News - Hardcore Computer offers total liquid submersion for a mere $4,500

[HSK]

looks great. can i fry my chips in it?

[sawyen]

anyone working in biochemistry will know immediately that mineral oil is going to be absolutely poo to clean.. the only possible way to completely dissolve it is by using seriously harsh ionic micelle detergents like sodium dodecyl sulphate which in most cases will clean off almost everything, i.e. wire markings, painted markings and so on..

And for starters, SDS aint cheap..

[nchester]

So what happens when a component fails or you want to add more memory, you pull the motherboard out and everything is covered in oil? Yeah I'm sure this will catch on...

[Webby]

Yep all covered in oil! Messy, messy, messy!

[moogle]

Yep all covered in oil! Messy, messy, messy!

Uh huh, water ftw DIY will live on

[scottyman]

But it's oh so very sexy
I could see this type of design being used for ultra high-end workstations - it would justify a significant premium

[Zadock]

Yep all covered in oil! Messy, messy, messy!

Thats easily solved... use Crisp and dry?

[aj_walters]

Thats easily solved... use Crisp and dry?

[Nub1]

We used to use oil baths when I worked in the chemistry field to heat liquids controllably above the boiling point of water. From what I remember these took ages to heat up which is good for pc cooling but they also took ages to cool down, not so good. I'd love to see real world long term use figures, that rad would have to be seriously good to keep the temps low and not have them build up with continual use.

Maybe I'm wrong about this but if you keep your pc on all day, the oil would never get a chance to properly cool down would it?

[moogle]

Maybe I'm wrong about this but if you keep your pc on all day, the oil would never get a chance to properly cool down would it?

Not really, it depends on how much heat is being dumped into it, and how much is being extracted, but it'd stay above ambient temps along as the PC is on yeah.

[shaithis]

I think the main reason these work is just the speed at which heat dissipates into the fluid to begin with, from there the liquid has quite a large area to dissipate the heat into the surrounding air.

Makes for quite a efficient cooling system but just about the lowest practicality I can think of.

As for replacing a CPU/adding RAM/reconnecting drives etc.......I guess connections could be compromised due to oil getting between contact surfaces.

I love my water cooled setup, yet still get miffed occasionally due to the practicality of it in certain circumstances.........this oil based system seems to take impracticality to a new level in PC computing though!

[Nub1]

Thanks guys for clearing it up for me. So in effect the idle temps may be higher but the load temps should be a lot lower.

[Vulcanite]

Looks like an awful lot of R&D has gone into that and the result is very impressive - submersive cooling in a chassis that seems to be practical and stylish. I'd be concerned with shipping issues and any maintenance though.

I remember seeing people (think it was featured in Custom PC mag) using vegetable oil in acrylic cases a few years ago!

I'd like to see more performance out of the system though, with that cooling capacity 4.2GHz out of a QX9770 is no more than a decent watercooled PC manufacturer would send a system out at.

[Bill Owen]

3.5 years of R&D.

I'm meeting with Hardcore Computer's CTO, Chad Attlesey next week to discuss ideas for modding and promoting the Reactor PC. I hope HEXUS will allow me to post my worklog.

[Nub1]

There is a Bill Owen of MNPCTech, so hi if that's you and hi if it isn't too. Don't want to be rude.
Would love to hear and see your worklog on this. Your work is inspiring, unfortunately my work isn't. If you can't/ don't post your worklog here can you pm me with a link? thanks

[moogle]

There is a Bill Owen of MNPCTech, so hi if that's you and hi if it isn't too. Don't want to be rude.
Would love to hear and see your worklog on this. Your work is inspiring, unfortunately my work isn't. If you can't/ don't post your worklog here can you pm me with a link? thanks

It's him alright
Check out his Antec 300 build here it's quite cool