Here it is, sitting with it's insides hanging out. Notice the chassis fan pointing at the video card? Yes, it is needed when I run important 3d applications like City of Heroes.
I figured that getting the parts over a period of time would soften the impact of the costs, so I've been occassionally buying a part here and a part there for the past 4 months. I am still a couple pieces short, but I am almost done. Basically there are 4 important things:
- the computer to submerge
- a cooling system
- mineral oil
- a container to hold it all in.
The computer I have. I bought a transmission radiator from Canadian Tire for the cooling, and you can see it as the black grid in the picture above. The container wasn't too hard, I just had to find a fish tank of a shape, size and price that I was happy with. It turned out to be a 10 gallon tank that is almost the same footprint as a computer case. Taller for sure though.
The hardest part seemed to be locating the mineral oil.
Mineral oil is sold several ways. It's sold as a laxative or enema at pharmacies in 250/500ml bottles and at the veterinarian's in larger amounts. Higher quality versions are sold industrially as napthenic electrical transformer oil by the barrel or truckload (yeesh), and as laboratory supplies from lab suppliers at like $10 per 5ml. In the end, I got a pharmacy to supply me with 8 1-gallon (~4 Litre) jugs of the stuff. 8 Gallons is worth about $300 Canadian, at retail price. I managed to get it wholesale, which was a lucky break for me. Though, the pharmacist must think I'm either really constipated or really perverted.
I disassembled the computer on a large cloth sheet - there was a ton of dust that I had to scrub off lightly with a toothbrush. I thought about using an air can, but I didn't have one around and besides it would have sent dust flying everywhere in the house.
After assembling it, I had to test it out to be sure it still works. So far so good. You'll see in the picture below that I stripped the plastic case off the video card. I dont think that the fan will push enough oil through the card to cool things properly.
Anyways, all that I have left to buy is something to line the bottom of the fish tank with, and perhaps something more to support the motherboard frame. Also, a way to cap off the fish tank that I can rest a hard drive or two on. Once I have that, the oil is going in.
I wonder if I have to worry about oil wicking out of the tank through the cables? I might have to mount a power bar and internet router above the tank to keep it dry, but I'll find out when I get to that stage.
Upsen.
2 comments:
From what I've heard about oil cooled PCs, you are going to have to worry about oil wicking through the cables.
The suggested work around is to try and go wireless on as many components as possible, in particular the keyboard and mouse. Unless of course you don't mind a pool of oil collecting around your mouse. :)
For the monitors and network stuff, as well as USB/eSATA etc, you'll probably have to try to elevate them high enough so that the oil doesn't wick all the way up to them, though you might also want to consider going wireless for the network as well. The other thing I could suggest to try would be to use extension cables, so hopefully the oil stops at the point where the cables join to each other instead of continuing along a single cable all the way to the peripheral.
Other than that, it should only be the obvious stuff like don't dunk any of the drives (HDD or optical) in the oil. Keep them out of the tank in a high and dry location, and perhaps consider adding a filter to the pump to ensure that the oil is kept clean as it cycles.
Good luck with this mod and let me know how it goes.
I'm not yet at the point where I think I need to go this far. I'm ok right now with running my extra big fan, and if I find I need any further cooling on my video card, I'll probably just pick up an off the shelf water cooling kit for it.
I'm on wireless keyboard and mouse already. My video card has a one-foot splitter extension so it shouldn't have any problems. My audio cable has an adapter block so oil should be stopped there.
I'll have to keep an eye on my USB, network, and power cables though.
If I get any oil leakage I will definitely post something furious about it.
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