Home-made Liquid Cooling

[LiquidSnak]

My question: Has anyone done a home-made liquid or oil cooled pump transfer system? I'm pondering taking a CPU heatsink, removing the fan, and creating an oil or stable liquid cooled system...

 

[seekermeister]

I hope that you have a bit of ingenuity, because while to concept is simple, creating a reliably leak-proof system may not be so easy.

 

[LiquidSnak]

I have in mind a system with fiberglass and polyvinyl tubing. I have extensive fiberglass experience, so that shouldn't be a problem, and I'm considering a dyed mineral oil system in case of leakage... I have a pump, so it should be no biggie. It will just depend on whether an impeller pump will be able to drive mineral oil

 

[Lordbob75]

You are going to need pump, reservoir, radiator, tubing, and the heatsinks to make a full system.
The hardest part would probably be making the heatsinks (they are rather complex and small), as well as getting watertight seals.

~Lordbob

 

[carwiz]

Any particular reason for using a mineral oil? It has a very poor heat transfer coefficient. In other words, it's slow to pick up heat and slow to release it. The very best is plain distilled water. What every you add to it such as boiling point enhancers (anti-freeze) will also lower the coefficient but it's still better than mineral oil. Combining a high transfer coefficient fluid with a high thermal conductive base and radiator, such as copper, will provide the best cooling.

 

[LiquidSnak]

Leaks will not be my friend, and if I can get a proofed system, I would probably switch to a more potentially harmful liquid. Until then, I think an inert liquid would be wise. Does anyone know if radiators take a standard thread size?

 

[carwiz]

LOL... Hopefully it would be engineered not to leak. You'll want to be selective in your liquid--Hazardous or not, you can't allow it to boil. Vapors are hard to pump with an impeller. It will just cavitate and the temperature will run away. On top of that, when a liquid vaporizes it expands. That expansion can mean very high pressures and an explosion potential. But it sounds like you have your mind made up. Good luck but remember, science has been there already.

 

[Everlong]

I have in mind a system with fiberglass and polyvinyl tubing. I have extensive fiberglass experience, so that shouldn't be a problem, and I'm considering a dyed mineral oil system in case of leakage... I have a pump, so it should be no biggie. It will just depend on whether an impeller pump will be able to drive mineral oil

I wouldn't use mineral oil inside a cooling loop. Cooling fluid is non-condicutive, so if there was leaks you wouldn't short your computer out. And with oil having a higher viscosity than ordinary cooling fluid, your pump is gonna be working a lot harder to try pump it around.

 

[sygnus21]

Sounds like he's doing this more as an experiment than anything else. If that's the case it'd be interesting to see the results :huh:

 

[Luckystar]

Hey LiquidSnak,

Probably out the question and not what your looking for but maybe this could enlighten you

DIY Computers: Mineral Oil Aquarium PC - Kits Available

Not much of a suggestion but just ideas.

Lucky

 

[seekermeister]

Hey LiquidSnak,

Probably out the question and not what your looking for but maybe this could enlighten you

DIY Computers: Mineral Oil Aquarium PC - Kits Available

Not much of a suggestion but just ideas.

Lucky

I don't know just how practical that it is, but that is definitely an unusual and interesting approach to cooling. I couldn't pay their price, but it seems that this is something that someone might be able to do on their own...if they had a mind to.

 

[Luckystar]

Hey LiquidSnak,

Probably out the question and not what your looking for but maybe this could enlighten you

DIY Computers: Mineral Oil Aquarium PC - Kits Available

Not much of a suggestion but just ideas.

Lucky

I don't know just how practical that it is, but that is definitely an unusual and interesting approach to cooling. I couldn't pay their price, but it seems that this is something that someone might be able to do on their own...if they had a mind to.

Well I seriously considered it and to be honest I am still pondering. But I think I would rather use an old pc in the cupboard to test it out. (Maybe the dell, the p4 was a bit toasty at times. lol).

Lucky

 

[seekermeister]

If "toasty" means that it ran hot, then that sounds like a good test subject to me.

 

[Luckystar]

If "toasty" means that it ran hot, then that sounds like a good test subject to me.

Too right, and being a dell, I don't really care if it go boom.

 

[seekermeister]

I have never been one to care about decorating a PC like some do, as though it were a Christmas tree, but this aquarium concept decorates a room instead, which I like. Too bad that live fish couldn't live in it along with the components, that would be nice, but I wonder if it would be possible to build some kind of mechanical fish? I guess that since mineral oil is non-conductive, they wouldn't be able to get their power from the components, so I guess that they would either need their own batteries, or a wind-up mechanism.

The only aquarium that I now have, is one that the PC stands on. I have the inside blacked out, so it isn't anything more than just a stand, and I don't believe that it is deep enough to hold the components, so I would have to start from scratch. Oh well...it's nice to think about anyway.

 

[Lava King]

If "toasty" means that it ran hot, then that sounds like a good test subject to me.

Too right, and being a dell, I don't really care if it go boom.

Trouble is, computers very rarely go boom, which reduces the entertainment value of a system failure tremendously.

Closest I've seen was a Socket A board where one of the heatsink mounting tabs suddenly failed. The tension of the mounting spring launched the heatsink halfway across the board. The processor burned a hole through the board and the system suddenly quit working.

Only heard a medium-loud POP, probably the mounting tab breaking. No bright flash, no copious amounts of magic smoke, no tripping circuit breakers...boring.

 

[Solarstarshines]

Hey LiquidSnak,

Probably out the question and not what your looking for but maybe this could enlighten you

DIY Computers: Mineral Oil Aquarium PC - Kits Available

Not much of a suggestion but just ideas.

Lucky

I want that for Christmas

 

[LiquidSnak]

Well one of my projects in electronics engineering I chose to create an oil cooled PC, much like that I just bought a clear acrylic case, and sealed the seams with silicone gasket maker. The only issue was the PSU, which had to be mounted on the exterior, and the CD/DVD drive bays were compartmentalized for the same reason. I am thinking of picking up a heatsink, removing the fan, fiberglassing the structure and adding some nozzles for tubing. Then I will run that to a pump and see if I can get a reduced temperature, and then try the same with a graphics card heatsink.

 

[Lordbob75]

If you remove the fan from the power supply, you can put it inside the case.

~Lordbob

 

[PwnFrnzy]

If "toasty" means that it ran hot, then that sounds like a good test subject to me.

Too right, and being a dell, I don't really care if it go boom.

Trouble is, computers very rarely go boom, which reduces the entertainment value of a system failure tremendously.

Closest I've seen was a Socket A board where one of the heatsink mounting tabs suddenly failed. The tension of the mounting spring launched the heatsink halfway across the board. The processor burned a hole through the board and the system suddenly quit working.

Only heard a medium-loud POP, probably the mounting tab breaking. No bright flash, no copious amounts of magic smoke, no tripping circuit breakers...boring.

I have seen a Socket A Athlon XP literally explode.
The same scenario, me and my friend were stress testing an Athlon XP machine he got for free off of Craigslist, the heatsink wasn't mounted properly and it launched itself out of the open case. Then the computer got very slow, smoke came out of the case then a pop that sounded like a gunshot, then the screen went blank.
We regain our composure after diving for our lives and survey the damage, we found a burned and in-pieces processor, the motherboard had a hole to the back of the board, and the heatsink was a bit scorched on the back.
Fun times!