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Using a oil in your PC cooling system
AnimeJanai:
Some power supplies can have relays inside. At least I have seen a relay in one when looking thru the holes of one PS at Fry's Electronics. A power surge or temporary black out might cause something to happen. Anyways, having volatile vapours around any electrical device doesn't seem to be a good idea. Your 8-inch goliath tarantula pet might wander by and create a static spark as it gets near the metal of the case.
--- Quote from: kitamesume ---on another thing, what are paint tinners made of? they feel like alcohol when i soak my hands on them =)
--- End quote ---
It depends what kind of paints you use but turpentine doesn't feel like alcohol to me and it is the most powerful paint cleaning solvent I would liberally use on my hands. Acetone can be sparingly used on hands. hexanes and xylene are noxious and you should not breath or touch it for extended periods.
house paint: water for either stains, porous stain coats, or latex. You used turpentine then.
cheap model paint: triple-distilled water (don't use alcohol in the solvent)
primer coating: acetone or xylene
better model paint: acetone (not very noxious but still toxic), nhexane (toxic, carcinogenic)
best model paint: xylene (toxic, carcinogenic)
kitamesume:
so meaning, paint tinners arent just one substance but a whole bunch of them, i usually soak my hands on tinner when i get paint on them, soap just aint enough to wash paint off >,>
bork:
Oils in general do not have the ability to absorb heat like water does. The term is called "specific heat capacity" and is defined as the amount of heat required to raise a unit of mass by one degree. Water requires about twice the amount of heat as compared to oil to have the same change temperature. What this means in simple terms, the amount of oil being move through the system will be a little bit more than twice that of water to have the same cooling effect. Also oil will have a thicker surface boundary causing heat to transfer less efficiently and that will require larger surface areas in the radiator and the CPU block (they get bigger).
In short, you use anything besides water in your system you can assume that you just toasted your CPU. Just get a decent air cooled heat sink if you have concerns about a water leak.
AnimeJanai:
Popular Mechanics current issue showed how they installed a PC into one of those rolling Sears Craftsman tool boxes that garage mechanics use. It used water cooling in order to physically isolate the PC in another chamber to prevent it from getting shorted out by fine metal dust or conductive grit that exists in a home workshop and automotive area.
SupraGuy:
yeah, I have a PC in my workshop, and it's in a sealed chamber, water cooled.
The motherboard sits inverted, so if any water leaks from the cooling system it drips away from the board. Not the most efficient method since the coolant nearest the CPU is highest, and so gets the hottest coolant next to it. The inlet and outlet for the graphics card is at the "top" of the card, so the bottom in the orientation that the machine is in for the same reason. It's certainly not impossible for this to cause problems in the event of a leak, but it's less likely at least.
I'm using automotive antifreeze/water mix as a coolant, since I have lots of it, and the workshop can get cold in winter (It's in the garage.) The radiator is a heater core from one of my old cars before I sent it to the crusher, with the car's heater fan blowing through it. (It's robust, tolerant of a hostile environment, moves a lot of air, and does so fairly quietly.)
In any event, I would not use oil.
Oh, for a refrigerant, you ADD oil to it for the compressor, but it should only be a very small component of the refrigerant. The leaks are most likely to occur on the "hot side" in any event, which would be well away from the circuit board components (So, between the compressor and the expansion valve) I have the components from an old refrigerator/freezer which I've been thinking of making use of in that regard, but need to ensure that I have compatable blocks and lines (Aluminium most likely) before I can make use of it. The worst things about this are that they're heavy, need inflexible hosing, so the PC won't be easy to move, and the possibility of condensation on the cold side putting moisture where I don't want it. Probably all this adds up to an unuseable system, but I'll probably try it someday anyhow.
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