Computer in oil?

ckpurvis · Post by **ckpurvis** » Wed May 11, 2005 11:48 am

I am rather guessing on this one; I almost posted in Enclosures, since technically this is an enclosure... I can get some information but my German's almost nonexistent and Babelfish isn't helping me too much.

It appears a gentleman, apparently to settle a bet, has submerged almost all of his computer in a tank of vegetable oil. The hard drive, since it needs to equalize with ambient air pressure, is outside of the oil

http://www.markusleonhardt.de/en/ is the man page for this.

http://www.markusleonhardt.de/forum/viewtopic.php?t=6 is an English-language thread on his (very quiet) forums about the project. Apparently some other folks have used a similar tactic with mineral oil -- which sounds a bit more appealing to me.

On his page are links to the original threads on a Gentoo forum, discussing the issue. Anyone tinker with this at all?

sthayashi · Post by **sthayashi** » Wed May 11, 2005 12:09 pm

Rusty has.

alglove · Post by **alglove** » Wed May 11, 2005 2:36 pm

I like the comment on the German forum that someone should put a Pentium 4 in that vegetable oil setup and use it to cook french fries.

ckpurvis · Post by **ckpurvis** » Thu May 12, 2005 5:26 am

Or you could drop in some sort of noxious scented oil like those plug-in oil warmers. I have relatives who use those all over their houses. If you have network over your indoor power, maybe you could just have plug-in SCPR Folding Team brand room deodorizers...

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Green Shoes · Post by **Green Shoes** » Thu May 12, 2005 6:24 am

vegetable oil? hmm....the only problem with that is that it's a poly-unsaturated fat, and tends to go rancid pretty quickly when exposed to heat and light. The heat is obvious....and you've gotta put it in a clear case if you're going to do something like that

Rancid fat smells, well.....nasty. Perhaps a slightly less volatile oil would be better?

ckpurvis · Post by **ckpurvis** » Thu May 12, 2005 7:52 am

Then there's only one thing to do, if the fat's not sufficiently saturated. Something is needed that will liquefy when heated, to allow convection, but solidify when cooled to room temperature to make the system portable. Something is needed that is saturated enough to have a long shelf life. There is such a substance, and my wife won't let me cook with it. I think you know what I am talking about... LARD.

I don't know if building a computer submerged in lard would be awesome, or terrifying.

Green Shoes · Post by **Green Shoes** » Thu May 12, 2005 7:55 am

ckpurvis wrote:I don't know if building a computer submerged in lard would be awesome, or terrifying.

It would be the coolest. thing. ever. Plus it would make a delectible pie crust

the mineral oil route is probably the safest.

Mar. · Post by **Mar.** » Thu May 12, 2005 2:25 pm

Do a search for "Fluorinert". not sure on the spelling.

Katharsis · Post by **Katharsis** » Fri May 13, 2005 7:00 pm

yeah , what Mar. said, the product is "3M™ Fluorinert™" theres been a few crazies on the various overclocker sites who have submurged their computers in it. they usually misspell it flourinet.
only a couple problems with it. first you have to keep the hard drive out of it so it can breathe. second, it starts to thicken at sub zero temps. and third, its horribly expensive.