P.C. submerged in non conductive liquid

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Jospeh

[H]ard|Gawd
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I know it is possible to do this but is it possible(effective) to use this as a 24/7 system? I mean submerge everything then use a radiator to cool off the liquid (or add a compressor and use that somehow). What problems occurs when you fully submerge a PC? Does anything prevent this from being practical? Perhaps it doesn't offer any real cooling advantage? What would a non conductive liquid cost for this purpose? Just a thought that interested me a bit. I thought it would be a worthwhile topic to discuss.
 
Interesting. Is there any point to use it over water cooling though? Does it offer higher OCs or is cheaper than regular water cooling?
 
Jospeh said:
Interesting. Is there any point to use it over water cooling though? Does it offer higher OCs or is cheaper than regular water cooling?
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I would think so if you did it differently, for one I would take the heat sinks off and see how that worked, maybe replace the fans with those little fountain pumps. you would def need to cool your oil though, and thin it if you put a chiller on it (that would be damn easy to do too, the mineral oil would protect your board from condensation. ) it would also be easy to cool with dry ice.

given what a water block runs you could probably do this cheaper then what it would cost for a single block for your video card(you would have to scrounge a little)
 
I remember reading that Tom's Hardware article way back in 2000 I think, or 2002...either way it was when I was doing research on one of my computer builds at home.
 
People been doing this for 10+ years with everything from Mazola oil to high tech non-conductive liquids. Nice novelty trick. Not practical and offers a lot more cons than pros. Might be fun on an old machine ready for the recycle bin but otherwise, forgetaboutit. My favorite was the guy that used old restaurant fryer oil, he reported his machine stated to smell like French fries when it got warm. Yummy. But hey, its your stuff...
 
I see. So this is mostly just for shits and giggles? Not much practicality?
 
It would be interesting to see a cooling unit added to the mix.
 
BillParrish said:
People been doing this for 10+ years with everything from Mazola oil to high tech non-conductive liquids. Nice novelty trick. Not practical and offers a lot more cons than pros. Might be fun on an old machine ready for the recycle bin but otherwise, forgetaboutit. My favorite was the guy that used old restaurant fryer oil, he reported his machine stated to smell like French fries when it got warm. Yummy. But hey, its your stuff...
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Well if it offers more cons then can you please list them? All of them? If it runs alright whats the con? That you have to build a case for it? Thats not a con thats called not being a lazy ass fucker. As I am sure you would list that as a con. finding the parts and making the case.

That page said it had been running for a year + Looks good to me.The only question is how would you cool the oil if you wanted to? or what would be the best way?
 
Epyon said:
Well if it offers more cons then can you please list them? All of them? If it runs alright whats the con? That you have to build a case for it? Thats not a con thats called not being a lazy ass fucker. As I am sure you would list that as a con. finding the parts and making the case.

That page said it had been running for a year + Looks good to me.The only question is how would you cool the oil if you wanted to? or what would be the best way?
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well if I was going to go this route I would put it in an insulated case and thin the oil down with something. then I would hook a chiller, old air conditioner?, up and see how that worked. then again that might be unnecessary.
 
Having read their article on the mineral oil experiment, it sounds like the major annoyances are mineral oil seeping out and high temps if you don't have a radiator system.

I don't imagine they OC'd any of their parts much, if at all, but the heat is definitely hurting the processor. Though at stock I imagine it could last for a while like it is.

Definitely better to just get a water cooling system if you want performance, but in terms of cool factor it's tough to beat their setup:)
 
I would like to add. If you know of a liquid and a box that can be super cooled then i would like to know about that. I was looking for a box and i could stick a raid in that got super ass cold but i can;t find one. I just started looking tho. This setup could work but you would have to find a good way to chill the oil. after that seems like you can go nuts.
 
The pugent systems article says that the temps slowly rose up to 88C under full load after a while but with a radiator and pump system it topped off at 45C. You could get a good OC out of that I imagine.
 
Epyon said:
Well if it offers more cons then can you please list them? All of them? If it runs alright whats the con? That you have to build a case for it? Thats not a con thats called not being a lazy ass fucker. As I am sure you would list that as a con. finding the parts and making the case.

That page said it had been running for a year + Looks good to me.The only question is how would you cool the oil if you wanted to? or what would be the best way?
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I would direct you Here to start.....Also see This , and as far as supercooling goes , possibly check here.

:D

The puget systems rig is the longest running oil machine I know of , definitly check out thier logs for the longterm effect.
 
Yep, it's still running. We're working on a follow-up to that PC right now, but I can tell you that the only "problems" with the current submerged system is that the cathode has turned from blue to pink (!) and the oil is starting to get a little murky. Our lead tech uses it as his desktop system.
 
Heather Taylor said:
Yep, it's still running. We're working on a follow-up to that PC right now, but I can tell you that the only "problems" with the current submerged system is that the cathode has turned from blue to pink (!) and the oil is starting to get a little murky. Our lead tech uses it as his desktop system.
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thanks for your input... one question however, would the optical spdif stop working... Wouldn't the liquid damage the light thingie or something.. not very technical, but hey :)
 
Distilled water is out of the question. It is fairly acidic, and the solvent action of water will eventually break down metals etc.

The main problem with a mineral oil setup is swapping in new parts and removing old ones. It is inherently messy, and the oil will degrade any rubber parts used - not a big deal probably, but still an issue. It will definitely void any warranties, no question about it.

I'm surprised too that the oil doesn't eventually seep in between microprocessor and other pins and increase the resistance over time, degrading performance and producing more heat.

The reason the mineral oil is becoming murky is probably because of microbial degradation of the oil itself - it does happen eventually, albeit slowly. Nice warm temperatures help that. Depending on how well sealed the unit is, it could also be dust and moisture getting in too, which is also use by microorganisms. Probably a good idea too change it out. Also probably a good idea to put some sachets of silica gel inside to help absorb ambient moisture that will inevitably collect in the oil, and potentially degrading components.
 
Oh, messy is not even the WORD for what it's like trying to swap parts.

We've had the mineral oil PC running for over a year now, and nothing has failed, nor has performance suffered. We actually don't have an optical in that PC--there's the inherent difficulty of trying to do removable media with something that's submerged--but the way that the board is positioned places the USB ports in a place that's easy to get to for flash drive access.

She is pretty warm to the touch, but has never exceeded threshold, even under heavy load.

I believe that some of the murkiness stems from dye leaching off of some of the hardware or wires. It was probably pretty inevitable.
 
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