The Mineral Oil PC

Something interesting:

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Oil is wicking along the inside of the display port cable for one of my monitors. It's wicking 6ft from the inside of the case to the display port input on the monitor itself. Interestingly, the other two monitors cables, which are DVI, are not experiencing this phenomenon.

I only discovered it when I touch the base of my middle monitor and it came away covered in oil. I had a big WTF moment before I figured it out. The reason that only the display port cable is doing this is because it is a male connector about 5/8" long, DVI connectors are female. Thus, the display port cable is dipping into the oil on the video card side whereas the DVI cables do not.

Strange.
 
Wow. Who would have thought? If you crimped a ziptie REALLY tight around the cable above the oil, do you think it would stop it?
 
Yep.

This is a common problem with submersion computers....Mine did it , so did Pugets'.

You are essentially creating a syphon.

The easiest way to fix it is to move your computer onto the floor (lower than the monitor.)

If you dont want to do that , you need to create an air gap , whether thats by 'splitting' the video cable open just after it exits the oil, or by using a short dongle to come out of the oil , then attaching a regular video cable to that.

While all of your cables might not be leaking right now , I think you'll find they are full of oil all the same.

The zip-tie method *might* work but you could hurt the cable doing that too.

:D
 
You need to fill the connection between the cables with di-electric grease (a liberal amount inside the connectors).

This would stop the wicking problem.

A solution to stop wicking along the outside of the wire is to get some parafilm and create a seal between the wire and the case.
 
While dielectric grease might stop the problem for a short time , the oil will dissolve the grease and you'll end up contaminating the oil.
 
Spare-Flair said:
Did you fix the wicking?
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Nope, only 2 cables out of all of the cables coming out of the back of the case are deep enough into the oil to wick. I just put a small container under the low point of the cable and let it drip.


nicknations said:
Hate to necro this thread but very nice work man! Love seeing these kind of mods
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Thanks ;) There should be an update coming soon. I got some new equipment in my hands that I want to install.
 
So apparently the ATI stock fans on the 5850 have some sort of rubber/PVC in them. I watched my 5850 fans slowly die over the course of a month or two. They worked great for a while, then slowed down, and then completely stopped. Even when they didn't work at all, I could keep the machine on as long as I didn't run any 3d applications.

Since they're non replaceable, I acquired 2 Prolimatech MK13s and 3 ridiculous 120mm Delta fans.

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It was interesting to see if all of my thermal paste was still there without the silicone seals. Most of it seems to have survived. The mess you see is from after I removed the HSF.

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Also weird was this. The cable shielding was completely dissolved by the oil.

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But only on 1 of the cards!

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My new coolers.

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I scraped off the thermal tape (tape doesn't fair well in oil) Then I put a dab of TIM in the middle of each chip and a dot of super glue to keep the ram sinks on. I've used super glue in oil in the past and it has worked great.

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Both cards ready to go.

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Installed and running!

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Temps are great on the primary card. For some reason, the secondary card was hitting ~135C after only 1-2 seconds of furmark, I'm thinking either GPUz is lying or I need to reseat the HSF. I'll see if a reboot fixes it some time.

That's all for now. Hopefully there will be a nice update in a month or so ;)
 
NICE fix. my mind is officially boggled by the asymmetric dissolving of the fan cable shielding. SO weird. Do you have that fan pulling or pushing the oil through the video card sinks? Seems to me that it would work better pulling, but I don't know anything about oil thermodynamics/viscosity etc.
 
Modred189 said:
NICE fix. my mind is officially boggled by the asymmetric dissolving of the fan cable shielding. SO weird. Do you have that fan pulling or pushing the oil through the video card sinks? Seems to me that it would work better pulling, but I don't know anything about oil thermodynamics/viscosity etc.
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Cheers, I too am vexed by the GPU fan cable shielding. Must be made from different types of plastic? The fan is pushing into the GPUs. I'm not sure what direction would be best; that's just how it ended up.
 
legoman666 said:
Cheers, I too am vexed by the GPU fan cable shielding. Must be made from different types of plastic? The fan is pushing into the GPUs. I'm not sure what direction would be best; that's just how it ended up.
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That's what's killing me. If I remember correctly, those cards were the same brand and had the same kind of plastic shroud (i.e. reference) and fan. Why would the manufacturer put different wire coatings on the same units? PLUS, you bought them (I assume) at about the same time, so they are probably from the same batch of cards.

Good lord, this is such an epic build, but its curious and completely unforeseeable issues are almost as entertaining. lol.
 
Modred189 said:
That's what's killing me. If I remember correctly, those cards were the same brand and had the same kind of plastic shroud (i.e. reference) and fan. Why would the manufacturer put different wire coatings on the same units? PLUS, you bought them (I assume) at about the same time, so they are probably from the same batch of cards.

Good lord, this is such an epic build, but its curious and completely unforeseeable issues are almost as entertaining. lol.
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Actually, the two cards were bought about 3 months apart and even though they are both reference design, one is manufactured by Asus and the other is Built By ATI (technically Diamond).

Haha thanks ;) Entertaining for you, sad for me :(
 
I was having problems with high temps. I figured out the cause and I fixed it.

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The old shims that put tension on the GPU are PVC. PVC + oil = soft PVC. This caused the heatsink and core to only be loosely contacting.

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To fix this, I made wood replacements! Wood is excellent for use in oil.

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Here they are in place.

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And in action. I was getting temps as high as 130C last night. Now they're 50C. Win.

I also had to replace the thermal paste, as it had mostly dissolved :eyebrow: I used a different thermal compound this time though. Hopefully it won't dissolve. But if worst comes to worst, replacing the thermal paste every month or so isn't too big of a deal.

Until next time...
 
hmm, i wonder with the many things that disolve into your oil (gfx card fan cable, thermal paste ....) if the oil isn't compromised ? do you filter it somehow?
 
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Modred189 said:
Might they effect the THERMAL conducivity (new word?) of the oil?
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Perhaps, but I think the dissolved insulation is in a little pile on the bottom of the tank. As for the thermal paste, thermal paste is made to be thermally conductive, so I don't think it would adversely affect the thermal conductivity of the oil.

And yes, it's a word ;)

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New digs: I moved into an apartment.
 
Just started reading this thread since I don't normally read this subforum. Forgive me for not reading it all but I did a search on the word "neutral" and it found nothing so I must point out something very important.

The third pin of your switches should NOT be tied to ground, but to neutral!!! You will trip GFCIs if you use ground! The case can/should be grounded (to actual ground) but nothing should be using that. It is for safety only.
 
This is totally insane, I am amazed! Just read through the entire thread. I'm assuming your computer is virtually silent?
 
Nice build. I've been running a mineral oil PC for a few years now myself. Not as pretty as yours, though :)
How fast do the delta's run in the oil?

I sourced USP grade Mineral Oil as Horse Laxative from a large animal vet (~$14/gal) What source did you use?

I noticed all my wires, sata cables, power leads, etc lose their flexibility after only a short time in the oil, did you have the same happen?

Did you ever Overclock?
 
VikingLord said:
Nice build. I've been running a mineral oil PC for a few years now myself. Not as pretty as yours, though :)
How fast do the delta's run in the oil?

I sourced USP grade Mineral Oil as Horse Laxative from a large animal vet (~$14/gal) What source did you use?

I noticed all my wires, sata cables, power leads, etc lose their flexibility after only a short time in the oil, did you have the same happen?

Did you ever Overclock?
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Thanks. The delta's run pretty slow in the oil, probably around 120ish RPM, but I couldn't tell you for certain.

I got my oil for free from work when I worked at a power utility so it's actually Shell Diala AX which is 99% percent mineral oil.

And yeah, my cables are super stiff. The sleeving would probably crack if I tried to bend it.

Cheers.
 
fullvietFX said:
:confused:
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Sorry, I typically reply to every comment/question, but I guess I just missed yours :( The computer is quiet, but not silent. There are still 6 120mm fans that cool the radiators however they hover at around 30% speed and are thus fairly quiet.
 
legoman666 said:
Sorry, I typically reply to every comment/question, but I guess I just missed yours :( The computer is quiet, but not silent. There are still 6 120mm fans that cool the radiators however they hover at around 30% speed and are thus fairly quiet.
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Have you encountered any issues since your last update?
 
Let me start off by saying awesome build!! Love how you took an idea and ran with it!! But one question I have is what modeling software did you use for creating the virtual pc as well as the video cards at the beginning when you were coming up with ideas?? I have only got to page 7 of the thread so I do apologize if you answered this earlier.
 
sdhsbaseball said:
Let me start off by saying awesome build!! Love how you took an idea and ran with it!! But one question I have is what modeling software did you use for creating the virtual pc as well as the video cards at the beginning when you were coming up with ideas?? I have only got to page 7 of the thread so I do apologize if you answered this earlier.
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I used Google sketchup. Thanks for looking!
 
legoman666 said:
I used Google sketchup. Thanks for looking!
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Yeah I was able to finish reading the rest of the thread a few minutes ago and I saw that a few people asked that same question.:p My bad. But still awesome that everything is running great to this day!!!

P.S. You know you will have to continue to come up with amazing designs since you have set the bar high lol
 
Just saw you're parting it out. oh well. For the next build I recommend using Novec 7000 as the fluid :)

I just refurbished my old mineral oil case and I've been prepping the hardware, based on the suggestions I found in this monster thread. I've sprayed everything with the Silicone Conformal Coating Brain Eater suggested. I replaced all heat sink paste with Arctic Silvers Thermal Epoxy...except for the CPU, where I used the Indigo Extreme ETI.
How did your caps fare after silicone?
 
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VikingLord said:
Just saw you're parting it out. oh well. For the next build I recommend using Novec 7000 as the fluid :)

I just refurbished my old mineral oil case and I've been prepping the hardware, based on the suggestions I found in this monster thread. I've sprayed everything with the Silicone Conformal Coating Brain Eater suggested. I replaced all heat sink paste with Arctic Silvers Thermal Epoxy...except for the CPU, where I used the Indigo Extreme ETI.
How did your caps fare after silicone?
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Yeah, I think either the motherboard or the power supply died and I didn't want to deal with it. Besides the caps on the original motherboard, I never had a problem. I just sealed around them with silicone to make damn sure that I didn't find caps that belonged on my 5850's on the bottom of my tank.

Thanks for reading!
 
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