Mineral Oil Submerged PC and Overclocking

[I]

Don't ask about "better", ask about worth it or reasonable. PUtting a whole PC in oil is not reasonable, there is trivial gain if any if implemented well, and mostly just a waste and burden to it.

If all you want to do is o'c, build the PC normally with air cooling and see how it goes. If you are not getting a good result relative to everyone else, it might be the parts not the cooling, but still then your best bet is water cooling with separate 'sinks and tubing for the particular parts you're having trouble keeping cool (and in that case, it would tend to involve voltmods, most parts will not just be too hot they'll be voltage constrained before that point, but with voltage comes heat too so it depends on the parts).

 

[goldragon_70]

The only draw back that I can see is the weight, which would be a draw back for those who move there computers often, other then that, it's a cool and a bit expensive mod.

 

[jonbach]

Update after two months has been posted:
http://www.pugetsystems.com/submerged.php#update

 

[jeff0296]

hi new here going to build an aqaurium pc

So like all newbies i've a couple of questions

1. i've heard there can be problems with oil not circulating in small gaps behind the processor in 775 sockets causing hot spots, has anyone found a solution to this yet ? I understand sealing it completly just results in air pockets which must result in the same effect, has anyone tried packing the socket out with a ceramic based thermal grease to spread the heat out ?

2. I understand the mineral oil can damage the seals on capaciters, but as the oil is a dialectric it shouldent affect there performance or does it result in a circuit failure.

thanks in advance for any help in answering these questions


going to be submerging an asus p5k-e wifi motherboard with an intel e8400 and asus 8800gt.
also planning on throwing a 19" lcd screen in there too. with all ports extended to a top plate

I've got a good idea how its all going to be set up but still toying with the option on mounting the mobo verticaly or horizontaly.

i think its going to look better with all hs and fans in place but am wide open for advice on this ie is the oil a better thermal conductor than copper and aluminium or would leaving heatsinks on give me more surface area for heat to disapate into the oil.

please excuse spelling, grammer etc. sure you all get the gist of what i'm asking lol

 

[Evilonigiri]

Hello there Jeff and welcome to the forums.

Let me tell you this: flooding your pc with oil isn't exactly very popular, much less, reasonable. Is there any reason to do this? Water cooling is more than enough, air cooling is the most practical.

Anyways, if you really must do so, I can only give you one advice: It'll look better with a heatsink on. Perform better too.

 

[snarfies1]

Anyways, if you really must do so, I can only give you one advice: It'll look better with a heatsink on. Perform better too.

I assume you could skip any kind of thermal grease though... or could you? Would it just dissolve into the rest of the oil?

If you can chill the oil, that'd be good. I saw an article YEARS ago where a guy built a mineral oil PC and actually ran the oil over the refrigerator coils of a disassembled air conditioner. I looked around, but couldn't find the article again, sorry.

 

[Lupiron]

I like it! Hehehehe! So what would happen if you just filled up the tank with non conductive coolant and just turned the whole thing into a giant liquid cooler with pumps and rads and all that junk to cycle the liquid?

I mean, oil is cool and all that. But hell, if that works, why not PC Ice or some other non conductive coolant? As long as it isnt contaminated it should work, right? And with a water like constancy it'd be easy to pump.

Full sized water cooling, lol!

Hey jeff, let me know what you decide to do and all that! I rather like this idea. I may try it at some point as well, but with "normal" coolant.

--Lupi!

 

[WestWarrior]

I like it! Hehehehe! So what would happen if you just filled up the tank with non conductive coolant and just turned the whole thing into a giant liquid cooler with pumps and rads and all that junk to cycle the liquid?

I mean, oil is cool and all that. But hell, if that works, why not PC Ice or some other non conductive coolant? As long as it isnt contaminated it should work, right? And with a water like constancy it'd be easy to pump.

Full sized water cooling, lol!

Hey jeff, let me know what you decide to do and all that! I rather like this idea. I may try it at some point as well, but with "normal" coolant.

--Lupi!

I don't really think you would get any more performance with pumps and rads. Also, PC Ice would likely fry the computer after some time as it doesn't like to retain its "non-conductivity". I don't personally think this is a particularly good idea, however I can't force you not to do it. I think Phase Change would likely be a better alternative for extreme overclocks. It's something you can use for a long period of time as well. Just a thought.

 

[Lupiron]

I was just thinking about it, not gonna try it. Though it is interesting! I kinda like my computer, and 88c on a non overclocked e6600 makes me think it'd not be to well off with an overclocked quad!

Hehe, but would have been fun to try!

--Lupi!

 

[jeff0296]

i'm definatly going to do it got two pc's worth of spare parts sitting doing nothing so nothing to lose but some time and effort.

and just had a large glass fishtank donated to me only thing i'm having is finding a source for mineral oil lol priced up baby oil works out £3 a litre
so might invest in a smaller tank the one i've been given is 120 ltr lol.

i'll let you know how it gets on

 

[matsta31]

This whole fun post made me wonder.

Could we just dilute some mineral oil in an existing water loop to increase the thermal dilution power ?

A scinetist out there who tried it ?

 

[Kaldor]

Tag. I too have a bunch of old PC parts. Just need to dig up a suitable tank. Craigslist here I come.

 

[ouch1]

I don't think it is a good idea to mix mineral oil into an existing loop. The reason is that water and oil don't mix well. And if they were to mix you would end up with a solution that would look like mayonaise. I know this for a fact from having a head gasket on a car fail. When the two mix (i.e. in the pump) they will emulsify and become much thicker than they are seperately. And that will cause the pump to fail. If you want to something along those lines I recommend using oil in the case and then use a heat-exchanger that is connected to a water loop to cool the oil. As that will work much more efficiently.

-ouch1

BTW I saw on an Austrailian overclocking website where they dropped dry-ice pellets into an oil cooled system and they were able to get the system well below ambient air temps. They also had the oil being pumped through a big radiator too. I though it was kind of cool.

 

[ziegemon]

I'm a noob, but when I was in college some buddies of mine did this with some old 286s and a board they had modified. They got some rediculous results, but they said that the oil was very bad about getting into capacitors when it was hot and pretty much making junk not work.

I don't know if newer gear would be more resistant than that, but I thought I'd throw that out there.

 

[ouch1]

XTK,

Check out this article and you can go from there:
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/strip-fans,1203.html

One thing I do recomend is going with one of the newer Gigabyte full solid state boards since they have sealed chip style capacitors.

-ouch1