[Nitethorn]

So there's been a bit of talk about CoolBitts Icebox Full Immersion cooling kit for pc's up to 750W.

https://www.coolbitts.com/shop/icebox5-sys-1

First off, what do you think of this in general?

Secondly, I was thinking of building my own for considerably less than what they are asking for that kit.

From what I can see, a pump, radiator/fans, fittings, thermometer and a case (such as an aquarium of some sort) should be all that is needed.

https://shop.watercool.de/epages/WatercooleK.sf/en_GB/?ObjectPath=/Shops/WatercooleK/Products/25121

There's a great radiator.

https://shop.watercool.de/epages/WatercooleK.sf/en_GB/?ObjectPath=/Shops/WatercooleK/Products/60062

There's a nice pack of fans for said radiator.

https://shop.watercool.de/epages/WatercooleK.sf/en_GB/?ObjectPath=/Shops/WatercooleK/Products/30352

Dual Pump setup for plenty of flow.

https://engineeredfluids.store/products/ec-120

There's the proper immersion fluid, same used by CoolBitts

https://www.coolbitts.com/shop/icetray-matx

Tray to connect motherboard to. I would probably look elsewhere or make my own though, tbh.

Find a cheap enclosure and all required fittings. Less than half the price of the CoolBitts setup.

Here's a link to a review of the coolbitts kit if you haven't heard about it.

https://www.anandtech.com/show/1526...r-full-pc-immersion-with-the-coolbitts-icebox

Thoughts?

 

[tcclaviger]

It's been done many times. A known good way to have a silent and cool(ish) setup, the only real downsides are somewhat major ones..
- All your stuff is covered in ick so swapping things out is potentially messy
- It doesn't cool any better than a good open loop setup, a top end open loop is still better though for raw cooling capacity

I think Linus ran a mineral oil version for about a year if I remember correctly without issue.

I mean, most high power transformers are submerged in a bath of oil for a reason, so it's definitely proven tech.

Concerning board mount etc, if you use an acrylic tank (3/8+ thick on at least the mounting side), you can tap/thread mounts for the motherboard tray and seal them when installing the standoffs to mount the tray to. Just buy a Lian Li PC-6XB removable tray from Performance-PCs, only 30 bucks and has all the hard work done already, just mount it up.

For the $2,450 that thing costs, you could definitely source the materials and build an EATX version yourself (including cost of water jet cutting the top panel), an aquaero 6 to control cooling, + have cash left for a GPU upgrade

Do have a read on this though:
http://faq.engineeredfluids.com/295...d-CPUs-or-ASICs-when-your-Dielectric-Coolants

it brings a certain challenge with which TIMs to use.