mineral oil submerged pc

7/27/2019 Mineral Oil Submerged PC

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http://www.instructables.com/id/Mineral-Oil-Submerged-PC/

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Mineral Oil Submerged PCby glj12 on May 19, 2007

Table of Contents

Mineral Oil Submerged PC ......................................................................................................

Intro: Mineral Oil Submerged PC ...............................................................................................

Step 1: Gathering the Materials ................................................................................................

Step 2: Modding the Aquarium ................................................................................................ 1

Step 3: Aquiring the Liquid Gold and Some Useless Information ....................................................................... 1

Step 4: Fill 'er Up! .......................................................................................................... 1

Step 5: Sealing the Deal ..................................................................................................... 1

Step 6: Final Thoughts ...................................................................................................... 1

Related Instructables ........................................................................................................ 1

Comments ................................................................................................................ 1
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Intro: Mineral Oil Submerged PCThe following link is a tutor ial on how to submerge a PC in an aquarium filled with mineral oil. The results were quite astounding considering the computer being usedserver for UT2004 and CS:S. It runs at 120 degrees F and is completely DEAD SILENT. This is a fun project, and is most likely best if you use slightly older or spareparts. If you enjoy the article/video, digg it!

The 1337 Fleet Mineral Oil PC
http://www.leetupload.com/tutorials/1337_fleet/http://www.instructables.com/id/Mineral-Oil-Submerged-PC/


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Step 1:Gathering the MaterialsAlright, so after watching this video you must be thinking either one of two things. 1. Wow, that's really cool! -or- 2. I mean, damn, his typing is so freakin' slow!Explanation: My video capture slowed it down a bit , no idea why. Moving right along, since this is so amazing, let's fi rst go over a few things with pretty pictures. Here the required materials, (or the things that we just used).

Materials:

5 gallon aquarium1 piece of justly fit plexi-glassAll standard PC componentsHacksawHot glue gunA lot of minutes on your cellphone (I'll explain why later)5 gallons of mineral oil (or 40 pints, which is more common to find)


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Step 2:Modding the AquariumSo, your materials are gathered, now to the fun part, modding! (To a certain extent). First, we measured all the dimensions to gain the right aquarium, which just sohappened to be a classic 5 gallon one from K-Mart. Tester happened to have a sheet of plexi-glass that was a bit longer than the motherboard, so we used that as theback plate to hold it firmly against the side of the aquarium (plus, it will look like nothing is holding the motherboard at all). We then cut it to size, with the plexi-glasstouching the bottom of the aquarium. After that, we took it out and drilled 3 holes in proper holding places so that the motherboard would remain secure. From there, wtook the spare plexi glass, and broke it into 4 small 1" X 1" pieces, and glued them together with a bonding liquid that was about the strength between superglue andepoxy. After waiting 10 minutes for it to dry for each layer, we had enough time to take the plastic lid that came with the aquarium to have it serve as a slightly moded

bufferzone between air and oil. As shown in the image below, a hacksaw was used to cut the appropriate amount of space for the VGA, RJ-45, keyboard, mouse, etc.be exposed for connection.


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Step 3:Aquiring the Liquid Gold and Some Useless InformationAfter everything was mounted snug, much cleaning was needed. I had completely forgotten that the PSU, system and CPU fans were completely caked in dust. The mdifficult part was cleaning out the heatsink underneath the CPU fan. Since this is a server of mine, it has been on for roughly 2 years straight. The hard drive alone hasbasically been on 9 years; good old Compaq, wish they were as good as they were back then. Nevermind that, back to the tutorial. The most difficult aspect of this tutowas, believe or not, gaining the mineral oil. This was beyond hell. Yeah, try asking someone at Walgreens or Walmart that you need 5 GALLONS of mineral oil. Need remind you what this stuff is. Most people don't seem to realize this, but this is the good "shit" per se. This is a last resort for the laxitive enthusiast. Mineral oil is whatpeople call, a "Fleet Enima," hence the name of this project, The 1337 Fleet. I cannot tell you how many cringes and questions I received when asking this on the phoand in person. Getting back to how to acquire it, your best bet is a tractor supply, or a farm. Though in my region, after making 60 calls between Tester and I, we finalldecided to go Walmart and K-Mart hopping. Out of all of the southern region of this state, there is NO MINERAL OIL. We consumed every last bit of it. We had topurchase 40 pints of this liquid gold. 2 Walmarts and 1 K-Mart are leeched. Success. Once we got back to my house, we placed a lot of bags on the ground, hoping nomess up the hardwood floor. It is a bitch to get that out of the floor. As we poured in this revolting substance, we held our breath praying that it wouldn't explode in ourfaces for some odd reason. It posted successfully after filling it completely. Luckily, all went well with this monstrosity. After that, we took a hot glue gun and sealed thetop to the best of our abilities while resting the 9 year old hard drive on top. You may ask, "Why can't you place that piece of junk hard drive in the aquarium?!" My ansto you, my friend, is that all hard drives have a little hole on the bottom of it that requires air to maintain proper preasure, if that were sealed, it would not function prope

Step 4:Fill 'er Up!Not much skill is needed with this part. All you need is a funnel, and a steady hand. If you have wood floors, odds are it is best to place something underneath youraquarium computer so it doesn't stain the wood. Turn on your computer and quickly fill the area as much as you can. We had to turn off the computer for a bit when i treached the CPU fan since it was disproportioned, and was setting it a bit off kilter. If we had it in gallon form, (the oil) it would have gone much smoother. After filling ito the top with 37 pints of oil, and saw that it was functioning properly, we need to seal the top off as well as we could.


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Step 5:Sealing the DealThe final step. All we need to do now is to make it as air tight as possible. To seal off the lid, we took a hot glue gun and doused it with glue. We just placed it around tperimeter to the best of our abilities, (you can view the images below for a better idea).


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Step 6:Final ThoughtsAs of now, it seems to be functioning alright, but keep a couple of things in mind; velcro, as I have found out, does not hold down case fans too well. The one black fanshown in the images and video started to fall over, but luckily was caught by the other case fan's cord. Phew! One other thing is that the case feels quite hot! Maybe it because our summers here are pretty warm and humid. I guess certainly no hotter than it was prior in the cirulating air environment. I will certainly keep you posted in forums about how long this piece of machinery is lasting. I am hoping that if it survives the summer, than it has passed the hardest test on any computer. And by the bthis is one of the heaviest PC's you will ever carry. Since mineral oil is 64 oz. per gallon, and there are 5 gallons plus the weight of the PSU, etc. it should be around 25pounds. In terms of noise, it would be COMPLETELY silent, if there was no hard drive. Since the hdd is 9 years old, it was not built for silence+performance. Hope you

enjoyed this somewhat of a loose tutorial, enjoy the pics and video, and try this on your own if you have computer parts to spare!

Here are some finished product pics.


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Comments

50 comments Add Comment view all 369 commen

walshlg says: Mar 13, 2011. 5:48 PM REPMay I remind you of some basic thermodynamics: You seem to be using the oil as a heat sump. THat's fine if you understand that the heat must gosomewhere or it will just keep heating up! So eventually, the heat consumed will equal the heat radiated through the walls of the aquarium. The aquarium inot a very good way of dissipating heat! So it will get very hot, the question now becomes how hot?

The next point is that mineral oil is a very good solvent of organics, like wiring, glue that holds labels onto the powersupply, plastic connectors that the wir iplugs into, wiring insulation.

In summary, this approach will probably not last long. If you want to cool your computer really well then check out the DangerDen forum and learn how towater cool, its most excellent and your machine is guaranteed to weigh less than 80 pounds!

egal says: Mar 12, 2011. 4:54 AM REPthats cool man...great idea

bossmansam says: Feb 21, 2011. 3:14 PM REPhave you considered putting lights on it so it lights up cool at night

hairyyy0 says: Feb 16, 2011. 12:17 PM REPFor all those questioning the theory.http://www.pugetsystems.com/submerged.phpThey have a very nice Frequently raised questions section that explains all of this.

gordio286 says: Jan 2, 2011. 12:23 PM REPcould you essentially run a sealed tube from that hole to the top of the tank?

sqeeek says: Jan 20, 2011. 2:04 PM REPIf you sealed it right. Easier to stick it inside the lid where you can't see it, though.

Lol you could even glue an old heatsink to the drive and let that stick down into the oil.

cwebsterlusk says: Apr 24, 2009. 9:11 PM REPI had a board just like this until it got fried by the fools at the power company. it was had a core 2 duo in it and the evercool heat sink and fan cooled it well.plus there was a 90mm case fan. the system ran at 38 degrees Celsius (100.4 degrees Fahrenheit) with a full load on the processor and ram, which is 20degrees cooler than yours and it had virtually no noise.

kvswim says: Mar 4, 2010. 1:13 PM REPi actually have this exact board. MSIP965 Neo, correct?It's an alright board, but sucks for overclocking.

sqeeek says: Jan 20, 2011. 2:01 PM REPAlso have had a P965 Neo-F or whatever, the longer version of this board. Runs with a P4/HT (old, i know) and it overheats like a ford. I think myproblem is mostly because of shoving so many thousands of parts in a little case, but this might be a cool solution.

KNEXFRANTIC says: Jan 12, 2011. 11:33 AM REPcan you keep goldfish in there
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craftyv says: Jan 14, 2011. 1:56 PM REPyes if it's knex.

KNEXFRANTIC says: Jan 14, 2011. 2:05 PM REPor those cool ones which you catch with magnetic f ishing rods

Kiteman says: Jan 14, 2011. 1:42 PM REPIt's oil, not water.

KNEXFRANTIC says: Jan 14, 2011. 2:04 PM REPoh right thanks anways

R1Ch0 says: Jan 20, 2011. 7:01 PM REPyou could still keep goldfish in there, they would be alive though.

R1Ch0 says: Jan 24, 2011. 6:37 PM REPwouldn't ,whoops typo.plus, sorry KNEXFRANTIC, just having a bit of fun.

KNEXFRANTIC says: Jan 22, 2011. 7:02 AM REPi know i didnt see that it was oil

andrewbaker says: Jan 10, 2011. 8:00 PM REPNice way to copy systm dude.http://revision3.com/systm/oilcooling

Javin007 says: Jul 16, 2010. 6:48 AM REPI'm confused. Are the fans plugged in? And if so, what is their purpose? Just to move the oil around? What kind of heat sink is the oil? Have the fans burneout from having to work harder? 120 F seems awful cool for the CPU to be running at. Seems like it should last a lot longer if that is the temperature it stayat. Replacing a part would be a bitch, though.

franzwa says: Dec 24, 2010. 2:36 PM REPwell lets just say that when u put ur hand in it it feels very hot and no fans burnt so far and heat sink is old i wants to r.i.p. so i got a new one! no moreheat problem just the bill for it!

Ghost Wolf says: Dec 23, 2010. 11:48 PM REPThis is a bad idea like Shortw (aka Short Stuff) here as a excellent point you should have a radiator.

shortw says: Jul 16, 2010. 7:15 PM REPOil is a bad media to exchange heat, oil is slow to absorb heat and slow to give up heat. You have a fancy fish tank made from Plexiglas, that is not goodeither. Plexiglas is a insulator and will not give up heat very well. A glass fish tank would be a lot better. You are lucky you did not burn your motherboard opower supply up yet, because of running your fans in oil. More drag or resistance on fan's= higher amps, higher amps = bad for motherboard or powersupply. Keep all wires above fish tank, I have seen fluids run inside along wires between copper and insulation and making a big mess. Oil have differenteffect on wires and it depends of the material the wires are made of. I have seen insulation of wires swell up and also I have seen it harden up and crack...Don't call me crazy...but, have you tr ied to use '' real '' distilled water instead of oil? Not the one you buy at the grocery store which by the way is just filterewater and still has traces of minerals and metal. Real distilled water will not conduct electricity .
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Ghost Wolf says: Dec 23, 2010. 11:45 PM REPYour carzy

trn2la says: Nov 20, 2010. 7:03 PM REPnot yet saying I agree, but higher amps = more temp too. Also I had no idea ( i should have) that 'Real" distilled water does not conduct electricity. Iassume that's coz salts and electrolytes and such are removed and they were the conductors in the water? I guess the question is, what is it in water thmakes it conduct? :P Still great for getting the idea off the ground. I'm not so sure these fellas where looking for a method of cooling, but rather just thevisual effect of a computer submersed in a liquid that looks like water. Id sure love to see this done again with distilled water, perhaps I will give it a go.Soooo..... Does this mean, if I spill conductive liquid (like coffee) onto my keyboard, I can flush it out with distilled water and reduce my chances of ashort? I tell ya what, ill try that over the next couple of days (I have maybe 20 old keyboards) then again, keyboards are made in a way that gives themlittle protection from conductive liquids. hmmm, anyway, ill try a few different devices, ill see how a hair dryer copes with 'real distilled water"

joshka89 says: Oct 17, 2010. 5:12 PM REPMineral oil gets warm. That's because it absorbs heat well.If you don't understand thermodynamics it's easy to assume that because the liquid is warm, then the computer is warm. The fact is, if the oil gets hot, is absorbing a lot of heat from the computer. If you reached in and touched part of the computer (don't) you'd feel that it is cooler than the surrounding o

The oil is somewhat of a drag on the fans, but its also a lubricant and often the fans perform better than before.

Real distilled water actually would work, but you'd need to place both ends of a coper or zinc wire into the water to keep it from oxidizing (yes water canoxidize in a non sterile environment, i.e. stuff in the water like mobos).You'd have to change out the wire a lot. Or alternately place two large copper/zinc panels and each end, attached by a wire.

omnibot says: Nov 8, 2010. 6:39 AM REPI just submerged my home server in oil (rapeseed oil) and I read somewhere that some people had to replace burnt out fans. My solution was tobreak off about half the fanblades, the fan spins nicely, the oil is circulating well and any vibrations from the unbalanced fans seem to be absorbed the oils. Works well so far.

GroovyPoet says: Jul 19, 2010. 6:45 AM REPHis computer has been running for 3+ years with no issues. Oil dispenses heat easier than water, simple science, and Distilled Water would quicklybecome ionized, then microscopic metallic bits would integrate, then your computer would fry. This has been discussed many times already on thisInstructable.

luposays says: Nov 7, 2010. 12:56 PM REPmineral oil is the same substance used to insulate as well as disapate heat in high voltage electrical transformers as well.

ryanlg says: Nov 7, 2010. 9:49 PM REPUh, how does this not short out your computer? Aren't liquids bad for computers?

GroovyPoet says: Nov 10, 2010. 4:07 PM REPNo... all liquids aren't bad for your computer. Only liquids that allow the electricity to conduct. Mineral Oil does not.

menahunie says: Nov 7, 2010. 2:50 PM REPYou can get the mineral oil at a hardware store in the paint department by the gallon can allot cheaper than all those pints at around $1-2 ea.

hippyrob says: Oct 29, 2010. 8:07 PM REPIs this useful to protect against dust accumulation? Would this system usually have an external radiator and/or heat sink? Do HDD's really have holes inthem?(Am I being ignorant in asking these questions?)

joshka89 says: Oct 17, 2010. 5:16 PM REP

A really good mod for this is to create a small reservoir outside the case and attach it with 2 80mm hoses to the main case.At each end of the hoses place some fans.Have one hose blow into the case from the reservoir and the other blow out of the case.This way the oil flows and has a chance to cool off in the reservoir, which helps with heat in hotter systems. Using this technique you can OverclockEverything without heat damage.

dominicfortune00 says: Aug 1, 2007. 11:42 PM REPQoute, "sockeye101says: this is why they use oil as a coolant in transformers. however, after a while it becomes radioactive/ toxic/ poisonous or somethinglike that. BEWARE!" Actually what happens to the mineral oil in transformers is the oil can absorb moisture and break down due to internal arcs in the corethe transformer. The moisture forms sludge, and the arcs break down the oil into several different compounds, one of which is acetylene. This darkens theand can introduce carbon into the oil from being broken down by arcing. Transformers that do this are usually found during routine oil sampling and repaireUnless you put something radioactive into the oil, it won't become radioactive. Toxic/poisionous is a possibility if anything shorts or arcs in the oil; or if the obreaks down the wire insulation. As an intersting note HV transformer cores contain wood and paper as insulation, along with the silicon steel core and thecopper windings. The mineral oil in transformers usually has a breakdown threshold of say, 3kV or so, found by using a oil tester made by Doble. I work forcompany that builds HV circuit breakers and am familar with transformers. Cool setup though!!
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rcisneros says: Oct 15, 2010. 7:59 PM REPWhat you are talking about can kind of happen, but in conditions much more extreme than this. My GUESS would be that most of us would haveupgraded way before any that would happen. If you are reading this on a P3, you might be the exception.

lukej says: Jul 25, 2010. 6:45 AM REPAnd he might be thinking of cfc oil

GroovyPoet says: Jul 15, 2010. 4:33 AM REPI don't think you understand something.... When was the last time you saw a computer 'arc' any electricity? Never. That's because they don't. You're noeven comparing "Apples to Oranges" more like "Squid to Invader Zim." The reaction you're explaining will positively never happen in a computer, it

doesn't have the 'capacity' to do so.

Javin007 says: Jul 16, 2010. 6:44 AM REPI've seen a computer power supply arc. Shortly afterwards, it let all the smoke out of the computer, so it didn't work anymore, though. I'd sti ll beconcerned that a shorted power supply MAY be able to produce enough heat to cause a problem, but without having done any experimentation witmineral oil, I don't know what kind of heat we'd be talking about.

GroovyPoet says: Jul 19, 2010. 5:27 AM REPHere's the thing though: Even if it did have that affect on food grade mineral oil, a Power Supply that is in the process of 'arcing electricity' willvery quickly fail. End of Computer. It likely won't process long enough to make any mineral oil toxic.

Javin007 says: Jul 19, 2010. 6:45 AM REPIndeed, once the smoke is let out the PC doesn't work anymore. :/

Nyxius says: Aug 20, 2010. 10:54 AM REPcomputers may not arc, but anything over a couple of volts has bleed. Same results as arcing, but longer to achieve.

GroovyPoet says: Aug 28, 2010. 11:16 AM REPAs I've researched the concept of using mineral oil to cool a PC I've yet to encounter anything remotely related to the following: "oilcan absorb moisture and break down due to internal arcs in the core of the transformer. The moisture forms sludge, and the arcsbreak down the oil into several different compounds, one of which is acetylene. This darkens the oil and can introduce carbon into thoil from being broken down by arcing." This is explaining something that occurs in Industrial HIGH VOLTAGE conditions using non-food-grade mineral oil. It is so far off base when compared to the voltage and output of a PC power supply that it is silly to contemplahappening whether a Power Supply temporarily arcs (and then dies) or over a period of time 'bleeds.' It... will... not... happen. It cannhappen, a power supply doesn't have the 'umph' to do so.

Nyxius says: Aug 28, 2010. 12:27 PM REP

I'm not saying that it is enough to cause a problem for circuitry. And it will definitely not be observable. I too have done a largeamount of research into electro-chemical reactions, and I actually used a computer power supply as one of my tools for awhile(until I could afford to buy a supply with more juice). Mineral oil is probable fine to use as an insulator, but I would recommendfiltration or replacement at least once per year. I don't know how hygroscopic mineral oil is, but I do know that breakdown canoccur in non polar fluids due to induced London Effect charge, and I know that any impurities in the oil wil l aggravate that byincreasing any dielectric. Increased dielectric = increased probability of reaction.

octopuscabbage says: Sep 21, 2010. 7:21 PM REPHow much does that much mineral oil cost?

ventorocket says: Sep 7, 2010. 8:40 PM REPdo the fans still serve a purpose and do they still wrok in the oil?

1badgt says: Apr 29, 2008. 7:06 AM REPjust wandaring how does the motherboard work when its submerged? wouldnt it short cercuit????

alhowell13 says: Sep 1, 2010. 6:58 AM REPNo actually the mineral oil would the bus of the motherboard tranport data quicker
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19/19

glj12 says: Apr 29, 2008. 7:55 AM REPRead about mineral oil, and you wi ll see why it does not. It is a lubricant, and does not conduct electricity.

T_T_says: Jul 15, 2010. 1:48 PM REPthe hard drive can also be submerged all hard drives are air/water tight

wethecom says: Aug 20, 2010. 9:36 PM REPnope they have air filters in on them ive torn may apart and i havent seen one without a small cloth patch acting as a fi lter

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