Stock CPU Fan failing in Oil Cooled Machine

[Angry Postman]

Well @Stefan1024 I have some good news about that. I've been running it all day now watching X-Files and what not and the oil hasn't climbed above 29 degrees And I'm in Africa! 

 

I finally got the extensions for the fans and soldered them on so they're both running on the radiator now. All systems are working which just leaves actually putting this whole contraption in with the fish. 

 

Also I've found numerous sites that say a good temp for Pigeon Blood Discus fish like I have is 30 degrees. 

 

Everything is lining up perfectly!

[Stefan1024]

Very nice to see it works!

And you can allways switch to "Cyprinodon macularius". They are fine up to 45°C

[Angry Postman]

It's in! Getting oil temps up to 34 playing YouTube. Sits at 29 running Kodi. Water temperature seams completely unaffected! Weird... 

 

Fish seem very happy (probably due to the partial water change). They're all swimming about happily. 

 

Only problem is my USB header cable for the front panel came loose! I'm really tired of being full of oil and sliding all over the place. But it just needs to be plugged back in... At the bottom of the motherboard... Halfway down the oil tank... Sigh... 

 

I'm going to post a video soon. 

[Stefan1024]

Linus thougth it's impossible to pull that off, but you did! Great work.
If you like make a build log about it in the build log subforum. I guess a lot of people are interested and you can coppy / past a lot from this thread.

[Angry Postman]

1 minute ago, Stefan1024 said:

make a build log about it in the build log subforum

Well there's an idea!!  I'll explore that option.  By the way, I'm getting temps of between 24 - 29 with the oil now that everything has equalized.

 

Still gotta plug that damned USB nonsense back in!

[0ld_Chicken]

23 hours ago, Angry Postman said:

It's in! Getting oil temps up to 34 playing YouTube. Sits at 29 running Kodi. Water temperature seams completely unaffected! Weird... 

 

Fish seem very happy (probably due to the partial water change). They're all swimming about happily. 

 

Only problem is my USB header cable for the front panel came loose! I'm really tired of being full of oil and sliding all over the place. But it just needs to be plugged back in... At the bottom of the motherboard... Halfway down the oil tank... Sigh... 

 

I'm going to post a video soon. 

This is great, nicely done!  I've always wanted to do a mineral oil build but I'll probably just keep admiring them online since they're such a mess

[Stefan1024]

20 hours ago, Angry Postman said:

Well there's an idea!!  I'll explore that option.  By the way, I'm getting temps of between 24 - 29 with the oil now that everything has equalized.

 

Still gotta plug that damned USB nonsense back in!

What is the viscosity of the oil you used?

[Angry Postman]

2 hours ago, Stefan1024 said:

viscosity of the oil you used?

I think it's a 12 centistokes.  Very light, not quite maple syrup thick but close to water.

 

The exact product is called:  Poweroil TO 1020 (60U) from Engen.

 

Cost me roughly R400 for 20 liters.  That's the smallest they sell.  At the current ZAR/USD exchange rate that would be $22.84 for the whole barrel.

[Stefan1024]

18 minutes ago, Angry Postman said:

I think it's a 12 centistokes.  Very light, not quite maple syrup thick but close to water.

 

The exact product is called:  Poweroil TO 1020 (60U) from Engen.

 

Cost me roughly R400 for 20 liters.  That's the smallest they sell.  At the current ZAR/USD exchange rate that would be $22.84 for the whole barrel.

 

Here oil like this is about 3 times more expenisve.

I will look for ~100 cSt.

[Angry Postman]

@Stefan1024 Perhaps try hunting for "transformer oil".  This is the advice that lead me to this specific oil type and supplier.  Maybe you can find yourself a local supplier that could organise it for you cheaper?

[Stefan1024]

1 minute ago, Angry Postman said:

@Stefan1024 Perhaps try hunting for "transformer oil".  This is the advice that lead me to this specific oil type and supplier.  Maybe you can find yourself a local supplier that could organise it for you cheaper?

I will have a look. Silicone oil would be perfect, but it costs about 10$ / liter

[Angry Postman]

@Stefan1024 I've never heard of Silicone oil.  So you're after the thicker type?  This is for your passively cooled machine isn't it?  Are you hoping the heat dissipates without relying on the oil moving about too much?

[Stefan1024]

13 minutes ago, Angry Postman said:

@Stefan1024

 

[Stefan1024]

Hmmmm on the phone the forum is so buggy :(

 

yes it's for the passive PC, but it will have two fans inside to shuffle the oil.I'm looking for this oil because it does not disolve rubber. Also you can get 50 000 cSt oil.

 

 

 

 

 

[Angry Postman]

I've hit SMALL snag.  Those bubbles that I mentioned earlier are proving to be more of a problem than I thought.  That combined with the condensation is causing small "bubbles" of water to enter the oil tank.  They are actually water bubbles in oil.  Like air bubbles in water.  Very fascinating!

 

GASP SHOCK AND HORROR!

 

The machine still runs perfectly fine.  I'm assuming that the oil is insulating the electronics from the smaller water bubbles that are getting into the system (lucky me again), and that due to the properties of surface tension, the water isn't actually making contact with the electronics.  I actually used a braai tongs to push a small water bubble I found just chilling on one of the RAM DIMMs.  What a laugh I had.  While I was at it I re-connected that pesky USB header and me and my hair are full of oil again.

 

Begin the cleanse dear brother, be clean for mother...

 

Once I've got a bit more money laying about I'm going to design and have fabricated a lid that will cover the top of the oil tank with a wide enough lid to stop the little bit of water getting in.  Rather be safe than sorry.

 

For now I'm keeping the top open so no more condensation can drip into the oil.

 

 

The fish seem quite happy.  They're very active tonight.  I've moved my media drive into the cupboard under the tank and the USB cable is fantastically long enough to reach.  I'm downloading a large file so I can test file transfers through the network through a USB 3.0 connection.  Previously the HDD was connected to my main computer via USB 2.0 which will be interesting to see where the bottleneck is this time - be it network, or HDD speeds.

 

Speed Test Edit:

 

So I did the speed test on a 2 gig file.  I'm STILL getting about 30 meg a second according to windows from my main machine to the fish tank media library drive.  From the media drive to the SDD however I'm getting close to 90 meg a second.  So it's either the network that's the bottleneck or my terribly old main PC with its VERY old hardware.  Either way I'll no longer have complaints from my friends when they want to copy stuff from my media drive

Edited February 9, 2016 by Angry Postman
Because grammar nazi. And transfer speed update.

[Angry Postman]

Today the fish tank refused to start.  I get NO visual, the mobo has no post codes for me to look at and I don't have a PC Speaker installed; I mean why would I put a PC Speaker IN oil.  HAHA!

 

Basically it would power for about ten seconds, power off and power on again to repeat the cycle.  Completely baffled and VERY disappointed in myself I assume the worst and decided I've properly broken it with the few water bubbles that got in.

 

I remember that in the loft I have an OLD machine laying about with a PC Speaker.  All hope is not lost!  I then go about modding this little PC speaker to live outside the tank.

 

 

After I plugged it in with great difficulty using some braai tongs I turned it on...

 

BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP...  Non stop.

 

I hunt for the beep codes and I finally find it... I think... It uses an Award BIOS as far as I know and the continuous beeps mean badly seated memory.  I will admit with all my fiddling I have bumped the memory numerous times.  This is going to be a MISSION to remove and re-seat because, as we all know, memory requires a bit of pressure to click in.  I'll update when I get around to it.

 

EDIT:

 

I was wrong.  It's an AMI UEFI BIOS and continuous beeps mean bad PSU.  DAMN the water did bugger it up!  This is going to be harder than I thought.  I'm going to drain it so I can reach inside and borrow a PSU from somewhere to test...

 

Edited February 15, 2016 by Angry Postman
Found out the actual BIOS type.

[Stefan1024]

And once more you had to cover yourself in oil.

This advise me to do very good testing before filling the box with oil.

 

[Angry Postman]

@Stefan1024 do you think this machine can live without a heat sink? I'm tempted to take it out so I can fit my hands in to reach the RAM. 

Edited February 16, 2016 by Angry Postman
Because spelling.

[Stefan1024]

You have a 84 watt CPU so you need the surface area of the heat sink. But you can take off the fan as it doesn't spinn anyway.

[Angry Postman]

@Stefan1024 I hope I don't pop it I've drained it plenty now so while I'm here I'm going to test the PSU. I don't think the heat sink will stay without the fan. I'll put it back after. 

 

 

[Stefan1024]

If you runn a stress test with this oil level your CPU won't like it ;)

[Angry Postman]

Haha! Well, diagnostic update @Stefan1024 I've discovered some thermal paste has leaked onto the RAM. But that doesn't conduct electricity... 

 

 

So now I'm wondering if the heat sink was doing anything at all. 

 

Once the power comes back (we've had a power failure and it's 22h20!) I'm going to do some tests on the PSU, and clean and reseat the RAM. 

Edited February 16, 2016 by Angry Postman
Autocorrelation.

[Angry Postman]

It was RAM!!  Thank the Flying Spaghetti Monster I've been touched by his noodley appendage!

 

I took one stick out (Sans heat sink) hit power and it posted, no beeps, and up comes the windows logo and I power down.  This thing boots FAST by the way, about four seconds...

 

I sat and cleaned the RAM like you would a new born and then put it back making sure to seat it properly.  I also took the time to wiggle some things back into place and put the thermometer into a good spot since it fell.  I booted again still sans heat sink and it was too quick for me and got into windows.  The background was buggered up and I started seeing flickering before it registered that I wanted to power it off.

 

So here I sit refilling it with oil VERY slowly using an air line, bucket of oil, and gravity.  Once it gets to a good level I'll start putting water back into the tank so I can run the fish pump again.  Shame they've been so patient with me.  I'll reward them with some blood worms tomorrow.

 

I'm going to give it a go without the fan and heat sink and let the cold oil from the radiator flow directly onto the CPU.  Let's see what happens!

 

EDIT:

 

So that one RAM module that was causing issues is dead.  Windows is reporting 4 gig RAM.  I may be able to live with four gig.  Maybe the other module will "wake up" one day.  We'll see.

 

I'm still without a heat sink and fan and the CPU temps seem to be varying wildly now.  But overall the oil is still about 1 to 2 degrees higher than the water.  So it SEEMS fine.  Let's see how it goes.  I'm going to watch some stuff to run it in it's normal usage to gauge if I need to put the heat sink back on or not; I've cut the actual fan part off since it wasn't actually doing anything but get in the way.  Broke it a bit, but it's late at night and I've had couple to drink... so my bad

Edited February 16, 2016 by Angry Postman
I has a sad.

[Angry Postman]

More Updates!  I'm coming to the end of this "diary" now, just RAM I need to fix (I think).

 

I finally found the time to take the dead DIMM out and put in the old heat sink (Had to buy some thermal paste first).  You HAVE to see the temperature graph.  It's very interesting, well to me anyway!

 

Once I had removed the dead RAM DIMM and put the heat sink back on I ran a small stress test (About a minute) with the oil drained down to the DIMMs and the heat climbed very quickly to almost 70 degrees as you can see in the first test at 17:11 so I stopped that without hesitation.  I then starting siphoning the oil back in over about half an hour and you can see the temps dropped slowly but significantly (Cold oil will do that).  Then before the second test you'll see a dip in temperature on the motherboard where I just dumped the last bit of oil in.  I then ran a new stress tests for a fair bit longer and it peaked at around 57 degrees!

 

Now that everything is back where it belongs the temps have averaged out to about 33 degrees (Mobo, CPU, and HDD) and there isn't much fluctuation when I'm watching movies or YouTube at all.

 

I'm going to take that dead DIMM in to have it tested an perhaps replaced because there is definitely a SMALL dip in FPS when running Kodi and flicking through the thumbnails.  So for now that's going to be a process of elimination to see where the performance dip has come from.

 

Here's something even cooler for a proper 3D geek like me.  Have a look at this photo and pay special attention to the inflow pipe at the top.  Sorry, ignore the fish, they're very inquisitive.

 

 

See the refraction?  The different temperature of oil seems to refract light at a different IOR.  I'm looking at it now from my couch and I can see it!  VERY COOL

[LukaH]

just dropping by because the name of the topic is an attraction  

 

cool project you got there. Anyway I wanted to say that the oil will not break your fans it actually lubricates them so they are actually running better. Which I think Linus mentioned in the oil cooled PC build guide.