cooling with submerged oil lol!

wow, this is kinda weird. but on 2cpu forums, guy has a submerged system in oil...just made me smile hehe...go a bit down on the page till you see the clear case...



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

i would like to hear comments. not going to try, just to see if this has been discussed?

wow i'd think the temps would be alot lower than that being that its completally submerged guess there isn't enought water moving around

One has to wonder what the point is supposed to be. He has high temps for even retail coolers, and he's not even overclocked. It would be much more impressive if something was accomplished.

yea, you would think something that extravagant, it would have some great advantage...all i can say is it looks kinda tacky. might as well add some fish in there, although they probably couldn't breath in oil.

i dont care what he says, i wouldnt put all my precious investments in there.

i'm surprised he had the old system in there for 4 months without problems. i agree that it seems like a bit much for not much return. its quiet im sure other than the drive noise, but if you ever want to do anything inside of it, everything will be coated and oily. yuck. It is cool and all, i feel like im being a downer. But i guess after the initial surprise of sticking it in and turning it on ("wow, it still works!"), there isnt much to be excited about, temps are nothing impressive and can't work on it without a mess. I would be more impressed in 2 years if its still working and he incorporated a phase change system into cooling the liquid.

He's doing this with geothermal cooling, on a dually system...of course it's gonna be warm.
I like it. Someone finally had the nads to do it to a new system, and he's proving that the caps won't explode or other bad things.
I also think that for those willing to refrigerate their system, that a submerged evaporator in that oil tank would solve the only problem that's kept me from doing the freon chiller thing..mad condensation.

Props to the guy willing to walk the edge alone!

but, just all the damn work of recycling and having a resevoir outside, i mean come on ...at least make it be glow in the dark oil or somethin

I dont think this is a bad idea, just a poorly thought out one. It needs either the intakes or the outlets from the rad flowing over the processors, otherwise it is going to be hot.

That is an awesome idea. What im thinking is using a metal box. That way the oil can transfer more heat. So, can the fans still work submerged?

yeah looks like the heatsink fans are still spinning while in the oil... wtf?

I dont think this is a bad idea, just a poorly thought out one. It needs either the intakes or the outlets from the rad flowing over the processors, otherwise it is going to be hot.

Click to expand...

now i think the point of this was not having any conventional airflow or passive cooling. if i read correctly there is no radiator in his setup, the oil doesnt even flow right now until he gets his pump which he expected to get today. when he installs the pump it will pump the oil into a 45gallon drum which he buried in his back yard, and the ground will be the cooling element (the way he envisions it working). there is no rad or conventional heat exchanger. im not sure what the heat capacity is of mineral oil, but it will not heat up very quickly, so there probably wont be a problem once he gets his flow going - especially if you consider the volume of oil the processor would have to warm up and the speed with which the entire volume of case oil will be refreshed with ground oil. i find it hard to say that wasnt well thought out.

cyberey66: further down the page when i read he stated that the fans still turn at some really slow rpm that the sensors do not pick up, so they create minimal flow at best. as for the metal box, i think that is why he used a 45 gallon metal drum, and if you are going to have the guts to go submerged, then you might as well have a clear case to remind yourself. besides, when he gets his flow going, i would think the oil will be getting actively refreshed much faster than the heat will passively dissipate from the components to the sides of the case.

advans13: i dont believe mineral oil has to be recycled, am i wrong? however digging a hole for your resevoir in your backyard is a little out there.

just some more of my thoughts on it. the more i think about it, the cooler it is. at first i wasnt very impressed, but except for my expectation of a short lifespan of the system (i would expect less than a year), i think its awesome - especially for someone who isnt overclocking. its still a lot of work though for not great temps.

Mineral Oil has under half the thermal capicity of water, and around a third the thermal cunductivity of water. Therefore the system will need good flow over the components in order to maintain good temps. While the passive temps are great, for a silent and basically fanless system. Having the the inlet/outlet flowing over them would be to the advantage of the system, as in its current state they are on the sides of the case(I didnt realize there was more than one page).

ok now this has to be one of the stupidest ideas I have ever seen. pulling those kind of temps you may as well stick your stock coolers on there and run them at 7v. what a freaking moron. anyon agree?

Kyle

i think you're right firemogle, pointing an inlet towards the processor probably could produce a cooling advantage for it. his temps seemed okay so far though, and i still wonder if it would have any functional benefit in the way he's using the application. BUT, in another application that was more concerned with maximum performance and lower temps, everything helps and im sure that would atleast present some advantage, especially if one were trying to get everything they could out of a cooling setup.