Strange nerd question... mineral oil...?

spongebobfan

Member
Feb 7, 2003
85
0
0
Maybe strange, but I'll ask.

I amd thinking about putting my old cellly 300A system, minus case and drives, into a tub of mineral oil and overclock the hell out of it. Does anyone know if the viscosity of the oil will prevent the fan from running? ;) and if so do I need an alternative?

:)

Sponge
 

Zepper

Elite Member
May 1, 2001
18,998
0
0
I'm not sure that mineral oil is that good of a coolant and it may be conductive at PC frequencies.
Water cooling might be a better route.
.bh.
 

spongebobfan

Member
Feb 7, 2003
85
0
0
Done it before with an old p-200mmx, didn't need fan back then; mineral oil was non conductive. Water would just fry everything, and its too expensive for an outdated machine ;), besdides this is for Sh1ts and giggles. :)

May have to try it to know.


Sponge
 

pspada

Platinum Member
Dec 23, 2002
2,503
0
0
Ok, not high, just brain damaged. :p But if you insist - air and fluids have vastly different flow dynamics. A fan that is meant to air cool certainly will not provide the same volume of flow, if it works at all. You'll need to get a fan that is designed for a very viscious fluid to provide any benefit at all.
 

SWScorch

Diamond Member
May 13, 2001
9,520
1
76
I've seen people do that before. Try using an aquarium pump to move the oil over the heatsink....
 

GAZZA

Golden Member
Oct 18, 1999
1,987
0
0
I've seen a few of these debates over at OC.COM forums, in the end most of them have found more disadvantages than advantages.
I found some more interesting info on this, seems a guy over at 2cpu.com has a dualie submerged in mineral oil.
Also found this over at Pimprig.com where they submerged a psu in this non-conductive fluid.
 

Zepper

Elite Member
May 1, 2001
18,998
0
0
I didn't mean "immerse in water" - I meant using a standard water block cooler on the CPU. Sheesh...
.bh.
:beer: time!
 

0roo0roo

No Lifer
Sep 21, 2002
64,795
84
91
Originally posted by: pspada
Ok, not high, just brain damaged. :p But if you insist - air and fluids have vastly different flow dynamics. A fan that is meant to air cool certainly will not provide the same volume of flow, if it works at all. You'll need to get a fan that is designed for a very viscious fluid to provide any benefit at all.

but the point is you don't need the smae volume flow because its such a better conductor of heat:)
 

lchyi

Senior member
May 1, 2003
935
0
0
I saw this review a long time ago about Extreme Cooling on an Aussie site. It was an old comp like yours and they made a styrofoam case containing the motherboard, processor, and whatnot and they filled it with $200/gallon 3m non-conducting fluid with a very low freezing temperature. Then they constructed a homemade pump that circulated that fluid through a homemade radiator cooled with dry ice and liquid nitrogen. After completely freezing some parts the first try, they did it again with less extreme cooling materials and it looked like it worked fine. I mean if you want your comp to read subzero temps, go for it hehe. Oh yea, and the $200/gallon fluid (probably need 2 gallons to submerge and pump.
 

Mday

Lifer
Oct 14, 1999
18,647
1
81
if you're putting the sucker into mineral oil, you dont need a fan for the heatsink.
 

EeyoreX

Platinum Member
Oct 27, 2002
2,864
0
0
if you're putting the sucker into mineral oil, you dont need a fan for the heatsink.

That's kinda what I figured too... Plus, as someone else mentioned, I doubt that a fan would provide any benefit "blowing" in mineral oil.

\Dan
 

DurocShark

Lifer
Apr 18, 2001
15,708
5
56
Originally posted by: EeyoreX
if you're putting the sucker into mineral oil, you dont need a fan for the heatsink.

That's kinda what I figured too... Plus, as someone else mentioned, I doubt that a fan would provide any benefit "blowing" in mineral oil.

\Dan

I was thinking just one large blade fan like a 120mm in there to circulate the oil would be adequate... It would turn super slow, but enough to keep it moving over heatsinks and such...
 

GAZZA

Golden Member
Oct 18, 1999
1,987
0
0
If you readup on the link regarding 2cpu.com you would have seen that the guy mentions he left the fans on the cpu so that it would move some of the oil around as opposed to the oil being static and not being able to disapate the heat around the cpu's, the fans are only turning like 10-20cfm at the most is probably enough to help.