Oil versus Water?

[Fisco]

I have been running my water cooling rig for
at least 6 months now. I reckon that a new water block is gonna be built and I want to change to oil. I have heard mineral oil is non conductive i.e dielectric or whatever but it does not conduct
heat well. what other oils are there? any good reveiws out there?

thanks
Fisco.

[ptcg]

I tried oil, but it just doesn't work well at all.. The problem is oil absorbs the heat better than water, but it's very difficult to remove the heat from it.. Also, it gets thicker the cooler it is, so it's harder to pump (more strain on the pump, lower flow rates, etc..)

The oil I used is called 'Crystal Brite'. It's made by Hangsterfer's Labs. It's for cooling in EDMs. This stuff is just as thin as water, absorbs heat better than water, and has a very low freezing point, so it stays thinner even at low temps.. It's non-conductive & completely inert (won't react with any metals in the system)...

Still didn't work as well as water... It's just too hard to remove the heat from it once it has absorbed it.

I got lower temps than with water for about 1/2hr, then the temps started rising & didn't stop.

If you have a really strong pump (mine was kinda weak), you might get better results, but I haven't seen anyone that has using oil... If you do go oil, look into this 'Crystal Brite' stuff... It's about $30/Gal., but I think it's the best oil solution around.

When I was first looking into oil-cooling, I spoke with a tech over at Hangsterfer's, told him what I was attempting (in detail) & he recommended this stuff... He faxed me a spec sheet for it before-hand... If I can find it, I'll post it's properties (viscosity, etc..)

[ButcherUK]

In general oil doesn't carry heat better than water - water has the best specific heat capacity of just about any room temp fluid, I'd be interested to see the specs on this oil if it is really better than water for heat capacity. You also probably ran into the other problem with oil, less conductivity than water so harder to pick up / remove heat from it (no substance is easier to heat than cool unless it generates it's own heat). Aside from mercury, water takes that one in the room temp liquids category. When it comes down to it water is better than just about anything else for cooling systems, that's why it's so widely used.