Mineral oil cooling

I was reading the thread about coke on mobo and cpu located here
http://forum.oc-forums.com/vb/showthread.php?threadid=168467&perpage=10&pagenumber=3

My question being as the subject says can mineral oil be used. Imog talks about a totally submerged system in mineral oil is this possible and what are the advantages and disadvantages. And how would one go about making a submersible rig?

Is that what I have seen people using in a fish tank? I can't remember where I saw it but someone had a whole comp submerged in a fish tank. It looked really really messy.

I was just looking through my last Maximum PC, and they talked about using mineral oil to submerge your PC.
According to the mag, you need to get 100% pure mineral oil w/ nothing in it, and don't let it touch the power supply or drives.
Sounds interesting...
Maybe someone can post a pic of a system using it.

there was a long tred about this about a year ago, and in that thred they found out that mineral oil killed capaciters.

Yeah do a search before posting, you'll find out everything has been done...

That aside, we have a submerged PC guru here, talk to him. He blew his caps out of the motherboard.

IMHO there just seems to be far too many problems with a completely submerged PC and what do they seem to get?

Nothing but hassles.

I'd just go PC cooling, and if that wasn't enough, watercool everything else.

i wondered, i thought if it was possible everyone would do it and 3M wouldnt have had to make the gel that is totally non-conductive, there was a thread about it here awhile ago seem to remember it was really really expensive.

Found the link for the 3m stuff it is called Hydrofluoroether(HFE)
http://www.techtv.com/screensavers/supergeek/story/0,24330,3340252,00.html

Ya, submerged is more -'s than +'s. It is a cool thing to do, kinda one of those things where you say "wow-neato, it still works." (I just found an old thread, and earily I wrote that almost exact quote 6 months ago - wierd) If you have a table at a computer expo or something then it tends to grab some attention I guess.

Longevity, or lack there of, is the main downer. And the biggest plus is probably the "wow-neato" factor. Better cooling can be done other, much better ways.

The most common mistake is that people sometimes think they can just submerge their whole system and it's an easy single cooling solution for all parts - that's not an advantage of having a submerged system imo.

Here's a link to someone who uses mineral oil submerged on their dually and geo-thermally cools the liquid:

http://forums.2cpu.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=31116&perpage=20&pagenumber=1

He gets bonus points for creativity and the determination to dig a big friggin hole in his yard. I'm sure that excercise would do a lot of us computer nerds some good.

What about the oil they use in big transformers? I'll find out what it is at work. I know it's used for cooling, and they generate some serious heat.

IMOG said:

Ya, submerged is more -'s than +'s. It is a cool thing to do, kinda one of those things where you say "wow-neato, it still works." (I just found an old thread, and earily I wrote that almost exact quote 6 months ago - wierd) If you have a table at a computer expo or something then it tends to grab some attention I guess.

Longevity, or lack there of, is the main downer. And the biggest plus is probably the "wow-neato" factor. Better cooling can be done other, much better ways.

The most common mistake is that people sometimes think they can just submerge their whole system and it's an easy single cooling solution for all parts - that's not an advantage of having a submerged system imo.

Here's a link to someone who uses mineral oil submerged on their dually and geo-thermally cools the liquid:

http://forums.2cpu.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=31116&perpage=20&pagenumber=1

He gets bonus points for creativity and the determination to dig a big friggin hole in his yard. I'm sure that excercise would do a lot of us computer nerds some good.

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didn't bladerunner do that? with propane or something?

sandman001 said:

didn't bladerunner do that? with propane or something?

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Perhaps, though I don't remember exactly. It's been a while since I checked out his page and stuff... If you don't remember or aren't familiar I think this link has information about his setups:
http://www.zerofanzone.co.uk/

wannaoc said:

Is that what I have seen people using in a fish tank? I can't remember where I saw it but someone had a whole comp submerged in a fish tank. It looked really really messy.

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Yeah I saw that too it was a crazy thread in http://www.extremeoverclocking.com but I couldn't find the tread. It looked really messy and what about to add on a new card if ya need? Extreme mess I bet

Here's a neat article at Pimprig.com...

I would NEVER do this though... way too messy and not worth the time.

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