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Submerged mineral oil PC - but EE what would say on it? Finally...

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Zucca:
You know what I'm talking about:



Maybe I will overclock my PC in a nasty oil bath... just because I want to see myself how it is.

After some google, I found a lot of feedback from IT/Gamer/PC Overclocking Guys/Kids.

It would be interesting to see what an EE (like me but I have no experience on this) i.e. the person I trust the most when it gets down to HW stuff, have to say about it...

Do you guys have any experience or suggestions?

Few inputs from my side I found, (everything to be confirmed)....

1) TIM paste on Heatsink will dissolve in Mineral Oil, replace it with thermal pads

https://hardforum.com/threads/thermal-compound-oil.1321446/

2) Some Elco Caps rubbed sealed have hard time since the rubber seal is eaten by the oil



to prevent that:



no way!!!

3) Submerged cables will lose flexibility and become hard, here the isolation plastic is not happy in oil. On top of that oil will creep to the top of the cable because of capillarity.

Interesting here, seems to work somehow...
https://www.pugetsystems.com/mineral-oil-pc.php

This is the oil I will use: Addinol WX15:

http://www.insist2.com/admin/upl/779016_wx_15_gb-en.pdf

The heat capacity should be about (Paraffin)  2.00–2.9 J g-1 K-1... which is OK, of course not like water...

Howardlong:
While I understand it "works", the practical aspects would frustrate the hell out of me!

One further comment is that I would imagine that surface traces on boards designed for specific impedances will be directly affected by the permittivity of the oil, so you may find that under the oil some things won't work, or will negotiate back speed such as on PCIe traces, and in marginal cases something that works in air simply won't work under oil.

dmills:
I don't see that case doing much for either interference or immunity either.....

Many plastics do not do well in mineral oils, so making your cables up out of teflon insulated might be a good idea (Also, watch the fishtank plastic, it may eventually deplasticise and become brittle, real mess potential there).

CPU heatink fins run the wrong way for convective cooling (And pull the cpu fan, it will not make an effective oil pump and just blocks the oil flow).
 
If you must use silicone gunk, make sure you get the electronics grade stuff that does not emit acids as it cures.

I would be really nervous about the PC DIY crowd pulling the guts out of a PC power supply like that, those things do not take prisoners, and the case is actually quite important to both safety and RFI screening.

Also, oil immersed electronics is a messy pain in the arse (The mucking stuff gets everywhere), been there commercially, damned if I am going there on a hobby job, I would almost rather deal with DI water. 

Also, remember that you still have to get the heat out of the oil eventually....

73 Dan.

RGB255_0_0:
LinusTechTips has a few videos on this. The case eventually leaked. Also, due to not wanting to be sued, companies don't offer these any more so there isn't as much long-term testing or reliability done as there has been for watercooling.

They do look absolutely fantastic though as a showpiece.

Codebird:
Coolant options, in sort:

Mineral oil: Cheap, works, damages a lot of plastics. Will degrade insulation over time, so don't immerse anything expensive in it.
Silicone oil: Bit more viscous, so takes more to keep circulating, but also less destructive. Costs a bit more.
Perflurocarbons: The coolent supreme. Safe on all components, low-viscosity, cools great. The cray ran on this stuff. But the price is... well, you can't afford it.

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