Questions about Custom Loops and Mineral Oil

[RzarEater]

So a friend of mine threw out an idea to instead use mineral oil in a custom loop instead of deionized water, so in the event of a leak, the mineral oil won't short out the computer.  However in my short amount of research it appears as though mineral oil dissolves copper.  I cannot find anything that says that mineral oil dissolves Aluminum.  I also do not know if mineral oil would cause any issues with tubing of any variety. 

 

Has anyone else looked into this situation and know if this is a possibility or not?

[DildorTheDecent]

So a friend of mine threw out an idea to instead use mineral oil in a custom loop instead of deionized water, so in the event of a leak, the mineral oil won't short out the computer.  However in my short amount of research it appears as though mineral oil dissolves copper.  I cannot find anything that says that mineral oil dissolves Aluminum.  I also do not know if mineral oil would cause any issues with tubing of any variety. 

 

Has anyone else looked into this situation and know if this is a possibility or not?

Mineral oil is thicker than water i think. So the pump will have a harder time pushing it around. 

[Enderman]

The mineral oil would damage the pump because it has a much higher viscosity. It would also not move fast enough to offer good cooling.

[W-L]

So a friend of mine threw out an idea to instead use mineral oil in a custom loop instead of deionized water, so in the event of a leak, the mineral oil won't short out the computer.  However in my short amount of research it appears as though mineral oil dissolves copper.  I cannot find anything that says that mineral oil dissolves Aluminum.  I also do not know if mineral oil would cause any issues with tubing of any variety. 

 

Has anyone else looked into this situation and know if this is a possibility or not?

 

It'd perform worst than water since water has a higher heat capacity or ability to absorb more and transfer heat away from the waterblocks into the radiators, and I'm pretty sure mineral oil is inert to metals since they fill transformers full of that stuff as a cooling fluid. In most situations once you build a loop and it is leak tested without issues it won't readily fail or leak, usually a seal or O-ring goes over time and by then it's a regular maintenance that should be double checked when changing fluids.

[Grrizz]

It is as W-L says, basically the only advantage mineral oil has is its non-conductivity but if you take care when setting up a cooling loop and test it properly it'll be very unlikely you'll experience a leak. Mineral oil is also relatively expensive, especially compared to water Most WC pumps wont have a problem with it though as its not that much more viscous then water. Basically its cool looking for submersion and can give you peace of mind/ease of use in places like server farms but it's not at all practical from a performance/cost standpoint.

[RzarEater]

@W-L @Grrizz

 

Thanks for the opinions.  I probably wouldn't do something like this myself, I was just curious about the feasibility of this situation.  Sounds not very feasible or at least not reasonable.