Good afternoon all! It seems every man and his dog are either interested in, or currently working on, a mineral oil/oil submerged pc. As it happens, I am a man and my dog and myself are currently working on a mineral oil based pc. I have the oil, pump, radiator (Swiftech MCR320 3x120mm) and have it all happilly running in an old fish tank with an old dell computer- has been running happily for some months now. Now im satisfied that it is going to work, i am designing a scratch build to place my current cmputer in. As my current pc is a few years old i am trying to design the case with a maximum of flexibility, leaving room for installing another radiator, new components etc... I have been following the forums for a while now, and love the work by legoman666 and djayness among others. here are some designs im tossing around and i'd appreciate any feedback! Room for 2 radiators in the bottom section, with hdd, dvd and cabling in the top Room for the 3*120mm radiator in the top, with potential to put a smaller rad in the front section 2 radiators in the top Top and bottom design again, this time with the sides opaque- construction mats will be clear and black acryllic and finally an idea of putting the radiators at the back, giving myself lots of space to work with. Thanks in advance! Project logs once i decide on a design
my favorite is the last suggestion. do you need 2 radiators or does one do? if you really need 2 i'd go for #3.
No offence dude, but the resident even theme has also been done before, the silverstone tj07 have been made many times. Would you stop your casemod just beacuse many others have modded the chieftech dragon? I say GO FOR IT and build the oil pc! Cant wait to see what your gonna build
Thanks for the feedback guys! pOpe - i stumbled across your work last night and i feel humbled to be in your presence your work, particularly the PC-Beto is simply awe inspiring! So i have been giving the case design some more thought and am debating between a modified version of the third design above (pics of new idea below) and the fourth one. In each case i want the tank of oil to be the main attention getter- who wouldnt? I have whipped up a quick design (thankyou google sketchup!) of my new idea. i am thinking also of scrapping the black acryllic as a case, and using painted aluminium to give it a more industrial feel... The parts in white i plan to use frosted acryllic with chaser LEDs (maybe 8/10 per side) to add interest around the fan intake/outlet A side view A back view- im going to have a bunch of cables to fun between the top and bottom, so plan to hide them in those two rectangular tubes- but could use copper tubing or something similar again for the industrial feel. i will also remove the PSU from its housing And a front view. Again the frosted acryllic around the dvd and fan controller. Im thinking also of putitng the power button, usb+audio connectors and light toggles up the top there (seen in light blue) Ill be doing something similar with the other design over the next few days! Thanks again for the support so far guys, please keep the comments/suggestions rolling in!
Thank you man I like the hole "black" theme with the oil tank in the middle. The frosted akrylic idea also sounds good! You could have a look at legoman666 oil build He had a design that looks something like that one there. I still think you should give the third sketch another go
Due to popular demand i have been tinkering with the third original design and have made a few improvements. I was worried about the large areas of blank acrylic, and that it would look boring, so I have added some simple highlights. The areas seen in light blue, specifically the highlights and the areas around the fans will be clear acrylic. The plan is to have LED chasers around the fans while the ones in the side will simply allow some light from in the case to show through. From the side- with those highlights i was thinking about. also (if i have the skill) debating making those single lines into doubles/ triples in a DNA style helix. any thoughts? from the front Aaaand finally the view from the top. As always, suggestions and criticism is welcome!
Rads in the back seems like the way to go. Here's an idea, have you thought about using the oil cooler off a motor bike? Think about it, if it can keep a 1000cc rice rocket under control it's not going to have any trouble coping with a PC and it's purpose made for the job.
i did actually- i even looked at some small old car radiators in the end though for cost and size/weight reasons i went for the swiftech rad. I have all the hardware and the oil already, the only thing i dont have is the case Love the bulldog box- the paint job in particular is pretty damn awesome. Cant wait to see you finish it Thanks for the suggestion though!
Thanks Devilixc! That sir is a very good question At the moment im thinking a quick disconnect connection on the return feed from the radiator back to the tank. I plan to be able to attach a tube to that and then use the pump to empty the oil from the tank. It wont be completely empty, but it should serve. Im also working out how to have each part in the oil connected to the a single piece so i can lift it all out of the oil when i need to work on it. im kind of keen on the final design there at the moment and im working out placement of cables and such crossing out of the oil to prevent wicking etc
My first thought was this Excuse the truly awful PS work, just a quick suggestion, details are up to you of course. If it was hinged at the green point you would have full acess to the tank itself however i'm not sure how awkward this would be for cabling, tubing etc. Unless you kept it as strictly a shell and had all the hard ware on an internal framework. It would dictate a rather large desk aswell of course. With this you could use something similar to Legoman's mineral oil pc where he used heavy duty drawer sliders on the back of the motherboard/PSU tray allowing it to be slid out of the top as one unit which was then hinged at the top to allow it be laid flat. I would only suggest something 'like' that, we all want originality after all
i would think working around the large cover sticking up in the air like that would be kind of awkward. of coarse if you made that just a cover then whats to stop you from making it completely removable? heres my thought: the latches being the kind that you push in once and the door is sprung open. then push back down again and they click closed. im thinking gas charge lift supports would be handy for lifting/holding the lid open...and itll give that "ooh-ahh" factor when people see you push on the lid and it opens on its own with a hydraulic "pshhhhhhh". you could still use the vertical slide up motherboard tray as long as your hinge allowed for at least 90 degrees of opening.
Thanks for the suggestions Throbbi and Wicked_Sludge! TBH, i havent considered the mechanics in that much fine detail yet, i plan on figuring it out soon once im happy with the overall design. That said, im currently thinking something of a cross between these ideas. So here is what im thinking: The "L" shaped side parts, outlined in red will be fixed, probably screwed to the base tank while the top (green) and front (yellow) will be easily removable so i can work on the hardware etc inside. So to make that work, the HDD's ODD and fan controller will be mounted on an internal frame connected to the tank, and the sides will just be a facade. Thats a might fine idea, and somethign i hadnt thought of. i was looking for a way to have the top close (and stay closed) without having a bunch of screws showing. The other thing im tryoing to work out is how to carry the thing, and where i can attatch handles... More pics as i work it out. Hope to have final design inside the next week or so, then start construction!
I dont know what you got against me, but thinking well i know I said that recently i seen too many mineral oil pc´s, it´s always a good idea of course , in general everything has been done , there are a few inovations on the modding world, but the oldschool has also done a lot , in the Chieftec dragon cases or in others, no i wouldnt stop i would do my best for it to be the Best RE modd in this case. I guess you didnt understand well my opinion but i dont blame you Ontopic: Cool renders , build them all
do you really think youll need handles on this case? keep in mind once its full of oil its probably going to weigh 50lbs or better (thats 50lbs of shifting, sloshing weight), so you likely wont be moving it while its full. and on the occasions that you drain the oil to move the case you could just lift it from the bottom... just my $.02