Read more.Cooling is achieved by dunking the electronics in a dielectric fluid, said to reduce energy use.
Read more.Cooling is achieved by dunking the electronics in a dielectric fluid, said to reduce energy use.
I'd love some kind of "module" using this with a consumer cpu on it. With the right lighting the boiling fluid etc would look pretty cool (no pun intended). Certainly more impressive than the pumps and hoses of a normal w/c setup (to my mind anyway).
Come on Corsair, do this as the "HXXX"
Can't recall the specifics but don't hdds ride on a cushion of air hence couldn't be submerged. The technology doesn't really seem that new tbh people have been putting PCs in fishtanks with cooking oil for years now lol.
I think the idea is that you're reducing air space for compute modules. Its already pretty possible to pack drives in with basically only the connectors separating them. see for example the MS Just a box of disks photo here http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/01...k_ocp_gallery/
Theres a couple of nutters who have experimented with evaporative cooling with ordinary watercooling parts pretty effectively, although I think its primarily aesthetic
The tech itself is as old as the hills, 3M have been involved in immersion cooling since the days of the Cray Supercomputers. It's just the use of NOVEC fluids that's new.
If I remember right there's 3 different grades of novec with boiling points at about 34C, 50C and 70C.
There's a video where 3M demo an intel chip (Probably an i5 Sandy) running at full chat with a un-named Gpu running at same in the 34C variety. The video states around $200/Gallon(US) for the liquid but the video is just over 2 years old and I'm pretty sure the price will have fallen in the meantime. They were running the cpu naked @ 4.8GHz at 65C full load. Worth the watch as it demo's the process quite well.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vw9px3ittDg
Rob_B (10-04-2014)
How is this better than cooling in oil ?
Oh I remember this, it got filed under "if only I had the money"
Seriously though, this stuff does beat mineral oil immersion cooling and water cooling, however is has a few disadvantages such as there being novec vapour around which isn't particularly good for you in the event of a leak (not deadly, just... y'know, don't do it), also novec tends to boil just about anywhere it can go, such as behind a chip and when it boils there it forces the chip off the board. To counter that you need to pay special attention to gluing down components and filling gaps. One other consideration is that for the best temperatures you need surfaces which have micro-pores on them where the novec can boil, if the surface were perfectly smooth you'd get fairly poor performance from it however these smooth surfaces are something we've been chasing for air cooling for years so you need to prepare chips.
Honestly, if you're going extreme, stick to mineral oil which is non-toxic (though it is a laxative and doesn't taste great), all you need to do then is make sure the viscosity is low, keep the dust out and switch to high-area fans so they keep turning. (I used mineral oil immersion for 6 months or so, those are my credentials)
Although hermetically sealed drives are suitable for submersion, helium-filled drives aren't suitable for DC usage. Or so I'm sure I read somewhere that they weren't suitable, but upon trying to look it up for reference I can't find it. Positive I read an article about noise interference (following on the thing about shouting at hard drives causes problems -> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tDacjrSCeq4 ) and how helium compounded the problem..but these 6tb drives are being listed as enterprise...maybe I'm mixing up articles
EDIT: Never mind, found the article I was thinking of, was indeed mixing up subjects. If anyone cares it's kind of interesting http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/02...ds_harm_disks/
Although expensive, it'd probably be worth it if you want a serious 24/7 overclock and have a few quid to spare.
Making a sealed case isn't too difficult to do using extension cables from points on the mobo to a space above the condensor (regular 240mm rad would do) through a top and sealed around cable edges and component edges to prevent chip-lift.
If you use pcie-flexible extender or a riser to allow a gfx card to run on it's side you could have an entire atx mobo & gfx card immersed in about 4 liters of novec, (300mm x 300mm x 45mm).
As long as you use either a proper Boiling-Enhancement-Plate or at lease the base of a waterblock with the fins exposed it'd be fine.
It's certainly something I'm thinking about, it'd going to be either that or the Mineral Oil route. Although the Oil route is cheaper it's also a lot messier with regards to upgrades and isn't as efficient as Novec Fluid.
There are currently 1 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 1 guests)