PC to run in a tank of mineral oil?
 

Hi,

thinking about setting up a machine to run in a tank of mineral oil.

Does anyone on mersenne.org run such a machine?

Does anyone know of good place to get the oil?

[QUOTE=wildrabbitt;399560]Hi,

thinking about setting up a machine to run in a tank of mineral oil.

Does anyone on mersenne.org run such a machine?

Does anyone know of good place to get the oil?[/QUOTE]Don't run one myself but I've seen several accounts elsewhere of those who have. AFAICT it is better to run them in cooking (i.e. vegetable) oil as there will be no additives which might corrode the working bits.

Needless to say, regular air fans won't work and you might need an aquarium-style pump to move the oil around the tank.

I;ve also seen it recommended that hard drives be outside the oil. Don't even think about putting DVD drives inside ...

[QUOTE=xilman;399564]I;ve also seen it recommended that hard drives be outside the oil. Don't even think about putting DVD drives inside ...[/QUOTE]

The Hitachi helium drives [url=http://www.datacenterknowledge.com/archives/2013/11/08/helium-hard-drive-using-immersion-cooling/]can be submersed[/url].

I suspect that an SSD could be submersed.

Are you serious? Regular vegetable oil from the supermarket?

[CODE][URL]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RrJreUX3TCk[/URL]

[URL]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yAZRPXWy_nM[/URL][/CODE]

Both those videos involve white mineral oil.

I was interested in the idea of using vegetable oil because it's cheaper but I've never seen or heard of it being used before.

Would this stuff do?

[URL]http://enaissance.co.uk/Mineral-Oil-White-British-Pharmacopoeia-(BP)-Grade?gclid=Cj0KEQjwgI6pBRDak6aRovWNqLsBEiQA8zZSLrbS8cqFh3ZGfvwJkJjbXJK0d2X1iiZlA_xvXFjfL6AaAjI48P8HAQ[/URL]

[QUOTE=wildrabbitt;399581]Would this stuff do?

[URL]http://enaissance.co.uk/Mineral-Oil-White-British-Pharmacopoeia-(BP)-Grade?gclid=Cj0KEQjwgI6pBRDak6aRovWNqLsBEiQA8zZSLrbS8cqFh3ZGfvwJkJjbXJK0d2X1iiZlA_xvXFjfL6AaAjI48P8HAQ[/URL][/QUOTE]

How many 5 litre, £39.99, lots do you think you would need? While pharmaceutical grade seems kind of expensive, at least you wouldn't have to worry about possible dioxin that transformer oil has had in it in the past.

EDIT: Peanut and canola oils both withstand high frying temperatures. I might expect anything organic to eventually turn rancid, though.

[QUOTE=kladner;399595]EDIT: Peanut and canola oils both withstand high frying temperatures. I might expect anything organic to eventually turn rancid, though.[/QUOTE]

Yes, they will. :)

Regarding hard drives, spinning platters don't belong submerged (I wasn't aware of those 'helium' drives mentioned). The reason is there's a little valve to help keep pressure differences from becoming too extreme, or something like that. It could and probably would allow infiltration of the oil into the case which would be bad.

But I suspect if you're the type of person who overclocks to such an extreme that they're looking seriously at immersion, you're probably already using SSD.

If you go to any overclocking enthusiast website they'll provide all the info, such as what pumps work best with the high viscosity oils and provide decent GPM rates, along with what's safe to submerge, what isn't, what kinds of oils are best. Might even recommend 3M Novec as the liquid or other exotics.

I'm personally a little confused by people who run a fan submerged. Fans just aren't generally designed to run with that kind of resistance, but that's just me I guess. I'd rather, you know, use a water pump...something meant to move fluid, not air. (okay, I know technically air is a "fluid", but you know what I mean) :smile:

Cooking oil turns [URL="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rancidification"]spoiled in time[/URL] giving a sour smell and leaving a brown stain on all the components (think about the exterior of a frying pan). I know somebody who uses normal engine oil, which stands better the thermal dissipation and does not become viscos when cold. You will need to remove all the fans and use a submerged pump to move the oil around. Also, do not submerge the hard disks, they are not air tight, they have holes for air intake and small filters that look like little pillows (who ever opened a HDD knows what I am talking about), as the heads need air inside, they use the [URL="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ground_effect"]ground effect[/URL] to fly over (i.e. stay away from) the plate of the disk. If you put oil into them, they are gone. The SSD is safe to be submerged as it does not have any moving parts (funny story: mrs LaurV laundered one of my usb flash disks few years ago; I forgot it in the pocket and she didn't check, so it went for an hour or so into automatic washing machine, with soap and all the stuff, at over 60ºC, and is still working today - although I am not using it anymore because it is only 256MB).

edit: I see other people already talked about this