Oiled Cool System / Aquarium PC
Ewiges — Sun, 09/13/2009 - 15:45
So on another community I'm active in a thread involved into a discussion about water cooled systems, and other ways to cool the system. (someone's PC overheated and the thread evolved from there)
Anyways, someone brought this up and I've never heard of it before. Its a computer submerged in mineral oil. It looks badass for one... But I guess (according to the second youtube link in a minute) its not really that much cooler, but it is ultra quite. Let me know if you know anything about there.
hah
Sofija — Mon, 09/14/2009 - 19:34I thought the aquarium PC was bullshit myself until i read into it. They use Mineral Oil because it doesnt conduct electricity. Pretty bad ass. But even if it doesnt conduct electricity the mineral oil will still heat up because of the computer... So to me it still seems that you need some way of circulating the mineral oil so that it can be cooled, just like with a radiator on a water cooled system. Im sure there is a way to do it. I donno im not an over clocker and i definitely wouldnt wanna take the risk of spilling coolant all over the inside of my computer on accident and having to pay to have the shit replaced.
From all the ones I've looked
Ewiges — Mon, 09/14/2009 - 22:18From all the ones I've looked at (over 40) you can probably get away without a radiator/filter. One guy used a fish tank filter just to get the water circulating. Most people all use the 5 gallon tank shown in the first video, costs $30 at Target, and it doesn't need cooling for lower systems. However, the company in the first video suggests if you're running decent (multi-core, graphics card made in the last 4 years) that you should use a radiator.
I also looked at PCs using a 10-15 gallon fish tank. Having a lot more mineral oil in a larger tank allows the PC to stay cooler. One guy running almost exact same PC as me in about a 10 gallon tank said he maxes out at 55c. (2.4gh dual core, 8800gtx vid). On these larger tanks it seems the fans push enough water to keep the circulated. I haven't found anyone whos had theirs running over a year, but I'm guessing this greatly shortens the fan's life span.
Lastly, the problem is this shit is really messy. If you plan to move the PC, replace a piece, or if something breaks you're in a world of hurt. The only way to really clean the system is to get a moist with rubbing alcohol static proof towel and spend hours patting down the circuit boards.
However, I am so in awe about this my next PC will be an aquarium. I plan to use a 20 gallon tank and make it a large piece of decoration, art if you will. Hopefully by this time solid slate hard drives will be cheaper since you need one if you want a submerged hard drive. All moving devices (reg hard drive, CD rom, back of Mobo) have to be out of the oil.
Not sure if I posted this in my OP, but water cooled systems are still cheaper and cooler. This is an expensive project and will also void all warranties. Only advantage is that it looks badass, better than air cooled, and is the most quite cooling you can do.