I first want to say that I'm fairly new to this forum, so I might need some extra help from admin. Anyway, this thread is basically going to be my blog on the creation of "Bubble Fish". I decided to put this in the "Cooling Experiments" section due to the fact that this PC is basically my cooling experiment. Ok, lets get on with the blog.
Idea and Planning
The Idea:
I have a old computer lying around collecting dust, and I decided that I wanted to do some experiments mainly on the cooling of the computer. After some research, I decided that I wanted to try out Mineral Oil Submerging my PC. Mineral Oil Submerging is usually a fairly pointless type of cooling, as many people say it is inconvenient and just a pain to upgrade, overall not worth its cooling potential. On the other hand, I did not plan on upgrading this old PC, I wanted it to run as quietly as possible, and really just wanted to do something I don't normally do. It also looks cool, and keeps temperatures quite low.
The Plan:
I plan on getting a fish tank that can fit the Motherboard, PSU and GPU inside and filling it up with Mineral Oil. If I have enough extra cash, I might even throw in a radiator and pump into the mix.
Current Parts
I managed to salvage a couple of parts from the old Dell PC. During its lifetime I've added some of my own upgrades before abandoning it, hence the strange additions of non-Dell parts.
Here's the list:
Seagate Barracuda 7200rpm 1TB
Dell M-ATX Motherboard (H57 Chipset)
Intel Core i5 760 (Vortex Plus Cooler from Cooler Master)
Wireless Lan Card from TP-Link
Nvidia GT 220
3X2GB Hyndai 1333 Ram
1X2GB Kingston 1333 Ram
Cooler Master Thunder 500w PSU (Cheap PSU, I know, but says it is 85% efficient, also max load of 7770+i5+Overclock=300w 60% load is usually best for most PSU)
Parts Needed (Possibly)
So after looking at the current parts, I needed to figure out what I needed. Since I was planning on a Mineral Oil PC, I needed some type of Fish Tank and Mineral Oil. After a couple of days of looking, I managed to find a good shop that sold a multitude of Fish Tanks with sizes that I was looking for. However, Mineral Oil was near impossible to find, especially in a place like Hong Kong, eventually I've decided to use baby oil as the main coolant. Baby oil in theory is just Mineral Oil with added fragrances and vitamins, but just to be safe I would like to do some experimenting. However, Baby Oil isn't necessarily cheap it costs around 33 HKD (4 USD) for around 0.5 litre, which when you add up for 4 gallons of that stuff, its actually a lot of money (1300HKD or 170 USD)! If anybody else has any ideas for where to find Mineral Oil in a place like Hong Kong please comment and tell me. Also shipping is out of the equation due to how expensive shipping 5 gallons of Mineral Oil is. Also I planned on getting a Motherboard Tray, however, its actually hard to find places that sell only just the Motherboard Tray, so I've opted out to create my own tray with the old case I had anyway, which on the plus side makes things cheaper. I have a budget of around 2500 HKD (325 USD)
Currently here is the list if things I plan on getting:
AMD HD 7770 ~900 HKD (116 USD) I plan on getting a GPU that can highly overclock (to test out the cooling) and is around 100 USD or under.
Fish Tank ~300 HKD (40 USD)
Baby Oil Johnson 33 HKD (4 USD) X 30 Total: ~1000 HKD (130 USD) If anybody can find an alternative that is cheaper, I will personally award them with a cookie.
Cooler Master Elite 343 Free! I am cutting this out myself w/ a hacksaw to make my own Mobo Tray.
Radiator and/or Pump?? I am thinking about getting this as the oil may get hot, and it might be better if I had some type of radiator and or pump. However, I have no clue what I should get as I am a complete noob at water cooling.
Overclocking
I also plan on heavily overclocking this system. However, I'm not too sure how to overclock the i5 760. I'm worried that the H57 chipset won't allow me to overclock it, especially due to the fact its from Dell. I might also buy some new ram if I can overclock the system, since I know that the older gen Intel Core are speeds are linked to the ram, and require a faster ram speed.
Soo any comments or suggestions? Feel free to help me out!
Edited by ThriftyPo - 8/13/12 at 7:52pm
Idea and Planning
The Idea:
I have a old computer lying around collecting dust, and I decided that I wanted to do some experiments mainly on the cooling of the computer. After some research, I decided that I wanted to try out Mineral Oil Submerging my PC. Mineral Oil Submerging is usually a fairly pointless type of cooling, as many people say it is inconvenient and just a pain to upgrade, overall not worth its cooling potential. On the other hand, I did not plan on upgrading this old PC, I wanted it to run as quietly as possible, and really just wanted to do something I don't normally do. It also looks cool, and keeps temperatures quite low.
The Plan:
I plan on getting a fish tank that can fit the Motherboard, PSU and GPU inside and filling it up with Mineral Oil. If I have enough extra cash, I might even throw in a radiator and pump into the mix.
Current Parts
I managed to salvage a couple of parts from the old Dell PC. During its lifetime I've added some of my own upgrades before abandoning it, hence the strange additions of non-Dell parts.
Here's the list:
Seagate Barracuda 7200rpm 1TB
Dell M-ATX Motherboard (H57 Chipset)
Intel Core i5 760 (Vortex Plus Cooler from Cooler Master)
Wireless Lan Card from TP-Link
Nvidia GT 220
3X2GB Hyndai 1333 Ram
1X2GB Kingston 1333 Ram
Cooler Master Thunder 500w PSU (Cheap PSU, I know, but says it is 85% efficient, also max load of 7770+i5+Overclock=300w 60% load is usually best for most PSU)
Parts Needed (Possibly)
So after looking at the current parts, I needed to figure out what I needed. Since I was planning on a Mineral Oil PC, I needed some type of Fish Tank and Mineral Oil. After a couple of days of looking, I managed to find a good shop that sold a multitude of Fish Tanks with sizes that I was looking for. However, Mineral Oil was near impossible to find, especially in a place like Hong Kong, eventually I've decided to use baby oil as the main coolant. Baby oil in theory is just Mineral Oil with added fragrances and vitamins, but just to be safe I would like to do some experimenting. However, Baby Oil isn't necessarily cheap it costs around 33 HKD (4 USD) for around 0.5 litre, which when you add up for 4 gallons of that stuff, its actually a lot of money (1300HKD or 170 USD)! If anybody else has any ideas for where to find Mineral Oil in a place like Hong Kong please comment and tell me. Also shipping is out of the equation due to how expensive shipping 5 gallons of Mineral Oil is. Also I planned on getting a Motherboard Tray, however, its actually hard to find places that sell only just the Motherboard Tray, so I've opted out to create my own tray with the old case I had anyway, which on the plus side makes things cheaper. I have a budget of around 2500 HKD (325 USD)
Currently here is the list if things I plan on getting:
AMD HD 7770 ~900 HKD (116 USD) I plan on getting a GPU that can highly overclock (to test out the cooling) and is around 100 USD or under.
Fish Tank ~300 HKD (40 USD)
Baby Oil Johnson 33 HKD (4 USD) X 30 Total: ~1000 HKD (130 USD) If anybody can find an alternative that is cheaper, I will personally award them with a cookie.
Cooler Master Elite 343 Free! I am cutting this out myself w/ a hacksaw to make my own Mobo Tray.
Radiator and/or Pump?? I am thinking about getting this as the oil may get hot, and it might be better if I had some type of radiator and or pump. However, I have no clue what I should get as I am a complete noob at water cooling.
Overclocking
I also plan on heavily overclocking this system. However, I'm not too sure how to overclock the i5 760. I'm worried that the H57 chipset won't allow me to overclock it, especially due to the fact its from Dell. I might also buy some new ram if I can overclock the system, since I know that the older gen Intel Core are speeds are linked to the ram, and require a faster ram speed.
Soo any comments or suggestions? Feel free to help me out!
Edited by ThriftyPo - 8/13/12 at 7:52pm
Current PC
(17 items) | 
Bubble Fish - The Mineral Oil Cooled PC
(19 photos) |
|
Current PC
(17 items) |
Bubble Fish - The Mineral Oil Cooled PC
(19 photos) |
