6 month report

This report comes live from Serbia

Its been 6 months since the computer has been living under oil and it has lived up to all expectations. It has crossed the average life expectancy of a computer at home.

Present Rig
The present rig is slightly different from the ones on the pic... shall update the pics end of the month once i get back home. Ive thrown out all windows and switched to a stainless steel Tub. Does no justice to looks but then its practical... ive done away with the radiator and pump, installed a small fan 35 watt AC (used in deep freezers) outside the tub to provide some cooling. have attached some aluminum fins also. I was surprised the temperatures are just a degree above what i used to get with the radiators on.


Issues
No major issues... i had a problem with the SMPS , it turned out to be a leaking capasitor. Probably because of a manufacturing defect or power surge. Changed the cpasitor for Rs. 30 and its been up and running The parts look as if ive just got it from the store... no discoloration or signs of rust


Conclusion
the projects a success...i recommend it to people who have problems with high humidity. Cooling can be made much more efficient but then it was never my number 1 priority in the design requirement

Cheers

New Case Just In From The Fabricator

Just got a part metal part plexiglass case made. It should solve the heating problems even without the radiator. still plenty of work to be done 

Stable Prototype 1 Pictures

Work In Progress

The heating issues are almost solved.  I have installed a simple radiator and pump to cool the liquid paraffin. The pump being used is a simple atman aquarium pump with a capasity of 2000 l/hr and head of 3 meters. The radiator is from a old fridge i slavged from a repair shop. 

After just circulating the hot oil under high load conditions (Call of duty 5) The temperature settled at a good 47 degress from 72 degrees without the radiator. This is quite good since ther eis a 30 degree drop in temp and the ambian temperature outside is around 32 degress. The perfomance was improved further by attaching a fan to the radiator. The new stable temperature are 40 degrees without load and 42 degrees with load

Shall upload thepictures soon once i make the reg more presentable

First Reports

The computer seems to be doing good In terms of Performance. Running Call of Duty 5 at maxr resolution without any framing. 

Since i havent put it any cooling provisions the temperature keeps rising... i havent really checked the max but i have reached around 56 degrees for the liquis.... 

The problem seems to be that although the liquid seems to be absorbing the heat from the components it is just storing it . Unless  there is a way to dump the heat to the atmosphere cooling will not happn

Build Pics

Final Specs

I have decided to build my first prototype build with the following specs

Processor – intel dual core E5200 2.5 GHZ
Mother Board – Intel DG31 PR
Memmory – Zion 2GB DDR2 800Mhz
Graphics – Ati Radeon HD 4670 512 MB DDR3
HDD – 250GB Seagate Barracuda Sata
PSU – unbranded 450 watts micro atx 

Hybrid Water Cooling

Keeping options open for cooling, circulating oil is working out to be much more difficult than I expected. The high viscosity of oil is making circulation quite difficult. I am thinking of cooling the oil immersed computer with water. How do I intend on doing this quite simple. The schematic explains the Basic system. The coolant is stored in a reservoir (1) . A simple aquarium pump (2) is used for circulating the coolant. A heat collector (4) is immersed in the oil (3) in which the CPU is immersed. The coolant is circulated through this collector from where the coolant absorbs the heat. The heated coolant is then passed through a radiator (5) which will radiate the heat to the atmosphere. The coolant then returns back into the reservoir

Active Cooling

Removing heat from the fluid seems to be my greatest problem. Since i need the tank to be fully sealed some sort of heat exchanger should be there. Active cooling may be the best for cooling performance. The main hurdle will be a finding a viable pump to circulate the Oil through a heat exchanger.

I made some CAD drawings of a simple home made radiator. Its designed in a modular way so that it can be scaled and expanded for the required performance .

Concept

The concept is to immerse components in a liquid and seal it. The liquid for starters should be non conducting (electric), good conductor of heat, immiscible with water, should not degrade, hazard free and readily available. 

After some research I concluded some sort of oil should be used. Common cooking oils were out of the question because it would decompose on heating and would go rancid with time leaving gooey unwanted stuff growing and leaving residue. Synthetic or mineral oils would start degrading at a higher temperature but then most of them are corrosive or flammable and fume.

Liquid Paraffin also known as mineral oil is a suitable immersion medium. It is odorless colorless, bad conductor of electricity, good conductor of heat, has a very high flash point, not reactive and immiscible with water. It has lots of applications including medical hence it is readily available. It does not turn rancid either.

Requirements

1. Cost effective solution
2. Total isolation from atmosphere
3. Should not short circuit 
4. Heat conduction and Cooling
5. Maintenance free
6. Serviceable
7. Use Easily procurable and legal materials
8. Should not damage components over a period of time
9. Hazard free

Background

Living on the sea shore may be very scenic and picturesque but trust me I know better. All my life I have been living 10 meters from the sea, the only thing separating my house from the sea being a few scattered coconut trees (I must say that it looks amazing). Humidity never drops below 65% and the air is always salty probably because of the strong breeze carrying water droplets from the sea waves. Condensation is very common and this moisture plus slat concoction is an electronics and metal killer

During monsoons humidity increases further, the rough sea’s increase the amount of salt also in the air. Even plants close to the sea start drying because of salt. Every surface becomes a condensation point. Computer SMPS’s keep blowing up, Motherboards get damaged. Any appliance that is not on 100% of the time risks shorting when turned on. Air-conditioning is an option but then works out to be very expensive. Televisions have a perpetual problem I don’t buy any expensive electrical/electronics gadgets or equipments because I know that it is not going to last me more than a couple of years (would be lucky if it lasts for a year).

The only way to ensure insulation from this menace is to completely isolate the equipment from the atmosphere.