Does Jay give any reason as to why it cracked?

Posted at 9:45 am on Jul 12th, 2005 by computageek95

He said that this actually cooled his system, but it was running for half an hour or so. Of course I’d expect it to be cooler in that time as the room temperature was lower than the CPU and thus the addition of any additional material would have lowered it. I’d have to see it running for hours, long enough to allow the oil to reach a steady state (taking in as much heat from the system as it emits to the room).

Posted at 10:18 am on Jul 12th, 2005 by Kurt

I love the oil computers. I hope to try one myself. I am wondering if there is a way to have some sort of ‘breather hose’ for the harddrive, that would allow for the harddrive to be submerged but still able to breath. I have a few old harddrives I am going to play with.

Posted at 10:31 am on Jul 12th, 2005 by Jared

Oil Cooled Electronics are not new, though oil cooled computers may be, but why use cooking oil, it will go rancid and start to smell bad after a short time. Mineral Oil is cheap, and easy to find (try a pharamacy) does not go rancid, is clear, and is a good dialectric (better then cooking oil), it is used in transformers, and other oil filled electrical parts.

Posted at 11:09 am on Jul 12th, 2005 by Rich

I have this one planned with the same tank, now I’m just going to look like a rip-off :(. Cool job.

Posted at 11:23 am on Jul 12th, 2005 by kurt Roedeger

I’ve got a problem with these oil computers: once they’re submerged, I’d never feel right putting them back into a case again. I guess that I’m just not ready to take the plunge (no pun intended) and risk my hard-earned dollars submerging electrical equipment in liquids.

Posted at 12:00 pm on Jul 12th, 2005 by Ryan

So far, my favorite part of the story is two guys in walmart together buying 11 bottles of cooking oil.

Posted at 12:14 pm on Jul 12th, 2005 by twitchy

After filling it, me and dave dropped an old school PS/2 wireless mouse in the oil to see if it would work. we wanted to rotate the tank, because the motherboard was directly between the reciever and the mouse and was causing interference. We both grabbed the tank and started to twist, and then it *snapped* free from the table and we rotated it a quarter turn or so. As far as we know, there was already a small crack, but us moving the tank could easily have made it much worse. Anyway, a friend of mine told me that, ragardless of the fact that I broke it under my own stupidity, I didnt buy it there, and i drilled holes in the lid, i could still probably return the tank to W*mart.

Posted at 12:20 pm on Jul 12th, 2005 by Jay

I might try this. I found a cool mineral oil, but will this be an electrical insulator?:

http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/Images/Models/Full/5620.jpg

It would be pretty cool: Pink oil…

Posted at 12:51 pm on Jul 12th, 2005 by mike

I did some research after I read the first article and it seems this is a bad idea. Oil will break down plastics and rubber such as the cables/wires and circuit board. It is also very messy to remove.

A better solution may be a liquid developed by 3M it is expensive but sounds great. Cheapest solution is hydralic fluid.

Posted at 1:19 pm on Jul 12th, 2005 by tah

I’m not positive on this one, just an off-the-top idea. But perhaps it leaked because the oil broke down the silicone rubber.

Corroboration:
http://www.azom.com/details.asp?ArticleID=920
See: Disadvantages

And I know from experience that when aquariums are filled with things that you don’t want to leak, they will leak. They do not care if water with high levels of bleach or potassium permanganate spill on your carpet. Oh, the horror.

When filling any aquarium with a non-intended substance, it is always better to put it in another container to contain the possible disaster.

Posted at 1:29 pm on Jul 12th, 2005 by Sleighboy

Dude I will get the next tank ready, it’s a bit more sturdy and theres probably more room for the mobo and psu. This time lets try the mineral oil.

Posted at 1:57 pm on Jul 12th, 2005 by justin

Yeah, as far as cooling goes, it’s obvious that pouring room-temperature oil all over it would reduce the temperature, but if it ran for a long time, i could see the oil heating up a lot. If you had it circulating really well (such as by adding a few muffin fans strategically in the tank) it might give off enough heat to the air.

Posted at 5:18 pm on Jul 12th, 2005 by Chris

QUOTE
A better solution may be a liquid developed by 3M it is expensive but sounds great. Cheapest solution is hydralic fluid.
/QUOTE

If you’re talking about “saphire” this evaporates at lower temperatures than water to help suppress fires and it also eventually becomes corrosive if it comes in contact with water. This is why it has to be stored in a container with a drier. It can’t even be stored in open air becuase it will absorb the moisture from the air.

Posted at 5:26 pm on Jul 12th, 2005 by digitalFX

No, he’s talking about 3M’s Flourinert

http://www.overclockers.com/tips1098/

Posted at 5:53 pm on Jul 12th, 2005 by Eliot Phillips

Twitchy – “two guys in Walmart together buying 11 bottles of cooking oil.”

ROFLMAO!!!!

Posted at 5:55 pm on Jul 12th, 2005 by Ed Tapanes

Hydralic Fliud? Can anyone make a list of oils that wont go bad and list them together? I want to try this experiment on some of my older PC’s.

Posted at 4:46 am on Jul 13th, 2005 by Hsian su

http://multimediapcs.blogspot.com/2005/07/computer-cooled-with-mineral-oil.html

I at least built my own custom case when I did mine. And my custom case didn’t even crack. I still need the updated pictures on there.

Posted at 9:19 pm on Jul 14th, 2005 by Jeremy

just made my first oil pc, kinda nice, the only thing is that he stinks up the place!

Posted at 4:07 am on Jul 18th, 2005 by Jappe

Has anyone really tested cooling improvement?
I mean, wouldn

Posted at 11:18 am on Jul 29th, 2005 by Marcos

When I saw The Fish Tank Computer I thought it was a joke. So The IT Department at Seneca High School(my Job) wanted to try to build the crazy idea. Many of my coworkers though I was crazy. When I brought in fish tank and some cooking oil. When searching for a computer to destroy we found the one of the Administrators old home computer. We took plenty of Picture as we pored in the oil . It has been 6 weeks and it’s still running we never turn it off.

Posted at 8:37 pm on Sep 9th, 2005 by max powers

When I saw The Fish Tank Computer I thought it was a joke. So The IT Department at Seneca High School(my Job) wanted to try to build the crazy idea. Many of my coworkers though I was crazy. When I brought in fish tank and some cooking oil. When searching for a computer to destroy we found the one of the Administrators old home computer. We took plenty of Picture as we pored in the oil . It has been 6 weeks and it’s still running we never turn it off.

Posted at 8:40 pm on Sep 9th, 2005 by max powers

Is there another way to cool the oil other than running it into a radiator outside the tank? Otherwise after some long term gaming you get some very hot oil but still stable system.

Posted at 12:10 am on Aug 4th, 2007 by jesteri4

I know the opportunity for aesthetics here is tempting, but seriously, why use an aquarium?

A PVC bucket, like the general purpose ones they sell at Home Depot, would be *ideal* since its built to hold things much heavier than water. Plus, its a single piece, so there’s nowhere for the oil to leak to. *plus*, it comes with a handle!

Posted at 2:12 pm on Oct 20th, 2008 by pragma

the problem with hydraulic oils, several types will eat rubber, plastics. Just look at your car’s brake system. I worked at a facility that manufactured underwater ROV’s and we used pure mineral oil for inside the vehicles with no problems. And that was down to several thousand feet. The pressure balance tube was simply a piece of garden hose.

Posted at 3:41 pm on Oct 20th, 2008 by Stephen