Submersion cooling

M

Murtrude

Limp Gawd
Joined
Aug 12, 2006
Messages
146
we have all seen the post Here but has anyone found a site to buy the fluid (before any1 says i have been to midel.com) because i want to try it.
 
are u sure plain mineral oil won't short anything out and will go through a pump and radiator?
 
Get the mineral oil that's lowest in viscosity. I'd always test an old system in ANY fluid you choose before using it on your main rig... Who knows what contaminates are in it.

I do believe mineral oil is your best bet. It's clear, and if bought from a drug-store (in 500ml bottles :eek: ) will be food-grade quality (has laxitive properties XD). This grade ENSURES that nothing foreign is in it.

It's almost as thin as water so it should have no problem being pumped by a sub. pump...
 
If you want to purchase some Midel7131....use the email on the contact page of Midel's site.....They will be happy to help you.

If you are considering other fluids , I suggest reading this page.

:D
 
From what I've read it's fine, but un-homogeneous. Heat will spread out rapidly in water to try and reach some sort of equilibrium. Water will also under convection and advection to further this effect.

I've seen that pockets of warm oil tend to form, and the heat isn't spread out perfectly, thus the need for Brain Eater's Little Giant pump.

Try drinking cup or 3 and let us know how it turns out......if you can get off the toilet long enough
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Bah, just bring a laptop in, no "hazardous" running to deal with XD
 
Oils are about half as efficient (approximately) on transfering heat from what I can see vs water. Active cooling of such would be nice. As well as there might be other kind that is better than what I played with submersion. Reason on my chiller build I ended up using plate HX to increase heat exhchange capacity as much as I could.
 
Although everyone hates Toms Hardware, they say motor oil would be the best.
http://www.tomshardware.com/2006/01/09/strip_out_the_fans/

Experienced users should be clear on one thing: the large quantity of liquid in the case also involves risks. Much damage could occur, for example, in case of an oil leak - water would be a much lesser evil in this scenario, but due to the free ions it cannot be used. Even the smallest of impurities lead therefore to ionizing, followed by leak currents. When exchanging components, all of the oil might have to be drained and the hardware cleaned. That is why we mounted a rubber stopper on the floor of our case to aide in emptying.

The aggressiveness of individual types of oil (above all those with a high fatty acid content) when it comes to plastics should not be taken lightly. For simplicity's sake, we decided on vegetable oil - but we recommend motor oil.
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Make a car oil drain plug so you can fill it up with your choice of oil.. 10w-30 for normal use, and 20w-50 vr-1 racing motor oil for overclocking. :p
 
can't imagine it being healthy in the long term with all the detergents and stuff in it.
 
I Have actually tried motor oil for use in a liquid submerged pc and the stuff smells after a while when it has time to get into the air. Makes the room smell like burnt peanuts. It also thins out excess thermal grease and the stuff sinks down to the bottom so you need to make sure that you dont add too much grease to your cpu,videocard,etc. Mineral oil is smell-less and clear so thats why its a good choice. Fans also work in oil and help circulate the oil. They are also silent while in the oil!
 
m0unds said:
can't imagine it being healthy in the long term with all the detergents and stuff in it.
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no detergents in motor oil... thats why it turns to sludge. transmission fluid on the other hand.... eats oil...

so you have actually used motor oil sniper? I'm interested now...
 
nhusby said:
no detergents in motor oil...
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you're mistaken. nearly every modern motor oil has detergents. the only time you'll see *no* detergent in a motor oil is in..you guessed it.. non-detergent motor oil.

oil typically turns to sludge because it gets hammered with heat, soot, water, etc which are some of the by-products of internal combustion..the detergency helps keep the motor clean by breaking solid deposits down and helping suspend them in the oil itself..which is part of why you change your oil. :)

(also, ATF doesn't "eat oil" it's a 5w oil with a lot of detergents in it. it does the same thing as your motor oil does..lubricates. it also provides detergency and hydraulic pressure for your transmission..works real well if you put a quart in right before you change your oil. less harmful than kerosene.)

at any rate, i still say don't use motor oil.. someone did a big project out of submersion cooling and used an industrial oil with no conductive properties whatsoever, as well as being sort-of safe to use with silicon..
 
I do that on every car i buy... (before the first time I change the oil) because who knows how the last guy treated it. The ATF seems to take the sludge right out...

Oil doesnt wear out. Like you said, it gets contaminated. but yeah, I never did really bother to look up what oil all contains...

I'd like to know if anyone has used motor oil to cool their comp tho... I've got a 300 gal bulk tank not 10 feet away from me, and I'm getting stupid idea's...
 
This is just a guess, but I'm betting a bunch of money that it eats up a bunch of the plastics around the cables, and motherboard, and all that.
 
I do have an old P1-200mhz system sitting in a closet, and a 5qt jug of Mobil 1 synthetic sitting in the garage...if only I had a decent container...
 
w1retap said:
haha, oh man, I didn't realize that stuff was so expensive. We get that by the 50 gal barrel at work. Maybe I should take home some of the gallon containers we have. If they sit in the warehouse for over a year, the shelf life expires and they have to recycle it. (even though it is perfectly fine still, its just a company policy)
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I'll take 5 gallons, and I'll happily pay shipping plus $10/gal.
 
Mark305TBI said:
I'll take 5 gallons, and I'll happily pay shipping plus $10/gal.
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I can't be taking it and selling/giving it away. Its supposed to be recycled or thrown away, whatever they do with it. I could only take some for myself. Sorry.
 
w1retap said:
I can't be taking it and selling/giving it away. Its supposed to be recycled or thrown away, whatever they do with it. I could only take some for myself. Sorry.
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Ain't that a bitch.
 
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