Thoughts on Submersion Cooling Products?

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avatar[djedi]

Limp Gawd
Joined
Sep 8, 2004
Messages
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Does anyone know anything about www.hardcorecomputer.com ? (Not porn, despite the name I swear!).

They apparently do full submersion of the motherboard/cpu/gpu/etc into a coolant (not mineral oil, but something similar), and then have a radiator/pump system to help move colder coolant directly onto the gpu/cpu.

I know it's generally not very [H]ard to buy a cooling solution like this, but their case is pretty sweet, and I like how it looks: http://www.hardcorecomputer.com/XHTML/Videos/YouTubeVideoTour.html

I put in a request to them to see how much it would cost if I just bought the case/motherboard/power-supplies from them, and provided the cpu/gpu/ram/hdd's myself. I haven't gotten the quote back yet (I chatted with one of their live support reps). I think the regular price is a fair bit outside my budget (alienware-esque markups on the prices for components).

I wanted to check in with you guys to see if anyone knew anyone that owned one of these. Thoughts?
 
Thoughts ?

oh hell yeah, run away as fast as you can unless you are rich. If you are rich then it does not matter.

Why a one year warranty on a CPU that carries a 3 year manuf warranty, HD too.

If pump and rad, why not just water cool as the other components on the motherboard really do not need any special cooling.

Most electronic components (resistors, caps , IC's) are not rated/intended to be constantly in a bath of whatever. Most packaging these days is pretty rugged but /shrug ? What is the long term effect of the fiberglass board being soaked in whatever for 5 years ? What if you want to upgrade in 3 years ? Do they say you can just dunk another board of your choice in that soup ?

Like I said, if you are rich it does not matter. Otherwise it looks neat (you can fake the look with an properly modded side window panel) but is nothing but a big headache long term.

Thats my thoughts. Since you asked :D
 
Just seems way overkill performance and price wise....

I mean the cases are cool, but why, really, do you need to submerge the system?

Stuff just doesn't that hot these days....
 
Cool, thanks for the input guys! Your thoughts and opinions are exactly what I was looking for (good point on the effects of resistors/capcitors being soaked in it for 5 years, I will have to ask about that and see what they say).

I don't really -need- to submerge anything. But I was looking for something quiet, cool, and could be in the living room (aesthetically pleasing to a degree). I have a bad habit of poor maintenance habits, so usually case covers get left off while I work on them for extended periods of time. This infuriates the missus. So with liquid cooling I would potentially cause a mess whenever I needed to flush the system, etc. Or worse, screw up my system if I don't perform the maintenance at proper intervals. Since this submersion system apparently doesn't ever require changing the solution, it seemed like a no hassle way of doing things. I like tinkering in the software parts of the machine, for some reason I don't get as turned on about messing with the actual hardware... I know, weird right?. So I guess I'm picturing it in my head as an easier overclocking platform with cooling on training wheels...

So I guess I was thinking, cool, quiet, less hassle, and the Neat-O factor, as my main attractors.

Price is obviously a MAJOR detractor, hence why i'm seeing what just the mobo/case/powersupplies/coolant would cost. Ultimate re-usability is also a big detractor.

So I went and asked about the upgrades, and they said I could do upgrades myself in the future. If I wanted to add a second gtx480 for example, they said they could either send me a kit with their custom heatsinks, or I could send in the cards to have them do it for me. So ultimately the big limiting factor is their motherboard. I'd be on i7 for awhile.

So I think if I could get the case/solution/motherboard/and power-supplies for less than a grand, I'd consider it. I bet it would be more than that, but we'll see when I get the quote...

I'll ask them about the long term effects on resistors/capacitors, etc. Good call on pointing that out!
 
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I LOL'd at them playing Day of Defeat Source at the end there. Really pushing the limits of that high end hardware! ;)
 
How many silver coils would you need for that? It would be easy to bleed/remove bubbles...but its just water cooling.
 
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