonna go quite so low again.
14:19
We're at 59 freedom units, whatever that is.
14:22
And there's good news though.
14:25
What do we got?
14:27
So it's currently at 4.1, didn't change the voltage.
14:30
I guess it's just fine, maybe.
14:33
We're at 19 degrees idle now,
14:35
which is a lot more reasonable at this room temperature.
14:38
And have we done a stress test yet?
14:41
No.
14:42
Okay, start with Cinebench.
14:45
Sure.
14:46
Over 6,000.
14:47
Should we try for 4.2?
14:49
Update and restart.
14:50
Oh, there are updates.
14:51
Okay, well, why don't we do that first?
14:53
Oh, this might be a while.
14:54
Oh.
14:56
It seems like a lot of the issue was just that you're
14:58
a crappy SSD died.
15:01
It might've not even been the condensation.
15:03
Oh.
15:04
I mean, honestly, I don't think we really need
15:05
to run any more benchmarks to determine
15:07
that this works really well.
15:10
Yeah.
15:11
So the main takeaways here are that this is really compact,
15:15
cools really well, and I'm gonna turn off the stupid pump.
15:23
Without the noise from the pump and that industrial fan.
15:27
Well, it's not on right now, but.
15:29
We can get it to kick on though.
15:31
Here, you wanna just? Yeah.
15:31
Set it at least four degrees lower,
15:34
and then it should kick in.
15:40
That's actually not too bad.
15:42
Yeah, it's really not loud.
15:44
So let us know in the comments,
15:46
would you like to see this cannibalized
15:49
and integrated into a system?
15:52
That's a really loaded question.
15:54
I sure would.
15:56
Are you on my team?
15:58
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