Mineral Oil Cooled PC

[MasterBubba]

[youtubevid]PtufuXLvOok[/youtubevid]

I think it works pretty good. Im thinking of buying the components for it.
Seems pretty easy too. Btw: People have been running on Intel Celerons and 64MB RAM to operate windows vista.

[MentaL]

[Cruvenium]

Wait, I thought HDD are not supposed to be soaked in liquid? Because of the moving parts.

[Rishwin]

Oil is fine because 1) it lubricates, and 2) it does not conduct electricity.

[Karnage]

Looks like a pretty good idea then tbh. Any idea of price's etc?

[MasterBubba]

Its actully pretty cheap. About 200$ for everything.
Motherboard mount $25, 6 gallon tank $60 (or free if you can find one in nearby garbage), 6 gallons of mineral oil $60 (depending where you get, I saw oil for $7.89 a gallon so)
@ Rishwin: Your totally correct, you could also use Deionized water because it has no electrical charge

[HansaPhil]

Man this looks awesome! :D

[Ambrosiax]

Was that computer suppose to start so slow?
He filled it up with like five bottles before it got to the login screen.\

Also I have a question about this.
Wouldn't the oil in the tank get hot sometimes?
So what would they do when the tank gets hot?
I mean its still liquid wouldn't it start to get hot?

[gigorga]

Oil is fine because 1) it lubricates, and 2) it does not conduct electricity.

So what does the Oil exactly do? Does it cool down the processor and every other component inside of it? Or is it just for looks to say " HEY I GOT WATER IN MY COMPUTER AND IT WORKS FINE! :)"?

Also I agree with this guy on youtube:

dude, doesn't it put your hardware components under more stress then usual? I know oil doesn't conduct electricity, so that's no problem, but it doesn't seems very health for your computer eh? And moving components wil get more friction due to the oil -> break faster...

Well I don't agree with him but I'm asking the same question haha.

[MasterBubba]

So what does the Oil exactly do? Does it cool down the processor and every other component inside of it? Or is it just for looks to say " HEY I GOT WATER IN MY COMPUTER AND IT WORKS FINE! :)"?

Also I agree with this guy on youtube:



Well I don't agree with him but I'm asking the same question haha.

Water is Polar, Mineral Oil is not. Polar means it has a slight positive and negative charge, which frys your computer.
The Oil is a coolant, when used properly it can cool your computer down very quickly. Ofc the oil will get the temperature of the computer at a point, but you can just install the bubble thing to cool it down. Also: the oil will get the relative temperature of your surroundings if you do not cool it down with the bubbler.
Also: there is no friction with oil, there is more friction when the fan is operating in air. Since friction causes heat, less of it causes less heat. All of the system can be exposed to the oil, because it dosent rust, and actully helps the HDD write binary code to it's disks.

[gigorga]

Water is Polar, Mineral Oil is not. Polar means it has a slight positive and negative charge, which frys your computer.
The Oil is a coolant, when used properly it can cool your computer down very quickly. Ofc the oil will get the temperature of the computer at a point, but you can just install the bubble thing to cool it down. Also: the oil will get the relative temperature of your surroundings if you do not cool it down with the bubbler.

Ahhhhhhhhhhhh, Ok thanks I might try this out it's pretty cheap. Well when I get my pay check haha. Anyways good luck making I think it's totally worth it. Also if you have a CD how can you put it in? Will it still work in the Oil?

Rishwin: Your totally correct, you could also use Deionized water because it has no electrical charge

Is Deionized water cheaper than the oil?

[MasterBubba]

Ahhhhhhhhhhhh, Ok thanks I might try this out it's pretty cheap. Well when I get my pay check haha. Anyways good luck making I think it's totally worth it. Also if you have a CD how can you put it in? Will it still work in the Oil?



Is Deionized water cheaper than the oil?

Nope, and not such as good quality, i was just providing another example.

[gigorga]

Nope, and not such as good quality, i was just providing another example.

Ah ok thanks cause I was gonna be like " Ok if it's cheaper and just as good? Then why don't I just use that! :)" But thanks for the information. Anyways thanks for the idea but where can I get this done? Can I just get it done in any computer store with the materials and the tutorial? Thanks. Cause I don't trust myself making this.

[Ambrosiax]

Ok since oil is denser then water and air :P wouldn't the fan have a harder time moving around then usual?

[MasterBubba]

Maybe if you took time watching the video, you could see that yes, the fan is moving slower. But: It does not matter, last time I checked the computer didnt blow up in the video.
Btw: Density is not a factor, resistance is :P

Note: Watch the freakin' video if your going to respond with dumbass questions.

[gigorga]

Maybe if you took time watching the video, you could see that yes, the fan is moving slower. But: It does not matter, last time I checked the computer didnt blow up in the video.
Btw: Density is not a factor, resistance is :P

Note: Watch the freakin' video if your going to respond with dumbass questions.

Haha, well also that the fan is for cooling also, I'm I correct? Isn't that what the mineral oil for too? So it doesn't matter if it goes slower or faster the mineral oil is still cooling it down especially with the bubble thingy. Anyways I'm gonna make one out of my old computer thanks a lot dude!

Why Build One?

We built this system because with all the oil cooled projects out there, no one built a system that looked good and functioned well! After seeing all the other projects, we had a lot of ideas of how we could do it better and more easily. Many projects used vegetable oil, which would go rancid after a short time. The mineral oil does not have this problem, and is completely clear. We also wanted to use an appropriate enclosure -- the Toms Hardware system used a clear acrylic case, and they had to painstakingly seal each rear connector to keep the oil from leaking. We wanted to put the ports on top to solve that problem the simple way. Other people have built systems in aquariums before, but they were always oversized and square. When we found the Eclipse System 6 Aquarium, we were excited to see an aquarium that was absolutely perfect in size -- you couldn't go any smaller. In addition, we had questions about performance and long term effects. Our initial tests, which we go over below, answer the questions about cooling performance. At the bottom of the page, we've posted subsequent follow ups after a few months and even a year, to let you know how a system like this performs in the long term.

I have found this on there site to answer a lot of peoples spam and questions. And if you see at the lower parts of the site it shows the cooling temperatures.

Did Bubbles Help?

After we saw the high maximum temperature during load, we started to think about what would happen if we pumped bubbles into the system. Theoretically, since the air for the bubbles was bring drawn from the outside air (we placed the intake a few feet away from the tank), the cooler bubbles should pick up the heat, then rise and release it to the air above. The question was whether the effect would be enough to show a noticeable difference. As you can see in the video, we had quite a bit of bubbles going. After about 2 hours, the temperature settled at a new maximum of 84C on the CPU under load. So, the bubbles did have an effect, but not as much as we were hoping for. Interestingly, the bubbles also hurt the video card temperature, causing it to rise by a few degrees! It seems the bubbles also served to agitate all the contents of the aquarium, bringing everything to a more consistent temperature throughout.

I am truly amazed.

Also question, do you have to remove the HDD or the CD-ROM from the tank?