Oil Cooling? What do you think?

bannedbrother

bannedbrother

bannedbrother

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Clockers, so here I am starting to think of a submerged mineral oil cooled system.....what do you all think about this idea? Anyone here running an oil cooled system who can give me some pointers please? Thanks.
 
there are a number of threads on this already - feel free to browse them :)

but my opinion is that it is over complicated for little gain, conventional water cooling is much better imho
 
Messy and not much reason to it. Also this is a personal thing but I think it ruins how pc's look.

much prefer a nice aircooler or decent loop

That said though I have access to a lot of oil with my job as an electrical fitter, so I could do it if I wanted
 
Oil would be good if you could find a grade that would work well in a computer environment as it heats slower and cools quicker than water.

You would need to find the right oil as I say, but one that also has a better specific heat to that of water for it to be effective.

A mercury cooled loop would be interesting as it would heat quicker but cool a lot faster than water, my thinking is if it heats quicker its removing the heat from the component and cools faster than water, this is just my guess as I'm no Einstein :D
 
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I suppose some kind of coolant oil would work well, providing it did not effect any seals in the pumps/fittings or even the hose. which it shouldn't really if the seals are nitrile or Viton.
 
CraigT76 said:
A mercury cooled loop would be interesting :D
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A custom waterloop is best and if you are desperate for low temps, phase change unit is the next step.

Mercury is too hard to pump using watercooling pumps. It is also probably the worst thing to have an accident with, considering it scatters everywhere when it drops onto a solid surface, this in combination with it being incredibly harmful with minimal ingestion or long term contact makes it quite inconvenient. It is also very expensive and is a sure way to ruin all your copper/nickel or aluminium components in your loop. The viscosity also makes it impossible to use with normal waterblocks or radiators.

If people are looking to go for the next level cooling after custom loops, phase change units are not only very effective but much more efficient and cheaper than they were years ago.
 
It has to be a non conductive oil, IE mineral oil or so. One of my friends has got a build that's "oil-cooled" And it's not worth the cost vs. a watercooled pc, because they are almost the same performancewise. When that's said, his computer looks awesome in those fishy surroundings! :cool:
 
you Clockers are the best...thanks for all the replies I really appreciate it. Loads of insight here that I would not have had otherwise. I have heard horror stories about full water cooling loops......so any advice on what brand of water cooler I would be looking at. If I do water cooling I would want my CPU and GPU cooled that way. I am a temp junkee....the colder the better! I will be looking to spend around £300 to £400 on a decent cooling system....I would also like it to be future proof so to speak. Thanks again all
 
These days all major brands are producing reliable blocks and fittings and i would say that a custom loop is far more reliable and safer than an AIO cooler (especially after the all the h80i problem threads i have seen the last 2 weeks).

What case have you got?
What are your specs?
do you mind radiators mounted externally?

With your budget, a decent custom loop is very easy to spec and will perform brilliantly.
 
Somthing Else said:
Well the oil i work with can pass insulation tests at over 60kv so it should be alright for a pc :p
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Im sure it is excellent for electrical insulation, but I meant that there might be a specialist oil which has a good heat properties as well as insulation :)

"Mayhems X1 UV Oil Black Premixed Oilcooling Fluid 1L" :p
 
Mineral oil tends to destroy capacitors. Which is a shame.

It is potentially a very nice way of waterproofing a computer, either for use in hostile environments or for sub zero cooling. That it, stick a phase unit on the CPU, put the motherboard into oil - no condensation problems.

On a related note - do the sub zero crowd dip motherboards in epoxy? That would seem to be a convincing way of avoiding condensation.

edit: Oil as a means of actually cooling things is a bit daft, as the heat capacity is worse than water.
 
Avenged7Fold said:
These days all major brands are producing reliable blocks and fittings and i would say that a custom loop is far more reliable and safer than an AIO cooler (especially after the all the h80i problem threads i have seen the last 2 weeks).

What case have you got?
What are your specs?
do you mind radiators mounted externally?

With your budget, a decent custom loop is very easy to spec and will perform brilliantly.
Click to expand...

My system as follows:
Corsair Carbide 400R Case
Asus P8Z77-V PRO Mobo
i5 3570K 3.4GHz (OC'd 4.5GHz)
2GB MSI GTX660ti Twin Frozr PE
Intel 240GB 520 Series SSD
1TB WD Caviar 6GB/s HDD
16GB G-Skill DDR3 1866MHz RipjawsZ
Corsair TXM 650W Modular PSU
Noctua NH-D14

I would prefer to have any radiators inside the case for sure, but wont mind radiator outside if needed.

This is what my system currently looks like
http://i1273.photobucket.com/albums/y403/BannedBrother/20130408_180835_zpse3bb0ff6.jpg
 
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Thing is no mater what liquid you use in the system youl never cool under ambient anyway without some sort of phase system, oil mercury water whatever it wont make much difference most water loops if done right run to 10-15c delta anyway and the water never heats to the temperature of the actual cores your cooling. If your loop is getting towards the temps of your core temps you should be looking at rad space not alternate liquid options
 
I would have a look at youtube for 'slicks oil cooled pc', they look pretty but are a nightmare to set up and are really more touble than they are worth.


edit:- Here, since I'm being nice.
 
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