Topic: Mineral Oil cooled rigs.... - page 3. (Read 5827 times)
My though was always surround the parts with mineral oil (in a relatively thin tank, about the size of a normal tower) and then run pipes with chilled water through the oil...You're not pumping oil, and the parts should be protected from condensation by the oil.
What about coreocion!?
Agree guys. It all goes down to cost. Air basically is free. You just need a bunch of fans (and an AC if your in a hot country
) to cool your stuff down......But its worth a try if one does something homemade or custom built without these expensive kits.......
Depends on how big the aquarium is. The surface area of the aquarium would determine your c/w however it is going to be low unless we are talking about a bathtub sized surface area. A radiator works because the fins massively increase the surface area and thus rate thermal energy is transferred. Fans assist that by moving cool(er) air over the radiator increasing the delta between radiator's temp and the ambient air temp.
Remember nothing is "water cooled" or "oil cooled". Ultimately you are dumping the heat into the air (extreme exceptions aside). "liquid cooling" is simply increasing the surface area. You are cooling a giant radiator with air instead of a relatively small GPU heatsink.
Agree guys. It all goes down to cost. Air basically is free. You just need a bunch of fans (and an AC if your in a hot country
) to cool your stuff down......But its worth a try if one does something homemade or custom built without these expensive kits.......
Agree guys. It all goes down to cost. Air basically is free. You just need a bunch of fans (and an AC if your in a hot country
) to cool your stuff down......But its worth a try if one does something homemade or custom built without these expensive kits.......
I don't think the first link is the link you want.
Cooling w/ mineral oil is possible however there are a couple of issues.
1) Heat conductivity of mineral oil is relatively low compared to water. This means a larger flow rate is required.
2) Resale of equipment is essentially zero
3) Mineral oil is viscous (thick) so to it requires more powerful pump than distilled water.
4) Mineral oil is relatively expensive as a working fluid.
It would be an interesting project but I doubt it would be any cheaper than water cooling. Any money you would save by not needing a waterblock would be offset by much more expensive pump, large amounts of expensive mineral oil, and container to submerge components.
For example that kit there is about $600 and requires 12 gallons of mineral oil = $120. So $720. That is more than my watercooling kit for 3x5970s.
1) Not necessarily. Since the oil is in direct contact with computing surfaces, whereas water must run through a waterblock, Not much of a flow rate is necessary. Sure, if you ran mineral oil through a waterblock, you'd need a much higher flow rate. But comparing the two as-is is apples and oranges.Cooling w/ mineral oil is possible however there are a couple of issues.
1) Heat conductivity of mineral oil is relatively low compared to water. This means a larger flow rate is required.
2) Resale of equipment is essentially zero
3) Mineral oil is viscous (thick) so to it requires more powerful pump than distilled water.
4) Mineral oil is relatively expensive as a working fluid.
It would be an interesting project but I doubt it would be any cheaper than water cooling. Any money you would save by not needing a waterblock would be offset by much more expensive pump, large amounts of expensive mineral oil, and container to submerge components.
For example that kit there is about $600 and requires 12 gallons of mineral oil = $120. So $720. That is more than my watercooling kit for 3x5970s.
2) No - components can be cleaned with rubbing alcohol or distilled water easily enough.
3) Again, apples to oranges. A more powerful pump won't necessarily be needed, as the flow rate requirement might actually be lower than with a watercooled rig.
4) This is true. Extremely expensive.
And agree with your last statement about it being an interesting experiment, but not for saving money.
I don't think the first link is the link you want.
Cooling w/ mineral oil is possible however there are a couple of issues.
1) Heat conductivity of mineral oil is relatively low compared to water. This means a larger flow rate is required.
2) Resale of equipment is essentially zero
3) Mineral oil is viscous (thick) so to it requires more powerful pump than distilled water.
4) Mineral oil is relatively expensive as a working fluid.
It would be an interesting project but I doubt it would be any cheaper than water cooling. Any money you would save by not needing a waterblock would be offset by much more expensive pump, large amounts of expensive mineral oil, and container to submerge components.
For example that kit there is about $600 and requires 12 gallons of mineral oil = $120. So $720. That is more than my watercooling kit for 3x5970s.
Cooling w/ mineral oil is possible however there are a couple of issues.
1) Heat conductivity of mineral oil is relatively low compared to water. This means a larger flow rate is required.
2) Resale of equipment is essentially zero
3) Mineral oil is viscous (thick) so to it requires more powerful pump than distilled water.
4) Mineral oil is relatively expensive as a working fluid.
It would be an interesting project but I doubt it would be any cheaper than water cooling. Any money you would save by not needing a waterblock would be offset by much more expensive pump, large amounts of expensive mineral oil, and container to submerge components.
For example that kit there is about $600 and requires 12 gallons of mineral oil = $120. So $720. That is more than my watercooling kit for 3x5970s.
It would be interesting to see this doing some mining for Botcoin 
http://www.pugetsystems.com/aquarium-computer.php
http://www.pugetsystems.com/aquarium-computer.php
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