Olive oil ?

sun.moon · Post by **sun.moon** » Sat Oct 22, 2005 4:16 am

I heard something wierd yesterday - thought it was worth sharing.

I met a guy who told me he essentially submerged his PC in a fish tank filled with olive oil. He removed all movable parts (fans). The DVD R/W player is extended out side the tank. Apparently the HDD is hermetically sealed so there is no leakage issue to be concered with.

Apparently olive oil is not conductive - so no shorts. His PC is absolute silent. Don't know how effective heat dissipation is...

But I wouldn't ever want to work on that PC!

No clue if this is really true, but it's a crazy idea to think about.

Erssa · Post by **Erssa** » Sat Oct 22, 2005 4:27 am

I read about something similar. I'm not sure if the oil was olive oil..

peteamer · Post by **peteamer** » Sat Oct 22, 2005 4:58 am

http://forums.silentpcreview.com/viewto ... 5948#15948

And others.

Post by **Rusty075** » Sat Oct 22, 2005 5:09 am

I wouldn't use olive oil, the heat will cause it to go rancid pretty quickly.

This crazy idea is actually making a comeback: I'm working on an oil-submerged PSU project this weekend. I'll keep you posted.

m0002a · Post by **m0002a** » Sat Oct 22, 2005 5:13 am

Is that extra virgin olive oil, or will any olive oil do?

Al · Post by Al » Sat Oct 22, 2005 5:22 am

m0002a wrote:Is that extra virgin olive oil, or will any olive oil do?

How about the first SPCR "Oil-ympics" and a new page in the recommended section?

Al

EDIT - or perhaps more sensibly a new "not recommended" section...

ozdoc · Post by **ozdoc** » Sat Oct 22, 2005 5:27 am

Is that extra virgin olive oil, or will any olive oil do?

Because heating EV olive oil destroys its flavour, may I suggest that EV oil only be used for AMD rigs, leaving the later pressings for Intel. Regular olive oil might stand up better to the heat..

peteamer · Post by **peteamer** » Sat Oct 22, 2005 5:43 am

ozdoc, I'm really not sure whether to:
laugh heartily,
make mental note for future reference...

or both.

sun.moon · Post by **sun.moon** » Sat Oct 22, 2005 6:01 am

I'm really not sure whether to:
laugh heartily,
make mental note for future reference...

All I can say, is that I am dying of laughter. Didn't think this post would cause such reaction

@Rusty075: I see you already have experience with mineral oil

Maybe the HDDs today are better sealed...

Post by **CA_Steve** » Sat Oct 22, 2005 6:51 am

I couldn't do this. I'd be tempted to keep a baguette nearby.

Oil has been used for cooling other systems for a long time.
- the electrical transformer hanging from the pole outside your house.
- also used occasionally for temperature testing of ICs.

StarfishChris · Post by **StarfishChris** » Sat Oct 22, 2005 9:02 am

I know there are chip fryers, but this is ridiculous!

peteamer · Post by **peteamer** » Sat Oct 22, 2005 9:21 am

StarfishChris wrote:I know there are chip fryers, but this is ridiculous!

For those into algebra... please substitute 'chip fryers' for 'Pentium 4EE'...

ronrem · Post by **ronrem** » Sat Oct 22, 2005 2:38 pm

Wonderful,add some minced garlic and a shake of basil and as the machine warms your room smells like a good Italian bistro. Major nerd envy.

ronrem · Post by **ronrem** » Sat Oct 22, 2005 2:42 pm

Intel recommends Crisco....less smoke.

Straker · Post by **Straker** » Sat Oct 22, 2005 6:51 pm

as others have said, mineral oil > vegetable oil

also, HDDS ARE NOT SEALED HOLY CRAP BAD IDEA
hope he has backups.
You can get sealed/pressurized HDDs, but they cost more, not sure why (limited market, military/high altitude use only?), you'd think it'd actually be easier to make an airtight box than implement a breather hole, filter, and more apparatus for catching dust that still manages to end up inside.

shoebox9 · Post by **shoebox9** » Sun Oct 23, 2005 2:11 am

Please don't submerge h/drives in an oil cooled computer setup. I encouraged submerged oil cooling over at OCAU but hadn't mentioned this, & someone lost a drive. I felt terriable.

People have tried sealing drives a number of ways, & dropping them in for total silence, the problem is even if sealing is successful, they slowly cook. This is only worth trying if you are actively cooling the oil, ie pumping it through a radiator outside the fish tank, or using a TEC.

On the up side- you could chill your oil down to -10dC (pour point for most vegy oils is around -15dC, even better for some) with a TEC cooled by a large passive radiator, and have an over clocked, totally silent system, with no condensation worries. The possibilities are amazing, as long as you don't want to keep swaping parts!

Cheers,
Shoebox9

PS Leave the fans in your submerged system- amazingly they still work very well submerged in oil, and keep circulation (heat transfer) going nicely.

wainwra · Post by **wainwra** » Sun Oct 23, 2005 2:19 am

PLEASE tell me you have pictures of an oil-cooled machine!

shoebox9 · Post by **shoebox9** » Sun Oct 23, 2005 2:33 am

Here's a heap of pics of a rig that's been running for 18m in the cheapest canola oil the guy could buy, without changing the oil in all that time.
http://www.markusleonhardt.de/en/oelbilder.html

Notice- cover removed from PSU to aid oil circulation, & the h/drive is outside tank. Also- submerged fans still said to be running after 18m!

Forum from the same site, with a number of intersting threads-
http://www.markusleonhardt.de/forum/vie ... 537dc60619

There are other pics/stories floating around, but these are the best I've seen. Sadly, the main site forum is in german, & doesn't seem to translate very well.

Cheers,
Shoebox9

sun.moon · Post by **sun.moon** » Sun Oct 23, 2005 4:00 am

imagine that... it's for real.

Post by **Rusty075** » Sun Oct 23, 2005 6:18 am

Shoebox's experiences basically parallel my own. The oil is great at dampening HDD noises, but even if the drive is perfectly sealed it will die in short order. I went through 4 (!) HDD's in my experiment. (the entire system was made of "disposable" hardware, so losing a few <2Gb HDD's wasn't a big deal as they were bound for the trash heap anyway)

And I recommend LED fans for submerging in the oil...the lighting effect is really pretty slick.

ronrem · Post by **ronrem** » Wed Oct 26, 2005 12:12 am

Could you do a lava lamp effect...I'm getting interested.

Seriously-a HDD could be in a sealed box,except for a vent (or snorkel) tube extending above the oil. A submerged fan could push some oil through a copper tube going ouside the tank,and back in,a 2" pipe should radiate off a decent amount of heat. Even better,built the case of aluminum,though I guess I'd want a window to amaze my friends who'd think me mad

Tephras · Post by **Tephras** » Wed Oct 26, 2005 2:45 am

Funny thing with those google ads, apparently they react to words written in the threads because right now there's an ad for oliveoilsoap.com

hmronin · Post by **hmronin** » Wed Oct 26, 2005 7:58 am

Tephras wrote:Funny thing with those google ads, apparently they react to words written in the threads because right now there's an ad for oliveoilsoap.com

That's too funny....so what would happen to those Google ads if we start discussing about the merits of stretched condoms for hard drive suspensions?

dorion · Post by **dorion** » Wed Oct 26, 2005 1:48 pm

So how sealed are hard drives? If it is just the pressure hole couldn't you cover it with something like a little peice of flexible material, like a really small balloon. Though you gotta make sure the balloon can stand mineral oil(or whatever you are using) because I know latex can't.

Post by **CA_Steve** » Wed Oct 26, 2005 1:56 pm

Can you imagine if you ever had to RMA a component and had to explain the grease stains?

BrianE · Post by **BrianE** » Sat Oct 29, 2005 10:44 am

If you want to chill the oil somehow, what about using synthetic motor oil? Guaranteed not to thicken (much) or break down under heat.

I guess the only question is electrical conductivity, which I haven't tested.

I could suggest a nice greenish looking one, but it's not as transparent as some light/cooking oils....

dorion · Post by **dorion** » Sat Oct 29, 2005 7:12 pm

They were talking about that on the board linked to above, apprently the additives in the motor oil would cause a problem.

Ryan · Post by **Ryan** » Sat Oct 29, 2005 7:54 pm

I was wondering, why not keep the fans in, so it would re-circulate the oil around, and have a big pump, very powerful and silent (eheim is good) pumping oil thru some tygon, hooked up to copper tubing, in a coil, and some LN2 all around in a seperate container so it would chill the oil, and recirculate it.

BrianE · Post by **BrianE** » Sun Oct 30, 2005 12:38 pm

dorion wrote:They were talking about that on the board linked to above, apprently the additives in the motor oil would cause a problem.

Link please? I tried searching that German forum and couldn't find much (unless the discussion is in German....).

I'm just curious what the issue is, since some additives are small in amount and the proportion (or presence) of them vary by brand and product line.

Shining Arcanine · Post by **Shining Arcanine** » Sun Oct 30, 2005 2:31 pm

Straker wrote:as others have said, mineral oil > vegetable oil

also, HDDS ARE NOT SEALED HOLY CRAP BAD IDEA
hope he has backups.
You can get sealed/pressurized HDDs, but they cost more, not sure why (limited market, military/high altitude use only?), you'd think it'd actually be easier to make an airtight box than implement a breather hole, filter, and more apparatus for catching dust that still manages to end up inside.

Yes they are sealed. Do you have any idea what the tiny particles in the air would do to the disks if they were allowed to come and go as they pleased? They would hit the disks releasing thousands more particles which would also hit the disks. I wouldn't give a hard drive more than a month to function in that condition.