Has anyone experimented with using non-water liquid cooling??

[Superwombat]

I'm wondering specifically if anyone has attempted direct die cooling with 3M's flourinert.


3M's Flourinert

This is the same thing we use at intel to cool the lithography machines, it has better heat transfer characteristics than water, but it is non-conductive, so I am going to attempt cooling my chip via direct contact with the flourinert, which will transfer heat better than a copper barrier... has anyone else thought of this?? Or do I get to be a pioneer...

 

[SeTeS]

That's the same stuff they used to cool the later model Cray's. Weird stuff. Saw some show on it where the narrator took a running television and submerged it in a tank of flourinert. Kept working like nothing was different... plus, the narrator didn't get FRIED.

 

[6TNINE]

that is a great great great idea. i would love to hook something like that up to my cpu. but how would you connect it to the cpu? directly dip it in a tank or what? also, how much does the stuff cost - thats a big issue, and can you even buy it? otherwise sounds like an incredible idea.

 

[bacillus]

don't know but liquid nitrogen has often been used for extreme cpu cooling!

 

[SDBrewer]

<< This is the same thing we use at intel to cool the lithography machines, it has better heat transfer characteristics than water, but it is non-conductive, so I am going to attempt cooling my chip via direct contact with the flourinert, which will transfer heat better than a copper barrier... has anyone else thought of this?? Or do I get to be a pioneer... >>



No liquid, aside from liquid metals, has beeter thermal conductivity than water. The only advantage of Flourinert is that it is non-conductive. It's also about $800/gallon. IMO, direct contact cooling is not worth the added complexity it would cause, and you would lose substantial surface area versus using a finned coldplate.

Kit
San Diego, CA

 

[rcraig]

There use to be a site my a Dr. Cool or something, where the guy built a tank like a fish tank and submerged his pc in mineral oil. Then connected a pump to circulate the oil and cool it. The return from the pump pointed at the CPU. He said this was the type of oil used in the transformers on power poles to keep them cool. It was an interesting read. The last time I went to his site, it was down because he had taken a job with a company trying to develop this commercially and couldn't publish his work any more. Mineral oil is supposedly non-conductive, so it works like the flourinert, but only costs a little over $1 a gallon. The only really bad side was if you ever sprang a leak, what a mess to clean up!

 

[Superwombat]

I've found out some more things about flourinert... I called 3M directly to find out if I could buy some, and it turns out to be about $200 per gallon, which is kind of spendy... My idea for the direct chip contact was a little less extreme that submerging the whole case, I was just going to cut a hole slightly larger than the T-bird die in the bottom of the waterblock, and then seal the edge with a rubber gasket.

 

[whistleclient]

Have you heard of the CALM system? It uses soem sort of liquid non-water cooling that apparently does a phase change from liquid to gas at the water block then is recondensed back into the system. Because of the phase change the system doesn't require any pumps or fans.
Unfortunately --
A) they won't say what the liquid is, just that's it's non-conductive and non-flammable
B) right now the systems they have only work sub-1ghz chips.




Link to CALM system

 

[SDBrewer]

<< Have you heard of the CALM system? It uses soem sort of liquid non-water cooling that apparently does a phase change from liquid to gas at the water block then is recondensed back into the system. Because of the phase change the system doesn't require any pumps or fans. >>



This is a heat pipe. They are used in the majority of laptop computers made today.

Kit
San Diego, CA

 

[whistleclient]

Really? I've never heard of it. What type of liquid do they usually use?

 

[SDBrewer]

<< Really? I've never heard of it. What type of liquid do they usually use? >>



Linky

Often, water is used as the working fluid.

Kit

 

[Keego]

I've seen a flourinert cooled system before, someone over in the new zeland reigon did it.. didn't work too good but I dont remember why. All I would say is to make sure to keep the pump running or it'll be a nice gooey hot ol tbird ewww

 

[cdrsft]

If it's non-conductive, why not just stick your whole MB in a fishtank of the stuff? (minus fans of course)

 

[Keego]

They did (except the drives of course)

 

[WarCon]

I haven't myself, but here is a link to a mineral oil cooled system.....DrFfreeze. Kinda on the wild side of overclocking if you ask me.