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My Unnamed Theoretical Project
I figured after 2 months of membership that it was time to get to work...even if not physically. I don't have the money or tools yet to begin but I'm not worried about that because I don't have the planning 100% worked out yet.
A few years ago I read about an oil-submerged PC and I thought it was the coolest thing...I then forgot all about it until I read about a company that patented the concept (the bastards...next they'll be patenting air cooling as well) and are selling oil cooled rigs for like 14k bucks. Dream on. Anyone that pays that much for it has too much money and no sense of the value of that money.
Anyway, I figured I could do it cheaper than said company and make it look better than just about everyone that has done this before. So, during down time at work, I made some sketches and repeatedly refined different layouts and designs until I found the most efficient combination. I then fired up 3DS Max and modeled out my system to the best of my motivation...which doesn't mean it's very good or well polished.
Basically, what I have come up with is like a fish tank but better:
1) Everything but the optical drives and HDDs (if I include them) will be completely submerged in crystal clear mineral oil. I thought about making a snorkel of sorts for the HDD but I couldn't make it look good, keep it practical, or guarantee the drive's safety.
2) The oil will be cooled passively, for the most part, with 2 360 rads and 6 quiet fans that will be turned on only if passive cooling lags behind heat generation. Hot oil near the top is pumped through the rads and cooled oil is released into the bottom of the tank.
3) The oil tank will be nearly completely sealed to prevent leaks and contamination. I want the oil to remain in the tank and to stay 100% clear at all times. There will be a drain valve on the bottom of the case in the event the oil needs to be drained.
4) I will install permanent cable extensions from the mobo to the tank lid, and all external connections will plug into the lid. This should keep any "oil-wicking" to a minimum while allowing a better seal for the tank.
5) The submerged components will all be attached to a clear acrylic plate that also serves as the mobo tray. This tray is attached to the lid of the tank which allows the components to be removed with dry hands. :D
6) The top of the tank will be hinged to open to 90 degrees vertical so the components can be lifted vertically out of the oil bath. This should eliminate much of the mess as the parts can be left to drain over the tank and there will be absolutely no reaching into the tank of oil.
7) The back of the mobo will now be the top so most of the external cables are kept out of the oil as much as possible.
I think that pretty much takes care of most of the functionality of the design. Form follows function:
1) The tank itself is two layers of acrylic. The outside layer is generic, clear acrylic and the inside is 2-way mirror acrylic. With bright red CCFL's inside the tank, you will be able to see in but not out...at least not very well.
2) The top of the case (encapsulating the rads, fans, and opticals) will be opaque black acrylic. I thought about continuing with a red theme, but my current case is bright red, so it's time for a change!
3) Undecided on a rad grill...as in I don't know what I'm going to do about their hideousness yet.
4) I thought about cable sleeving with silver mylar (such as this) to keep everything shiny and reflective.
5) In the very bottom of the tank I was going to dump about an inch of red or silver dyed water! I know what you're thinking, and no I'm not a complete idiot. Oil floats on water, but is heavier than air and so it exerts more pressure on the surface of the water, keeping it relatively stable. With the pump dumping the oil near the bottom of the case, I hope to get a nice, slow, reflective ripple effect across the bottom of the tank. And as for water shorting anything out, the higher viscosity oil will create a non-conductive barrier so I could technically pour water over the oil-submerged components with little to no effect. Before I do risk any equipment though, I will be thoroughly testing this to confirm beyond any doubt that it works.
Anyway, I have some pics and vids of my concept. I'll be rendering out more today or tomorrow.
And here's a link to the worst quality vid I've ever seen. It wasn't that dark or low res before uploading...but hey, free file hosting!
Comments, thoughts, suggestions please!:banana:
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Re: My Unnamed Theoretical Project
Looks awesome; I think probably one of the best thought out full-immersion designs I've ever seen (not that there are that many, but still). Depending on your budget, instead of having to put your HDDs up top with the ODDs and have to worry about cooling them, you could just go with SSDs instead and stick them in the oil as well. With the configuration you're doing, I don't think that the radiator will be necessary, but we all love overkill. The GPUs will work great in that orientation because the fans will push the hot oil out the back of the cards, straight to the top of the vat. Similarly, for the CPU I would recommend one with a very large surface area. You might even be able to get away with not putting a fan on it. Also, for the fans you put in the oil, make sure they're really strong fans. Since they'll be pushing through a lot more resistance than they're designed to, they will have a much higher strain on them. You also might want to undervolt them so they spin slower than normal (especially the GPU fans).
I love the idea of the water at the bottom; just make sure it's thoroughly tested before you put any components in there.
Oh, and make sure you clean the components with isopropyl alcohol first to clear off any impurities.
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Re: My Unnamed Theoretical Project
My plan is for 2 SSDs in Raid0 for uber maximum awesomeness. I forgot to mention that, and also didn't show the other side of the tank which is where the 2 SSDs are submerged near the bottom/back. And because my budget is limited, I might just get enough hardware to assemble a working computer and add stuff to it at a later point.
As for the rads, I believe they (at least 1) are necessary, but the fans should be optional. The oil bath is a closed environment so the heat would just keep building up thus cooling the hardware less effectively. That's what I've read anyhow... The Puget Systems rig (which has no oil cooling system) runs over 80Celsius under load, which is not what I want for my computer. I'm not expecting lower than normal temps, but I expect the temps to stay pretty stable even when OC'd a bit and under load. And we DO like overkill...so it's win, win!:D
I do like the way the fans look spinning slowly in the oil, so they will stay. I've read that they will be fine and there is no danger of them burning up, but I will be under-volting them anyway--the CPU fan via the bios, and I'll probably use RivaTuner to keep the graphics card fans chugging at about 10-20%.
I guess I can't embed video from ImageShack? So here (dial up users beware!) is a link to a video I just rendered out. It shows the components a bit, although it doesn't represent specific hardware at this point. It also shows a bit of wave action, but the movement of the camera sort of ruins that experience.
I also rendered out the following:
The front:
This shows the regular, old aftermarket air cooler that I'll have mounted to the CPU on the left and a shiny, modular PSU on the right. I've heard that not having a heatsink on the CPU in the oil will just cause an extreme hot spot in the oil and won't effectively cool it. So I'm thinking the copper heat-pipes will draw the heat away to the aluminum fins which should cool just like in the air, but better. There's also some "illustrated wave action" at the bottom.
The back:
The back shows the pump in the upper left, SSDs in the lower left, cold-oil return on the right side (barely visible actually, forget about this:whistler:), and above the tank is a hole in the back that serves as both an air intake if the fans are running and an exit for a nice, neat bundle of cables.
The left side:
Looks like a normal PC...floating in mid-air! At least I hope. I'm not sure what the refractory properties of mineral oil are and I intend for the acrylic plate everything is mounted to to be barely visible.
The right side:
Looks like the other side but with different pieces floating.
(I swear ImageShack is making my vids darker...it's the exact same scene as the stills were rendered from...maybe it's just me though.)
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Re: My Unnamed Theoretical Project
Looks pretty sweet. I don't have any personal experience with full-immersion cooling, but the oil should follow the same thermal behavior of any liquid, so have no fan the the CPU HS (I assume that's what you meant, not no HS) should just heat the oil around it, which will then become less dense than the oil above it and go up, replaced by the surrounding oil, which heats up and...you get the idea. Anyways, I'm sure the fan won't cause any problems, and will do a better job of cooling it.
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Re: My Unnamed Theoretical Project
Yep, that's a convection current...I think I got confused somewhere before I replied. My bad.
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Re: My Unnamed Theoretical Project
this looks like a sweet idea. if you start work on it make sure to do a worklog!! we all wanna see this. :up:
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Re: My Unnamed Theoretical Project
Nice. I'd like to try a mineral-oil PC sometime as well. Time, space and budget don't permit at the moment, though.
Good luck, look forward to seeing this come to fruition.
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Re: My Unnamed Theoretical Project
Sir mDust, there is another modder named mstjuan at the recently concluded CM contest where I was disqualified... Are both of you same (just asking)... I asked because he submitted an entry with almost similar idea as submerged into an oil... I can't give you the link because I hate that place (forum)...For sure it works for him, but what's best you're doing it step by step!!! complete with planning!!! We're both on Unique category...
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Re: My Unnamed Theoretical Project
A worklog would be mandatory IMO. :D Personal finances and some minor planning details are the only obstacles keeping this project in limbo. I'm looking to rectify the situation ASAP...but it may take a while before I can get started.
Quote:
Originally Posted by sunny2010
Sir mDust, there is another modder named mstjuan at the recently concluded CM contest where I was disqualified... Are both of you same (just asking)...
Nope, wasn't me. I've never participated in a modding competition.
Oil cooling, although not very popular, is not a new concept. There have been oil cooled PC's around for over a decade, oil cooled computers around since the 80's or so, and oil cooled electronics such as utility transformers have been around for about 40 years...so the concept for this project is not original but the design is as far as I know.
If anyone notices anything odd within the design I have laid out or a potential problem (other than saying 'the fans will burn out!' hehe, that's usually the first thing people point out) or even something that could be added, go ahead and post it here so it can be discussed. Any and all comments are welcome.
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Re: My Unnamed Theoretical Project
you know what would be cool? get one of those electric trolling motors with the propellers on em to turn this up. that would be wicked. might be a little overkill though :P
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Re: My Unnamed Theoretical Project
Quote:
Originally Posted by
billygoat333
you know what would be cool? get one of those electric trolling motors with the propellers on em to turn this up. that would be wicked. might be a little overkill though :P
LMAO, that would be pretty interesting. Overkill? Yes...and I don't really need something like that breaking free from it's mount near my hardware!:D I wonder how many extra points I'd get for being the first person on earth to do that?:think:
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Re: My Unnamed Theoretical Project
I feel like it might actually do more harm than good; with that small a tank, the oil would probably just get churned up a whole lot.
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Re: My Unnamed Theoretical Project
Quote:
Originally Posted by x88x
I feel like it might actually do more harm than good; with that small a tank, the oil would probably just get churned up a whole lot.
Yeah, I was thinking about cavitation, convection and such...then about size and noise...then about freak accidents that potentially could piss off the guy that lives in the apartment below mine and my landlord at the same time. My lease says I'm not allowed to have a fish tank...but fails to even mention tanks of oil!
(Any apartment dwellers ever read the completely inane clauses in your lease? They're there because of people like me...:whistler:)
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Re: My Unnamed Theoretical Project
yeah... was totally kidding. unless you could figure a way to make it work. :P
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Re: My Unnamed Theoretical Project
Quote:
Originally Posted by
billygoat333
you know what would be cool? get one of those electric trolling motors with the propellers on em to turn this up. that would be wicked. might be a little overkill though :P
lmao Juust remember, "it's not overkill unless something dies from it"
But really, at that point, you might as well get a nice fan for 1/10th the price.
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Re: My Unnamed Theoretical Project
Quote:
Originally Posted by
mDust
(other than saying 'the fans will burn out!' hehe, that's usually the first thing people point out) or even something that could be added, go ahead and post it here so it can be discussed. Any and all comments are welcome.
Actually that one site that did it ran it for over a year and never once had trouble with any fans
EDIT; this site ;)
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Re: My Unnamed Theoretical Project
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Mark_Hardware
Actually that one site that did it ran it for over a year and never once had trouble with any fans
EDIT;
this site ;)
Yep, that's why I don't want people to say that. My fault for not being clear there.:)
I have some extremely high (like 180 or so) CFM 120mm server fans from Delta that I thought would be neat in the oil, but I think they may completely disrupt any convection currents. Maybe I'll just put them on the sides of the tank so it can fly.:D
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Re: My Unnamed Theoretical Project
I would suggest that instead of having water in the bottom have a more dense oil, that way there is no chance of shorting on the water, and even if you did have the fan (propeller) in the bottom you could put a failsafe such as a deadmans switch on it, so if it does lift up it turns off straight away.
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Re: My Unnamed Theoretical Project
Hello Baraspitfire and welcome to TBCS!
Yes, I thought about denser oil as well before I took my own water idea seriously. The water can't be replaced with oil because I want just the water to be dyed silver to make sort of a liquid mirror below the clear mineral oil. The dye mixes well with water but will not mix at all with oil which is perfect. If there's a dye that will work with heavy oil but not mineral oil, then I'm all ears, but I doubt if anything that specific exists.
From my own personal experiments the water stays put even more so than I expected. I'm not entirely sure that the wave action will happen as planned. I filled a small container with about an inch of water and maybe 5 inches of mineral oil and played around with it. The weight of the oil pushes down on the surface of the water much, much harder than the air does and therefor limits the motion along the boundary. My case design will be holding about the same amount of water but much more oil...meaning more weight. This means finding the right balance between 'no motion' and 'turbulent water bubbles being thrown about' is just that much more difficult. I'll figure it out though...:think:
Oh, and no propellers will be included!:)
I also figured instead of just red lights I'd include several different colors so I can switch it up a bit. It's not going to be a rainbow in there, the colors will just be switchable as well as optionally being turned off...maybe even an option for red, green, and blue at the same time to make a white light. I pondered this after thinking about my old Dell XPS that had a similar color switching feature built into the bios. I originally planned on two red CCFLs, but now I'm thinking LEDs would be a better choice to allow for several colors to be installed. I'll look into it in detail before I commit to anything more than 'figuring' though.
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Re: My Unnamed Theoretical Project
It would be cool to have a larger tank around the outside, fill it with water (yes i know the complication there) and stick fish in it :D lol
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Re: My Unnamed Theoretical Project
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Baraspitfire
It would be cool to have a larger tank around the outside, fill it with water (yes i know the complication there) and stick fish in it :D lol
haha. Unfortunately, my landlord would have a fit if he ever found out I had a fish tank...having repairs done to my apartment occasionally would mean the repair guy would see it and could mention it to him. Also, I'm lazy and the fish would die due to neglect. For those reasons alone, I will not do this...but I think, if done correctly, something like that could look pretty good.
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Re: My Unnamed Theoretical Project
wonder if goldfish would be hardy enough to live under the mineral oil in the same tank? lol those things would live in anything.
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Re: My Unnamed Theoretical Project
correct me if im wrong but i don't think that mineral oil contains oxygen, so is unable to sustain life, and i don't think id want fish getting caught up in the fans, otherwise there could be some nice red looking liquid in the case...
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Re: My Unnamed Theoretical Project
Quote:
Originally Posted by
billygoat333
wonder if goldfish would be hardy enough to live under the mineral oil in the same tank? lol those things would live in anything.
:no: Don't ask how I know...
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Re: My Unnamed Theoretical Project
Nice designs, I was thinking of building one of these myself, but I never thought of using rads to cool the oil; I thought the pump wouldn't be able to handle the density of the mineral oil and burn out well before it's time... I do have a thought for you, it may make it more complicated but here it goes:
It might be possible to mount the disc drive and a hard drive making it "appear" to be submerged... If you can understand what I mean... basically build a small dual-bay 5.25 inch cube out of the stuff you're building the case out of, leaving the front and back opened to mount the disc drive and hard drive. Find a way to make a sort of a sata hot-swap system to install on the back of the cube and seal it good. Then cut a hole large enough in one of the sides of the case and mount the dual-bay cube on the inside of the case, over the hole, with the hot-swap sata rig positioned towards the inside of the case. Then seal that part good and you have yourself an external-internal Drive mount...
BTW I thought of this in like 2 minutes, so I'm sorry if the idea doesn't work out or it's a bit hard to follow through...
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Re: My Unnamed Theoretical Project
Quote:
Originally Posted by MrNintend0
Nice designs, I was thinking of building one of these myself, but I never thought of using rads to cool the oil; I thought the pump wouldn't be able to handle the density of the mineral oil and burn out well before it's time...
Thanks. I didn't think a pump could handle it either to be honest, but others have had good luck pumping oil so if I don't I'll just blame them!:)
Quote:
Originally Posted by MrNintend0
It might be possible to mount the disc drive and a hard drive making it "appear" to be submerged... If you can understand what I mean... basically build a small dual-bay 5.25 inch cube out of the stuff you're building the case out of, leaving the front and back opened to mount the disc drive and hard drive. Find a way to make a sort of a sata hot-swap system to install on the back of the cube and seal it good. Then cut a hole large enough in one of the sides of the case and mount the dual-bay cube on the inside of the case, over the hole, with the hot-swap sata rig positioned towards the inside of the case. Then seal that part good and you have yourself an external-internal Drive mount...
BTW I thought of this in like 2 minutes, so I'm sorry if the idea doesn't work out or it's a bit hard to follow through...
I follow ya. Thanks for the input. I'm considering it, but I may just keep a simple box for the tank to minimize the amount of gluing/sealing work to be done. The seals are the weakest points and I really don't need oil all over my stuff...and I'll bet the tenants below me don't either! I did try to come up with ways to actually submerge them, but it got complicated really fast, and that's when stuff goes wrong for me. As it is, I'm worried about simply gluing acrylic sheets together and then sealing the seam. I'm looking into getting a router to make sort of a tongue-and-groove seam for strength and more surface area for the glue. I really don't want to have to put some metal reinforcing brackets on the acrylic tank, but I also don't want to be evicted for creating a huge mess...:(
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Re: My Unnamed Theoretical Project
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Originally Posted by
mDust
As it is, I'm worried about simply gluing acrylic sheets together and then sealing the seam. I'm looking into getting a router to make sort of a tongue-and-groove seam for strength and more surface area for the glue. I really don't want to have to put some metal reinforcing brackets on the acrylic tank, but I also don't want to be evicted for creating a huge mess...:(
I hear ya... If you're wanting a good sealer, try Marine GOOP Glue, the stuff takes like 24 hours to fully cure, but it's well worth it :]
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Re: My Unnamed Theoretical Project
Anything happen with this idea?
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Re: My Unnamed Theoretical Project
Quote:
Originally Posted by
madd0ct0r
Anything happen with this idea?
Slowly but surely...I really want to get it right on the first take. I've changed stuff around so many times...then changed it back. lol
I'm also unsure of if I want to get a new system to drop in it or just keep my current system and upgrade the graphics card(s).
I did buy some acrylic and polycarbonate to experiment with. The acrylic seemed to be much stiffer, which I like. It also doesn't yellow over time from UV. I'm currently experimenting with different glue options. I've seen acrylic glued at 90 degrees perpendicular with no visible seam. It looked like it was cast that way which is what I've been trying to figure out. I figured they just sanded the cut edge and polished it before gluing it, but there seems to be more to it than that.:think: I'll see if I can find the pics of what I mean.
Anyone that has worked with acrylic is welcome to pitch ideas or make suggestions!
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Re: My Unnamed Theoretical Project
I think you'd get the most performance boost for your money by upgrading just your CPU and RAM (in addition to the GPU). Drop in a Q9550 and another 4GB of RAM... The only real reason I would recommend replacing it with a Phenom II x4 or i7 system would be if you really need the extra RAM performance. Otherwise, save the money and spend it on the case. :twisted:
Or, you could always just wait for the i9 or Phenom III (or whatever AMD is gonna call it). :D
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Re: My Unnamed Theoretical Project
What stage are you at right now?
Any problems you are running up against?
I was just thinking, is there an issue with the acrylic flexing once the oil is in?
I'm interested to see what you are dealing with design wise. I would love to build an oil cooled setup some day when I have the space and tools. Living in an apartment really makes you miss having a shed.
I like your modifications compared to the (forget the name, P-something) version, yours looks better and will be more sturdy.
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Re: My Unnamed Theoretical Project
I have a neat idea, but I'm not sure how much prep it would take to get it right. You could "feasibly" have two hoses exiting from the front/right bottom hand side of the water portioned part of the tank. Get a pump to pull the died water through the hoses (which would look sweet as all get out) and pump them to the back of the tank where at the top there will be something that is set to drip. Like a cylinder shaped colander so to speak. And from the side of the tank you could see the silver dyed water fall down back to the bottom. This has absolutely NO functionality. But personally, if I had the means I would definitely steal that idea from myself. lol Although where to mount the pump poses an issue. I don't think a short would be possible as long as the "drip station" were flush against the far inside wall of the tank.
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Re: My Unnamed Theoretical Project
Quote:
Originally Posted by
NakuraD
What stage are you at right now?
Any problems you are running up against?
I was just thinking, is there an issue with the acrylic flexing once the oil is in?
I'm interested to see what you are dealing with design wise. I would love to build an oil cooled setup some day when I have the space and tools. Living in an apartment really makes you miss having a shed.
I like your modifications compared to the (forget the name, P-something) version, yours looks better and will be more sturdy.
I'm still experimenting with materials and trying to 'evolve' my original design. I have had so many crazy-awesome ideas that I had to scrap for budget reasons. However, I figure I can build it and mod it over time to perfect it...I can't wait to clean up after that mod session.
My current problems:
1) I cannot find a silver dye anywhere. This is actually turning out to be harder than I thought it would be to find.
2) Bubbles in the welded joints.
3) No dedicated workspace.
The acrylic actually doesn't flex that much although I haven't built a full scale tank yet. When I do, I'll be using 3/8" or 1/2" thick sheets. The 1/8" and 1/4" scrap I've been working with so far is plenty strong. When the tank is built, I will fill it with water and let it sit for a day or so. If it holds the water, which is roughly twice as dense as the oil, I'll know that it's safe to hold oil. I honestly have no worries about this after experimenting with the weldon. There have been several times where I could not break the weld by hand. It's very strong...
Quote:
Originally Posted by burntheland
I have a neat idea...
Yeah, I thought about stuff similar to that. It would look pretty badass. I may incorporate that into it at a later time. I was thinking about a very small pump from an aquarium or something and punching holes in the hose so it sort of bubbled out and floated back down all the way around the top four edges. I'd rather not risk oil currents sending the water bubbles towards anything with electricity in it, so I would use 1/8" clear acrylic to make a protective wall around the submerged parts. I'd hope that such a thin edge would go mostly unnoticed in the oil as the edges are really all that will be seen anyway. We'll have to wait and see though, I'm currently throwing around so many variables and new ideas that it's actually hindering my progress.
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Re: My Unnamed Theoretical Project
Yeah, when you first stated "silver dye" i thought to myself..."self, where the hell is he going to find something like that?"
But really man the idea you've got here is great. This thing is going to turn out beastly!
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Re: My Unnamed Theoretical Project
When I saw the first pic, I thought "hey cool". Then when I saw the next pic with the hood lifted, I thought "I want one".
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Re: My Unnamed Theoretical Project
Quote:
Originally Posted by
pheenix
When I saw the first pic, I thought "hey cool". Then when I saw the next pic with the hood lifted, I thought "I want one".
Haha, thanks.
Although I've left this thread to fend for itself for a long time, I've still been modifying the design of this thing. I don't think it will need the pump and rads anymore, but it will still be actively cooled...just using more extreme methods. Due to this I'm having to build in some interesting workarounds. I'll probably not be using mineral oil anymore. The substitute oil is still clear but it's water-thin at room temp and doesn't freeze until -200*F or so depending on which grade I end up with...hint, hint...:D I'm not entirely sure the newest design is feasible yet, so if it fails I will fall back to the simple mineral-oil-pumped-through-rads design.
I've been looking for very detailed info on acrylic such as thermal expansion/contraction and some sort of rating for how brittle it becomes with decreasing temperature. I did find the contraction information which turned out to be 'scary amounts', but since I'm not an engineer, I don't know what terms to search for in Google to find information on brittleness. Perhaps someone here can point me in the right direction?
Also, I can get argon gas from a welding supply store, but does anyone know where I can could purchase krypton gas? I'd just like to compare performance with prices. :think:
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Re: My Unnamed Theoretical Project
Awesome concept mDust ... I especially like the enclosed lid. Good CAD models, too. :)
Have you looked at engineered dielectric fluids like Midel 7131?
You obviously want to keep your mechanical drives and I/O connectors dry. You might need to hermetically isolate them from the liquid sections or (carefully) apply conformal sealants to prevent condensation. Not a good mod to display an exposed HDD hack, lol.
I'm personally not certain your passive-circulated cooling scheme would be enough ... it seems like a good concept, but basically I'm a little skeptical about all the "hot" oil moving away from the hot parts into the rads. I think I would personally force circulation with some kind of pump, and maybe even use some strategic peltier spot cooling.
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Re: My Unnamed Theoretical Project
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Konrad
Awesome concept mDust ... I especially like the enclosed lid. Good CAD models, too. :)
Have you looked at engineered dielectric fluids like
Midel 7131?
You obviously want to keep your mechanical drives and I/O connectors dry. You might need to hermetically isolate them from the liquid sections or (carefully) apply conformal sealants to prevent condensation. Not a good mod to display an exposed HDD hack, lol.
I'm personally not certain your passive-circulated cooling scheme would be enough ... it seems like a good concept, but basically I'm a little skeptical about all the "hot" oil moving away from the hot parts into the rads. I think I would personally force circulation with some kind of pump, and maybe even use some strategic peltier spot cooling.
Thanks.
I was looking at Halocarbon .8 Oil for its low temperature performance and cloud-point, but I'll look into Midel as it's biodegradable and non-toxic. Although, Halocarbon isn't toxic either. I just don't want to have dangerous chemicals in my apartment because if a spill were to occur, I'd really not want to explain to my landlord and neighbors why I was letting Hazmat into the building.:whistler:
And that original design includes a pump with a top intake so the hottest oil pumps into the rads and is returned to the bottom of the tank.
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Re: My Unnamed Theoretical Project
lol, I use Midel fluid in my capillary heatpipes. Vapour point is about 50C, so I didn't need to put much vacuum into them; plus I'm not especially worried about electrical failure if the tubes ever leak.
Flourinerts used to be popular, used in SGI machines I hear. Second to none in efficiency, but nasty toxic I think, and $$$ per gallon, lol. Pure oil is still a good choice; gotta keep it away from oxygen (it starts breaking down and getting "rancid"), and be careful that it doesn't have any contaminants. (Whichever fluid you use, test resistance and capacitance with meter.)
Aaah, didn't catch the pump in your description. I thought it was passively self-circulating. Impressive work.
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Re: My Unnamed Theoretical Project
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Konrad
Flourinerts used to be popular, used in SGI machines I hear. Second to none in efficiency, but nasty toxic I think, and $$$ per gallon, lol.
More like $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$...it would cost around $17-18,000 for about 10 gallons. No thanks!:D
Whatever fluid I use must be completely clear and as inert as possible. It will also be a fluid that is designed for this purpose so testing shouldn't be a problem.