Aquarium computer

[oncleboris]

My friends and I once thought of putting a full motherboard and its components in an aquarium of pure distilled water, in order to cool it quite effectively. I'm asking to those of you who are good in sciences, would that ionize (or whatever is the word in English) thus creating H+, and slowly making the water conductive? Is there any viability in the project? We have lots of old 486 to experiment before trying it on our Thunderbird machines

By learning the teachings of Zerthimon I have become stronger.

 

[Guest]

I had thought of something similar that may be of intrest to you. Back around 94-96 I watched a show called Beyond 2000 (Austrailian Science Program) where they showcased this fluid that was like a very dense water (soup cans floated). It was so dense that it didn't cunduct electricity. They actually demonstrated uses with electronics (to identify hot spots). Oddly enough they used a large aquarium to hold the Fluid. Try as I might I can not find any more info on this chemical.

 

[Lonemagi]

3M makes a fluid which will not corode, leave a residue or conduct electricity. I have seen it used sucessfully for this cause, and in conjunction with N2 cooling. Only bad thing is that it costs $500 (US) per gallon.

As for the water idea, sounds like it might work, just dont know about that ionization thing. Well, if no one here knows, you could be the first to try it out with one of those 486's and let the rest of us know!



btw: If anybody else decides to try something like this, I would suggest that you keep the drives out of whatever fluid you are using, just submerge the Mobo. (yep, definatly keep that PSU out .. lol)

R.I.P. <font color=blue>F</font color=blue>ear <font color=blue>F</font color=blue>actory :frown: 1990-2002 :frown:

 

[oncleboris]

Of course, putting anything mechanical inside the fluid would not be very wise... I doubt a 7200 RPM HD would like to be "underclocked" to 3000 RPM because of water resistance

By learning the teachings of Zerthimon I have become stronger.

 

[Guest]

While it is true that pure water does not conduct electricity, you're gonna be hard pressed to find water pure enough, clean a tank well enough, clean the motherboard well enough and keep enough dust and whatever else out of the system, etc. to prevent the water from causing trouble. The water might corrode parts as well. Good idea though. I have heard you can use baby oil for this type of thing but I really don't know enough about it to say if it would really work. Perhaps some form of alcohol would work better? Depending on the type, it wouldn't be too expensive at least... <shrug> just my two cents......

 

[Guest]

Is this the 3M stuff you are talking about?
http://cms.3m.com/cms/US/en/2-68/iilzRFS/view.jhtml

sorry, I don't remember how to make it clickable

 

[Lonemagi]

that would be it.

Click it <A HREF="http://cms.3m.com/cms/US/en/2-68/iilzRFS/view.jhtml" target="_new"> Here</A>

R.I.P. <font color=blue>F</font color=blue>ear <font color=blue>F</font color=blue>actory :frown: 1990-2002 :frown: