[Solved] Mineral oil cooling, honest opinion?

all right guys, what is your honest opinion of dunking $3000 worth of PC hardware in a fishtank full of mineral oil with a pump/radiator system circulating the oil, hard drive and optical drives housed elsewhere?

my main concerns:

components longevity?

(after checking that the PC works fine initially), not being able to get oil out of parts if they break and voiding warranty?

labels coming off, breaking down and dispersing into millions of tiny crevices

i know, its not the most practical case ever, but for running tri-SLI, im scared of the heat of 3 gfx cards packed up close to eachother. quiet, no dust. plus its just unique, anyone can buy a case but this one has my own personal touch to it.

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Reply to 6_5x47lapua

Best answer

6_5x47lapua wrote :

all right guys, what is your honest opinion of dunking $3000 worth of PC hardware in a fishtank full of mineral oil with a pump/radiator system circulating the oil, hard drive and optical drives housed elsewhere?

my main concerns:

components longevity?

(after checking that the PC works fine initially), not being able to get oil out of parts if they break and voiding warranty?

labels coming off, breaking down and dispersing into millions of tiny crevices

i know, its not the most practical case ever, but for running tri-SLI, im scared of the heat of 3 gfx cards packed up close to eachother. quiet, no dust. plus its just unique, anyone can buy a case but this one has my own personal touch to it.

Honest opinion? Stupid idea. Just watercool your tri-sli. Start a thread in the watercooling section and Rubix and some of the regulars will help you.

Reply to Homeboy2

The neat factor is way up there, but I wouldn't want to mess with it. Just think of the mess you'll have to deal with anytime you want to work on your system. Not to mention voiding warranties on a high end system like that could be money down the drain if something goes wrong.

Reply to Naxos

water cooling is significantly more expensive, especially x3 for tri-SLI. had a slight nightmare where a friend of mine had a water cooler leak, destroying his mobo. just a little scary.

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Reply to 6_5x47lapua

First time I've ever heard of a computer dipped in oil. Just checked it out on youtube and I'm blown away by how cool it is. But I've noticed the builds don't have RAM installed and everyone is using old components.

What are the benefits exactly of an oil cooled system?
Whats the logic behind liquid not destroying the electronics?

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Reply to IceBloodedZero

6_5x47lapua wrote :

water cooling is significantly more expensive, especially x3 for tri-SLI. had a slight nightmare where a friend of mine had a water cooler leak, destroying his mobo. just a little scary.

You spend $3000 on a system and want to skimp on cooling? You think watercooling is scary but want to throw your comp in a fish tank full of mineral oil? :lol: Done right water cooling is for all practical purposes leakproof. Its your money, do it and tell us how you like it. :pt1cable: :sweat: :lol:

Message edited by Homeboy2 on 11-26-2011 at 09:07:06 AM

Reply to Homeboy2

IceBloodedZero wrote :

Whats the logic behind liquid not destroying the electronics?

If the oil is chemically inert, you have nothing to worry about in that repect.

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Reply to jsc

jsc wrote :

If the oil is chemically inert, you have nothing to worry about in that repect.

yep, thats the least of your problems.

Reply to Homeboy2

the benefits are it is completely quiet, with very good cooling because the oil cools every component cool (except for hdd and opticals).

there is absolutly no sound except for when you run the pump and radiator, which will be kept on a separate circuit with a manual switch. it will only be turned on during harder use, because natural rise and fall thermo circulation, like a lava lamp or the earth's magma, will keep it cool for lighter use.

im not trying to skimp on cooling, in theory mineral oil submersion will provide better cooling than liquid, for cheaper.

just because im willing to spend high sums on a quality PC does not mean that i want to spend an extra few hundred for something i could build, solving the problem for cheaper and cooler. (no pun intended)

its not a shot in the dark, im just analyzing all options

Reply to 6_5x47lapua

I'd rather go with water cooling.

Reply to FinneousPJ

an extra $600 for gfx cards alone. would it be a horrible hell of tubing to daisy chain gfx, cpu, ram, and other components together? i can see it being bad for changing out parts, one drip, ZAPP. more space to come up with in a case for tubing, reservoir, pump. alot of extra trouble, or just do gfx + cpu and air cool the rest?

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Reply to 6_5x47lapua

And you think making a PC submerged in oil (which btw would require cooling, as in tubing and a radiator too) is easier and a fire and forget solution? I think not.

Reply to FinneousPJ

6_5x47lapua wrote :

an extra $600 for gfx cards alone. would it be a horrible hell of tubing to daisy chain gfx, cpu, ram, and other components together? i can see it being bad for changing out parts, one drip, ZAPP. more space to come up with in a case for tubing, reservoir, pump. alot of extra trouble, or just do gfx + cpu and air cool the rest?

Apparently you don't have much knowledge of water cooling, you can buy universal waterblocks for around 180, you can bridge the gfx cards, no need to cool ram, there won't be any leaks to a system done right. How much trouble do you think it will be to change out parts with a tank full of oil? The pumps need to be very powerful because the oil is thick and needs to circulate everywhere so there will be no hot pockets. Just run a WC loop to gfx and cpu, or just aircool and forget about it.

Reply to Homeboy2

if its too pricey do you really need tri sli?

Reply to 13thmonkey

1+^ Exactly! Sell one of the cards and most of the problem disappears, use the money for wc or another cooling solution, NOT mineral oil

Reply to Homeboy2

i know little to nothing about water cooling. i dont claim to know little more than the basic theories of it. my only experience with it was a friends disaster, so i had a bad first impression. i apologize for my closed-minded responces, i guess im just a little disappointed to see my grand idea go up in smoke.

so cpu and gfx cards together in a loop, a few fans to air cool the rest. is it really that simple?

alot of pictures i have seen have reservoirs, multi-loops, tubing every where, and it doesnt look that good. no order.

(if i should move the following questions to the water cooling forum let me know, thought i would keep it on the same thread so anyone following can see the final solution)

so the pump runs on power from the psu, is it constant running?

no reservoir needed?

brands to stay away from?

tubing size... probably 1/2 inch?

would a cpu block system with the gfx cards added in be sufficient, or construct my own with bigger radiator and pump?

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Reply to 6_5x47lapua

6_5x47lapua wrote :

i know little to nothing about water cooling. i dont claim to know little more than the basic theories of it. my only experience with it was a friends disaster, so i had a bad first impression. i apologize for my closed-minded responces, i guess im just a little disappointed to see my grand idea go up in smoke.

so cpu and gfx cards together in a loop, a few fans to air cool the rest. is it really that simple?

alot of pictures i have seen have reservoirs, multi-loops, tubing every where, and it doesnt look that good. no order.

(if i should move the following questions to the water cooling forum let me know, thought i would keep it on the same thread so anyone following can see the final solution)

so the pump runs on power from the psu, is it constant running?

no reservoir needed?

brands to stay away from?

tubing size... probably 1/2 inch?

would a cpu block system with the gfx cards added in be sufficient, or construct my own with bigger radiator and pump?

First of all, do you have a case already? Do you want the radiators external or internal? (external is easier)
The pump runs constantly, Mine is hooked to cpu fan, so it idles at low speed, and increases speed under load.
Reservoir is good to have, but not necessary.
Tubing size doesn't matter much but if you use 7/16 in with 1/2 inch fittings, it is pretty much leakproof.

Reply to Homeboy2

no i do not. i agree external would be easier, but ugly in most cases in my opinion. i was checking out the Antec LanBoy Air, and being all open as it is i could (in theory) mount internal on the side wall opposite the mobo (since all walls are mesh) with the radiator fan on the inside, and it would not be much different then external.

Reply to 6_5x47lapua