• Welcome to Overclockers Forums! Join us to reply in threads, receive reduced ads, and to customize your site experience!

Mineral Oil Submerged Computer in an Aquarium

Overclockers is supported by our readers. When you click a link to make a purchase, we may earn a commission. Learn More.
In short term (up to a year), yes. In long term (over a year) nobody knows yet.
The naysayers say nay, the optimists say yea.

I say it probably will survive quite some time.

High end hardware demands high end cooling, which is difficult in oil.


If you do a little looking around (search for "oil", maybe) you'll find a good number of threads on the subject.
 
I was thinking of doing something like running a loop through a rad and then to a block on the processor. Have the pump suck from the top where the oil is hotter and have it come out at the bottom to keep a strong heat current going. That would keep the whole thing running cooler.
 
Their 1 year update for the aquarium without a rad was posted on June 6th, 2008 ... I emailed them about a month ago (doing something similar myself) and everything is still going strong on it. I'd say to not bother with a waterblock. Just use whatever heatsink you have and direct the oil flow through it with the pump.
 
Their 1 year update for the aquarium without a rad was posted on June 6th, 2008 ... I emailed them about a month ago (doing something similar myself) and everything is still going strong on it. I'd say to not bother with a waterblock. Just use whatever heatsink you have and direct the oil flow through it with the pump.

I tried it like that .... horrible. Im still doing adjustments for mine and You need 2 different ways of cooling the top and bottom for it to work well.
 
No offense, but if you search, you will be provided with more information than you can shake a stick at. http://www.ocforums.com/search.php?searchid=5494825 This has been covered numerous times and in short, yes it works.. Is it plausible? No, its not.. To work does it take alot of time, preperation, and setup? More than you know.

Its not nearly as simple as people make it seem. Theres ALOT that goes into it and it can be VERY messy.
 
I tried it like that .... horrible. Im still doing adjustments for mine and You need 2 different ways of cooling the top and bottom for it to work well.

What do you mean? cooling the top and bottom of the heatsink?
 
Note the bubble wall in the puget systems box, that'll create lots of oil flow around and about and help cool things substantially.
 
Just set the intake end at the top right and the other end at the bottom left. It would push out any hot oil because it rises to the top.
 
In short, don't do it. It isn't amazing, oil just does not conduct electricity and happens to do an OK job conducting heat. BTW, this should have been posted in Silly Cooling, not Extreme Cooling... I guess we are missing a section ;)

This topic was once an unique idea but now we get people all the time making threads asking if anyone's heard of it. The topic has been discussed throughly many times, and the idea has been attempted by many people. It might look nice but there is no real point, I've even tried it twice a couple years ago.
 
In short, don't do it. It isn't amazing, oil just does not conduct electricity and happens to do an OK job conducting heat. BTW, this should have been posted in Silly Cooling, not Extreme Cooling... I guess we are missing a section ;)

This topic was once an unique idea but now we get people all the time making threads asking if anyone's heard of it. The topic has been discussed throughly many times, and the idea has been attempted by many people. It might look nice but there is no real point, I've even tried it twice a couple years ago.


Hows it silly lol. Looks cool, If working right can cool a large amount of heat and is cheaper in 1-2 years time.
 
Plus as new liquids come out it my become a better solution. The oil idea has been around a while. But there must be some new stuff out there that would be better than oil.
And plus my current computer that I would be putting in is already maxed out. (It's old and can't be upgraded any more.) So I don't care about mess or the hassle of trying to upgrade it.
 
How many of you have had a system run w/o messing with the hardware at some point? Has anyone setup an "Extreme" system, and not touched it for a year? Do you have any idea how messy it is to try and swap GPU's or RAM in this kind of environment? Or even unplug a simple cable? Then, the HD has to be outside the Oil, or maybe a SSD would work submerged - I dunno...

The only PC's I set up and don't mess with are the ones I build for OTHER people (like the Parents ;) ) - the ones that need to just work and be as simple as possible. I can't think of one of my main PC's that I haven't fiddled with at least a few times a year (and more like once a month - lol).

I admire the aspiration, but in practice this is just a bad messy concept IMO...

:cool:
 
Hey Alpha, this comes up soo often it's silly. It's like putting a magnet on your fuel line for better milage, only $19.99!!!

It's a vaible solution. It works. You have to submerge the full PC except the HD and DVD drive. Run stock cooling on the CPU and GPU.

Have a equivenelt watercooling loop, to include awesome pump ($70) and a good rad, from $60 to $170 depending on your heat load. Don't forget fans for the radiator.

Then the fun stuff for the aquarium to hold it all, you look at the cost for mineral oil?

It's been done.

For a high end gaming rig you might have issues.

Imagine sending an GPU back for RMA. "Umm sorry I couldn't clean out all the oil in the GPU, so I put in a plastic bag so it didn't drip on the UPS driver".

Been done, discussed a billion times. Not practical. You CANNOT use immersed systems to bypass the laws of heat removal.

Do it. Post a log please. Your idea is great, applications? Been done, fail usually.

As a new member you should read many diff forums about the complete crazyness of your idea. I know, even the internet advertises free money from Algeria only if you send $500 first.
 
System Manufacturer: MATSONIC
System Model: MS9337C
BIOS: Phoenix - AwardBIOS v6.00PG
Processor: Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 CPU 2.66GHz
Memory: 2304MB RAM
Card name: NVIDIA GeForce 6200
Display Memory: 512.0 MB

This is what I have. I'm not going to bother buying a third gig of ran (3 gigs is the max.) or the next step up in agp card. Or a better P4 processor. (Unless someone gives me one.) So the only thing I can see myself pulling the inerds out for is to jump it if I clock it to high.
 
I guess this is just for fun? I'd think you'd be much better off investing any cash on this project into a current or C2D air-cooled system that would leave an oil-cooled P4 in the dust four times over...

If you do this on a new system (as your plans state you eventually will) you are right back into the "I need to tweak or swap something" mode and the associated mess involved. Just not worth the hassle for a few measely MHz IMNSHO (I feel simularly about Water cooling so you know my stance on complicated and cumbersome cooling setups). You might want to buy paper towels in bulk :p

If you are dead set on it, then I'd say go for it! :cool:
 
Back