Jan 16 2008Mineral Oil Computer Cooling: Sure, Why Not
Take one computer, drop it into an aquarium, fill with mineral oil and presto! -- a mineral oil cooled computer case. I decided to make one of my own and I've got to say it's pretty cool except for the fact that all my fish keep dying. What do they not like mineral oil or something? The man responsible for the mod had this to say: "after about 2 hours, the temperature settled at a new maximum of 84C on the CPU under load." That's pretty impressive, seeing how the temperature of my CPU settled at broken under heavy load. And by 'under heavy load' I mean I sat on it.
A video tutorial to make your own after the jump.
Mineral Oil Absorbs Heat, Cools Computer System [techeblog]
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Reader Comments
1. anon - January 16, 2008 2:10 PM
FIRST
2. Woody - January 16, 2008 2:22 PM
COMPTUER ATEZ MY FIZH!
3. p0nk - January 16, 2008 2:42 PM
What a couple of f***ing losers!
4. melissa - January 16, 2008 2:50 PM
i want one
i'll throw in some action figures
it will be so sweet
5. Uncle Eccoli - January 16, 2008 3:29 PM
It's recently been brought to my attention that I'm a moron, so forgive me, but... huh? The computer is submerged in mineral oil? That doesn't seem right, but I suppose if it's non-conductive... Somebody help me out here.
6. Old News - January 16, 2008 3:38 PM
Cray did this back in the day. It's non-corrosive/non-conductive, so it should work. Nothing special.
7. Mr.Anderson - January 16, 2008 4:51 PM
NO FUXING WAII!!! Wow O_O.... this just opened my eyes to a slew of possibilities... why didn't I know of this before?!
Amazing.
8. tmhs - January 16, 2008 5:26 PM
You'd get sick of the smell after awhile. Smells kind of like crayons but worse.
9. Simon - January 16, 2008 5:37 PM
84C is supposed to be good? Erm... you're killing your pc at that temperature.
I think I'll continue using the far cleaner and more efficient AIR thanks.
10. Stolencheese - January 16, 2008 6:41 PM
Pretty cool and would make a good display for their computer store. :)
11. Anthony - January 16, 2008 7:34 PM
#9-- Heh, I'm definitely sticking with air as well, but I wouldn't say it's cleaner or more efficient... any computer person dreads the sight of a case interior that hasn't been cleaned in 5 years...
12. Nathan Sprinkle - January 16, 2008 10:10 PM
I always kinda liked the smell of crayons... Dunno if I still do or not though
13. Knifewrench - January 17, 2008 3:14 AM
I saw something similar to this at QuakeCon
14. Samuel - January 17, 2008 4:08 AM
This is a really good idea. All the system needs is a radiator to take the heat out of the oil.
15. morbit - January 17, 2008 8:43 AM
#6 +1
There was also on the net a distilled water tank pc project but I don't remember outcome... Should work, as long as ions don't get in the way.
16. guate6 - January 17, 2008 9:43 PM
I have to admit that this is really neat. Though I wouldn't do that. I would rather stick to air. What if you need to upgrade parts, or if you're a IT support or something, where you're troubleshooting with your pc...wouldn't be worth it. If I ran an aquarium with an old pc that I didn't care about and would be cheap to replace, then I'd go for it (making sure I could get rid of the smell).
17. hK - January 25, 2008 5:05 AM
Btw, the computer reaches 80+ degrees after 12 hours of load! So it's hardly a problem. I don't think my undervolted Athlon 5000+ would ever reach that, though.. :P
18. ctfdacow - January 27, 2008 4:12 AM
84C??? tats f***ing hot as hell! Mines running at 84F...
19. Gav - January 27, 2008 7:12 AM
hey... i been hearing alot more recently about this whole oil cooling your system etc... a lot of places are telling me that it is advised not to submerge your pcu and others telling me that it is perfectly fine.... im confused here does someone have any information pref from someone that has already done this.
20. s4jt - March 17, 2009 2:51 PM
My 2cents, don't do it unless you're doing it for the sake of eye candy. I bet you could build some really interesting cases/aquariums/tanks/whatever).
I would use as few fans as possible as they'll likely wear out from the heavy workload.
The oil s'posedly gets very hot and I wouldn't be surprised if it can get rather hot aswell. It would be a nightmare to topple so put it somewhere safe.
Lastly, remember that once your parts are submerged it'll be a nightmare to clean, if possible at all? I wouldn't advice trying this with any new system, unless you're feeling rich.
21. p0nk is a flaming douche nossel - June 1, 2009 12:03 PM
You are a complete dumb fu** to insult people who made a PC that will hardly ever overheat. You complete and utter failure douche who thinks it's cool to insult other that have more brain cells then your sorry excuse you call your brain
22. Rawders - June 7, 2009 3:42 PM
Doesnt the oils slowing down the fan speed knacker the psu?
23. Powerman - July 14, 2009 9:57 AM
Actually, this is not a new idea. Cray liquid cooled the XMP and Cray1 with a heavy flouro-carbon that was liquid at room temperature. You must liquid cool when the temps can't be controlled by air. Mineral oil is a di-electric (will not conduct) & non corrosive with no smell. What do you think is used in transformers? Cleaning is simple with ethanol or parts/TV tuner cleaner.
DON'T SUBMERGE THE HARD DRIVES! The fans and powersupply are ok to submerge. The oil won't get hot. The thermal mass will keep it cool. IN 1992,I built a pc using 4x 33mhz 386's over clocked to 333mhz and HAD to liquid cool them. They were on 4 motherboards in a aquarium with 22 gal of light mineral oil. The thing ran like a 2 ghz p3.
Dan BSEE.
24. hatchets - September 7, 2009 3:04 AM
looks like a good idea but could add a few more tweeks to it like a pump that pumps out the oil into something that would cool it to a decent temperature and pump it back into the aquarium to lower the temperate of the PC