Just joined. I am an academic researcher working in computational chemistry.
I have purchased a used Tesla K80 card ( costs a fortune!!) to perform simulations on my personal computer. The card is passively cooled. I'm now struggling in cooling the card adequately by air.
I thought liquid cooling could be an option. Can u suggest a plug in play liquid cooling solution for another say gaming card which might be adequate for the Tesla K80? Or I have to revert to custom cooling. If the latter holds, then what could be a cheap suggested solution.
I don't think many people here have experience with the K80, so take any suggestions with a grain of salt if they come from people who don't own one.
Meanwhile, here's a pic of one without its clothes
My first idea would be to measure the depth of the cover to figure out if an 80mm or 92mm fan would fit. If it does, I'd attach it on the outside of the housing and cut a big hole so it blows straight onto the black piece in the center. The air will then be forced out through the silver-colored heatfin arrays.
Since it's meant to be a server card, it's meant to be cooled by the airflow from front to rear, produced by the server fans up front, and since it's a dual gpu design, entry level consumer will not not gonna be a thing.
You could frankenstein oner or two blower slot fans to the front of the card to force airflow through the fins. Something like this:
First you could find out how your case airflow is distributed, maybe rearranging your case fans would suffice. I had three Asus 9800 GT (back in the days) which were passive cooled, and forcing as much air through the case as possible helped back then. All fans on intake side, no top exhaust (you want to block the top fan mount if there is one).
Ebullient makes a full cover block that is call-to-order only, however if you have the card to begin with I'm sure they'd take your business.
Otherwise a block that fits the Titan Z should theoretically fit the K80. Also in extension you can just get the fan from a titan, slap it on between those heatsinks and get active cooling that way.
besides water cooling, you can also add more/better fans to lower the ambient temperature of the case. it's not going to be as big a temperature change as water cooling, but you can do it cheap and quick.
Tesla k80 has two GPUs. Currently, the GPU closer to the power socket sits when idle at 60 to 70oC . The GPU further sits at around 50 to 60oC.
Are these temperatures normal for a kepler archtiture?
Air cooling might not cut it.
Im thinking of making an oil pc like arrangement for the card only. Place the card inside a silicone oil bath. Use a PCIE extender cord and longer power cords. Add a pump and a radiator for circulating and cooling the oil continuously.
I cant tell if the temperatures on this specific card are normal, but IMO they are way too high for idle. Are the temperature readings of motherboard similar? Then you might want to increase airflow in general anyway.
For the oil idea, if you want to go for it, remember: The oil will detoriate any rubber in the system, most probably thermal pads too, the sealing O-rings on any fitting, and depending on the pump: the lamellas in it. Then you have to consider the higher viscosity of oil, water cooling parts will face HUGE pressure losses --> you won't be able too use standard water cooling parts to get, if any, decent flow. You're facing a decent amount of reading into beginners fluid dynamics here.
Also cycling oil through radiators is not standard, most of these builds just sit in their oil baths. I know for at least one supercomputer that cycles oil through rads (the one my university holds a share of), but for a PC it's not worth it.
I would really try to improve airflow through the fins of the standard cooler first. If you want something to start: I know some of the members here will hate me for that, but here is a video which might help you understand and improve your current situation:
but please don't let smoke into your case, just use it to find out where air comes out. You want to have as much air as possible passing through the fins of your accelarator.
Have nice hollydays if that's a thing were you live.
Well seeing as how these are meant to go into server cases with tornado grade fans blowing through I doubt there is much for a water solution. Ask nvidia on twitter about it.
That's a pleasant surprise (the thing of you teaching fluid dynamics). If you really do take on the challenge, please do a build Log. I'd love to see an application of these things other than sewage and freshwater treatment or limnology...
For your interest, Bitspower has just released the waterblock for Tesla K80. It replaces the 2-slot bracket with an 1-slot one, potentially allow space for additional card in the adjacent slot.
As the card is already two (or three) generations old, I wonder who is still using that in research or in small business? Is it worth voiding warranty just to exploit the GPU Boost (overclocking) feature?
