News Deep fried PCs on the market within a year...

I for one welcome our new oil-cooled, electronic over-lords... ?

 

I just think that its extremely weird, and having to drain the system to add new bits and the old bits being covered in oil lmao!

 

And so it hits Slashdot!

The comments were particularly interesting

 

What no one has offered to test this out on an old PIII or something they got laying around? Toss it in an old aquarium.... Everything but what, the cd-rom?
Its gotta be good for a few laughs even if it doesn't work out!

Anyone up for it??

 

I've seen threads about this in various places. One issue is that PCBs are porous so oil can seep in between the layers and cause separation. Caps can be an issue too, but I wonder if the new solid caps would fare better.

Some One idea to put out there for anyone working on such a thing is some sort of external cooling with the return being directed to hot spots in the system for directed cooling.

In a server environment, I could see a shared manifold on a rack where each server connects and they all dump their heat to a small concentrated location rather than dump all the waste heat to the air. A valve system could be used to pump the oil out of the system, then cut it off from the manifold. I think there are hydraulic fittings that could be used to prevent spills in such a system.

As for power, I'm dealing with a server now that, if all the system cooling is going on full, could not be supplied by low end ATX PSU and that is just the fans. If the system works to reduce power consumption, and does not cause too many problems for the admins, it could be worthwhile.
But would a water cooling system using a similar shared lead system be equally as good?

 

How do heatsinks work with oil?

I assume the fans could be removed and the convection currents in the oil would kepp them cool?
Or can the oil conduct fast enough to do away with the heat sink altogether?

 

WTF.

 

hi i like the idea of water cooling pc but dont like the idea of leaks but what is a pc water cooling system was filled with mineral oil would that work?

http://www.pugetsystems.com/submerged.php

 

For use in a water cooling system instead of water, as long as the pump, hoses and seals are not affected by mineral oil it would work well instead of water but it would make life harder for the pump unless you used oil with the same viscosity as water.

Modifying an oil pump from an engine might be a better option than using a water pump with oil.

Those power transformers you see at the top of Stobie Poles (power poles) and in substations use mineral oil for cooling.

Vegetable oil turns rancid after a little while so it should be avoided.

Silicon oil might be a good alternative.



"Sir are you aware that you are leaking cooling fluid at an alarming rate?"

 

I though mineral oil was the best stuff to use


If I could find a old running PC i'd see if I could run it in oil