Scratch Build – In Progress The Mineral Oil PC - 3/24/2011 - More leaks :(

Have we got a total weight? Not that you could move that thing full

The Q6600 is a little warm for my tastes, but sounds like its stable enough.

Also, how loud does it run?

 

I only have a guess for the total weight: ~165lbs. The most I can do is slide it around on my desk. As for the loudness, tt's very quiet. The only noise comes from air being pulled through the 2 radiators because the fans hover around 50-60%. It's a lot quieter than my last 2 builds, which is nice.

 

Sounds like a successful build.

Send us pics at Lanwar! You're sure to garner a crowd.

I'm sure the case will have wonderful lightning properties if you play around with different lights.

 

I don't post here often but this project certainly deserves a BIG well done!

Very impressive build that had a lot of planning in it.

Again, well done!

 

Thanks! It was a lot of work but I think it was worth it.

Never worry, I will take pics-a-plenty. I was thinking about trying to stick some lights above the radiators (on top of them) directly below the tank. We shall see.


I thought this was pretty interesting. These bubbles have been on the bottom of the tank since I filled it 2 days ago. I had originally thought they were air bubbles but upon a closer look, some of them are simply too big to not have detached from the bottom and risen to the top. I believe they are water droplets. No harm in them being there, I just thought it was pretty neat.

 

I don't like how some of them look like they are on the underside of the plastic.

 

That's just the reflection on the bottom of the acrylic.

 

Basically just cutting some small grooves CPUside to allow oil to run through freely and directly contact the CPU heatspreader. A plate would just avoid butchering the TRUE's base directly.

I'm in the planning stages of a submersion project myself, so may give it a go if I'm finding the CPU running a bit warm. Finding a source of oil has been the biggest challenge so far, and there's been lots of invaluable information in your worklog.

 

Just a quick thought, but is that coolaboratory liquid metal stuff oil soluble. If you are lucky it may well not be, given that it is literally just liquid metal. May well be worth a try.

Superb build btw

 

That turned out very well, looks great.

That CPU temp is a little high though, my Q6600 never hit that at idle at 3GHz with the stock cooler. My Q6600 is sitting at 3.2GHz now at 1.4v (can easily run at 1.38 but I like to keep it a little higher).

 

I'm glad you were able to fix that leak without any problems!

Great build!

No need to worry about the temps unless they go over spec. Running the computer in oil actually helps to keep it stable, even in higher temps. Can't remember where I read that, but I believe it had to do with a computer in a plastic fish tank with mineral oil used on horses.

In the next build, maybe you could try either using a bigger heatsink like the Scythe SCORC-1000, an all copper heatsink like the Thermaltake v1, or use higher rpm fans on the heatsinks to keep the temps down.

 

Thanks. I agree about the temps. As long as the machine is stable, I'm happy. As for the heatsink, the TRUE is pretty big as it is. I considered buying the limited edition all copper TRUE but it weighs significantly more (and costs more). I didn't want to put all of that strain on my vertically mounted motherboard.

Ah, but what would this do that a heatsink couldn't do better? I can score you 10gal of oil if you come pick it up in Cincinnati, OH

I'd be afraid of it just seeping out of the gap and dissolving into the oil. I'd have to test it somehow before I tried it. Thanks!

My Q6600 is a POS. It's VID is 1.300v. I have it back at 3.45ghz with the same voltage and it's stable, so I may try for a little higher. Thanks for the kind words!

And now for some fun math:

So my oil has a specific heat of 1.67 Kj/kg*K. The specific gravity of the oil is 900g/L. The deltaT of before and after the radiator is 2.4C. I want to know how much oil is being pumped through the radiator. My machine is drawing 540W from the wall. For the sake of this problem, I'm going to assume 10% of the heat is being dissipated off the top of the tank and through the acrylic walls. That leaves 486W to be dissipated by the rads.

1.67Kj/Kg*K x 2.4K = 4.008Kj/Kg
486W = .486 Kj/s
4.008Kj/Kg / .486Kj/s = 8.247s/Kg
(8.247s/Kg)^-1 = 0.12Kg/s
0.12Kg/s / .9Kg/L = .134L/s
.134L/s = 482L/h

The listed spec of the Eheim 1250 is 1200L/h. This assumes water and 0ft of head. I have about 2ft of head. According to the chart on this site, it can pump 984L/h /w 2ft of head. This does not take into account the viscosity difference of oil and water.

 

Thats amazing work!

The temperature controlled fans are very cool, im looking at making the same kind of thing myself, but using old analog stuff for it.


also, can i have that background image?

 

Thanks, sure thing: http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c241/legoman666/01550_dreamforest_5760x1200.jpg

 

Since you don't use thermal paste maybe lapping the cpu and heatsink would help with temps?
I ordered cm sphere today and since I'll blow the warranty anyway might as well lap them.

 

LanWar!


I drained all of the oil into 1 gallon jugs. This was more painless than I thought it was going to be.


Empty tank!


Up and running in Louisville! No problems at all.


Click for big
Awesomeness everywhere. I'll try to get a few shots of any good looking cases I see.

 

So very cool. This should provide an excellent burn-in test for your temps.

Enjoy the LanWar!

 

Hey, did you finally start using mineral oil, or is stat still veggi oil?

 

I don't understand, it has always been mineral oil.

 

As I've said, the system looks awesome, i need to go to one of those big lans that looks like so much fun. I guess you have a quick drain at the bottom of the case? Glade to see it worked out one of my main things holding me back from a liquid cooled, or submerged case is the lans and moving it around.