Updates...

Sorry I've been a while in posting, however everything was working and I just couldn't find the will to publish another post.

Well, it is not in an operational state anymore so here comes another update.

It was working fine up until last friday when I decided it was about time for an upgrade, what with black friday sales and such.

I emptied the oil and set about turning this basic box into an awesome pc case.  The number one goal I have is to mount the radiators in an efficient way, which meant quite a bit of drilling/welding as you shall see.

When I had it assembled enough to test it somehow my psu decided to die on me, so a new one is coming in the mail and I can't test it until then.

Sorry about the low number of pictures, my camera's battery died...

So, what do we have here?  The three main additions here are the stand, which raises the case 4 or so inches above the ground, the mounted radiators, and the fittings between the radiators and the case.

The stand is was just a simple thing I cut out of a chunk of acrylic and welded together, nothing too fancy...

Mounting the radiators was pretty straightforward, measured out a piece of acrylic and cut some holes in it (handheld drill + jigsaw), and glued it to the case  Fan's held in place by a few pieces of copper wire, goes with the look I think.

This was a PAIN to do.  Drilling out a 3/4" hole in 3/8" acrylic using only a hand drill...  not so much fun.  After a few hours of devoted attention I finally got them both drilled, wasn't able to thread them since I wasn't able to find the correct size tap, so I just sanded the holes a bit bigger and gooped the fitting up reall good before I set the in place.  Haven't thoroughly leak tested them yet...

I ordered 2 more heater cores (and fans) from DangerDen over black friday, I'm going to mount them to the right of the 2 there, so it will be a 2x2 square.  I only wish I had known I was getting 2 more sooner so I could have simple made a 2x2 mracket for the radiators instead of the 2 2x1 one's I'm going to make now.

Oh well.

Submerged!

The oil finally arrived at the Cenex store, I picked it up on the way home from work and promptly went on to the drowning.

Had to clean off the cpu and graphics heatsinks because the thermal paste would have dissolved in the oil...

Got my start/reset buttons temporarily held in place with a piece of wire...

5 gallons of livestock drugs...  more than I need, but I don't wan't to have to go through this whole process again to get more.

Heatsinks back in place.  I've heard that some power supplies won't power on if there isn't some resistance in the fan wires, which is by default made by a fan but could possible be replaced with a simple resistor instead.  I chose to use the power supple fan on the cpu, since I don't think the low speed one I had would turn at all in the oil.

Filling it up with oil...  1 gallon down.

Power supply is fully submerged.  I did a quick power on to see if it worked, and it did :)

2 gallons.  It is here that I noticed a small leak on the bottom back left corner.  How annoying!

As awesome as it looks, it all had to come out.  Getting all the oil off of the now soaked components is nearly impossible however I let it drip overnight and called it good in the morning.

Time to leak proof it (again).  There are a few reasons as to why I didn't notice this when I tested with water.
1.  Perhaps the oil will simply fit through smaller cracks.

2.  The water may have leaked so slowly that it evaporated before I would notice it.  Oil doesn't evaporate so it would eventually build up enough to be noticed.

3.  The case may have developed this new leak as it expanded/cooled with the heat over the past few weeks.

Who knows...

The next day, filled it with oil about an inch higher than shown there.  Temps at idle are cpu at 27C, graphics at 42, and I'm guessing the oil is at 27.  I say guessing because the external probe that I put in there says 32C but I don't see how the processor can stay cooler than the oil.  I'll update again when I've had a chance to see how it handles under load.

Frustrations.

On Friday I made a call to the Cenex store and they said that my oil was on the shipment that would arrive that day.  They said that they would call me when it arrived, so I hung up and got my pc as prepped as I could in the mean time.  The hours ticked by one by one and still no call.

Saturday morning I call them again and am told that the truck must be running late, so I ask if it will come in today.  Nope.  They are open on Saturdays, but apparently they don't get shipments in on them.  So Monday is now the earliest that I can expect to get it all together.

The radiators, in a temporary setup

The tubing had to bend so tightly that it started to flatten.
A spare hose clamp solved that.

Putting it all together...

Started on the lid...

The on/off, reset, and led's

The lid was pretty straightforward, with the only trickyness being drilling the holes for the front switches.  It isn't going to be hinged because the hoses and such coming out the back would interfere with that, so I'll just weld on a few tabs on the inside of it, probably one on each corner, so that is sits there nicely.

I'm going to work on sending a few wires to the radiator fans, shouldn't take too much work.

It all fits!! And new ideas...

My highly organized workplace.  In fact, it is so organized that by some divine intervention of some sort I tripped and nearly fell.  Fortunately I was able to block my fall by throwing my hands down in front of me, however this also broke off that little bracket I had made for the radiators.

Oops.

Instead of attaching it again I took this opportunity to rethink what I was going to do with the radiators...  and considering how I was not really impressed with my initial design I have decided to make a mobile radiator platform (MRP).  This platform will of course need to be attached to the case with both the intake and outlet hoses and the power cables for both the fans (2 nexus 'real silent' case fans...  highly praised at silentpcreview.com).  The platform will be placed wherever I find it convenient within the 4 foot tether that it will have.  Nifty, eh?

A gutted power supple takes up considerably less space, lets the oil flow through much easier, and looks pretty cool.  Have to be kind of careful about not letting certain things touch, but once everything is bolted in it should be fine.

Attached the pump platform.  I was initially going to let the pump be attached to the case and not the motherboard tray but I don't want to hassle with inserting the tray with a bunch of tubing getting in the way.  This way the whole thing should slide in and out rather painlessly.

Blurry...  but I'VE BEEN FOOLED!!  You are looking at some standard 'non-solid' capacitors there.  As a matter of fact, they are scattered all around the motherboard, with the only 'solid' ones being right round the cpu socket.  Upon further inspection of the biostar website I found the advertised 'solid caps' thing again, however upon hovering the mouse over it a pop-up message says something along the lines of 'solid caps supporting the cpu' ...  lame.

I knew I should have spent the extra dollars on the other one I was looking at...  which specifically mentions ALL 'solid' caps.

Everything (mostly) assembled.  Still don't have the heatsinks on the gpu or cpu...  don't have the cpu installed at all actually.  Need to wait until the oil comes so that can be used as the thermal interface material between the chips and the heatsinks.  If I used standard thermal paste the oil would likely dissolve it eventually, and I don't want murky oil if I can avoid it.

Close up view of the pump.  Because it is cool.  Understood?

Back view of the installed power supply.  Colorful cables are also very cool.

Side view of power supply.  Had to remove the power switch and plug from the case, but it all went fairly well.

Close up of the graphics chip.  I'll have to clean it off, obviously.  (take note, multicolored cables and tubing...  very cool)

This is the configuration that I'm thinking I'll put the radiators in.  They will be connected so that one dumps into the other with the fans blowing the opposite way, so that the hottest oil comes into contact with the coldest air.

...
Where the heck is my oil?  I'm going to call the feed store and see whats up if it doesn't get in by tomorrow.

Assembly of Case

Luckily I had a day off from work today, so mid morning I went to the post office and grabbed my "Solvent Cement for joining Acrylic."  Never used the stuff before but after reading a few articles online and watching a few videos I figured I had all the basics down.

 

First few were pretty straightforward.  Apply cement to joint, bring pieces together, hold for a few seconds.  I stopped with the back off because I knew I needed to place some 'track' pieces on the inside first, and this made it easier to measure their placements correctly.

One corner.  A bit more bubbling than I would have liked, but I won't complain too much.  Yet.  I'll save that for when I leak test it.

Cutting the groove for the tracks.

Case and inside tracks completed.  Keeping the dust out of it until it sets up a bit better...  don't want dust to get into the wet acrylic and become a permanent eyesore.

Part of the tray on the back that will be used for holding the two radiators.  Took some serious thinking to come up with this, and I'm sure there would have been an easier solution...  but I have yet to find it.

Another view.  Crudely done but it should work.  I'll leak test it tonight and see how it fairs when I awake in the morning.

I did run into a little bit of trouble with the placement of the radiators because I hadn't taken into account their long barbs.  The solution was to move them back a bit further from the case, which makes it take up a bit more room but on the plus side it gives them better airflow as well.

Cutting the Acrylic

Finally got around to making the cuts, and I have to admit I was a little bit nervous.  I have had some experience cutting acrylic at a college lab where you have nice precise tools, and we used a nice band saw and a mill.  At home, I don't have such luxuries though.  Had to throw it onto our good old table saw and hope for the best.

Acrylic and table saw.

3/8" thick.  I was dreading that it would crack/chip/melt all the way down as I cut it.  After triple checking the measurements (twice) and muttering a few words of prayer I donned my safety glasses and fired up the beast.

First cut, turned out very nice actually.  *pats self on back*

As a matter of fact, it all went very smoothly.  I felt pretty pro by the last cut.

After a bit of sanding on the edges it is pretty much all set for being welded together.

Top view...  (or is it?)

Not a whole lot to say here, I am waiting until the post office opens tomorrow and then I'll go grab my welding solvent and weld the thing together.  I've got a few more cuts to make but those are going to be on the acrylic piece that's holding the motherboard in my current pc, so I'll wait until I'm closer to completion for those.  The idea is to have the acrylic supporting the motherboard sliding in and out along a track that I will weld onto the sides of the case.

I'm still figuring out how to mount the two radiators onto the back of the case, I've got an idea but I'm just thinking a bit more about it to make sure it will work.

Pump and Motherboard

New goodies arrived last night, so time for some photos and chit chat.

Swiftech MCP655 12v pump with 1/2 inch barb fittings.  It lists the voltage as 8 to 24 VDC and gives a maximum rate of 317gph, so I figure that at 12 volts it should be about 150gph (max pressure is 50psi, max head is 10 feet).  Fairly powerful and compact, but for the design I'm thinking of it will need to be mounted with the inlet pointing up, so I'm not exactly sure how it will be attached to the case just yet.

I also ordered a few more parts from Danger Den...  I've got a pretty nifty idea about how to connect both my radiators to one pump, I'm just hoping it all works out.

Biostar A780L3L "Mainboard"  ...  I'm still calling it a motherboard anyway.  All the standard bells and whistles plus the main reason I bought it; all the capacitors are solid.  It is shorter than my current one on both dimensions, but since my awesome ATI 4890 graphics card is so long the case will still need to be just as deep.  Will be able to make it a few inches shorter in one direction however, and that is quite nice.

Annoyingly, my acrylic has not arrived yet.  The acrylic 'welding solvent' that I had ordered has also not arrived, and this made me wonder why it was taking so long.  I looked up the tracking number and found out that apparently the usps had left a 'notice' on my door on the 12th.  Considering how it is now the 15th, I asked the rest of my family whether or not something had been left on our door.  After a bit of inquiry I finally located the notice that had been left and found that the package hadn't been delivered because it was apparently 85 cents short on postage.  Fail.

Thanks a lot ebay seller.

Radiators, tubing and clamps.

My order from Danger Den arrived today.

Tubing, 2 heater cores with fittings, and tubing clamps.

10 green Delrin tubing clamps.  Matching colors or course, and as long as I don't break any 10 should be plenty.  I seriously doubt whether or not these would have the same 'clamp ability' as screw clamps, but since they are sold to be used with this tubing I am hopeful that they will be strong enough.

2 Heater Cores with 1/2 inch fittings.  As you can see these are plenty thick and have a tighter 'grid' than other radiators I have seen specifically marketed for watercooling.  I am also pleased to see that they are made entirely out of copper, the gray is something painted over the outside.

My messy computer setup at the moment.  The 'case' is an old acrylic case I purchased years ago, but I found it sooo annoying to change components with it that I eventually removed all sides except what was required to support the motherboard.  Cant wait for the acrylic to come so I can remove this unsightly mess from my eyes.

The Stuff

The plan is to submerge my computer in mineral oil as a cooling medium.  Mineral oil has a substantial heat capacity compared to air, and the heat will be removed from the system by natural heat loss from the case sides and (mostly, I would guess) by pumping it though a radiator outside the case.

The case.  The plan is to build a sturdy waterproof (oil proof) case out of 3/8" acrylic.  Most of the components will be attached to a tray that slides down into the case, with the motherboard positioned in such a way that its i/o ports will be just out of the oil (to avoid oil wicking up the cables).  The hdd will, of course, be kept outside the oil.  I have heard of people sealing their hdd's and successfully submerging them that way and I may eventually come to that, but for now I want to go with simplicity.

The stuff in the case.  It is about 1-2 years old, but still has some of life left in it.

cpu: AMD Phenom II X2 555 Callisto 3.2GHz DualCore
motherboard:  ASRock M3A770DE Socket AM3 AMD 770 ATX Motherboard
hdd:  WD Caviar 640GB 16MB 3.5 3.0Gb/s SATA
gpu:  MSI RADEON HD 4890
ram:  4GB (2x2) DDR3 1600mhz
psu:  Antec BP550 Plus 550W

The motherboard will be replaced with a Biostar A780L3B, partly because it has all solid state capacitors (non solid state caps and mineral oil don't mix) and partly because it is a good few inches smaller, which allows a smaller case, less acrylic used, less oil, and less money.  Everything else should be good to go.

Ordered the Acrylic at a decent price on ebay, even considering the shipping charges.

Also waiting for arrival of:
1x Swiftech MCP655 12 VDC Pump
2x Converted heatercores for radiators from Danger Den
10ft of 1/2" tubing and clamps

Haven't got the mineral oil yet, waiting to see exactly how big my case is going to be first.

Expect pictures as things start to come in.

First Post

So, who am I and what am I going to be writing about?

I am your not so typical, typical, nerdy CS student.  I like pizza, movies, games...  and Ultimate Frisbee.  Not an all inclusive list, and not necessarily in that order.

What am I doing?  Or, more to the point, what do I intend to do?  Nothing that hasn't been done before, I assure you.  Instead, I would like to do something that has been done before and make it as simple and as aesthetically pleasing as possible.

The whole story for this blog really comes from my love and hate for computers.  I love computers, no doubt about it.  I consider computing my hobby, but perhaps more specifically I am fascinated by the cooling that must be done in these machines.  I have visited many many overclocking/cooling/silencing sites in my time, and I have found that there is some ration of sound and cooling that people will settle for.  After all, what good is the absolute best in cooling if it sounds like you are driving down the highway with the windows rolled down?  Lose a little cooling ability, undervolt the fans, invest in passive heatsinks, you could do some of these.  Less cooling, but less noise.

I have done this for years now.  After reading the forums and awesome reviews of products at silentpcreview.com I became fully engrossed in making a computer totally silent while still achieving awesome cooling.  Now that I have been tinkering in this area for a few years, it is time to try something on the next level.

The mineral oil pc.