Submersed mineral oil - anyone tried it?

[wasabi]

I keep coming back to the idea of going for a submersed mineral oil system but can never quite work up the courage. Anyone tried it?

Although I can create a midrange silent passively aircooled ssytem, I constantly fighting the laws of physics especially on graphics cards options.

I've seen nice looking prebuilt kit like that below, although I'm tempted just to go to the petshop and buy a regular fishtank...

http://www.pugetsystems.com/submerged.php

Thoughts? Experience good / bad?

[kalniel]

I'd have to have some very compelling requirements to put up with the extra hassle.

[wasabi]

I'd have to have some very compelling requirements to put up with the extra hassle.

Compared to watercooling it seems realtively simple.... no dangerous leaks and convoluted plumbing.

The only massive downside I can see is you can't resell your old parts easily as they'll be slimy.

[kalniel]

Seems to involve just as much plumbing - you're still pumping the oil through a radiator, and in your link's case, a 9-fan cooling setup - that's going to be noisier than a purely internal air-cooled system.

[scaryjim]

Yeah, the whole rad-pump-fans bit wouldn't cut it for me. OTOH there are examples out there of machines that just use the natural heat exchange between the oil surface and the air to perform the cooling - big passive heatsinks transfer the heat to the oil and the big surface area transfers the heat from the oil to the air.

That said, you're still looking at custom mountings for all your devices, finding some way of sealing everything (unless you're just going to connect everything up then drop it in the tank!), and buying the mineral oil. Also cooling your PSU would be interesting - you'd either have to buy fanless or mod one (thereby voiding the warranty). Plus making any changes, upgrades (or, as you say, selling any components) will be an utter PITA. Can't see any good reason to do it, tbh - only thing it's really good for would be as a talking point. Closed loop water cooling or well planned air cooling will be almost as quiet and much easier.

[wasabi]

Yeah, the whole rad-pump-fans bit wouldn't cut it for me. OTOH there are examples out there of machines that just use the natural heat exchange between the oil surface and the air to perform the cooling - big passive heatsinks transfer the heat to the oil and the big surface area transfers the heat from the oil to the air.

That said, you're still looking at custom mountings for all your devices, finding some way of sealing everything (unless you're just going to connect everything up then drop it in the tank!), and buying the mineral oil. Also cooling your PSU would be interesting - you'd either have to buy fanless or mod one (thereby voiding the warranty). Plus making any changes, upgrades (or, as you say, selling any components) will be an utter PITA. Can't see any good reason to do it, tbh - only thing it's really good for would be as a talking point. Closed loop water cooling or well planned air cooling will be almost as quiet and much easier.

All good points. Already got a passive PSU so not an issue. I'm not in it for extreme performance, just to get higher TDP graphics and CPU 100 percent silent. Probably round the range of 65w TDP processor and 85w TDP graphics. So goal would be pumpless / fanless.

Not too fussed about looks - basically was thinking just fishtank and lob the motherboard in the bottom and use extension cables to create connectors above oil level for power, DVI, USB and so on so no direct stress / oil transfer from cable movement on parts in the tank.

[Pob255]

I've looked into oil cooling, it does require some work, the oil cost is NOT cheap for the volumes required and not that easy to get hold of in volume.
Normal oil bath pc's don't have external heatsinks/radiators, that kit is interesting, looks like they pinched ideas from Hardcore computer's ReactorPC http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=or4F4KfgUOU
Only problem is that that kit is stupidly expensive, that's $600 for what's basically a fish tank, motherboard tray&backplate, 1 pump, 1 big radiator (note no fans come with that), some barbs and tubes.
Given there own prices of $20 a gallon for oil, that's another $240 to fill it.


@scaryjim, you don't need to seal anything, the only thing you don't dunk in the oil is hard drive and optical drive (an SSD can go in the oil no problem) cooling a psu is no problem that just goes in the oil too, a fan works under fluid, it cannot spin as fast as in air so don't push the same volume of oil as they would air, but oil has a far greater heat capacitance per volume unit than air, so it has no negative effect on cooling.

You do have the problem of capillary action causing oil to get pulled along wires sticking out of the oil if you just chucked bits in.
Getting round that is two options one, keep the IO area out of the oil or two, put sockets in the tank lid connected to cables inside (basically a set of extension cables)

[wasabi]

I've looked into oil cooling, it does require some work, the oil cost is NOT cheap for the volumes required and not that easy to get hold of in volume.

Finding oils is one of the issues. I've read around and apparently some sort of oil vets use might be suitable. Maybe with an itx board the total amount of oil wouldn't be so bad....

[jim]

Are you doing it for cooling capacity, or just for the uniqueness? I've always been tempted from the latter's point of view, but it certainly doesn't look cheap.

[HalloweenJack]

5 litres of castrols finest maybe?

[wasabi]

Are you doing it for cooling capacity, or just for the uniqueness? I've always been tempted from the latter's point of view, but it certainly doesn't look cheap.

Primarily for completely silent (as in 100 percent passive/fanless/pumpless) cooling, but with midrange rather than low end hardware. The quirkyness of it does appeal too though, but not fussed about looks.

[GoNz0]

can you imagine trying to clean that mess off the carpet if it leaks ?

i would rather chance my coloured water and some stain remover

[vicar]

[QUOTE=GoNz0;2894761]can you imagine trying to clean that mess off the carpet if it leaks ?

]

Dyson

[wasabi]

can you imagine trying to clean that mess off the carpet if it leaks ?

i would rather chance my coloured water and some stain remover

I wouldn't be messing about with pumps and radiators so a leak is massively unlikely....

Price is still an issue - best I can currently find in UK is £43 for 5 litres. Reckon i could probably do it in about 10 litres though if I plan carefully and don't waste space in the tank but pad dead space out with something cheap - like plastic coke bottles filled with water or something...

[malfunction]

I've thought about doing this for sticking an old PC out in the garage - as in theory you'd never need to worry about cleaning the PC out (from dust, etc) or condensation building up (as you could run it as an almost completely sealed unit).

[GoNz0]

if you don't have a pump or rads then a few hours gaming and you can toss in some chicken nuggets & chips for a tasty snack!