Mineral oil build by Linus and Luke

[StrawberryShortCakes]

I just finished watching the mineral oil rebuild vid, I'm not sure what oil they were using but that was an interesting build.

Questions :

How long can a system last for that kind of build? 

How much will it cost to do a build like that? 

Can you use a fish tank as the case? 

 

[Bombastinator]

55 minutes ago, StrawberryShortCakes said:

I just finished watching the mineral oil rebuild vid, I'm not sure what oil they were using but that was an interesting build.

Questions :

How long can a system last for that kind of build? 

How much will it cost to do a build like that? 

Can you use a fish tank as the case? 

 

You mean what brand?  You said “mineral oil” yourself.  The attempt as I understand it is to get the mineral oil with the lowest sulphur content possible.  
 

mineral oil PCs usually last until the sulphur turns the plastic brittle.  Or someone breaks the aquarium (ugh) They generally become useless due to technology improvement before that.  The biggest problem with the things is they’re supernaturally messy, are still noisey because they don’t have enough surface area to get rid of heat so they still need pumps and fans, and if a part goes bad it’s sheer hell (see messy).  It’s a largely abandoned technology.  Attempts have been made a phase change liquids that do similar things but move heat better.  There have been problems.  One of them worked great but was insanely poisonous.  What is needed is a liquid that is inert electrically and towards components (something that was hoped for with mineral oil but turned out to not quite be the case long term) has good thermal performance and preferably is safe to be around and easy to clean.

 

Ive sometimes wondered about the possibility of low pressure (below ambient) distilled water myself.  That it hasn’t been tried afaik implies it has serious problems.

 

Its a fantastically promising technology from which the bugs have not been worked out.

 

another thought is to use mineral oil that has undergone extreme desulpherization.  One would have to do the same sort of thing as is done with anhydrous alcohol.  To get the last fraction of 1% of water out the alcohol is put into a tank with a special kind of clay that absorbs water and left there for a while.   Some sort of sacrificial anode to collect the sulphur might also be possible.

 

[Letgomyleghoe]

38 minutes ago, Bombastinator said:

ve sometimes wondered about the possibility of low pressure (below ambient) distilled water myself.  That it hasn’t been tried afaik implies it has serious problems.

De ionized water is a tricky one, still creates rust, I don’t know how it would work with cold water, but it would be interesting.

[Bombastinator]

Just now, Letgomyleghoe said:

De ionized water is a tricky one, still creates rust, I don’t know how it would work with cold water, but it would be interesting.

Not cold.  Low pressure.  The same stuff they use in heat pipes.  I understand the general method for making heat pipes is boil the water in the pipe, close the pipe, and let it cool.  Reduces the boiling point.  Low pressure water might still conduct electricity or rust like mad or something for all I know.  That it isn’t done implies there’s a big problem.  

[StrawberryShortCakes]

7 hours ago, Letgomyleghoe said:

De ionized water is a tricky one, still creates rust, I don’t know how it would work with cold water, but it would be interesting.

 

7 hours ago, Bombastinator said:

Not cold.  Low pressure.  The same stuff they use in heat pipes.  I understand the general method for making heat pipes is boil the water in the pipe, close the pipe, and let it cool.  Reduces the boiling point.  Low pressure water might still conduct electricity or rust like mad or something for all I know.  That it isn’t done implies there’s a big problem.  

I was thinking of doing a mineral oil build but after listening to Bombastinator I'm thinking twice. But what the LTT team did was a truly interesting system, as for de-ionized water it is possible but I don't think anyone can afford it at this phase. Sweden medical technology has a de-ionizer that they use for treatment for radiation, which is about the size of an office. Let's just hope someone else can shrink it to a size smaller then a three musketeers bar lol. 

[Bombastinator]

7 minutes ago, StrawberryShortCakes said:

 

I was thinking of doing a mineral oil build but after listening to Bombastinator I'm thinking twice. But what the LTT team did was a truly interesting system, as for de-ionized water it is possible but I don't think anyone can afford it at this phase. Sweden medical technology has a de-ionizer that they use for treatment for radiation, which is about the size of an office. Let's just hope someone else can shrink it to a size smaller then a three musketeers bar lol. 

Meh.  A kettle does it fine.  Boil water, collect the steam, turn it back into water.  Boom.

 

the huge problem worn mineral oil builds is what do you do with the thing once you’ve made it.  It’s fragile and incredibly heavy, and it’s filled with gallons and gallons of stuff that can’t just go down the drain.  When you make them they’re great.  It’s 5 years later that you pay.

[StrawberryShortCakes]

8 minutes ago, Bombastinator said:

Meh.  A kettle does it fine.  Boil water, collect the steam, turn it back into water.  Boom.

 

the huge problem worn mineral oil builds is what do you do with the thing once you’ve made it.  It’s fragile and incredibly heavy, and it’s filled with gallons and gallons of stuff that can’t just go down the drain.  When you make them they’re great.  It’s 5 years later that you pay.

Yeah, plus to recycle the oil in Singapore it'll cost $60 sgd per litre. I'm paying to put it in and paying to take it out too. 

[SteelerPhan]

On 7/10/2020 at 10:17 PM, StrawberryShortCakes said:

 

I was thinking of doing a mineral oil build but after listening to Bombastinator I'm thinking twice. But what the LTT team did was a truly interesting system, as for de-ionized water it is possible but I don't think anyone can afford it at this phase. Sweden medical technology has a de-ionizer that they use for treatment for radiation, which is about the size of an office. Let's just hope someone else can shrink it to a size smaller then a three musketeers bar lol. 

I built one with old parts I couldn't get rid of -- an i7-2600K, P8P67 Deluxe, and two XFX R7800's. I threw in a cheap PNY 500GB SSD, an old EVGA 500W PSU, and two cheap 80mm fans to move the oil around. It's all in a 10 gallon aquarium. I also hooked up an ESP8266 to an 8x8 LED Matrix powered by one of the USB headers and put them behind the board so the light show shines around the board. Even without a radiator cooling the oil, I've had had absolutely no problems with it for the past 11 months. If my son plays any of his games (Fortnite, etc.) for more than an hour or two the CPU and oil reach the low to mid 70s. My son wants to replace the 2600k with a 3770k and the GPUs with a R9 390 from another old system. if we do, I'm probably going to have to find a way to cool the oil. It's an awesome conversation piece. Everyone who comes over is amazed by it. I love it.

[Bombastinator]

16 minutes ago, SteelerPhan said:

I built one with old parts I couldn't get rid of -- an i7-2600K, P8P67 Deluxe, and two XFX R7800's. I threw in a cheap PNY 500GB SSD, an old EVGA 500W PSU, and two cheap 80mm fans to move the oil around. It's all in a 10 gallon aquarium. I also hooked up an ESP8266 to an 8x8 LED Matrix powered by one of the USB headers and put them behind the board so the light show shines around the board. Even without a radiator cooling the oil, I've had had absolutely no problems with it for the past 11 months. If my son plays any of his games (Fortnite, etc.) for more than an hour or two the CPU and oil reach the low to mid 70s. My son wants to replace the 2600k with a 3770k and the GPUs with a R9 390 from another old system. if we do, I'm probably going to have to find a way to cool the oil. It's an awesome conversation piece. Everyone who comes over is amazed by it. I love it.

They’re great until you have to move.  Or they leak.  Start drip drying the parts a month ahead of time

[Tostr4]

The problem you'll encounter with distilled water, even at low pressure, that at some point minerals will dissolve enough to turn you distilled water into regular tap water and create a conduit between data lines. These minerals are on your mobo, components, solderings, etc. 
I don't feel like trying, but i assume your electrical insulating distilled water will last somewhere between seconds and weeks before it will create a short between some data lines, or most likely your 110-230V power inlet.