everytime this topic is brought up ive seen people saying "just put water in it put water in it" then people all argue about water and its conductive properties. Can we all just agree that for putting computer parts in water is not a good idea. (distilled, ionized, rain water, toilet water, dasani bottled water, any of it) Ask anyone who tells you you can put your comp in pure water if they would leave their gaming rig running outside in the rain. That should clear that argument up quite fast. Besides, he appears to have decided to not use water, we should be helping him with some ideas for the case mod itself not arguing the inherent properties of liquids. Vazz
Hi guys Looks like an interesting project. A submersed system was done by a guy on the silentPCreview.com forums. He did it in motor oil of some kind (think it was even transmission oil?) and used fans (which turned at a low voltage no problem). His purpose for building the system was silenced. Hence, he tried to submerge the hdd in the system aswell. The first drive failed because of the 'breather' holes, the second cooked (due to the way he sealed the drive, I believe) and the third time he got it right - suspending it above the liquid. I think his nick was "Rusty" but I can't find a specific link - maybe ask on he forum. Artagra
As far as I've always been taught, salt is conductive, its just that its ions cannot be transfered because its in a solid state, but when mixed with water it can move the ions with the water. And you are right as far as i know about water, water isn't conductive, its everything else in it, so i wouldn't suggest just pooring regular water into a pc. Not to mention that it usually contains small organisims, that can grow, like if you just put the average tap water into a water cooling system, not only would it potentially start to eat away are your metal water block, but it could also start to have stuff grow in it. But not 100% sure on anything that i ever say. If this is kind of like a water cooling system, but the whole computer is in the res., then why not just make a water cooling system using oil, instead of water? This way its still pretty easy to work on.
hi there pal... A norwegian site (almost like bittech only much smaller) did a project on watercooling the entire mobo and cpu with a fuorizent (misspelled?) liquid... It's in norwegian but you can look at the pics for inspiration Link I really like the idea of soaking all your parts into some kind of liquid We have discussed this topic on a norwegian forum and one of the users had actually filled his computer with sement!!! when dried he turned it on and it worked!!!!! all the parts stayed cool too! but is was a pentium 2 or something.. and the case weighed 40-50 kilos...! not exactly a LAN case huh? Good luck with your project
because oil dont absorbe heat as well as water (thats why they dont use it in car cooling systems, they use it for lube) the whole idea behind submerging the pc is to silence it or cool parts of the board that wouldnt normaly be cooled, to get better clocks. also the increased weight of the oil might stress the pump and increase noise. i say u should just water cool, b/c u will get better clocks(oil is a hasle and wont cunduct heat as well as water) , unless of coure u were use flurinte spelling* or liqiud o2 or nitrogen edit/ if u use liquid o2 or nitrogen put fish in heheheh fish sticks
Do not use water. Water is NOT a viable option here. WHile pure water is not conductive, water with contaminants is. And guess what, pure water will become impure over time (ie almost instantly). You'll be if you even attempt to use water...
DO NOT USE WATER IN A SUBMERSIBLE COMPUTER!!! now for my explanation... okay, can everyone except the fact that pure H20 is not conductive... BUT water can ionise its self... it can go into the form of H3O+ and OH- randomly, so therefore water can actually conduct electricity. also water can dissolve most things... for example practically any ionic compound (execpt for the usual like silver etc) and ionic compounds are everywhere... so to set this up with water you would have to make sure that NOTHING gets in or out... now he should use something that is non-polar.. for example oil.... oil is held together by disperion forces and can't dissovle anything unless it also is non-polar (i.e. another oil). If you put any other substance in it, it will always be seperated (i.e. at the top or the bottom depending on density & temp)... so he should use oil... or more proferably fluirnert (or however you spell it)... with the oil it should be a pure sort without any additives
i agree with valimont, even pure de-ionized water does contain a small percentage of hydroxide and hydronium ions. Being as cpu's and other computer parts need exact voltages, even the smallest bit of ionization could fry ur system. as for that liquid mentioned by acid burn, its flourinert, made by 3m. It retails for $490 per 250 ml, but i've seen it for as little as $190 a gallon. Flourinert is the product line, there are many different types with varying viscousities, resistances, boiling/freezing points..etc... linkie Although this stuff is incredibly expensive, it is the best fluid for this application. However, if i was ever going to build a submerged pc, i would probably use mineral oil. I would then run refrigeration coils (from a dehumidifier) through the oil to chill it to hopefully below freezing. Hopefully, convection currents would recirculate the oil, but if not, I would use a SMALL submerged pump to force oil onto the cpu and vid heatsinks (i would of course remove the fans) I'm hopefuly going to get to testing this mineral oil idea over the summer (i'll start with an old submerged psu) and i'll let you know how it goes!
you could use fluid xp... it's a kind of fluorinert but cheaper http://www.fluidxp.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=FAQ&file=index&myfaq=yes&id_cat=1 http://www.watercoolingshop.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=248
Actually water itself is non-conductive. Its the imp... Kidding Seriously though people, good luck with this thing. You got balls I'll tell you that
fluid xp looks cool, unfortunately, it does contain water (which i suppose can become ionized.) Also, it freezes at -12.5C. For my application (where i want refrigerate the liquid) i think mineral oil would be better. It never evaporates, does not mix with conductive ionized water, is cheap, and has a lower freezing point. Although it does not conduct heat as well as fluid xp or water, i think chilling it to below freezing will make up for that
You defintaly need 2 make to false faces on both sides of what ever tank you go with and put some reg watter and real fish!
cool idea! Too bad fish cant swim in mineral oil...as for the fluid xp, i read about someone who tried to submerge their psu in it as a test...results dont look good . I'm going to try mineral oil, but i've seen that vegetable oil works too.vegetable oil computer
After reading the datsheet on Flourinert, why wouldn't you want to use FC-72 which has a low molecular weight, low density, and low kinematic viscosity. All of these factors should allow for easier pumping of the fluid. You may notice the 56C boiling point though. While this could be a bad thing, the fluid would boil only off the hot circuits on the motherboard and the associated heatsink. That might be a pretty cool look, boiling fluid off the heatsinks (not to mention, the phase change will pull the heat away pretty quick). The boiling of the fluid will also serve to provide greater convection inside the system, thus providing better cooling... Think of the system at idle with only a few spots boiling, then under full load several more spots get into the action.
it wouldnt boil if it was sealed.... and anyways, i wouldnt want to boil off a drop of the $190/gallon liquid, its like boiling off money. I'm planning on using mineral oil at $8/gallon. here's my idea, let me know what you think (i know the diagram is crap but it's all i could make in paint/ms word)
