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Aaron1001

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  1. Like
    Aaron1001 got a reaction from EnergyEclipse in Mineral Oil PC Build   
    Oh wow. I haven't been back on the forum in quite awhile. It's super cool to see people take my work and improving on it. I know my build log kind of just ended abruptly (college started), but I did end up finishing the PC, and I've attached a photo of the finished product. I ended up using it for a year but sold it once it became apparent that a gaming laptop is much more suited for the on the road work that I do in college. But for that one year, it was a fantastic beast of a machine to use. 
     
    @DommPaone just a few mistakes I made and that I want to give you a heads up on.
     
    1. acrylic sheet has terrible tolerances from sheet to sheet. make sure the slots are wide enough.
    2. mineral oil dissolves oil-based thermal paste. you will need some liquid metal thermal paste for both your CPU and GPU.
    3. when buying a GPU, have the first fan be as far away from the IO as possible. something like an EVGA card. my Asus card would make splashing sounds if it ramped up to anything more then minimum speed.
    4. get a PSU with an always-on fan. helps with circulation. but make sure the fan blades are below the oil level.
    5. I don't think I specified in the build log, but when the mineral oil goes from the radiator to back into the tank, there is a T coupling + hard tubing that routes the oil back to the front and shoots it through the CPU heatsink and in front of the GPU fans. It's in my CAD files, but the bends are way too tight. it's much better for it to move forward a few inches. 
     
    here is a sheet with some thermal numbers. I personally like to run my PCs a little hotter and quieter, but with a less aggressive OC, the numbers fall drastically.
     
    If anyone has any questions about mineral oil PCs, I'm more then happy to answer them.
     
    I'm super excited to see where you take this project, and wait eagerly to see you finished build!

  2. Like
    Aaron1001 got a reaction from Mutoh in Mineral Oil PC Build   
    Oh wow. I haven't been back on the forum in quite awhile. It's super cool to see people take my work and improving on it. I know my build log kind of just ended abruptly (college started), but I did end up finishing the PC, and I've attached a photo of the finished product. I ended up using it for a year but sold it once it became apparent that a gaming laptop is much more suited for the on the road work that I do in college. But for that one year, it was a fantastic beast of a machine to use. 
     
    @DommPaone just a few mistakes I made and that I want to give you a heads up on.
     
    1. acrylic sheet has terrible tolerances from sheet to sheet. make sure the slots are wide enough.
    2. mineral oil dissolves oil-based thermal paste. you will need some liquid metal thermal paste for both your CPU and GPU.
    3. when buying a GPU, have the first fan be as far away from the IO as possible. something like an EVGA card. my Asus card would make splashing sounds if it ramped up to anything more then minimum speed.
    4. get a PSU with an always-on fan. helps with circulation. but make sure the fan blades are below the oil level.
    5. I don't think I specified in the build log, but when the mineral oil goes from the radiator to back into the tank, there is a T coupling + hard tubing that routes the oil back to the front and shoots it through the CPU heatsink and in front of the GPU fans. It's in my CAD files, but the bends are way too tight. it's much better for it to move forward a few inches. 
     
    here is a sheet with some thermal numbers. I personally like to run my PCs a little hotter and quieter, but with a less aggressive OC, the numbers fall drastically.
     
    If anyone has any questions about mineral oil PCs, I'm more then happy to answer them.
     
    I'm super excited to see where you take this project, and wait eagerly to see you finished build!

  3. Agree
    Aaron1001 got a reaction from AlphaPolack in AMD Zen faster than 6900K in Blender !!?!?   
    I honestly cant tell if you are trolling or if you are serious. But, if you really are serious, I propose a question. Why would they underclock the intel chip and not overclock theirs? If everyone saw a 3.6ghz amd zen beating out a 3.6ghz 6900k, EVERYONE would be losing their shit at how amazing this new chip is. but they didnt. why not?
  4. Like
    Aaron1001 got a reaction from 19_blackie_73 in Custom Mineral Oil PC   
    Hey guys,
     
    This build log is gonna be a bit different from others that you have seen. This is a project that has been in the works for nearly a month now. My custom designed/built mineral oil PC. I’ve documented a bit of the design process here.
     
    SPECS:
     
    Case: Plenn-Plex 7.5 gallon radius aquarium
    Motherboard: ASrock X99 Extreme4 motherboard
    CPU: Intel i7 6800k
    Memory: 2x8GB Kingston HyperX savage
    GPU: NVIDIA GTX 1070
    Storage: 250gb samsung SSD and Seagate 1TB HDD
    PSU: TBD (Thinking about 850g2)
     
    Radiators: 280mm Alphacool radiator
    Fans: TBD
    Pump: swiftech mcp35x
    Fittings: Mostly Alphacool with a few koolance parts in there
    Coolant: mineral oil
     
    Here are all the custom acrylic pieces laid out. Assembling something that you’ve designed yourself is always extremely satisfying and rewarding. But, like I said on my first update, If you do not have someone check your work, there are bound of be mistakes. And sadly, my mistake came very quickly

     
    “Kerf” is the amount of material that is lost when cut by a laser cutter. In my case, I have some test pieces cut out and found that the kerf was .015. A substantial amount. I compensated by making the outside edges .00625 larger, and the inside edges .00625 smaller, for a compensation of .0125. I had hoped that this would create a easier slip fit instead of a friction fit. However, the cut tolerances were not good enough. And when I tried to force the pieces together, not only did they warp out of shape, but they also cracked. A expensive mistake. Every difficult project passes a point where you want to just give up and never look at it again. And for me, this was the point. After nearly a month of design work, it failed. Immediately. However, I was already way too invested in the project to give up, so I chugged forward, just with a lighter wallet.
     
     

    So I remade the parts, and started assembling everything. I decided to use acrylic glue instead of nuts and bolts for aesthetic reasons. But, because the parts don't line up perfectly, there are gaps between the pieces, making it look ugly. However, where they do line up, the joints look very clean and professional. A lot of the mess can also be attributed to my lack of experience gluing acrylic. besides that, here is the frame finished. with the "front" IO as well.

    Lining up the radiators reveals that they do not fit quite right. Which means I need to re cut the mounting systems. At least this is a Inexpensive fix.

    "front" io plate also cracked when i forced the power button in. But it is so small that I can't bring myself to recut it for such a small mistake.

    Now, it is time for the build. I choose the ASrock x99 extreme 4 for three reasons.
    EVGA’s matx board has a oddly lower than normal cpu socket. Which means most large CPU coolers will block the first PCI slot. (WHY would you do this?)
    It was pretty cheap on ebay at only $208
    The black and blue will fit in with my color scheme.

    I choose a 6800k because I found a pretty good deal on ebay at only $385. And since this is not a system that you upgrade often, I believe that a powerful six core processor is the best way to go. It has strong single threaded performance, and as games start to leverage more threads, the CPU will stay competitive. I also work on a lot of CAD, so the extra cores help.

    Normally, with most builds, I would default to a hyper 212 for cost. A noctua nh-u15s for performance, or a noctua nhu-u9s for low profile. But, as much as I love noctua, their coolers just don't look very good. So I went with the thermalright silver arrow ib-e. While it does not look good with fans, it is definitely one of the most beautiful coolers on the market if you want to passively cool your CPU..
    For RAM, I originally wanted to go with g.skill tridentZ. But there were no colors that matched my build. So I went with the hyperX savage as I love it’s aggressive look, and there was a sweet deal on a used set on Amazon.

    It is at this point, after I have assembled everything, that I find out that on the ASrock X99 extreme 4, the ram slots on either side are flipped. WHY would you do this ASrock?! It obviously isn't for cost reasons since they now need 2 different types of ram slots. It won't affect performance or anything, but just doesn't look good unless you have symmetrical ram. Which the savage is not.

    Now with the motherboard mounted in, I can finally see the build coming together.

    @19_blackie_73 asked me to tag him. So there ya go.
  5. Like
    Aaron1001 got a reaction from Heesleemer in Custom Mineral Oil PC   
    I would do that, but the used market for PSU's is all over the place right now. There isnt a single used 550g2 on sale. A used 850 is around the same price as a new 550. And on amazon, a used 1000W G2 is nearly $20 cheaper then a used 850W G2. I would go with the 1000G2 because it's extra length will fill up more space and allow more of the fan to be submerged, if only EVGA didnt use red cables on their GPU power cables.
  6. Like
    Aaron1001 got a reaction from Heesleemer in Custom Mineral Oil PC   
    Update 8/16/16
    Project duration: 27 days.
     
    Got a bunch of work done today, and also got a lot of problems. The tank itself is almost finished, but I still need to buy some components. the most notable of which is the graphics card. (MSI, EVGA, ASUS, if you are reading this *wink wink nudge nudge*). I also found out that the ASrock board that I purchased has bios version 2.0. when I need bios version 3.0 to run my processor. Not too big a deal as I can purchase a new bios chip and sell my old one.
     
    The hard drive mount has been one of the only things that has gone smoothly for the build. It is a bit more wobbly forwards and backwards then I would have liked due to tolerance problems, but i am not too bothered by it.
     

     
    I did find a really asinine flaw in the design. In fact, while I have the rest of the design memorized by heart, I could not for the life of me figure out how to assemble the hard drive lock because of how stupid it is. I must have modeled it pretty late at night to make such a mistake. In order to remove the lock for the drives. While all the screw heads are on the top of the tank, I need to stick a bit inside the tank and unscrew the lock from the bottom. Which is just asking for a screw or bit to fall into the oil.
     

     
    I also finished the hard tubing bends, and I found that I am really really bad at it. I needed around half a meter to make the bends, but I chewed through two and a half meters worth of PETG to get the bends the way i want them. The oddly twisted zip tie on the tube is to keep the tubes parallel to the ground. Something I thought the other three zip ties can accomplish on their own.
     

     
    From the back, the tubes split and bent around to the front, shooting the cooled oil in front of the GPU, where the fans should pull the oil in, and straight through the center of the CPU heat sink. A more elegant, and quieter design then the the linus built in my opinion, where the coolant simply splashed down in between the GPU and CPU heatsinks. Hopefully the flow isn't so strong that it will create a fountain every time I turn the computer on.

     
    Got the radiators mounted on. The super short tubing run required me to screw in the fitting last. A very tedious process. Also found that alphacool radiators do not have 90 degree corners. Not even close. This is down to simple manufacturing tolerances, but one side was so bad, I had to use some paper to space it out to be 90. (no pic. sorry)
     

    I was excited to see the finished loop when I realized that I was one fitting short. A real tragedy.
     

     
    Now all I have to do is get the rest of my parts, and I can finally build the computer. After nearly a month of work, the end is in sight!
     
     



     
  7. Like
    Aaron1001 got a reaction from Nastier in Custom Mineral Oil PC   
    Update 8/16/16
    Project duration: 27 days.
     
    Got a bunch of work done today, and also got a lot of problems. The tank itself is almost finished, but I still need to buy some components. the most notable of which is the graphics card. (MSI, EVGA, ASUS, if you are reading this *wink wink nudge nudge*). I also found out that the ASrock board that I purchased has bios version 2.0. when I need bios version 3.0 to run my processor. Not too big a deal as I can purchase a new bios chip and sell my old one.
     
    The hard drive mount has been one of the only things that has gone smoothly for the build. It is a bit more wobbly forwards and backwards then I would have liked due to tolerance problems, but i am not too bothered by it.
     

     
    I did find a really asinine flaw in the design. In fact, while I have the rest of the design memorized by heart, I could not for the life of me figure out how to assemble the hard drive lock because of how stupid it is. I must have modeled it pretty late at night to make such a mistake. In order to remove the lock for the drives. While all the screw heads are on the top of the tank, I need to stick a bit inside the tank and unscrew the lock from the bottom. Which is just asking for a screw or bit to fall into the oil.
     

     
    I also finished the hard tubing bends, and I found that I am really really bad at it. I needed around half a meter to make the bends, but I chewed through two and a half meters worth of PETG to get the bends the way i want them. The oddly twisted zip tie on the tube is to keep the tubes parallel to the ground. Something I thought the other three zip ties can accomplish on their own.
     

     
    From the back, the tubes split and bent around to the front, shooting the cooled oil in front of the GPU, where the fans should pull the oil in, and straight through the center of the CPU heat sink. A more elegant, and quieter design then the the linus built in my opinion, where the coolant simply splashed down in between the GPU and CPU heatsinks. Hopefully the flow isn't so strong that it will create a fountain every time I turn the computer on.

     
    Got the radiators mounted on. The super short tubing run required me to screw in the fitting last. A very tedious process. Also found that alphacool radiators do not have 90 degree corners. Not even close. This is down to simple manufacturing tolerances, but one side was so bad, I had to use some paper to space it out to be 90. (no pic. sorry)
     

    I was excited to see the finished loop when I realized that I was one fitting short. A real tragedy.
     

     
    Now all I have to do is get the rest of my parts, and I can finally build the computer. After nearly a month of work, the end is in sight!
     
     



     
  8. Like
    Aaron1001 got a reaction from Kampfpudel in Mineral Oil Cooled PC updates   
    Mineral Oil PC update #2:

    What has been done/changes to the design:
    -The design is nearing the final stages now. With only the drive mount, the "front I/O", a couple fittings and screws left unfinished.
     
    -The I/O plate has been expanded to fit the power button as well (I put my computer on the right side, so this makes the switch closer to me), but one of the sata ports have been removed. This was due to cost reasons. The mineral oil part of the project is starting to get more expensive then I would like. So some corners have been cut. The 2 USB 3.0 ports will still be there, however, I have not received it yet. so I can not CAD the mounting points.
     
    -The thickness of the Acrylic has been lowered as well due to cost reasons. Now, most of the Acrylic is 0.236 instead of the original 0.3125
     
    -The radiators have been lowered so the 90 degree fitting on the top plate matches up perfectly with the straight fitting on the radiator. 
     
    -The spacing between the pump and motherboard has been increased.
     
    -Now supports GPUs up to 12.475in without the rocks.
     
    -The location where the mineral oil from the radiators enter the tank has moved from the front, in between the GPU and CPU heat sinks, to the back, behind the motherboard tray. From there, the oil goes down more soft tubing and enters a T where it is split into two hard pipes. The tubes are bent so the cool oil will shoot in front of the GPU fans, and through the CPU heat sink. The total area of the two pipes are a little bit over double the area of the soft tubing, so it should still exit relatively forcefully. Hopefully, it does not create any splashing on top. This addition by itself costs $60 and is the reason why i had to cut back on other parts. 
     
    General Updates:
     
    -I've brought all of the cooling parts, and am now scouring ebay for good deals on components. Got a 6800k for $382. A pretty good deal.
     
    -Need to buy and cut the Acrylic. Which will happen in the next few days. The acrylic looks to be around $50, and the Laser cutting will be around $75. If anyone in SF has a laser cutter that i can use for free, I would be extremely grateful.
     
    -As of now, it seems like the project will be finished around the 19th. Assuming I can find the PC parts i need.
     
    -you can view a 3D model of the design at the link on my first post.
     
    A quick bit of simple physics:
    Q=(KA(Thot-Tcold)t)/d
    Q=((1.1)(.5)(35-15)(1))/.2
    Q=55
     
    If the oil is at 35 degrees, and the ambient is 15 degrees. I can expect to dissipate around 55 watts of energy simply from the surface area of the tank. According to AnandTech, the idle power draw of a 6800k in a system similar to mine is around 110. So my system will overwhelm the passive cooling of the tank. I do not know what the number will be if I let the pump run slowly. but I do know from experience that a horizontal 280mm rad is enough to passively cool a overclocked 4790k when doing simple tasks like web browsing.
     
    similarly
    Q=(KA(Thot-Tcold)t)/d
    110=((1.1)(.5)(Thot-15)(1))/.2
    Thot==51.4 degrees
     
    So if I let the oil reach 52 degrees, it should be enough to passively cool my system. Though I probably wont let it get that high as any load will make the temps spike up.
     
     
     
  9. Like
    Aaron1001 got a reaction from vorticalbox in Custom Mineral Oil PC   
    didnt stop this guy
  10. Informative
    Aaron1001 got a reaction from Kraxelaxel in Mineral Oil Cooled PC updates   
    Mineral Oil PC update #2:

    What has been done/changes to the design:
    -The design is nearing the final stages now. With only the drive mount, the "front I/O", a couple fittings and screws left unfinished.
     
    -The I/O plate has been expanded to fit the power button as well (I put my computer on the right side, so this makes the switch closer to me), but one of the sata ports have been removed. This was due to cost reasons. The mineral oil part of the project is starting to get more expensive then I would like. So some corners have been cut. The 2 USB 3.0 ports will still be there, however, I have not received it yet. so I can not CAD the mounting points.
     
    -The thickness of the Acrylic has been lowered as well due to cost reasons. Now, most of the Acrylic is 0.236 instead of the original 0.3125
     
    -The radiators have been lowered so the 90 degree fitting on the top plate matches up perfectly with the straight fitting on the radiator. 
     
    -The spacing between the pump and motherboard has been increased.
     
    -Now supports GPUs up to 12.475in without the rocks.
     
    -The location where the mineral oil from the radiators enter the tank has moved from the front, in between the GPU and CPU heat sinks, to the back, behind the motherboard tray. From there, the oil goes down more soft tubing and enters a T where it is split into two hard pipes. The tubes are bent so the cool oil will shoot in front of the GPU fans, and through the CPU heat sink. The total area of the two pipes are a little bit over double the area of the soft tubing, so it should still exit relatively forcefully. Hopefully, it does not create any splashing on top. This addition by itself costs $60 and is the reason why i had to cut back on other parts. 
     
    General Updates:
     
    -I've brought all of the cooling parts, and am now scouring ebay for good deals on components. Got a 6800k for $382. A pretty good deal.
     
    -Need to buy and cut the Acrylic. Which will happen in the next few days. The acrylic looks to be around $50, and the Laser cutting will be around $75. If anyone in SF has a laser cutter that i can use for free, I would be extremely grateful.
     
    -As of now, it seems like the project will be finished around the 19th. Assuming I can find the PC parts i need.
     
    -you can view a 3D model of the design at the link on my first post.
     
    A quick bit of simple physics:
    Q=(KA(Thot-Tcold)t)/d
    Q=((1.1)(.5)(35-15)(1))/.2
    Q=55
     
    If the oil is at 35 degrees, and the ambient is 15 degrees. I can expect to dissipate around 55 watts of energy simply from the surface area of the tank. According to AnandTech, the idle power draw of a 6800k in a system similar to mine is around 110. So my system will overwhelm the passive cooling of the tank. I do not know what the number will be if I let the pump run slowly. but I do know from experience that a horizontal 280mm rad is enough to passively cool a overclocked 4790k when doing simple tasks like web browsing.
     
    similarly
    Q=(KA(Thot-Tcold)t)/d
    110=((1.1)(.5)(Thot-15)(1))/.2
    Thot==51.4 degrees
     
    So if I let the oil reach 52 degrees, it should be enough to passively cool my system. Though I probably wont let it get that high as any load will make the temps spike up.
     
     
     
  11. Like
    Aaron1001 got a reaction from Kampfpudel in Mineral Oil Cooled PC updates   
    INTRO:
     
    Nearly two years ago, I was inspired by Linus and Luke's build log of their mineral oil PC from Puget Systems. Sure, it isn't very practical. Sure, it is a pain in the ass to maintain. Sure, it weighs over twice as much as any other system, but I couldn't deny that it was, and still is, the coolest PC that I have ever seen. But, two years ago, I did not have the necessary skills, time, or money to design and build something of that caliber. But now that it is summer, and I have another month and a half to kill before college starts, I decide to tackle this build. 
     
    DESIGN CHANGES:
     

     
    Now, seeing that Puget Systems no longer sells their matx v2 mineral oil PC  kit, I had no choice but to design my own. Which means I also get to change some aspects of their design that I did not agree with.
     
    -No space for 3.5in HDD: (not in design yet) There is absolutely no reason to not put a mount for 3.5in drives. Especially since there is ample space on top for one. While the HDD mount is not in the design yet, this design should be able to support 1-2 3.5in drives.
    -Dual 240mm radiators instead of dual 280: Yes. I understand that the Puget systems version supports a 3x3 array of 120mm radiators. But, in my opinion, it looks hideous; and that just wouldn't work for a build like this. A simple spacing change for the radiator mounting system allows for dual 280 radiators.
    -The Computer is .3125in taller then it has to be: By shifting the I/O plate up to mount on top, I save .3125in in height. It does make installation of the GPU harder, and you need a extra acrylic piece. But you are not upgrading this system any time soon, so a little bit of hassle during the build is no problem.
    -The First PCI Slot is blocked: Part of this is due to the EVGA board's CPU socket being abnormally close to the PCI slots. But, if the board was now switched to something like a ASRock x99M board, the CPU Cooler will hit the Pump. To fix this, I moved the pump to the back of the motherboard. I do loose the flow it provides around the CPU heat sink, but my hope is that because it will now draw in oil around the motherboard tray and motherboard, it will lead to a more even spread of heat. 
    -The way the lid is centered: It's just ugly. I'm sorry, sue me. I like their matx v1 design much more. so I use bolts and slots so the lid remains flush.
    -Lack of I/O: (Not in design yet): 1 molex and 1 esata is a horrible waste of the board's other headers. There is more then enough space for 1 molex, 2 esata, 2 USB 3.0 and 2 fan headers.
    -Small handles: This is mostly for people with larger hands, like me. No reason not to put a 3.5in handle there.
    -Other changes: A few structural changes. larger bolts for handles, thicker acrylic... probably a few more things I forgot.
     
    PARTS:
     
    CPU: 6800k
    GPU: MSI 1070 (the black and white one)
    MOBO: ASRock x99m matx (the black and blue one)
    PSU: EVGA Supernova 750w
    Heat sink: Thermalright sinver arrow ib-e
    RAM: 16 gb of Trident Z (silver/black)
     
    Google Sheet of all the parts.
     
    -"case": Penn-Plex Radius 7.5 GAL tank. This tank is shorter, deeper and thinner then the custom case Puget uses. Basically, it is smaller in all the wrong dimensions, and larger in the useless ones. The shortness is the reason for all the standoffs. or else i cant put any rocks on the bottom.
     
    THE DESIGN:
    A 3D view of the current design
     
    As I have learned time and time again, if one person designs something, there is bound to be mistakes in the design. So I would be very grateful if the LTT community can take a quick look at the design, give me some constructive criticism, and tell me what aspects of it I can change for the better.
     
    Does anyone have any cheaper alternatives the stuff on the list? The high price makes me cry on the inside.
     
    If anyone is willing to sell me old water-cooling hardware, that would be amazing.
     
    - I will be updating the design nightly, so you can click on that same link to see my progress.
     
     
     
     
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