Water cooling and submerged in mineral oi?

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roger_melchor

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Aug 29, 2013
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I am planning on building a computer soon... the case and everything. I know i want it to be water cooled or submerged in mineral oil.

I say submerged in mineral oil instead of replacing the antifreeze in with the mineral oil because of the heat transfer mineral oil lacks.

My question is do you think it is possible to do both?

What are your thoughts?

What problems would i come across?
 
Solution
manofchalk
Theres no reason I can think of it cant be done, though you will have some inherent downsides no matter what.

The heat dissipation USAFret mentions wouldnt be an issue in your case as I presume you would have the water-cooling radiator outside the tank. Which is also how you would cool down a normally oil-cooled rig, pump, radiator and fans.
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roger_melchor

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Yup thats the plan.
 
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USAFRet

USAFRet

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There are so many, many problems with the mineral oil tank concept...
Some time ago, just out of curiosity, I looked into it. I can outline some of those major issues if you want.
 
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roger_melchor

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My friend is an electrical engineer and has had a submerged computer for three years now and still running strong. What are some of the things you found out that I should be aware of?
 
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USAFRet

USAFRet

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Heat dissipation - OK...now you have the PC in a mineral oil tank. Mineral oil will absorb a LOT of heat. It also does not give up that heat easily. Youy're trading the entire air mass of the house for a very small tank of mineral oil. After a couple of hours, you'll simply have a tank of 70C oil. How do you get the heat out of that?

Weight - Let's postulate a 2 x 2 x 3 fish tank full of oil. 12 cubic feet, 89 gallons. Mineral oil is .8 -0.92 specific gravity. So that equals 600-675 lbs. Plan on moving it anytime soon?

Microhotspots - Some have reported heat problems in inaccessible spaces. Under the CPU for instance. The liquid does not flow as well as air. There may be tiny air bubbles that never get moved, and as such are hot.

Seepage - Oil creeping up inside the cables of whatever is sitting outside the case. Mouse, etc. Come home, and you see a puddle of oil on the desk under the mouse.

Modifications - Adding or changing a component will be a bitch.
 
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manofchalk

manofchalk

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Theres no reason I can think of it cant be done, though you will have some inherent downsides no matter what.

The heat dissipation USAFret mentions wouldnt be an issue in your case as I presume you would have the water-cooling radiator outside the tank. Which is also how you would cool down a normally oil-cooled rig, pump, radiator and fans.
 
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USAFRet

USAFRet

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If you put the radiator outside the tank, then what's the point of the mineral oil?

And the CPU is not the only thing that generates heat. That tank will still get hot, radiator or no radiator.
 
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manofchalk

manofchalk

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You could argue whats the point of Mineral Oil outright, I think its a very much a "I want it" appeal. There is no practical need for Mineral Oil cooling amongst even your extreme enthusiasts that I can think of other than a need for dead silence.

I know the CPU isn't the only thing, but having it and any GPU's dissipating heat outside the tank will prolong the time it takes to heat up significantly. You can also run the mineral oil through a radiator to cool that down.
 
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USAFRet

USAFRet

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And that was the point of my first response on this.
Can it be done? Sure. But why would you?

Having the rad (and fans) outside the tank negates the silence aspect.
Having all the cooling done in the tank just means a tank of hot mineral oil.

I look forward to seeing his results and writeup on this. Maybe my concerns will be proven to be non-problems.
 
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