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An idea to keep circuits quiet, cool, and safe from dust incursion

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  • An idea to keep circuits quiet, cool, and safe from dust incursion

    I contend that "form plus function equals art." Therefore, I decided to post some photos of my "Oil Rig" computer in order to show anyone interested what one can do with their builds...art-wise, that iis...all while keeping their circuit components cool, quiet, and safe from dust and other harmfull things. While it does not immediately resonate with most of the topics on this forum, it does suggest some things that one can do to protect their "best build's" circuits from that which harms them the most--heat and dust. I said all that to say this...basically, anything electronic can be cooled (and kept dust free) by submerging it in mineral oil. One can run a pump and pass the oil through a heat exchanger if the oil needs to be cooled.

    Following are photos of my "oil Rig" build. It was a real monster with 4 Radeon HD6990 grapics cards, five Thermaltake 750 watt power supplies (one main, which could be smaller, and four slaves for the GPUs), a real cool CPU cooler, a 350GPH pump (puts out way less with oil), some steampunky copper pipe I soldered together a HVAC heat exchanger, and some decorations. All that was attached to a custom acrylic housing and place into a twenty gallon acrylic fish tank filled with thirteen gallons of horse laxitive (mineral oil). These units could be used for alt-coin mining, code cracking, as a workstation for designing, and/or gaming (I am using them for design work).

    Since then, I had pulled it down, and to split it into two oil rigs with two GPUs and three power supplies each. I didn't need all four GPUs for design work. That way, there is a workstation computer for both, for my son, and I. One can use these, as a substitute for expensive workstation cards when doing CAD/CAM and/or CAE. I currently have it apart, yet again, to revamp the thermal interfaces on the GPUs and CPUs, as well as integrate the heat exchanger into a homemade food dehydrator. Its going back together now. Incidentally, I do not need to use the central heat during the winter, and it is literally silent, as it chugs along. One can decorate them any way they can imagine and in my case, it causes a meditative atmosphere reminding me of my wonderful wife. Think of what some cool solid state Bedini units would look like built similarly (electronic circuits love the oil), that is, the ones you are satisfied with, tuning wise. BTW, the Cray Supercomputer was originally cooled with oil

    I hope this information inspires someone.

    James
    Best Regards ~ James, Somewhere In Idaho

  • #2
    Here are some more photos of the build.
    Best Regards ~ James, Somewhere In Idaho

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    • #3
      Cool, I like it...horse laxative!? Who would have though?
      How noisy are those fans?
      NoFear.

      Comment


      • #4
        Hi NoFear

        Actually, those fans are quite quiet.I ran the components with fans on the GPUs and all the regular fans going, first. Then took all the fans off (just heatsinks are required) and put it in oil. I do have a couple fans in the oil. They move slowly, and are just there to move the oil around a little. Mostly, just put your pick-up tube (see photo...the copper pick-up tube is above the CPU cooler) up high where the oild will be warmer, and the supply tube down on the bottom. The only fan noise is a very muffled noise pulling filtered air through the heat exchanger. As you might know, fans can be more or less noisy based on quality. Five of these were the fans taken off the power supplies I had bought for the build. Those supplies were Thermaltake 750 watts each. I then supplimented with one from Amazon that the same model number as the Termaltakes, and 3 el-cheapos from Ebay (mistake!). I wired them in paralell. The Thermaltake fans were quiet and powerful. Of the three el-cheapo brands two barely could compete for their share of the 12.25 volts coming from the "Skynet" 12 volt 4 amp supply I used (see my "First SG build" album here to see it: http://www.energyscienceforum.com/album.php?albumid=84 ), and the third one didn't perform at all. I have since built a hommade dehydrator that uses the shelves from my wife's top-end dehydrator so we can heat the house in the winter and dehydrate produce from her garden in the growing months, from just the heat coming off of the heat exchanger (the tank hovered around 85-92 degrees depending on how hard ther GPUs were being used). I pulled apart the three el-cheapo fans and one of theThermaltake fans for comparison. I found the thermaltake to be quite a bit more robust that the others (just FYI). I ordered four more thermaltakes to replace the ones I pulled. The only ones I could find to match my original ones had red LED lights on them, so I guess our dehydrator will glow red. The "oil rig is different now. It will have only two of the Radeon HD6990 GPUs and will feature better lighting (the other GPUs are going on an oil submerged PC I plan to give to my son for his design computer. I will post a new album regarding the progress of this machine (check my album section later in December for that).

        At this point, for those considering dunking circuits in oil, I must provide this caviot: Not all substances can survive in oil. One such substance is "regular" silicone calking. It turns into goo. Some printed circuit boards use caps sealed to the board (or the caps themselves are sealed with) with white silicone calking. There is the chance that the silicone could expand and pull those caps off the board. So be aware of that, and only use components without such substances. When in doubt, take an old used specimine and set it in a cup of mineral oil for a few days to see how it reacts. Also, DO NOT USE GLASS FISH TANKS WITH SILICONE SEALANT for the same reasons...unless you like oil all over everything. I have seen individuals building oil PCs without researching them, and putting them into glass tanks with silicone sealant...BAD CHOICE! Use one of the thicker acrylic tanks such as one of the "SeaClear" tanks (I used their 20 gallon one for my build) from Amazon, or Petco (can be found here: http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_no...ylic+fish+tank )., or make your own custom tank...its not that difficult, and there are good instructions on the net. That is what I plan to do for my son's build.

        So...answering your question: No the fans are not noisy. However, some fans (especially el-cheapo ones that do not have a good design, or that have poor bearings/bushings) CAN be noisy. You will have to experimant to find what you like. I would recommend Thermaltake. The price is right, and they are well-built, in my experience. However, you should experiment on your own.

        BTW: For those considering this for their builds, but are are wondering about how the oil reacts in regard to needing to pull their equipment out to modify it, my experience shows that the oil does not effect working on them I have soldered things by just spot cleaning the area (wiping off with some alcohol) needing attention. However, if one wants something entirely cleaned up, CRC Electrical Parts Cleaner does the trick. I will admit, mineral oile is really slippery and absorbs into everything, so put a barrier down when pulling something out to work on it. I use a shallow rubermaid tote, just FYI.

        I hope someone benefits from this information, and if they choose to do this, especially if they wish to replicate my oil PC, I hope they ask me questions, take what I have learned, and make it better. DO YOUR OWN RESEARCH!

        Please feel free and ask questions.

        Best regards, James
        Best Regards ~ James, Somewhere In Idaho

        Comment


        • #5
          Cool

          Originally posted by jamesgray3rd View Post
          Here are some more photos of the build.
          nice! I think I have that same copper fan rig on my CPU:
          Click image for larger version

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          adjustable speed, I had to cut up the box to get it to fit in there.
          Patrick A.

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          • #6
            Hi Patrick

            Yuppers, that looks like Zelman CPU cooler to me. Putting your PC (any electronics) into mineral oil has many benefits. The room becomes quiet, Harmful effects of static, heat, and dust become a thing of the past...it helps create a meditative state (well, unless you put scenery like a boiling volcanic skull with demon eyes, or something like that). Fans are only used for decoration and to slowly move oil around (they turn slowly, but are generally unharmed when they operate in oil). I pretty much just run fans where they can encourage oil moving up towards areas that need cooling--helping the oil's natural convection currents. I have seen people attach little plastic fish on fans so they slowly twirl around. Also, look into DMX512 cards for PCs...they can control "dimmer" modules effectively making an easy way to PWM a circuit and have the pulse width easily modified with graphic controllers such as QLC+...that is something I plan to try on a SS SG very soon...just thinking out loud...
            Best Regards ~ James, Somewhere In Idaho

            Comment


            • #7
              wait.. so the entire rig is "in" mineral oil?? not the hard drives though correct?

              Tom C


              experimental Kits, chargers and solar trackers

              Comment


              • #8
                Hi Tom

                Yes, that is correct...the entire computer is in the mineral oil. I have SSD drives, so they are in the mineral oil as well. I have heard that one should not put standard hard drive into the oil if they are not hermetically sealed, though I have seen individuals making media server units with multiple hard drives submerged, that have been sealed up with silicone--something I would NOT recommend, unless it is a sealant specifically designed to withstand mineral oil, solvents, and chemicals (which I have). So...with that said, yes, hard drives can be submerged if they are solid state, and no, they shouldn't be submerged, if they are standard units, unless they are sealed with special sealant, but then, you are on your own, because I have not tested that myself. Just place standard hard drives and optical drives out of the oil, and wire them up through bulkhead connectors, so the oil will not wick up past the tank. I hope that helps. Feel free to ask questions about anything, such as cooling, etc.

                James
                Best Regards ~ James, Somewhere In Idaho

                Comment


                • #9
                  Thats some serious effort you've put in there James! I built a water cooled PC back in 2002 when I was into overclocking I found some pics and stats of it on the Internet archive... haha brings back some memories pushing my 1.2Ghz AMD Athlon to 1.38Ghz

                  https://web.archive.org/web/20080728...Hahn&page=pics

                  I immediately thought about TST5 cooling and corosion prevention when I read your thread.

                  James

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                  • #10
                    Hi James

                    Looked at your photos. That looks like a nice heat exchanger inside there. One could use something like that to cool the oil in a acrylic tank. One would need a pump like this (what I used) to circulate the oil out to the heat exchanger and back: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...?ie=UTF8&psc=1 My researched shows oil submersion is superior to water cooling. Even supercomputers have used oil submersion. I am actually revamping my system. taking two of the Radeon HD6990 GPUs and building another with better designs, while putting this one back together to be used to do some CAD work, and use the heat exchanger to run a dehydrator and heat our small house this winter (small house, lots of insulation). There will be a lot less clutter than you see in the photos after the revamp, and some better decorative lighting and display pieces. I will probably post photos on here of my progress. I just received four replacement fans for the heat exchanger yesterday. My next one will be simpler and better. One of them will go to my son. He needs a design computer for some of his ideas. I hope this inspires individuals to build something, either for their SG builds, or for their PC. It would be really cool to see something like Nityesh's 81-filar (a work of are in its own right) in oil: http://www.energyscienceforum.com/album.php?albumid=80 It would be nice to see someone springboard from my experience and come up with something better...

                    James
                    Last edited by James_Somewhere_In_Idaho; 12-05-2014, 11:46 PM.
                    Best Regards ~ James, Somewhere In Idaho

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      Here are some links to PCs and systems that inspired my build:

                      https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC9c...BF-6lKW1fHm6uQ

                      https://blog.korelogic.com/blog/2013.../oilcooledgpus

                      http://www.grcooling.com/

                      http://www.midasgreentech.com/

                      http://www.pugetsystems.com/submerged.php

                      http://www.pugetsystems.com/store/in...Computer+Parts

                      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mXSH_hupVcA

                      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rWpyu_lQgx0

                      Anyway...I hope this dispels any mythological thinking that oil submerged PC (or electronic) projects are a risky thing to do...Like to hear what you think.

                      BTW, the Korelogic folks were using the same type GPUs that are in my build...

                      James
                      Best Regards ~ James, Somewhere In Idaho

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