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50 Comments
- Jibberish, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1"The hard drive has air holes in it. The second the oil got in, it would have slowed down everything. I've never tried it, but I think it would ruin the drive."
Hard drives do not have air holes in them, they are hermetically sealed. This is because the space between the write/read head and the platter is so small that even a small particle of dust could get in between them and ruin the drive. - bloodwings, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0nice guide, but no temperature readings to see if its actually cooler.
- briansalo, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0This is so very tempting to try myself, although I don't have any old spare computer parts I'd be willing to risk. I'll definately pick some up and try it out...
- whizzbang, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Would that be quiter than a regular pc? could you remove the fans and let teh oil curculation cool everything? might try it out on my noisey old box!
- bndocksnt, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0y'know, there are a variety of things that just look better immersed in oil. old computers, scantily clad females... okay, that's about all i could come up with ;)
- syuusuke, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0very cool mod
- solo, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Cool looking. I wonder how long that PC can operate. Probably usual capacitor and some parts are not designed to be liquid-proof.
Maybe covering Mo-Bo by spray painting non-metallic paint would be nice.
- woden, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Cleanest looking oil-pc yet.
- IceKnight, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0i didnt know that was even possible...crazy
- Bostonsox, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Cool mod. I would have liked to know if the temps went down. Cool nonetheless.
- lerch, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Very nice. I liked the walk through guide. I might have to try that out
- 14azns, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0last time i saw this they were using sum expensive 300$ oil.. i didnt know it worked with regular target baby oil.. would it really last tho?
- DDayDawg, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Pretty cool. The hard rive "may" have worked if he hadn't removed the case. The second he took the top of the case off he killed the drive. There is a reason they build those things in clean rooms. Other than that it's pretty interesting.
- Randude, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0I agree, I wonder just how much you could overclock the board. Somebody should design a kit and sell it online. I'll bet you could sell a ton if you published the cooling properties and showed how much the system could be overclocked.
- wilf_brim, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Not bad, but I'd have like to see some OCing data, like before and after, along (as mentioned) with oil temps.
- Jibberish, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0"Cool looking. I wonder how long that PC can operate. Probably usual capacitor and some parts are not designed to be liquid-proof."
All of the larger types of cylindrical capacitors that you see in electronics are of the electrolytic family. These kind actually have liquid in them acting as the dielectric, so they are extremely leak resistant. Oil is an electric insulator, so it will not harm the components (electrically). Some oils might be corrosive to a certain extent, depending on the material in contact. This could lead to certain components dissolving away and thus failing.
"The second he took the top of the case off he killed the drive."
I think you are mistaken, I believe he was talking about the mounting bracket. If you look at the pic 13 and 12, he shows both sides of the hard drive, and he has not removed the contaminant cover. Also if you look closely you can see the black mounting bracket. - rompom7, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0I don't see the temps he gets when it is in oil anywhere.
- pox05, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0jibberish, he does open a hard drive up, you have to re-check the link, and scroll all the way to the bottom... he said that the first one did not work, but does not say if his planned 2nd attempt worked or not... in the last photo, it looks like it might have
good project, good digg - metjer10, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0this is awesome I'm gonna hafta use freeminimac.com and try this out
- CheeseMan316, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0I hope he realizes that oil cooled PCs like this were being done 6-7 years ago with the p2/p3.
- 2000, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Then what is that hole that says "Do not cover" or something like that?
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0The hard drive has air holes in it. The second the oil got in, it would have slowed down everything. I've never tried it, but I think it would ruin the drive.
- BugMeNot2, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0What if he SPILLS IT? OMG!
- Hootiehoo, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0I think you are mistaken, I believe he was talking about the mounting bracket. If you look at the pic 13 and 12, he shows both sides of the hard drive, and he has not removed the contaminant cover. Also if you look closely you can see the black mounting bracket.
look at 20 and 21 bro
do ya think you could seal up tha HD (it'l be in oil and all, so shuld stay cool?)
maby the lil pick ups would not move fast enoughf in tha oil to read tha disk? - reboare, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0I'm all for mods, but this one seems pretty boring. Clear case, mineral oil...yes, and....?
- Jibberish, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Sorry my mistake, I thought I had scrolled all of the way down. I did not realize that there were more pics. I cannot imagine his HDD lasting very long, the surfaces of those platters are very delicate. Why didn't he just leave the HDD out of the oil? I'm sure it could have dissipated the heat just fine. Or even submersing the entire drive in the oil without removing the cover would have been adequate.
Anybody know if they make clear HDD's for moders? - Hootiehoo, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0oh ya nice site btw
- petard, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0where is that pc? i cannot find it on ebay! or anywhere...
- buddylee415, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Now they just need to add some fish for a cooler effect.
- oxigen, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Where could I find more information on how to make one of these myself? I mean, it obviously doesn't look too complicated, but I was wondering what is safe to submerge and what isn't.
- PacoBell, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0I say someone should continue the Fluorinert project, but this time do it with the new Novec substance. The specs on that stuff are impressive, to say the least. Way to go, 3M! ^_^
- Gillz, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0I wouldn't want to try it...thats seems dangerous. But damn, that looks awesome. Im going to try that this week with an old K6 system I have.
- Hootiehoo, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0yes
- Weezel, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Do you think you could submerge an atx power supply in oil? I know that power components at power stations are often submerged in oil but will a computer powersupply also work?
- volcompimp, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Mineral oil? wtf?
I have an old HP sittin around here but it's like 600-700mhz...
Would be a fun project for a coffee table computer or somethin. - p3ngu1n, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0heh...comment posted to wrong entry...
- teacherG, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0very C-3PO nice... worth a dig
- tikibangout, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Nice, but I think he could've done a little better. For one, he could've taken off the Take One part.
- BLASTOCYST, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0He should put some fish in there for show.
- macgabriel87, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0very worthy digg.
- davidg, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0If they were on sale, I'd buy me one :-D
- tikibangout, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Oh yeh and if anyone is looking for this desktop, there is a 3.0GHz version here http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16883102222
- n3tfury, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0"Now they just need to add some fish for a cooler effect."
yeah, because fish LOVE mineral oil :|
btw, how long before you have to change the oil? (heh). i'm sure it's starts looking darker after awhile? - Gillz, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0I'm very interested in doing this with a friend, and recording a video. Would you mind if I say why I'm doing this, and tell people about your mod? Were basically going to do what you did, except have a video of the steps, and its going to be an older system.
- funderbolt, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0cool!
The site is currently a little laggy, so you might try the coral cache:
http://www.russellware.com.nyud.net:8090/liquidpc/ - akinhepu, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0**Note from the Builder**
Thanks for the kind comments, all.
To answer a few inquiries: The submerged HDD was added just to see if it would work. A link to another builder on my site describes what happens when you seal the holes on a 3.5" HDD, and I presume that allowing oil into the drive, while not killing things, would certainly slow them down. The drive I immersed was an old one sitting on the shelf, and I opened it, untested just to see if it would spin up under the oil. It did, although the computer never recognized it.
The PC is still running on the original drive. I've used a cooking thermometer to check the temp of the oil. With minimal bubbling and no air circulating around the new Rubbermaid container, the oil temp stays consistently around 110F. When I added a fan to blow air around the container, the oil temp dropped 10 degrees to 100F.
Since the original plastic cases looked sooooo much better, the next step is to carefully epoxy them and try again. My next goal is to get a 4 or 6gb flash drive and immerse the whole thing.
Thanks again for checking it out
-Rich - p3ngu1n, on 10/12/2007, -1/+0to be fair to eisner, they were doing horribly financially until eisner was named CEO. he really did a lot for disney's wallet.
- 7of7, on 10/12/2007, -1/+0I wonder how long Steve Jobs would function if his head were immersed in mineral oil.
/Uh oh, here comes the FBI - brbubba, on 10/12/2007, -2/+0Stop posting these lame mods. The only cool liquid submersion project was the one where they used 3M Fluorinert and that was like 3 years ago.
- BLASTOCYST, on 10/12/2007, -2/+0Metjer10, you should've referred me to freeminimac the proper way! I know those things are a pain, but if anyone wants to give it a go here's a link: http://minimacs.freepay.com/?r=21672392
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