Oil cooled PC

[Fratricide]

Just was rooting around Toms hardware site earlier and found this article... thought some might find it an interesting mod to apply for their PC... Hey.. at least it is quiet...

http://www.tomshardware.com/2006/01/..._out_the_fans/

[TheHaunt]

Let us know how well it works for you... me, I know how my luck runs... I'd end up with cooking oil all over the house, and a shorted-out, greasy system...

[Tathar]

Wow, that's crazy. And you don't need to protect the PC from the oil?

[Dha'Vol]

Strangly enough I have thought about how that would work out? I didn't know someone had actually done it.

[Dhalin]

And you don't need to protect the PC from the oil?

It seems that oil does not conduct electricity, therefore, the PC needs no protection from it. As long as it does not conduct electricity, its safe. They almost got distilled water to work (I remember reading that very story), but... it only ran for 5 min until it fried. I think it was Distilled Water they used anyways....

--Dhalin

[Tsarevna]

Distilled water, haha!

Well, it is true that pure water won't conduct electricity...
But somebody didn't pay attention in chemistry class, when teacher said "there's no such thing as pure water!"

Right after distillation, the water will pick up pollutants in the air, gases, spores, dust and microparticles that are inside the bottle when they pour the water in it. Any tubes the water comes in contact with will also not be sterile, and the water will grab enough stuff in it to conduct electricity.

When you go to the store, ignore the water bottles labeled "pure water", that means it's just tapwater in a bottle, because they don't have the right to say glacier water or spring water if the water ain't from a glacier or spring. Pure water = crap water. Dasani got pulled from the shelves in the UK when I was there, at the same time that Horizons came out, actually in late 2003. It contained levels of pollutants that made it unfit for human consuption. Britain must have higher standards for drinking water, because there was no ban on it in America, and it didn't seem to get any press here.

[Fratricide]

Yea.. according to what I was reading, Water is easier to force the freeing of electrons then is oil... If you read to the end of the article they also state that they used Vegetable oil for times sake... but stated that if you were to do it for the long run, that Motor oil would be a much better choice as there are certain acids in vegetable oil (the ones that cause it to become rancid) that would also reck havok on the electrical components and cause them to fail prematurely.

I guess after I do my next PC upgrade, Ill have to do just this very thing... just to see it work for mine own eyes... (well also to test my wife's commitment to me )

[Dyn]

Y'know it's only a matter of time until we start cooling the servers with this stuff..!






....kidding

[Tsarevna]

Y'know it's only a matter of time until we start cooling the servers with this stuff..!

....kidding

LOL Hmmm, does it make the computer flamable?

[Fratricide]

I dont know about flammable, but if they get it warm enough, perhaps we can cook up some fries and some Jalepino poppers or something.

[Jayne]

Personally I think I would use Ergon HY-Voltage tranformer oil

Also I think I would have certain componants install from the top since there needs to be an air barrier there, which technically would be better if it were sealed and had a nitrogen barrier.

But hey thats alot of work for a pc thats is cleaned regularly and is sitting in my air conditioned house

Jayne

[Fratricide]

Y'know it's only a matter of time until we start cooling the servers with this stuff..!

...kidding

Actually Dyn... I'm trying to find out what type of liquid used to be used where I work at. The Cray2 supercomputer used to use liquid cooling, and they still have the sucker sittin as a display where I work. It was liquid cooled and the liquid actually ran through the system similar to what was being show there for the PC.

If anyone knows what Kind of liquid they used for that, that would be quite interesting to know (well at least for me). And since there are a couple of techs where I work that used to work on the thing, perhaps they still have a bottle or two of the liquid lying about someplace.

[Fratricide]

If anyone knows what Kind of liquid they used for that, that would be quite interesting to know (well at least for me). And since there are a couple of techs where I work that used to work on the thing, perhaps they still have a bottle or two of the liquid lying about someplace.

Well.. I discovered the answer. I suppose I should have looked at wikipedia sooner... but the answer is Fluorinert. Just thought ya'll might find it as interesting as I did... but perhaps not.

[Leviathan]

Y'know it's only a matter of time until we start cooling the servers with this stuff..!






....kidding

Actually, I was fortunate enough to see a Cray II supercomputer that ran completely submersed in synthetic blood plasma. It was quite a sight to see.

There couldn't be any air bubbles in it either, because the bubbles would trap heat, so they ran the plasma down a plexiglass panel before reintroducing it into the computer.

[Fratricide]

Yea.. we dont have a working one here anymore.. well I dont think that it would still work.. Tis on display though... tis interesting to see that even back then they wanted to have see through panels so that they could admire their handy work.

Anyway.. I was trying to find a cost for the Flourinert-72 that was used, but havn't located it yet... found some Flourinert-77... that runs about $600 /Liter... thats a bit much to spend on submerging a PC motherboard with about 8 gallons of it... That would be about $18k ... just a bit more then what tis worth for me.

[Leviathan]

Yea.. we dont have a working one here anymore.. well I dont think that it would still work.. Tis on display though... tis interesting to see that even back then they wanted to have see through panels so that they could admire their handy work.

Anyway.. I was trying to find a cost for the Flourinert-72 that was used, but havn't located it yet... found some Flourinert-77... that runs about $600 /Liter... thats a bit much to spend on submerging a PC motherboard with about 8 gallons of it... That would be about $18k ... just a bit more then what tis worth for me.

hehe. Aye, that would be a little pricey. would be neat if there was a cheap alternative.

[Balthizar]

I think I am going to use my spare pc parts from old pc's and try race trainsmition oil. If it dont short out my old pc parts I will save case for when I build my next pc

FYI this kind of oil is lightweight and very thin will look like water with red food die in it. Very visable and will conduct heat very well moving it from pc parts to case. Will use low rpm fans to induce a slow moving flow inside the case. I will not mount this on the wall or parts as in a normal pc but rather a out in the middle held up with a clear stand or oh I could mount it to the top of a neonlight that is mounted to the bottom out in the center. I like that ideal.

I will also try to come up with a differnt matarial for the case as the matarial they used is not to great for removing the heat from the oil to the outside.

But it will need to be see though or I'm wasting my time I will also more then likie find underwater neonlights to improve the look Glass fish tank glass will be the best thing I can think of off the top of my head but that will be hard to work with and very heavy. Well more so then there's. I will try to find a lightweight/see though/ and heat conductive matarial. I have no ideal what that will be. If I cant find that I can get 2 out of 3 with glass.

The powersupply and hardrives are on the outside of the case in there pics.

I will build a space for mine on the inside. But sepert from the oil.

[Steelclaw]

I hope that's not /used/ transmission oil! The used stuff has metal filings in it.

One other thing you should be aware of is capillary action. If you submerge cables in the oil, expect the oil to work its way into the cable and creep along to the other end where it'll drip out and make a mess. The relative height of the ends doesn't matter. If it's a long term project, you should consider putting ports on top of the tank.

[Takora Drakan]

I hope that's not /used/ transmission oil! The used stuff has metal filings in it.

As far as i know its special oil only made for coolling PCs, so no metal thingies in it.

[Steelclaw]

As far as i know its special oil only made for coolling PCs, so no metal thingies in it.

Huh? I was referring to this:

I think I am going to use my spare pc parts from old pc's and try race trainsmition oil.