oil cooled pc

[ammw]

Hey guys new to this forum some cool stuff here, I have question and thought this would be good place to get answers i have been reading and watching alot about Oil Submerged Pc's. I really like the idea and from what i understand it is 100% safe? But was wondering would regular fish tanks be safe to use? and does the tank have to be completly sealed like the top or would glass laying there be ok? Also far as connections i see people just run wires into the tanks hook them up then run them out the top i dont like the looks of it would it be ok to just cut the glass where the motherboard and video card connections would fit threw then seal around them? And finaly to keep the oil cool i have wonder could you use a radiator to keep oil cool?

 

[Lunas]

Ok yes you use a fish tank what size depends on what motherboard you use. No you should not cut the glass and hope you can seal it back up for the mobo connections. How you will do it is you will mount he motherboard to plexiglass then sit it in the oil up to the connectors if you are using anything but ssd you will need to have the hard drive above or isolated from the oil... yes you can use a radiator you will need some sort of pickup and pump to pump it through most water pumps are out depending on the oil and viscosity...

Honestly speaking while oil is cheap to very expensive and easy to do it can get messy very fast and is not long term viable. I would honestly go with regular old water cooling it is currently going mainstream and you wont have all the issues with it that you will oil submersion cooling.

But back on topic no the top wont need to be sealed i would use either a glass top or piece of plexi I would recommend not trying to oil cool the power supply it can be done since you dont like the wires out the top ehh you can hide the wires...

if you put the hole above the oil level you could make a hole in the back but i would say do a acrylic tank easier to cut no special bits needed... The oil used is not conductive but when it is hot it is flammable...

 

[maboblivion]

some projects are more professional looking than vegetable oil

http://www.pugetsystems.com/submerged.php mineral oil

 

[Lunas]

BTW the tank pictured in the link is a 12g nano cube it runs about 200-270 alone over all you would be looking at ~400-500 for just the tank radiator and other stuff to start not including any PC parts...

You could go a bit cheaper with an itx or matx board and a smaller tank but still going to be more expensive than doing water cooling or even phase change cooling.

 

[PS-Matt]

I work for Puget Systems, so I though I'de chime in with a few thoughts/recommendations.

would regular fish tanks be safe to use?

First, not all tanks are created equally, especially when dealing with hot oil. We used to sell versions of our aquarium kits that used a 6 gallon tank, but we found that they had a problems with cracking. We also experimented with making a mini-ITX version using a 3 gallon tank, but it cracked and leaked everywhere pretty quick. What we ended up finding was that the smaller tanks have much thinner walls than the larger tanks. It makes sense for the manufacturer to do this when the tanks just have to deal with water for fish, but the thinner walls are much more prone to failure when you repeatedly heat and cool mineral oil.

The 12 gallon tank we are using now, however, has not had nearly as many problems. Can it still crack? Certainly, but the risk is much, much smaller than if you use a smaller tank. So if you are sourcing a tank, make sure it's wall thickness is at least 5mm (or about 3/16"). Also, avoid tanks with seams and go for tanks that are made out of one moulded piece. Most of those seams are filled with silicone, which will fall apart when exposed to mineral oil.

does the tank have to be completly sealed like the top or would glass laying there be ok?

The top does not have to be sealed at all. Mineral Oil doesn't really evaporate, so leaving it open doesn't affect anything. I would cover it with something, but more to prevent you from accidentally dropping anything in the oil.

Also far as connections i see people just run wires into the tanks hook them up then run them out the top i dont like the looks of it would it be ok to just cut the glass where the motherboard and video card connections would fit threw then seal around them?

On the kits we sell, we have a whole acrylic tray that holds the motherboard, PCI cards and PSU and positions it so that all of the ports are just above the top of the oil. This way, you can still connect/disconnect everything without having to get down into the oil. You could have the connections below the top of the oil and they will work fine, but be aware that the oil will quickly wick up the rubber coating on the wires and end up getting anything that touches those wires really oily. Definitely do NOT cut the tank anywhere below the top of the oil. You will never get it sealed perfectly, and most of the things you would use to even attempt a seal will be eaten away be the oil and quickly cause the seal to fail.

And finaly to keep the oil cool i have wonder could you use a radiator to keep oil cool?

More than likely, you will need a radiator unless you are using really low powered components, a huge tank with tons of surface are (think in the range of 20-30 gallons most likely), or if the system will only be on for short periods of time. One thing to keep in mind is that oil does not transfer heat as well as water. So when deciding on a radiator, go with a bigger one than you think you need. I don't have any actual measurements, but a safe way of thinking is that you need about twice the surface area compared to standard liquid cooling. So if you would normally use a 2x120mm radiator to cool your hardware, plan on using either a 4x120mm or two 2x120mm radiators instead.

 

[Lunas]

I figure I should offera suggestion to both you and psmatt. Since the tank is not going to house live animals you don't have to leave the tank sealed with silicone you could strip it out and seal it with some thing compatible with mineral oil.

 

[Arcygenical]

ALWAYS use an acrylic cast, extruded or plastic welded tank. Glass silicone tanks will leak as the oil removes the plasticizer from the silicone sealant. It will also take the plasticizers out of submerged plastic parts (like capacitors and IO port plastic bits).

It's very hard to keep mineral oil (and especially the specialized coolants) contained.

And you absolutely need a radiator. Get a cheap 12v amphibious pump off ebay (around 20$ shipped) and use that to run coolant (collected from the top of the tank) through at least a double radiator, and split the return flow evenly along the bottom. This will optimize convection.