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

Mi PCera y PCera II
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CgWos8uoErA&feature=email
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rW89yBCaIGI

 

Great stuff! congratz

 

Congratulations

 

This rig is absolutely amazing
but when I look at it I see your room full in oil, the carpet, floor
If I were you, I'd put it in a basin or something, you know, just in case

 

Wouldn't using a pump to direct oil to the hot spots work better than fans that aren't really designed to move oil?

 

While accurate about pumps, fans are just way more fun to watch pushing the oil around.

Especially when using a fan controller!

 

That is one thing that has always concerned me- the fans were never designed to circulate fluid- the load on them must be crippling their speed. Some kind of aquarium pump/ powerhead would be much better suited for moving the oil around. Cable management and optical drive placement also need finalising too, unless I missed something

Awesome project though, dont see people doing that every day..

 

Thanks guys!

Next on the list: The insulation between the mounting bracket and the graphics card on my 5850's is made out of PVC. It's becoming soft and the heatsinks aren't being held down as tightly as they should be causing high GPU temps. I need to replace them with wood.

 

Wouldn't getting an fan with a very high CFM (~150+) alleviate the issue with them not being able to push the oil very well? Or is it a matter of torque, and the fans just don't have enough "umph" per se, to move the oil around?

 

I have 3 of these: http://www.heatsinkfactory.com/delta-afb1212she-120mm-super-high-speed.html

"120x120x38 mm, 151.85 CFM @ 3700 RPM, 53.0 dBA, 12.60 watts, 1.05 amps"

They're quite powerful.

 

I guess it's not CFM then.

 

If your worried about oil movement then you could always add another cheap pond pump to force the oil around.

 

i know you've probably done all your going to with this build. And it might not make much of a difference for your application with the understanding that your oil intake/outlet temps are within 2 degrees of each other. But for someone else trying one of these builds. It may be advantageous for you to try using a waterblock on your gpu's/cpu and porting the cooled oil directly through them that way, leaving the outlet un-piped as it were into the open environment. Or possibly piping from the waterblock outlets into the bottom of the case to circulate more efficiently?

 

I was having problems with high temps. I figured out the cause and I fixed it.


The old shims that put tension on the GPU are PVC. PVC + oil = soft PVC. This caused the heatsink and core to only be loosely contacting.


To fix this, I made wood replacements! Wood is excellent for use in oil.


Here they are in place.


And in action. I was getting temps as high as 130C last night. Now they're 50C. Win.

I also had to replace the thermal paste, as it had mostly dissolved I used a different thermal compound this time though. Hopefully it won't dissolve. But if worst comes to worst, replacing the thermal paste every month or so isn't too big of a deal.

Until next time...

 

It's turning into a melt log.

 

How bad would the temps be with a 0.5 mm thermal pad? That wont dissolve would it

 

Nice solution and nice new temps .

 

I'mma hijack for a minute. I got my PC built! I'm not creative enough to blog about it but here's the completed project.



I just used an old aquarium and built a lid and cabinet base for it and have it hooked up as a media PC. If anyone wants to check the other pics they are here.

I can't wait to start having melting problems. >_<

Also, my oil is amber. It actually looks pretty neat though you can't see the parts in it very well. I'm pondering mounting some white LEDs at the top to help light up the inside.

 

That looks funky, allogator Funky cabinet too, BTW

 

Looks cool, is there radiator in the upper compartment? I don't see tubing though.