Author Topic: Using a oil in your PC cooling system (Read 3521 times)

bork · « **on:** March 11, 2011, 04:48:55 PM »

WARNING !!!

Unless the tubing is designed to work with oil, the tubing could fail. Did a little looking around ->

Tygon Laboratory Tubing R-3603
Handles inorganic chemicals, not recommended for oil. On a 1 to 4 scale (1: excellent; 4: not recommended), mineral oil rates a 3. http://www.postnova.com/content/english/products/ismatec/ChemCompatibility.pdf

Nalgene180 PVC Clear Tubing (Feser Tube)
Hydrocarbon rating is depending on the type of fluid is ether do not use or it is effected by the fluid after 7 days of constant exposure. http://www.nalgenelabware.com/pdf/NalgenePlasticsTechGuide0209.pdf.
(page 39)

If you are going to run a organic fluid, I think Excelon GO-1480 would be a better tube to use. Trying to find it in units of less than 50ft is going to be a problem though, will look around to see if its sold in small lengths.
http://www.thermoplasticprocesses.com/pdfs/tpi-go1480.pdf

1000mAh · « **Reply #1 on:** March 11, 2011, 05:38:10 PM »

So wtf is the idea?? Who doesn't know that already??

bork · « **Reply #2 on:** March 11, 2011, 05:54:25 PM »

Nice response.

Some people do not know and will try it because they heard about some talking about it. Not everyone will research what can and cannot be done. I just looked up the two common types of tubing that are used in most cooling systems and pointed out that both are only suitable with water base cooling.

halfelite · « **Reply #3 on:** March 11, 2011, 06:53:51 PM »

I have to say im sure most people would know that would use it. Your standard water pump would not work either.. Is this something you run bork? always wanted to see what oil people used. I always kept to water myself but was tempted at one point to try transformer oil.

kitamesume · « **Reply #4 on:** March 11, 2011, 06:54:16 PM »

ohh so this is where my oil post went, ohh well, meh, i got a classmate daring enough to submerge his whole motherboard(including the GPU,CPU and RAM)but the HDDs outside.

temps went lower but not that low, he said only by about 2-4C

Quote from: halfelite on March 11, 2011, 06:53:51 PM

I have to say im sure most people would know that would use it. Your standard water pump would not work either.. Is this something you run bork? always wanted to see what oil people used. I always kept to water myself but was tempted at one point to try transformer oil.

car engine oil works fine, and standard water pump will work but not all of them.

SupraGuy · « **Reply #5 on:** March 11, 2011, 07:22:49 PM »

There is a good reason why car engines don't use oil in the cooling system.

Think about it. oil seems to provide some obvious advantages. It doesn't freeze, won't boil until MUCH hotter than the engine shoud ever get. Doesn't store oxygen to rust the insides of your engine block, nor does it conduct electricity to have problems with copper/aluminum/iron galvanic transfers, it inherently lubricates moving parts, and on top of all that, it's even lighter than water... And yet the preferred coolant is still water. Why is that? Simple. Because water can hold and transfer larger quantities of thermal enegry faster, so it's a more efficient coolant.

Oil may be superior to air, but would still be inferior to water. The only inportant downside to water is what happens if it leaks, but I believe that with reasonable precautions, that's unlikely to be a big deal.

kitamesume · « **Reply #6 on:** March 11, 2011, 07:59:18 PM »

the reason why we were talking about oil cooling on a pc to begin with is because of leaks, and the reason why car engines work with water as coolant is because it can be wet with water to begin with, unlike a pc when wet, will go up in smokes.

zat0x91 · « **Reply #7 on:** March 11, 2011, 08:39:43 PM »

Quote from: bork on March 11, 2011, 05:54:25 PM

Nice response.

Some people do not know and will try it because they heard about some talking about it. Not everyone will research what can and cannot be done. I just looked up the two common types of tubing that are used in most cooling systems and pointed out that both are only suitable with water base cooling.

Why would you even bother with oil for cooling? You can't run it through a radiator and when running higher end components, it'll just overheat.

Hell, just a single radiator with a silent fan, decent cpu waterblock, and a low powered pump will out perform it easily. High end air coolers like Thermalright will probably do better than low end watercooling kits and obviously oil cooling.

Quote from: kitamesume on March 11, 2011, 07:59:18 PM

the reason why we were talking about oil cooling on a pc to begin with is because of leaks

That's why you leak test your computer without it running (jump start psu through paperclip + 24pin for the pump) for at least 48 hours if not more.

Leaks don't magically happen unless you're using terrible compression fittings like Thermaltake or you're feeling risky and run your loop without any clamps. People have done it successfully for long periods of time and still haven't had a leak; you better hope you don't have any sharp turns with your tubing.

You should be running distilled water in your loop with maybe some biocide or silver coil if you don't want bacteria and shit growing in there or you can waste $20 for a bottle of coolant that you're going to be replacing in 6-8 months. So say it gets on your video card, you can just shut off everything immediately, soak it in alcohol and dry it out. There's been numerous amounts of people who have done that with success.

The "danger" of watercooling is greatly exaggerated; it just requires fucking research to be done before hand. Xtremesystems has an amazing watercooling section that I've looked at for the past four years.

Lupin · « **Reply #8 on:** March 12, 2011, 05:30:20 PM »

Quote from: kitamesume on March 11, 2011, 07:59:18 PM

the reason why we were talking about oil cooling on a pc to begin with is because of leaks, and the reason why car engines work with water as coolant is because it can be wet with water to begin with, unlike a pc when wet, will go up in smokes.

Pure water doesn't conduct so nothing get shorted. Submerging your PC in anything with impurities will short components.

rostheferret · « **Reply #9 on:** March 12, 2011, 06:35:55 PM »

I remember once helping a friend run a cooling system using vegetable oil. Didn't work so well. We burnt the chips in the oil and made the graphics card smoke

(It was an old system he was trashing anyway, else we wouldn't have done it).

bork · « **Reply #10 on:** March 12, 2011, 08:05:32 PM »

The whole reason I started this was to stop someone of thinking of using oil in the first place. Someone started talking about oil and knowing human nature, someone would try it.

Oil would be a poor coolant of choice for several reasons. One of the major reason is that it has a low specific heat value or a poor ability to carry heat. Water can absorb/release twice as much energy than a equal mass of oil for the same temperature change. For a closed loop system, you would need a larger pump to move the fluid faster to remove the same heat compared to water. Oil can also "attack" some of the plastics used to construct a system, not very nice for system longevity.

The only reason there have been oil cooled systems is were people are trying to go to sub-zero temperatures and were trying to avoid condensation problems - trying to surround the components with oil to keep air with moisture out. Good for a short duration where your trying to get the ultimate overclock award.

BTW - there is one common fluid that is better at moving heat than water and it is one that you do not want to touch, Ammonia.

zat0x91 · « **Reply #11 on:** March 12, 2011, 09:14:33 PM »

Quote from: bork on March 12, 2011, 08:05:32 PM

The only reason there have been oil cooled systems is were people are trying to go to sub-zero temperatures and were trying to avoid condensation problems - trying to surround the components with oil to keep air with moisture out. Good for a short duration where your trying to get the ultimate overclock award.

People either insulate it with pads, some sort of paste, and other stuff I can't remember off the top of my head. A more popular method is to just cover up the entire area that's being under extreme cooling with stretchy (whatever ones that allow you to mold them) erasers to prevent the air coming in contact with the motherboard.

kitamesume · « **Reply #12 on:** March 12, 2011, 10:32:28 PM »

true, well, the people that wents to oil cooling are mostly paranoid about leaks, on the other hand, air cooling(decent true air cooling) are pretty decent tho abit bulky.

theres the option of pouring epoxy over the sensitive parts to isolate them from the outside, it doesnt ruin it and in fact it helps it dissipate heat abit more because of bigger surface area. tho the option of repairing it if it were to die of old age would be voided as its under solid epoxy. theres some epoxy that are made for electronics, they arent electrically conductive and they're quite heat conductive, mostly you see them on IC with a color of black on olden electronic toys and calculators.

epoxy

edit: actually, if you ever cover the whole motherboard in epoxy, you may even submerge your whole motherboard into water xD.

rostheferret · « **Reply #13 on:** March 12, 2011, 11:59:59 PM »

Quote from: bork on March 12, 2011, 08:05:32 PM

BTW - there is one common fluid that is better at moving heat than water and it is one that you do not want to touch, Ammonia.

Ammonia stinks like shit (well, piss to be more precise) but its not lethal at all. You'll just have hands that stink for a few days.

kitamesume · « **Reply #14 on:** March 13, 2011, 01:25:31 AM »

alcohol is a great coolant as well, and quite easy to get, just buy a 95% liquior and you have your self a drinkable coolant, and it evaporates too when it leaks.

Sosseres · « **Reply #15 on:** March 13, 2011, 03:52:06 AM »

Quote from: kitamesume on March 13, 2011, 01:25:31 AM

alcohol is a great coolant as well, and quite easy to get, just buy a 95% liquior and you have your self a drinkable coolant, and it evaporates too when it leaks.

Isn't water better?

bork · « **Reply #16 on:** March 13, 2011, 05:38:43 AM »

Quote from: Sosseres on March 13, 2011, 03:52:06 AM

Quote from: kitamesume on March 13, 2011, 01:25:31 AM
alcohol is a great coolant as well, and quite easy to get, just buy a 95% liquior and you have your self a drinkable coolant, and it evaporates too when it leaks.

Isn't water better?

Only if frozen and added to the alcohol

zat0x91 · « **Reply #17 on:** March 13, 2011, 07:17:09 AM »

Distilled water is cheaper and non-conductive. Plus if you have anything that's acrylic in your loop, which is a pretty common material for reservoirs, alcohol will fucking destroy it.

kitamesume · « **Reply #18 on:** March 13, 2011, 03:45:13 PM »

alcohol is a true 100%(well might conduct if you mix iron powder in it, aka impurities) non-conductive when pure, it is worse on cooling than pure water but when mixed with water, it does better and it evaporates when it leaks, so you dont have to dry it out

bloody000 · « **Reply #19 on:** March 14, 2011, 07:13:33 AM »

Quote from: zat0x91 on March 13, 2011, 07:17:09 AM

Distilled water is cheaper and non-conductive. Plus if you have anything that's acrylic in your loop, which is a pretty common material for reservoirs, alcohol will fucking destroy it.

Pure water is non-conductive. Supermarket distilled water is not pure water. It's impossible to have pure water in a loop. As soon as the water runs through blocks, rads, fittings, metal ions will be present.