The Mineral Oil PC

Good news folk, I patched the leak in the top corner yesterday. I cleaned up the plexiglass with some paint thinner, let it dry, then applied silicone. I'm at uni now, but the plan is to refill the tank when I get home today
 
legoman666 said:
Good news folk, I patched the leak in the top corner yesterday. I cleaned up the plexiglass with some paint thinner, let it dry, then applied silicone. I'm at uni now, but the plan is to refill the tank when I get home today
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Keep us posted! & g'luck!
 
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iyBrYHmtEyo

Back in business!
 
Good recovery. Hopefully your new hardware and repairs to the case will be a permanent solution.

BTW, do you use UltraMon or different software solution to image across the three monitors?
 
Real nice, glad you got it running again...That wallpaper is awesome, Im using the same one. I tweaked it by adjusting the contrast curve to make the darks darker and the color to pop a bit more.
 
Wahoomcdaniel said:
Good recovery. Hopefully your new hardware and repairs to the case will be a permanent solution.

BTW, do you use UltraMon or different software solution to image across the three monitors?
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Yes indeed sir! UltraMon is a great little app. It's a shame that it requires a third party program to get reasonable functionality out of multiple monitors on a brand new operating system like Windows 7, but there you go.

formula409 said:
Real nice, glad you got it running again...That wallpaper is awesome, Im using the same one. I tweaked it by adjusting the contrast curve to make the darks darker and the color to pop a bit more.
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Thanks! I love my space backgrounds, they're just about the only category of image where it's easy to find super high resolution pictures.
 
This is a great build, and a favorite thread. My only question is, and I don't remember it being asked, does the greater resistance provided by the oil reduce the life expectancy of the fans?
 
I just spent the past hour or so reading this whole thread. What an exceptional build!

You have a lot more patience than most people do.

Just a question, what's the point of having a fan on the heatsink? Does it really make a difference to have that on there?
 
Modred189 said:
This is a great build, and a favorite thread. My only question is, and I don't remember it being asked, does the greater resistance provided by the oil reduce the life expectancy of the fans?
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Thanks. It might have been asked, but it was probably over at my mirror thread at Bit-tech.

Anyway, my thoughts are that while the fans might be under increased resistance, they'll never overheat because they're submerged in coolant. But that's just what I think, I don't know for sure. The fan on the CPU has been running in oil fine for about 2 months without issue. The other fan I added to circulate oil over the video cards is old; I've had it for ~6 or 7 years. It doesn't seem to have a problem spinning in the oil, however it is spinning slower than the CPU fan.

MuZI said:
I just spent the past hour or so reading this whole thread. What an exceptional build!

You have a lot more patience than most people do.

Just a question, what's the point of having a fan on the heatsink? Does it really make a difference to have that on there?
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Thanks mate ;) You might think I have patience, but the reason that the case spent ~5 months sitting on the floor of my room is because I was so frustrated with it. hehe.

As for the fan on the heatsink, its purpose is to circulate oil and remove heat quickly from the CPU. It also provides much needed circulation in the entire case. Without circulation, the hot oil would continually sit at the top of the case and never get cooled. Also, since both aluminum and acrylic undergo thermal expansion, it's important to keep the entire tank at the same temperature. If the top expands more than the bottom, I might run into problems with leaking and joints expanding. bad bad bad!
 
have u thought about putting a delta fan to see how fast it spins haha :)

i mean since its in the oil... the super high dB of the delta fans should not exist
 
This is so great, it's just a shame that the temps are so high. I was wondering what happened to the mini lcd?
 
formula409 said:
Sick!
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Thanks!

rontruong said:
have u thought about putting a delta fan to see how fast it spins haha :)

i mean since its in the oil... the super high dB of the delta fans should not exist
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Ahaha, buy me two of these bad boys:
http://www.frozencpu.com/products/8...2UHE-F00.html?tl=g36c15s562&id=CtqGPFGN#blank and I'll stick em on my CPU heatsink. But alas, I've spent enough money as it is on this damn case :(

master noran said:
This is so great, it's just a shame that the temps are so high. I was wondering what happened to the mini lcd?
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I sold it. I was having problems forcing it to go to the right resolution/refresh in Windows 7. Since it didn't have DDC, Windows was being stupid about it. I was considering sticking one of those digital picture frames in there to replace it though, but I don't feel like spending more money.
 
Re: Win 7 and multiple monitors

Hit that one on the head. I couldn't believe it when I finally got it at work and had to use DisplayFusion to manipulate two different pics for backgrounds on two different monitors.... But it's the only thing I have found that they didn't address.

Hope that's the last of the leaks for you!
 
Awesome build! The amount of time and effort this required was obviously insane so props for seeing it through to the end.

Just curious if you've considered any means of cooling the oil below ambient temp. I was just thinking with all you've been through, that would be the ultimate payoff lowering all component temps system wide.
 
legoman666 said:
Ahaha, buy me two of these bad boys:
http://www.frozencpu.com/products/8...2UHE-F00.html?tl=g36c15s562&id=CtqGPFGN#blank and I'll stick em on my CPU heatsink. But alas, I've spent enough money as it is on this damn case :(
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hahaha, i wish it was 10 bucks or so because I'm really curious about how it'd run in oil. It'd be totally awesome if you can see the difference in temperature from the moving oil because I think it should move at a significant speed.

keep up the good work!
 
Ultima99 said:
Awesome build! The amount of time and effort this required was obviously insane so props for seeing it through to the end.

Just curious if you've considered any means of cooling the oil below ambient temp. I was just thinking with all you've been through, that would be the ultimate payoff lowering all component temps system wide.
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Thanks sir! Below ambient cooling would be nice. In fact, back in the design phase, I considered cooling the CPU with a peltier. However, as I read more about peltiers, I realized that I had been mistaken in how I thought they worked and how much heat they can remove. I would have needed to have a second power supply and all sorts of other nonsense.

Also, oil gets more viscous as it gets colder which would decrease its effectiveness as a coolant :( Besides peltier, I can't think of any other way to get below ambient. Dropping blocks of dry ice into the tank would be a bad idea. As the CO2 boiled away, it'd make bubbles in the tank and generally make a huge mess.

rontruong said:
hahaha, i wish it was 10 bucks or so because I'm really curious about how it'd run in oil. It'd be totally awesome if you can see the difference in temperature from the moving oil because I think it should move at a significant speed.

keep up the good work!
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Hehe, I'm open to donations ;) One or two of those Delta bad boys would be awesome.
 
I remember reading some years back about a guy using an air conditioner to cool his mineral oil rig.
 
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My Indigo extreme kit came in this week. Been busy with senior level enginering courses, so I haven't had the chance to mess with it until today.

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The problem is that the indigo extreme needs to be applied when the motherboard is flat. Seeing as how I can't just tip my case over (bad Bad BAD), I have to remove the motherboard first. So I drained a few gallons from the tank, pulled the motherboard out of the oil, and am now waiting for as much oil as possible to drip off before I remove the motherboard from the tray.
 
Can you get pictures of the install process of Indigo Xtreme? This is an interesting TIM solution.
 
Spare-Flair said:
Can you get pictures of the install process of Indigo Xtreme? This is an interesting TIM solution.
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I took several pics just for you ;)

Great news! Got the Indigo Extreme installed and made a few modifications to the GPUs. Temps are excellent now! Woohoo, I can actually use my computer for its intended purpose.

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Following the very specific directions for the indigo extreme, I applied the TIM to the surface of my chip. The TIM itself comes in a hard plastic case and has protective plastic on both sides of it. Solvent (HFCs from the smell of them) wipes are provided in order to get the base of the heatsink and the CPU as clean as possible.

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This elaborate setup is needed because dumb#$%&#$ Windows 7 apparently installed some important files on my RAID array instead of the SSD. Le sigh. Rather than move the hdds to the motherboard (which I would have rather set up on the floor than on top of my case...), I moved the mobo to the hdds.

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Indigo extreme requires high temps to melt it in order to spread it evenly over the CPU. Prime95 /w 8 threads on a passively cooled heatsink. Toasty.

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The moment of truth! These temps are after 100% CPU load and 100% load on both 5850's for ~45 minutes. Oil temp is 37C. Most excellent. The whole machine is pulling 445W from the wall.

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To help push the oil through the CPU heatsink, I moved the fan that was pushing oil onto the GPUs onto the back of the CPU heatsink. I don't think it was doing any good in its old location.

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To help reduce the GPU temps, I removed the silicone seals, reapplied AS Ceramique and reattached the fans and shrouds. I remove the grill on the side of the shroud in order to remove oil-flow impedance.

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Here you can see the GPUs. I removed the GTS250, It was too close to the edge of the tank to get adequate circulation. Additionally, It was blocking the oil intake on the second 5850. So out it went!

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Oil in/out temp after about 1.5 hours of full load on the CPU and GPUs. Not bad.

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Now... who's going to clean up this mess for me?

Before:
CPU: 60-70C idle, 98C under load and throttling to prevent overheating
5850s: 80C idle, 99C under load and throttling to prevent overheating
GTS250: hit 127C idle before throttling itself down to 157mhz and hovering around 90C

After:
CPU: 35C idle, 65C load
5850s: 35C idle, 55-60C load

All that's left to do is see how this beast overclocks...
 
Modred189 said:
So sick.
SO, does the 5850 cooling fan move the oil up and through the card and then out the top of the cards (i.e., where they would normally be exhausting air)? If not, where does the hot GPU oil exit the card?
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The fan pushes oil through the heatsink and shroud, but the tank isn't filled quite high enough to reach the grill on the bracket of the 5850s. It's about 1/2" below it. All of the oil exits the graphics card from the hole at the top of side of the shroud. (The one I removed the grill from).

Thanks for the question ;)

edit: dammit, you're too fast with your edit! Oh well, I'll leave up my answer in case anyone else has the same question.
 
It's too bad the 5850 fans are working against gravity a little bit but it looks like it's working fine.

I wonder how safe pushing CPUs to 90° C so that the Indigo can reflow is. I guess they've done internal testing and it's alright. I could imagine people burning out their processors.
 
Spare-Flair said:
It's too bad the 5850 fans are working against gravity a little bit but it looks like it's working fine.

I wonder how safe pushing CPUs to 90° C so that the Indigo can reflow is. I guess they've done internal testing and it's alright. I could imagine people burning out their processors.
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Think of the fans as working with convection ;) and with the overall oil circulation in the case (as determined by the CPU fans and the pump)

The i3/5/7 has automatic thermal control. It will never get hotter than 99C. When doing the reflow, my i7 860's CPU frequency was in constant flux because it was auto-throttling in order to regulate the temperature.
 
There you go, now just keep your radiator in a liquid nitrogen bath and....

Yeah, I bet the oil would freeze! lol
 
Here's some pics that I forgot I took. I snapped them before I installed the Indigo Extreme though, so the GTS250 is still there.

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Slow shutter without the nasty flash using a tripod is really the way to capture the glow.
 
I talked to a few people about this a couple years ago.. they told me the only downside is the upkeep of the oil and the fact that the glycol as a tendency to make the pc board soggy after a while... personally i dont like soggy pc boards


still sick as hell..
 
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looks awesome, but I wouldn't feel all that secure with it so close to the edge of the desk. I would personally have nightmares if that thing falls over.
 
Certainly one of the more ambitious mod projects I've ever seen. Props to you good sir!
 
OlIv0rIolI said:
looks awesome, but I wouldn't feel all that secure with it so close to the edge of the desk. I would personally have nightmares if that thing falls over.
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Lol, it's 112lbs, it's not moving anywhere ;)

TYoda said:
Certainly one of the more ambitious mod projects I've ever seen. Props to you good sir!
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Thanks! It was a lot of work. I might have not started on it if I had known how much it would end up costing me.
 
legoman666 said:
I didn't use glycol, I used mineral oil.



You are correct sir.
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Mea Culpa for that then... ... you got some balls to undergo that project and get the kinks worked out...

watercooling too simple for you?? haha



OH and i ahve to ask... isnt the mineral oil too thick for the fans to properly circulate and cool anything?



either way props for building the craziest oil cooled pc ive seen.

EDIT** *( Never mind.. looked at the pics because my main pc is overheating lately... damn you are keeping at some nice steady temps!)
 
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