Mineral Oil Aquarium PC Now Allows EATX Mobos

[Supertrek32]

@aft_lizard01&loomis86
...I'm pretty sure I addressed the issue before either of you even brought it up.

Seal the system. Caulk around the wire exits and tape the edges where the cover meets the case. Tada. No more air can get in. That means the only condensation will be from the tiny amount of water in the tiny amount of air you seal in the system - which is negligible.

 

[thesupermedium]

Condensation sounds so simple, yet so few understand it.

If you take a cold soda can and put it in a hot room, water vapor from the air condenses and collects on the can. If you put it in oil, or even an arid room then there is no water to condense and therefore condensation does not occur. This is so simple, and really shouldn't detract from the fact that this tank works, and people probably already use radiators in it anyway. It's not engineering, it is elementary
science.

 

[Supertrek32]

[citation][nom]thesupermedium[/nom]Condensation sounds so simple, yet so few understand it.If you take a cold soda can and put it in a hot room, water vapor from the air condenses and collects on the can. If you put it in oil, or even an arid room then there is no water to condense and therefore condensation does not occur. This is so simple, and really shouldn't detract from the fact that this tank works, and people probably already use radiators in it anyway. It's not engineering, it is elementaryscience.[/citation]
If you cool the oil, though, water will condense on the surface of it. It'll then sink to the bottom and has the potential to short-circuit something on the way down.

 

[f-14]

omg who ever is saying this doesn't work go watch the video and note how long they say it's been running. water and oil don't mix, mineral oil is heavier then water, water floats on mineral oil, test it at home in your garage for yourself like i did.
i wonder if this will work with vegetable oil, despite veggie oil being thicker.

 

[Neog2]

[citation][nom]loomis86[/nom]Good idea. However I think they are going about cooling totally backwards. I would take a freon unit from an old drinking fountain and submerge the evaporating coil in the aquarium. Then circulate the oil around in the tank. Use two drinking fountain units if necessary, and try to keep the aquarium oil below room temp. Then overclock the p!ss out of it.[/citation]

Condensation. I bought my first submerged equipment from puget over a yer ago. I remember when they where first testing the orginal concept some years ago and someone suggested the same thing. They tried it out but the thing would get to cold and form ice, and that would eventually lead to condensation and water. Good thing is oil and water arent the same weight but water is conductive and can wreck havok.

But I have a I7 920 orginally overclocked to 4281.4Mhz on air in a Asus P6X58D Premium motherboard. I took my old rig out of the oil which was a core 2 quad. I placed my I7 920 and asus motherboard in there and was able to overclock the I7 920 up to 4.5ghz stable without a problem. I was able to reach higher clocks but it wasnt stable.

I liked the orginal concept they had so I'm going to check this one out as well. Have to see what all they have changed.

 

[yellowblue]

Can I turn off the radiator for a bit and boil some eggs there?

 

[wotan31]

[citation][nom]loomis86[/nom]it is my subject. And no, condensation occurs only on surfaces EXPOSED TO AIR. Submerging in oil solves that problem. I can't believe I even wasted time responding your juvenile delinquent post.[/citation]
It is your subject? Well how embarrassing for you then! Guess you've never heard of this thing called the "dew point". This aquarium is not operating in a vacuum, it's operating in a room full of air. Chill that oil to below the dew point, and condensation is going to form all over the aquarium. That condensation is made of water. Water is heavier than oil. You will have little droplets of water falling down through the mineral oil and shorting out the mobo as they land on it. Sorry, but a forum full of teenage arm-chair "experts" doesn't change the basic laws of physics, lol.

 

[wotan31]

[citation][nom]mrecio[/nom]LOL man this is not for practical use, this is for enthusiasts. This looks cool and is fully functional and enthusiast does not know what the word convenient is. If you expect this thing ti be practical or mobile then im not sure what to tell you.[/citation]
So you actually WANT to use a non-practical, inconvenient, cumbersome piece of crap? Hmm this is all starting to make sense now - no wonder most of you use Microsoft Windows, it fits that description *perfectly* LOL!!

 

[eddieroolz]

Its neat but the thought of oily hardware is a bit of a turnoff.

 

[Spike53]

[citation][nom]Neog2[/nom]Condensation. I bought my first submerged equipment from puget over a yer ago. I remember when they where first testing the orginal concept some years ago and someone suggested the same thing. They tried it out but the thing would get to cold and form ice, and that would eventually lead to condensation and water. Good thing is oil and water arent the same weight but water is conductive and can wreck havok.But I have a I7 920 orginally overclocked to 4281.4Mhz on air in a Asus P6X58D Premium motherboard. I took my old rig out of the oil which was a core 2 quad. I placed my I7 920 and asus motherboard in there and was able to overclock the I7 920 up to 4.5ghz stable without a problem. I was able to reach higher clocks but it wasnt stable.I liked the orginal concept they had so I'm going to check this one out as well. Have to see what all they have changed.[/citation]

Water isn't conductive. Pure H2O (distilled water) can't conduct electricity. It has no electrolyte to transfer the electrons. Salt or any other mineral, if I'm not mistaken (this isn't expertise and please feel free to correct me), will enable water to conduct electricity.
As a side note, can't the minerals be washed off using distilled water and thoroughly drying the components? Or would parts still oxidize?

 

[fivewall]

Whats with all the wannabe scientists trying to call out some non-existent condensation issue? Did you go to the site and even check these guys out at all? This is version 3 of the tank and the first version they did 3 years ago is still running to this day. Go and click on the link for the original system and check out the updates section, they have been updating the progress of the original (built in may of 07) to current, it is still running without any issues. If there was a condensation problem would it not happen after such time?

 

[fivewall]

wotan could you come across as ? Please really? Practical? since when would any $600+ case be practical? Please just stop posting, we get it,you fail to grasp the point of this case. It's not for you so move on already! .

 

[loomis86]

[citation][nom]aft_lizard01[/nom]Such anger, such anger.Notice the tense I used?The word COULD is used in the sense of what POSSIBLY can happen, in reply to those who were saying it couldn't.You are a self-proclaimed engineer so you SHOULD recognize every angle possible. Including the one I mentioned. No need to get angry.You said you would circulate the oil, as you should, the water that SHOULD stay on the bottom COULD become circulated as well.Besides in your anger you SHOULD have recognized I was replying to people who were scoffing at the idea that moisture could get into an oil rich system. I was not pooping all over your grand master scheme that you so vehemently spent years designing and are now defending to the death. Good luck with your anger management.[/citation]

anger? what anger? Good luck with your perception and your ability to coexist with coworkers and get along in the real world. I think you will need it. BTW, I spent almost as much as 3 seconds designing my common sense system that was already almost completely designed by the article I responded to. I merely upgraded the cooling system. You seem to have a mental block understanding what is an upgrade and what is a downgrade and why. Well, that's ok. If it wasn't for people like you, people like me would have a far lighter work load and less opportunity for promotion.

cheers.

 

[loomis86]

[citation][nom]Spike53[/nom]Water isn't conductive. Pure H2O (distilled water) can't conduct electricity. It has no electrolyte to transfer the electrons. Salt or any other mineral, if I'm not mistaken (this isn't expertise and please feel free to correct me), will enable water to conduct electricity.As a side note, can't the minerals be washed off using distilled water and thoroughly drying the components? Or would parts still oxidize?[/citation]


No such thing as pure water. even if you could create pure water, as soon as you place it in contact with metalic objects, it will become impure. It will absorb metalic ions and start conducting electricity. if there is electric potential, this process happens even faster.

 

[FloKid]

Oil??? Why not submerge the whole thing in liquid nitrogen... Much easier to clean : )

 

[bpeglow]

"Since it does not absorb atmospheric moisture, mineral oil is useful as a protective coating or bath for water-sensitive materials." From Wiki. I saw a video of a mineral oil system like 3 years ago.

 

[LMF5000]

[citation][nom]mlopinto2k1[/nom]Does mineral oil coagulate at a certain temperature?[/citation]

Yes it does. In fact you can see for yourself - I tried this once. Put some olive oil in the freezer for a day or so, and it will turn into a soft, cloudy wax-like substance. It doesn't turn into a hard solid like when water turns into ice, but the texture is a lot like soft ice cream. But being a semi-solid, it's probably impossible to pump through the radiator (so the temperature will have to be controlled to never fall below the freezing point of the oil).

 

[thejerk]

[citation][nom]LMF5000[/nom]Yes it does. In fact you can see for yourself - I tried this once. Put some olive oil in the freezer for a day or so, and it will turn into a soft, cloudy wax-like substance. It doesn't turn into a hard solid like when water turns into ice, but the texture is a lot like soft ice cream. But being a semi-solid, it's probably impossible to pump through the radiator (so the temperature will have to be controlled to never fall below the freezing point of the oil).[/citation]

mineral oil and olive oil are entirely different.

 

[wotan31]

[citation][nom]LMF5000[/nom]Yes it does. In fact you can see for yourself - I tried this once. Put some olive oil in the freezer for a day or so, and it will turn into a soft, cloudy wax-like substance. It doesn't turn into a hard solid like when water turns into ice, but the texture is a lot like soft ice cream. But being a semi-solid, it's probably impossible to pump through the radiator (so the temperature will have to be controlled to never fall below the freezing point of the oil).[/citation]
Mineral oil is very different from olive oil. What you observed with the olive oil is called "gelling". Gelling occurs when an oil is cooled to below its "pout point", the point at which it remains a liquid. Prior to gelling, you will see the oil start to change from transparent, to a hazy cloudy color. The temperature at which this occurs is called the "cloud point". All oils have a cloud point, and all oils will gel when chilled sufficiently. But the temperatures at which this occurs is different for every oil. Olive oil has a relatively high cloud point, ~50 degrees F. Diesel fuel cloud point is around 25 degrees F. Mineral oil is lower still, although I don't know the number off the top of my head.

 

[wotan31]

[citation][nom]fivewall[/nom]wotan could you come across as ? Please really? Practical? since when would any $600+ case be practical? Please just stop posting, we get it,you fail to grasp the point of this case. It's not for you so move on already! .[/citation]
I've spent more than $600 on a computer case in the past. And it was very practical. It did not take away my ability to use the computer, modify it, exchange its parts, move it from room to room, etc. No functional aspect was diminished by the $600 case. Just because it's an "enthusiast" part or idea, doesn't mean it should be less useful or less capable than a more ordinary equivalent.

 

[jaysbob]

children please! adults are trying to read an article.

 

[Supertrek32]

Mineral oil generally starts getting too viscous to use at around 10C.

 

[jitpublisher]

I thought this submerging your PC in mineral oil thing had been hashed to death on the forums years ago. You can do it, it works quite well, but for a whole host of other reasons it is one of the MOST idiotic things ever conceived.

 

[LMF5000]

[citation][nom]wotan31[/nom]Mineral oil is very different from olive oil. What you observed with the olive oil is called "gelling". Gelling occurs when an oil is cooled to below its "pout point", the point at which it remains a liquid. Prior to gelling, you will see the oil start to change from transparent, to a hazy cloudy color. The temperature at which this occurs is called the "cloud point". All oils have a cloud point, and all oils will gel when chilled sufficiently. But the temperatures at which this occurs is different for every oil. Olive oil has a relatively high cloud point, ~50 degrees F. Diesel fuel cloud point is around 25 degrees F. Mineral oil is lower still, although I don't know the number off the top of my head.[/citation]

Whoops, my bad. I must have misread mineral oil and thought of it as "vegetable" oil instead.

 

[uh_no]

to everyone....even if the water DID condense on the oil and sink (which it woudln't) the water that condenses is pure.....it does not conduct electricity....the only reason condensation on a mobo is a problem in the first place is because there is dust and other things on the board that cause impurities in the water that allow it to conduct......if you had a perfectly sterile computer (no dust no particles) you could dump distilled water on it all day with no troubles