ölrechner.de

[crusaderky]

Your 'oil computer' is simply GREAT. However, I don't understand a word of german and babelfish is not very reliable.... so, could you write an HOWTO in english? I think there would be a LOT of readers.

In particular, I've got a few questions:

• Exactly what type of oil did you use?
  
• Does it need to be changed on a regular basis? Doesn't heat/electricity alter its composition?
  
• Are there any fans still spinning? I didn't understand much about how you dissipate heat.
  
• How comes that the hard disk is completely unaffacted by it?
  
• If you plug a cable in an oil-dirty connector, don't you have any electrical conduction problems?
  
• How do you prevent an accidental bump to make the oil go into your CD-ROM drive?
  
• Can it be moved? (i.e. transported in a car trunk without the oil flooding everywhere)
  
• Do you think that the heat dissipation would be enough for a more powerful PC (i.e. Athlon 2000+ / 2 7200 RPM hard disks / 300W power supply)? Would I need to change any heatsinks?
  
• In case one would like to revert the process, how does he clean away the oil?
  

Thanks in advance for the answer and again -- CONGRATULATIONS.

[leo2k]

HI!
thanks for the flowers
there is no howto available at the moment. not in german, nor in english. the page is still under construction. but i now know that there are many english-speaking people out there, interested in such an computer. so i will translate everything as good as possible for me.

• I used the cheapest vegetable oil from super market (just that what you use for cooking
  
• I never changed the oil since 1 year
  
• yes, the fans are stillt built in and let the oil flow around
  
• the harddisk isn't dropped into the oil. it is hold outside (harddisks are a litte bit complicated, but there are some ideas out there how to solve that problem
  
• no, there are no problems with plugs. i have also changed the slot cards in the pc, like: pci-network card; agp vga-card; sd-ram - everything with no problems
  
• at the moment it is not transportable. but i want to build my next project with metal-enhancements around the glass, so it can be moved. (will look cool at lan-parties )
  
• at the moment the heat dissipation of the glas is enough. i think it shouldn't be a problem with a powerfull pc if you use a radiator (similar to water-cooling systems) (but the radiator shoult be big enough, a friend of me has got a radiator from a old ware hous - thats perfect )
  
• i have no experiences in reverting the process. i think it would be difficult to get the whole oil off. but i can say that i've put out one of the ram-bars, cleaned it with a tissue and then put it into my girlfriends pc - and it works!
  

i hope i have answered your questions well, and you understand it
if there is more you want to know, the forum is opened for you

leo

[starkiller]

I have been doing experiments with liquid imersion for a few years now.

Though I do have to admit I never kept a computer running in tank for more than 2 or 3 weeks. I kinda gets messy as much as I swap stuff around.

What prompted the use of vegitable oil? Was it an expense issuse?

I have found that mineral oil makes for a very good heat exchange, and at about $30.00USD for 5 gallons (vet supply, and or local oil company warehouses) And thats for food grade mineral oil.

Mineral oil being colorless, tasteless and orderless goes along way too, ie you dont get that deep fry smell from oil that is for all puposes cooking on the heat sinks.

I also took my oil cooling a bit extream and used a peltier an water cooling cpu block to create a external heat exchanger. the peliter being snadwiched between the cpu water block and a large passive heatsink. Then used a 12 volt fuel pump to move oil out of the tank through the peltier which cools it down and back into the tank to force cooled oil over the submerged cpu heat sink.

I had started to build an aluminum reinforced acrilic tank with a double wall, ie an inner tank and an outertank. The idea being to have my oil cooled computer surrounded by a water/fish filled tank. I dropped the project about a year back after trying and failing to build my computer fish tank several times. always had leaks. I did consider having a local glass shop build it for me, but $$ is short around here atm.

great job Im glad someone finaly did this and got some decent pics on the net.
who knows maybe it will be the next case mod fad....

[leo2k]

hi,
sounds interesting what you tell
yes, the vegetable oil was the cheapest think i've found. at the time when i built this oilcomputer some people said that it could be, that mineral oil kills my hardware. that was then for me another point to use vegetable oil.

do you have pictures of you tries? i would like to set them online here.

leo

[Gast]

In the google translation it says something about capilary effect of the cables. What's the problem?

[leo2k]

some cables have the problem, that through the capilary effect the oil is flowing (i dont now how to say different) extremely slow throug the cable.
in my case, the result was, that after half a year my whole mouse was full of oil. after i placed my oilcomputer under my desk, the problem was solved.


leo

[Ruinenbaumeister]

Hi!

I saw similar effects on my KVM-Switch. Every week some liquid came out of the case top of that switch. Nothing to worry about. Fix the cables with some glue (you will have to design a plate with some holes, matching for the port-cables (atx-powerswitch and so on) your mainboard needs).
I hope you will will have few probs to understand my german "Kauderwelsch"!

sys

Ruinenbaumeister

[neorazz]

quick solution to capilary effects on mouse + keyboard
go wireless usb !


also this is not an uncommon problem as my 01 vw bug had the same problem with radiator fluid coming out of the speedometer
_________________
if it's not broke try breaking it

[acidzebra]

I'm just wondering if over time the oil will slowly become contaminated and therefore a conductor; shorting everything out.

Also, did you disconnect all the fans?

[Gast]

yes that is quite an issue if it occurs?! what about the temperature ?? pls provide some info what happened with the temp when only a low speed fan on top is used not any pump

[Gast]

The oil should become contaminated with time. With my experience in high-voltage system (military radars), they use 1:3 pured water:glycol for cooling, an organic and particle filters that has to be changed. The liquid flows into areas with 50kv potential (on several amps), so you can for yourself estimate and induce that this kind of coolant would be great for computers (with much less potential drop).
The resistance would be something of about 5M ohm at least, when usually its ->inifnity.

Also, it's advisable to use new parts before submerging, and within possible clean dirt and dust (isoprophyl?).

[Pieter]

Any chance that oil comes leaking out of my mouse by visiting your website?

[leo2k]

i hope i will not

leo

[highonv8splash]

I've always figured that liquid + electronics don't mix. I'm kind of a little confused as to how this doesnt ruin the computer.


Furthermore, If I take an old computer, suspend the harddrive and the CD-Rom above an aquarium, it would function properly if i put oil in the aqaurium? How well does this work for cooling, I dont see how it would give an advantage. I reason that if water clash with electricity, and you poured a lot of it into an aquarium like this, the only result would be boiling water.

[adam_van_2000]