[SOLVED] Liquid cooling

[godspanther]

I am considering delving into the realm of liquid cooling. However I do have some concerns. I hear all this talk of water cooling with promises of zero leaks. Why dont these coolers use mineral oil? If they did a leak would cause zero damage.

 

[Gam3r01]

Mineral oil is much slower to transmit heat than regular water or other water based coolants, so the whole system would struggle to dissipate heat through the radiator.
Additionally, mineral oil degrades rubber components (0-rings particularly).

If leaks concern you then water cooling isnt the route to go, it sounds redundant but liquid cooling is partly about the additional risk for marginal benefits. An air cooler and offer near similar performance with less risk. Its a trade-off.

 

[Darkbreeze]

Mineral oil does not flow well (Nor is it as good at heat transport) through a loop without much higher capability pumping mechanism of some kind. That would be loud and use far more power than the designs currently used that only have to deal with a much less viscous liquid like water and various other loop chemicals.

There are no All In One or custom loop cooler designs that I know of that offer or promise, or can guarantee to deliver, zero chance of leaks. Loops leak sooner or later. It doesn't even matter if it's a PC cooler or one on a car or some kind of industrial cooling loop. It WILL leak somewhere, sooner or later. It might be a very minute amount that poses no danger to anything or it might be enough to run down onto something and zap it. Leaks are rare these days, but they still are one potential outcome of any kind of water cooling cooler.

 

[Darkbreeze]

What kind of hardware are you planning to run?

What case are you planning to use?

 

[4Ryan6]

I am considering delving into the realm of liquid cooling. However I do have some concerns. I hear all this talk of water cooling with promises of zero leaks. Why dont these coolers use mineral oil? If they did a leak would cause zero damage.

If you cannot get past your leak fears, you'll never water cool. Leaks will actually not occur if you setup properly, making sure all your fittings are snug and secure.

Setting up properly is testing for leaks with just the water circulating for hours to be sure you have zero leaks before you ever actually power up the motherboard and the rest of the system. In most cases you won't have a leak at all and if you do it is usually connection that needs further tightening, but if you use a rule of thumb when tightening fittings, go as tight as you can with finger tightening and then wrench another half turn. Set your tubing if it is flexible so there is no counter clockwise pressure on the fitting, and make sure hard tubing is the required distance into the fitting.

Darkbreeze has already covered the mineral oil, and I would just add that steam distilled water with a biocide is pretty much the best at heat/cold conductivity, that is a statement of argumentation, but from my own usage since 2011 it has held true enough no matter the wonder coolants on the market.

In earlier days I had distilled water leaks that when cleaned up did no damage, but that is not always the case, and those earlier leaks were actually my fault until I learned to go finger tight then another half turn.

Now if nothing said so far eases your concerns, for more money you can use an old case and build an external rad box that only the water lines come into the active machine going to the water blocks. That keeps the majority of individual leak points outside of the main computer and even if it leaks out there does not damage hardware.

Hopefully you understand I am talking about a full custom loop not an AIO cooler, do yourself a favor and read over this link.

https://forums.tomshardware.com/thr...ater-cooling-things-you-need-to-know.1867350/

Ryan

 

[Windows22]

What kind of hardware are you planning to run?

What case are you planning to use?

Those questions are quite critical when considering this type of cooling. The better the reviews, the more likely the products are compatible with liquid cooling.

 

[rubix_1011]

I've been lurking on this thread for a while, waiting to see what comes of it.

The mineral oil idea just never dies....

 

[Darkbreeze]

Well, this one was kind of a new take on it at least. This time I believe they were referring to mineral oil IN the loop, rather than the whole system immersed in mineral oil like what has been the common method in the past. Both ways are ridiculous really, to me. LOL.

 

[rubix_1011]

Right, both of which have been the subject of many spiraling threads on the forums here in previous years.

 

[4Ryan6]

Affirmative!

 

[Darkbreeze]

I'm all for mineral oil in the right circumstances, but that usually involves either wood that needs treated or an adult situation that involves wrestling. Not so much for anything related to computer cooling systems. Not a fan of immersion or of other seemingly "great ideas".

 

[rubix_1011]

I'm all for mineral oil in the right circumstances, but that usually involves either wood that needs treated or an adult situation that involves wrestling. Not so much for anything related to computer cooling systems. Not a fan of immersion or of other seemingly "great ideas".

It only took 10 posts to end up here.

That has to be some sort of a record.

 

[USAFRet]

Much like the fridge/freezer concept.

 

[rubix_1011]

Much like the fridge/freezer concept.

Indeed.

 

[Karadjgne]

Fishtank and chiller. Or skip half of that and just fill the fishtank with mineral oil like Linus did.

Still waiting, somewhat patiently, for most ppl to figure out that custom loops are a hobby, not a necessity, unless you are absolutely determined to hold a top 10 rating in Cinebench for a 9900k/10900k