Olive oil ?
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Olive oil ?
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.
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.
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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.
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.
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.
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.
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
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
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.
And I recommend LED fans for submerging in the oil...the lighting effect is really pretty slick.
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
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
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?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
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....
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....
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.
Link please? I tried searching that German forum and couldn't find much (unless the discussion is in German....).dorion wrote:They were talking about that on the board linked to above, apprently the additives in the motor oil would cause a problem.
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.
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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.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.