Mineral Oil Submerged Computer

[caelric]

I've been busy (moving mostly) but ive been thinkin... im going to build this system in my car as a car pc (google it). I live in phoenix where july can get upwards of 115f easily. The trunk of a car can easily turn into an oven... which means my design is going to have to draw some outside air and have a heavy duty oil cooler (probably a radiator with a radiator fan given my unlimited 14 volt power supply.

Do some research on carPC's before you decide to oil cool one. Most carPC's are built on low power, mobile processers (Pentium-M, Core Duo T, etc...) and don't generate much heat, thus not requiring much cooling. Mine is a Core Duo T 2600 (2.16 x2 GHZ), and has a regular, stock heat sink and fan, with cross ventilation in the case, and has not had any problems, nor did the Pentium M before that, including a drive across the country via the I-10 in the summer and a year in Hawaii. My car is black, so it gets somewhat warm inside...

Check out www.mp3car.com for more resources, and also take a quick look at my cardomain page located here for some pics of one carPC solution.

Dave

[glj12]

actually, wat's the specs of your pc? is it relatively new?

1. Mineral oil is pretty much non-corrosive. Think about it, ven if it does corrode the plastic covering the wiring, it certainly won't damage it.

In terms of the specs of the computer, its pretty new. I think its a 64-bit Celeron D. Can't remember the clock rate, but its up there, (even though its a Celeron, heh), and it has 1gb of ram. I purchased it about 8 months ago.

Nothing hardcore gaming sort of material, but fine for a counter-strike:source server.

[caelric]

The Celeron D doesn't make a lot of heat compared to some other chips, so while you might not need external cooling, someone else who uses a higher powered chip, and/or a highpowered graphics card would need external cooling.

Dave

[Smirnof]

I've done extensive research on car pcs... I also have enough spare parts to make a car pc... the only thing im gonna need to buy is a small in car lcd monitor. Also, it seems to be 1 environment where oil cooling is practical. My brother thinks i should just run the hoses to the front of the car and stick a cooler in front of the radiator... I'm half tempted to do that but i didn't perticularly want to run the lines. I also don't want my computer running at 150 degrees... just because it can doesn't mean that it is good for it.

Well... I'm off to ruin a mother board with a can of thompsons waterseal (or some latex paint, or some epoxy... depends on what i have available), and see if i can start a fire in my garage with a psu. Wish me luck.

[caelric]

Oil cooling may or may not be practical (depending on your opinion), but there is no reason for it on a CarPC.

Anyways, good luck either way.

Dave

[glj12]

The Celeron D doesn't make a lot of heat compared to some other chips, so while you might not need external cooling, someone else who uses a higher powered chip, and/or a highpowered graphics card would need external cooling.

Dave

Yup.. that's why I don't need any extra cooling.

It would be absurd to have an 8800 in there without extra cooling. =/

[kasdec]

Hello singularity!

All the drives in this unit are external. The hard drive is ESATA, and the optical drive is USB2.0. This is necessary, as their moving parts would not function under oil. However, we're going to try dipping an old hard drive, and will let you know what happens!

We have not seen a problem with capacitors or wicking oil into small spaces where it can't be cooled, but we will be posting a follow up in about a month that will cover our observations with long term use.

you could still have all drives internal within a sealed compartment thet would be void of oil and still dissapate the heat if metal surround, this would function then more like a normal comp wothout an extra unit, to be commercialy viable, as i emailed you, i could easily sell 100.000 units to start if you want to go that way,although a gimmick, it is still fully functional and millions to be made, as i mentioned, if quad core used and top end mkt, don't look back

[davefp]

My main concern with putting a submerged PC in a car would be the movement. Without a sealed tank you'd have oil everywhere in no time. As for cooling in a vehicle, my first thought would be to somehow divert the A/C somehow and use that.

[caelric]

Yeah, like I said earlier, there is no need for exotic cooling in the majority of carputers, even in a black car in the midst of summer on a hot day. The CPU fan, plus a venilation fan is perfectly fine. It obviously depends on the CPU, but most carputers have mobile type CPU's and thus have no problem.

[glj12]

And eh....

Hard drives in a moving vehicle isn't such a hot idea to begin with. It would be best to get a SSD instead. But really, it isn't worth it to do that in a car, agreed. ^