Using Synthetic Antiwear Hydraulic Oils in a CPU water cooler system

[carma]

I've been using Amsoil Antiwear Hydraulic Oil ISO 15 for a day now and it seems to be doing a fair job cooling my Athlon XP currently only running at 1680 MHz. My concern is, I'm using a Rio 2500 fish tank pump, and want to make sure this thing wont fail or cause a problem being submerged in the oil in a 3 gallon sealed bucket. My other question is, I want to know if this oil is nonconductive, meaning, it wont short out the motherboard if it leaks. I assume this is what Dielectric Strength is. Here's the link to the oil on Amsoil's site: AMSOIL Synthetic AW . Please advise, thanks.

 

[RSMemphis]

The dielectric strength basically means how many kV it can stand before it disintegrates. For electrical properties, you'd need to look at the area conductivity, i.e. siemens/cm^2. But oil is normally pretty good at insulating.

The problem with hydraulic oil, or most oils in general, is that the thermal capacity and conductivity are not as high as that of water. Water is really perfect for cooling purposes. There was another chemical with similar properties that is non-conducting, but it evaporates at room temperature.

Hence why a car needs oil for lubrication and water for cooling, and not just oil for lubrication AND cooling - that would make life so much easier.

 

[vailr]

Water is better for CPU cooling than oil. And there's some additives to improve water's heat transfer ability. Can be found at well-stocked auto supply stores for about $20/pint. It supposedly brings a car's engine temperature 20 degrees F. lower, by adding 1 pint to the radiator. Or computer cooling shops sell smaller quantities of "water wetter", which is the same general idea. There's some correlation between a given liquid's heat-transfer ability and it's surface volatility, which is the speed at which it vaporizes, when exposed to air.

 

[grrl]

Am I confused, or if the pump is truly the submersible type, shouldn't the oil then pose no more of a danger than fish tank water?

 

[WarCon]

I had a terrible thought, but what if the impeller fins or seal on the pump gets eaten away by the hydraulic fluid? Is this stuff a solvent of any kind?

Probably just being noidal............

 

[carma]

The pump is a Rio 2500, and is a submersible, yes. The oil I used is very very lightweight, almost like water. I did some experimenting on the oil and found that it doesn't absorb the heat as well as water, thus, the thermal capacity isn't as good. Thanks for your insight RSMemphis and vailr, I successfully found out that the oil did not work as well as water. I flushed the oil and replaced it with deionized water, and have subsequently found it to lower temps 10-15 degrees lower than the oil. I still want to do some more testing on the oil however, I think it has potential. I think if I could chill the oil somehow, and keep it at a steady temp, the oil could potentially work just was well as water, and would have the assurance that you wouldn't lose your entire computer if there were a leak to the system.