Here we go! Mineral Oil submerged PC (A few questions)

eldragon0 · Nov 23, 2013

First and foremost...this IS happening so naysayers just go away

. Now that I've got my new computer on the way I'm going to start my custom project for my laptop. G73-JH. I plan to build a custom enclosure for it but I have a few questions and would love any input before hand.

Here's the cart so far (fitting sizes may change ) : http://i.imgur.com/KabOP5m.png

questions : (looking for input)
1. Fully sealed enclosure? I plan to make it a fully sealed loop. No air in or out, possibly will need a bleed valve or box but those are abundant.

2. Heatsinks / fans (pic of mobo w/ heatsinks and fans http://i1.ytimg.com/vi/bWF2c85CmpU/maxresdefault.jpg) I'm contemplating keeping the heatsinks on and taking the fans completely off, and most likely the copper tubing as well. What do you guys think?

3. pump issues? The pump I have in my cart is a nice but small-ish pump at 11 psi and 158gph. My worry is in my case it will roughly be 24x12x6-12 will I cause a flow through ? where there is pressure being pushed into the intake and causing the pump to freespin ? I know this can be an issue with air, idk about oil though.

I think that's all for now. Thanks in advance for any advice. It'll probably be a month or so before I start actually building this, but there will be plenty of pictures

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RealBeast · Nov 23, 2013

An entire submerged laptop case? That won't really cool it well, and you cannot submerge HDDs, otherwise good luck and let us know how it goes.

iceclock · Nov 23, 2013

yes im curious to know how this works.

makkem · Nov 23, 2013

Hi
Although i am unfamiliar with the specifics of what you are attempting I am aware that it has been tried and know the theory also as a mechanical/electrical engineer i have some experience with cooling of large plant and mineral oil filled electrical transformers,so just some thoughts.
If you are going to use a sealed box with the intention I presume to prevent the ingress of dust then a bleed valve will not work as when the oil heats up and expands it will vent oil/air out of the bleed then when it cools down the bleed will not allow air back in which will cause low pressure in the case and probably lead to failure of the case.Better is to have an open vent on the top with an air filter attached to it.
I don't know what you mean by flow through,I assume you mean the pump being pushed round by the head of water above it ,this should not happen as the inlet port for the pump needs to be near the top of the box as you need to be extracting the hottest oil and pushing it through a radiator and then return it to the opposite side of the box but at the same level.
Obviously you do not submerge any fans but you should leave any heatsinks in place as they will help disperse the heat into the oil.

eldragon0 · Nov 23, 2013

makkem :

Thank you for that well put together input. I'd like to keep it within a reasonable price ( under 500 so a lot of headroom) At that point could I not simply add 2 low pressure or variable pressure valves, one in and one out with a reservoir, so when pressure rises to a point it pushes into it, and when it lowers it pulls it back? Also I intend on making it out of 3/8 if not 1/4 inch plexiglas so structural soundness is fine, it's more a matter of how well the resin melts the corners together.
Yep, no intentions of any moving parts being put in the oil. SSD will be, but those have already been tested and I'm not too worried about it.
More on the closed loop concept though. Realistically the case will maintain a steady temperature due to design, be it 20c or 70c; depending on the expansion properties of the oil will a change of 10c really expand enough to put pressure on it? If so I very well could run the system before sealing it and get the top temp then seal it and allow a vacuum inside for some expansion play.

eldragon0 · Nov 23, 2013

RealBeast :

Sorry for the confusion. The case will not be submerged, it will be JUST the laptop mobo and components.

g-unit1111 · Nov 23, 2013

eldragon0 :

Can laptop components work outside of the case?

iceclock · Nov 23, 2013

hey whatsup gunit havent seen u in a while. i think its possible. not shur tho.

eldragon0 · Nov 23, 2013

100% sure it's possible; I worked as a pc repair guy for a buddy my whole way through college. Troubleshooting laptops some times requires it.

iceclock · Nov 23, 2013

well goodluck

Outlander_04 · Nov 23, 2013

you definitely cannot submerge a mechanical hard drive

makkem · Nov 24, 2013

eldragon0 :

makkem :

Thank you for that well put together input. I'd like to keep it within a reasonable price ( under 500 so a lot of headroom) At that point could I not simply add 2 low pressure or variable pressure valves, one in and one out with a reservoir, so when pressure rises to a point it pushes into it, and when it lowers it pulls it back? Also I intend on making it out of 3/8 if not 1/4 inch plexiglas so structural soundness is fine, it's more a matter of how well the resin melts the corners together.
Yep, no intentions of any moving parts being put in the oil. SSD will be, but those have already been tested and I'm not too worried about it.
More on the closed loop concept though. Realistically the case will maintain a steady temperature due to design, be it 20c or 70c; depending on the expansion properties of the oil will a change of 10c really expand enough to put pressure on it? If so I very well could run the system before sealing it and get the top temp then seal it and allow a vacuum inside for some expansion play.

Yes two low pressure valves would work.Just be aware that a 1 psi pressure difference on a 24" by 12" area will equate to a force of 288 pounds.
Just out of interest, if you wanted to try something slightly different you could fit copper pipes or a coil in the tank then pump water through the copper then out to a radiator,basically water cooling the oil.

Outlander_04 · Nov 24, 2013

Why not just pump the oil through a radiator?

Heat transfer will be several times greater than using water

eldragon0 · Nov 24, 2013

I've made a rough 3d model of my idea, I'll try to make a viewable link and post it tomorrow... i have a splitting headach or I'd put more up here.

makkem · Nov 24, 2013

Outlander_04 :

Actually a couple of reasons,one is that water puts less loading on the pump unless you can get some very low viscosity oil,and second that heat transfer to water is actually better ,you immerse the motherboard in oil not water because oil is non conductive.This is why you get oil filled electric radiators and not water filled.

RealBeast · Nov 24, 2013

Outlander_04 :

Unless you can get a Hitachi Ultrastar He 6 -- since it is a sealed drive, I'd kill to get my hands on 8 of those for one of my disk arrays.

An SSD should not be a problem though.

coastie65 · Nov 24, 2013

I know of one who has done this and the stuff was submerged in 10 gals of Mineral oil and a fish tank. Did fine until somebody hit the stand it was on and knocked it over. I'll see if I can find the thread on that.

coastie65 · Nov 24, 2013

Ok. Not the one I was thinking about, but this has some nice visuals: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PtufuXLvOok

RealBeast · Nov 24, 2013

coastie65 :

That person would never enter my house again.

It would look very cool with some nice LED lighting glowing in the tank.

coastie65 · Nov 24, 2013

RealBeast :

The link I found on YouTube had interior lighting and did look cool.

g-unit1111 · Nov 24, 2013

iceclock :

Yeah that is the one question I have. I would think the CPU and GPU would be soldered to the motherboard.

eldragon0 · Nov 24, 2013

g-unit1111 :

No offence but you haven't been around laptops in a while have you?
Almost all high end laptops for the last 4-5 years have been completely modular. I can swap out the ram, cpu, video card wifi and Bluetooth on my mobo any time with a new one (cpu limited to the socket.) I could put an HD 8970m in if I felt like blowing some money or an i7 940xm.

I'd be very very very worried about precipitation or oil pollution causing conductivity in the case from a water cooled copper coil.
On the matter of viscosity and workload on the pump; I've picked out a variable speed pump 158 gph @ 11.5 psi. It's rated for water and oil.
I'm adding some finishing touches to the 3d model it should be posted up here in the next 10-15 mins

iceclock · Nov 24, 2013

just one question why do u want to have this oil cooled and whynot a pc instead of laptop parts?

eldragon0 · Nov 24, 2013

iceclock :

Because oil cooled has potential failure chances.... and a 4 year old laptop that can game causally is a lot easier to let go than a machine I just put 1600$ into. I have the laptop and I'll have my main desktop soon. So the laptop won't get used anymore as it's a desktop replacement already.

ALSO: It'll be a lil while I need to figure out how to export my 3d file to a swf or google earth >_< seems to be harder than I thought.

eldragon0 · Nov 24, 2013

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oP61eykB00U&feature=youtu.be

Couldn't get a good swf or any that would work v.v, anywho here's a fly through prerecorded. Hope it helps you take in my vision.

Here we go! Mineral Oil submerged PC (A few questions)

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