I've seen that done a few times; it is called "Immersion Cooling"

Usually involves dunking components in a dielectric fluid (such as oil). The oil acts as a large heatsink and pulls heat away from the sources

Note that if you use cooking oil, it will probably go rancid after a few weeks. You best use minerial oil (I heard you can also use hydraulic fluid) as the coolent.

Mineral oil is often used to cool the transformers you see on telephone poles.

I don't know where I can order mineral oil but I remember Sam's Club sells hydraulic fluid in 5 gallon drums.

 

WOW, I was never thought it would work, or even that well.

 

just make sure that the hdd's and cdr's and such stay out of the oil

 

Are you sure because the hd and cd drives can use the extra greasing.

 

I'm trying it tomorrow with my old HP P3!

 

Just make sure it has sensors so you can tell the temps.

 

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Are you sure because the hd and cd drives can use the extra greasing.

lmao ok sure thing but can you say data coruption

 

maybe if they circulated the oil a little, they might get better results

 

I would love to see this done again, with the PSU inside the oil, a seperate enclosure for the CD and hard drive.

But with a twist! How bout water cooling the oil? This would not only fix the problem of the oil heating up, but would also give the entire system some extra cooling.

Unfortunately, I do not know much about WCing, so I woul presume the pump + radiator would have to be outside of the oil, but its just an idea.

Thanks, NiK

 

i could see circulating the coolant in a tube that was submerged in the oil...but are you talking about a separate cooling system for the oil, or just circulating the oil to a radiator to get cooled off?

 

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Originally Posted by MADMAX22 just make sure that the hdd's and cdr's and such stay out of the oil

lol yeah at first i thought it was going to be a normal comp with oil and i was like how the hell are they going to get the hdd, cdrom and psu in there

 

the cool thing about the circulation of oil is that they could put it in a freezer or somthing pretty cold (below zero) and not worry about condensation, and oil dosent freeze (at certain low temps) so thats another good thing.

 

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Originally Posted by lightsource the cool thing about the circulation of oil is that they could put it in a freezer or somthing pretty cold (below zero) and not worry about condensation, and oil dosent freeze (at certain low temps) so thats another good thing.

That was my thought as well.If all the electronic are submerged with a good fan inside the oil why not put it in a mini frig?

 

You would not want to add copper cooling (oxidation)... Would turn it rancid much faster I would bet. But with mineral oil - probably not a bad idea.

 

Someone here... someone with time and money should make a computer like the one in that link, and then also include a mouse filled with oil and some leds (water tight) and a keyboard (dont have any ideas yet)

 

This is pretty old. If you want to try it, go ahead, but be warned, not only does this suck for cooling, but the drives have to be out of the water and the tank has to be lower than all your peripherals or they will get oil inside of them from the cappilary action. Plus you can't really use or sell any of the parts again unless you somehow manage to wash them without frying them.

 

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Originally Posted by chechenepiphany This is pretty old. If you want to try it, go ahead, but be warned, not only does this suck for cooling, but the drives have to be out of the water and the tank has to be lower than all your peripherals or they will get oil inside of them from the cappilary action. Plus you can't really use or sell any of the parts again unless you somehow manage to wash them without frying them.

Water? I think you might've read a different article. Or not enough of the given article.

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*By the way guys, heres another article, for the guys with the big bucks: http://www.overclockers.com/tips1098/

I'm not sure if you read the entire article, but they used Sunflower oil, and they kept everything seperate.

 

I searched around and immersion cooling has been around for a while.

The Overclocker.com article posted used a fluid made by 3M called "Florinert" which is about 500$/gallon. Only good for those who have big bucks. The idea is still the same though.

You can try using unsented "baby oil" It's the same as mineral oil. Here's one done with a custome made case.
http://multimediapcs.blogspot.com/20...neral-oil.html

There was another article I read a while back as well where one guy did an immersion cooling setup with the motherboard/graphics card immersed in mineral oil but he also took it a step further by takeing apart a window Air Conditioner and immersing the evaporator (cooling coil) in the tank as well to cool the oil. Only one problem he ran into was that he turned off his computer when he went to work but accidently left the A/C compressor running. His wife later called him and said that the evaporator frosted up.

I guess the only major problem you could run into with an oil cooled PC is the tank cracking and leaking oil all over your room.
http://haphazardhacks.blogspot.com/2...omputer-i.html

 

Why not hook up water cooling with two radiators, one inside the oil and one outside, with a pump between them?

 

That is a very good idea.

 

In transformers you see at power substations they use one of the following; mineral oil, SF6 (sulfur hexafluoride), or a complete vacuum along with nitrogen to reduce moisture. They do this to extinguish the arc that is created when the contacts are either made or broken. The SF6 is a great dielectric; however it has the same cooling properties as air, as would a complete vacuum. Not to mention that in a vacuum it would bear to get air flow.

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Originally Posted by chechenepiphany Plus you can't really use or sell any of the parts again unless you somehow manage to wash them without frying them.

When PCB's are made flux is in the solder, if this flux is not removed, i.e. washing, it will eventually break down the solder. You can get electronics wet, as long as they are not energized until they have had a very good amount of time to dry.