You're either relying on convection or conduction for heat transfer; there's nothing in-between. Adding metal oxides to oil thickens it such that convection doesn't work. And bulk heat transfer by conduction through mineral-oil-metal oxide is very poor. Heat-sink paste doesn't conduct heat very well...

@wwenze: hope you were joking about the HDD :) Tomorrow I buy the last of the supplies, and hopefully start construction. The remaining items are: 1. cute little rubber feet to screw onto the bottom of the circuit board, so that it can rest on the pot's metal bottom without shorting out. They will a...

Sunflower, Canola, Flax oils are highly polyunsaturated. They should never be used for cooling! Polyunsaturated oils react with oxygen and even without, causing oxidation of other materials in contact, and themselves hardening up (cross-polymerizing). Think paint, which is based on Flax oil (in this...

Correct! Another advantage Coconut Oil has over Mineral Oil. It's solid at room temperature, so even if it did get pulled up the wires it would stop a few inches above oil level... thanks for pointing that out! Today I bought more components: total cost is now $207.80 CAD! But that's OK, because I h...

Of course, the cables below the oil-level will be oily, but nothing above. The phenomenon you describe happens when, on exiting the oil, cables then go below the oil level.

In my setup, cables rise out of the liquid and keep going straight up for another 1.5 feet, then horizontal for 7 feet.

Seal off? I don't need to seal anything, 'cause the circuit board will be suspended by its cables, hanging in the middle of the pot. I'll screw a hook into the underside of my desktop, and hang from there... I'll cut a hole in the container lid for the cables to go thru. And when I want to move it, ...

Who knows? Today I price out electrical cable for the motherboard and HDD power connectors. Will be either 14 AWG or 12 AWG. Need about 100' spool.

Also on the to-get list: flat-black spray paint, marettes, cable hooks, and black vacuum-cleaner hose for holding the cables!

Got the Coconut Oil! Cost $85 CAD at Borden Mercantile, boy was it heavy!

Mineral oil is a problem for a non-sealed system, because it evaporates. This lead to two things: 1. Mineral Oil loss 2. Mineral Oil does terrible things to the lungs when inhaled as vapor/mist. It does not absorb but accumulates and causes cancer, chemical pneumonia, etc. Here is a great Google sea...

Just got pricing on Coconut Oil: $82.95 CAD for 20L Pail at local shop... maybe someone knows a cheaper source?

It better work great, 'cause the noise does surely grate! (my nerves, that is) The reason why noise is so evil to my situation, is because each night I settle down in my plush gov't-surplus chair, and watch my 32" LCD from about 4' away. It connects via VGA to my PC, which is 5.5' away (under the de...

My system is far too hot, and there's only one slow 120mm in the case rear. Even now it overheats in the summer. So why not remove the PSU's heat load by removing the PSU? The fact that its heat load must be removed via its noisy fan is the problem. Rather than spend the $$$ on a fanless PSU, I real...

Ah, thanks for the info! I didn't realize how much of a difference solid vs. powder made. So it looks like Coconut oil and natural convection, at $6.50 / lb...

Ah, found a really excellent article on liquid-cooling a PSU by immersion!

How To H2Ocool Your Power Supply: http://overclockers.com/tips1240/index.asp

Oh and now that you mention sand, I'll post a link which was very useful in evaluating the thermal conductivity of solid materials: Thermal conductivity of some common materials as aluminum, asphalt, brass, copper, steel and many more : http://www.engineeringtoolbox.com/thermal-conductivity-d_429.ht...

The idea is to remove the PSU circuit board from the PSU case entirely, and bury just the circuit board in the pot. Thus, the PSU MOSFET heatsink will be entirely surrounded and touching the oxide transfer powder, or coconut oil.

In case the powder doesn't work, I'll use Coconut oil, which is cheap and stable. In this case, I can melt it on the stove in the stock pot, and then just dip in the supply!

This I call the Chips n' Dip method, also known as the Chips-in-Dip method...

Yes, the plastic wall of the pail would be a poor conductor, but it would have a large surface area. Brainstorm! I'll use a nice big stainless stock pot, acquired at the local Value Village for dirt cheap! My god, I even have one already, and it's just big enough! I'll even spray-paint it flat black...

After much investigation, I've decided to try solid-state cooling! The idea is to get an empty 20-gallon plastic pail (think drywall mud pail), and after putting the (case removed) PSU inside, fill it with powdered material. The material will have to be an electrical insulator, but good thermal cond...