





Mineral Oil Cooled PC
Project Ready DIY Kit for the PC Enthusiast
Puget Systems has been experimenting with mineral oil submerged PCs since 2007. This page chronicles our experiments, testing, and findings over the years. We freely share this information -- if there is anything you like to hear more about, just let us know. Check back to this page as we post updates!
Timeline
May 2007 | Original System Launch |
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Using the primary components above, we hacked together our first system. The setup is quite simple -- we made a few cuts to the top brackets on the aquarium, and cut a sheet of acrylic panel to provide a flat base for the motherboard tray to rest on. We later found we needed a better solution for the power supply -- it is a bit clunky just sitting at the bottom of the tank. It made maintenance difficult because the motherboard tray could not be easily lifted from the tank without dragging the power supply along with it. We didn't intend to run the system with fans, but once we saw them spinning slowly in the oil, we just couldn't resist keeping them! With the oil, they made no noise at all. We started with the cheapest hardware possible, just in case the whole thing blew up! When the first test went perfectly, we moved up to modern hardware. One of the best things about this setup is that the oil evenly distributes the heat. You don't have nearly as localized hot zones as you do in an air cooled computer. But how well does it dissipate the heat?
![]() Another question we wanted to answer was how quickly the system cooled once we stopped the stress testing. It dropped back to an idle baseline in just about 8 hours. Did Bubbles Help? We had a lot of fun building a system like this, and now that you know you only really need to spend about $150 on all the materials, we encourage you to give it a try if you've been thinking about it. Of course, we're not responsible if you blow up your computer! In the end, this is a novelty, of course. There is really no other reason to build a system like this...but it will certainly be a great attention getter when we display it prominently at our office! If you're in Seattle, feel free to stop by and check it out. V1 System Gallery![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
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July 2007 | Improving Cooling Performance |
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![]() The biggest issue with our initial V1 system was inadequate heat dissipation. Mineral oil has a terrific specific heat capacity, so it took a very long time to reach peak temperature -- about 12 hours. However, that temperature was too high, at 88on the CPU. On the one hand, we had absolutely no problems with stability with over a month of usage at those temperatures. The oil did a good job of making sure everything was a very consistent temperature. With a normal air cooled computer, you have a handful of hot spots. With the oil eliminating these hot spots, we had no problem running a rock solid system. On the other hand, 88C is way too hot for acrylic. What could be worse than the tank cracking and spilling the hot oil!? We wanted better temperatures. We've received dozens of different recommendations on how to best cool the oil, some extremely complicated. We elected to simply pump the oil directly through the radiator. We do a lot of liquid cooling here at Puget, so we have a lot of materials on hand. ![]() The results were very good! Within 8 hours, the temperature dropped to a new maximum of 45C on the CPU. If we wanted to get even better cooling, we could hook up some fans to the radiator, but 45C is an excellent CPU temperature as it is, and we prefered the quiet operation with no fans. V1 System Gallery with Radiator![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
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Dec 2007 | Update After Six Months |
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The machine is still up and running with no problems! We made a few more alterations:
The fans are still running strong, just like they did on day one. Two times now, we have seen some oil on the countertop, and paniced thinking we had a leak, but each time ended up being a false alarm. It seems some days the bubbles tend to "foam" the top of the mineral oil, and this foam was spilling out of the aquarium. We just turned down the bubbles a bit, and everything was fine. It is curious that this only happens on certain days. Perhaps humidity plays a part? |
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June 2008 | Update After One Year |
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The machine is still running strong! We are having no problems with stability, and it has now been running for over a year, most of the time at 80C (still not recommended...the arylic could crack)! It is very easy to lower the temperature through a radiator, or just putting the system into standby at night, but we wanted to see if stability would be affected by higher temperature.
We have also gotten many requests for pictures of the top of the system without the plastic cover. Here they are! Overall, the biggest downside we have found is that the oil wicks down the cabling and makes a mess. Its amusing at first to find oil seeping out of your mouse, but gets annoying very quickly! We recommend making extensive use of wireless (especially bluetooth) for a system like this. There's no reason why you can't run only a power cord and video cables to the box, and take care of everything else wirelessly. We completely solve this issue later with our V2 system under development. Every day, we're coming up with improvements we'd like to make to the machine. |
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July 2010 | Update After Three Years |
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Though the PC was still running strong, the hardware was getting older, and we wanted to upgrade to something faster! At our office, we upgraded to our V2 system! Still in fully working condition, this original system has been retired to storage, and we'll pull it out from time to time to see if there are any ill effect over long term oil submersion. |
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Oct 2008 | V2 DIY Kit Launch |
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![]() While our original aquarium computer was still running strong, there were number of updates we wanted to make to the design. We decided to build a "Version Two" system, with these improvements. The biggest design improvement is that we have designed an acrylic motherboard tray, which is completely customized for this application, in this aquarium tank. Not only does this take the polish of the project to an entirely new level, but it makes assembly easier and the system much more secure. The other major design improvement came in the cooling system. We wanted to create a radiator system that was more compact, and that placed the pump submerged in the oil, for quieter operation. We built this system for demonstration at PAX 2008, and it was a complete success! It has allowed us to run an extremely high end system at under 50C with virtually no noise. It has also allowed an overclock of a QX9770 from a stock frequency of 3.2GHz, to an overclocked frequency of 4.6GHz! The view of the top with the cover off shows how much the custom acrylic motherboard tray improves the project. We were able to design mounting holes for CCFL lights, which allows us to permanently zip tie them in place rather than have to rely on adhesives. The tubing to the radiator uses quick disconnect valves, so you can quickly add and remove the radiator depending on your cooling needs. We mounted four Antec Tri-Cool fans to the radiator, and ran them on the low setting, for very quiet operation. The loudest part of this system is the bubble bar! ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() The custom motherboard tray also allows us to install a power socket, and a control valve for the air hose. These connection points serve a distinct purpose! By not running any cables directly into the oil, we prevent wicking. The connection points break the suction, and has effectively stopped the wicking we saw with version one. A power cord extension is run down to the power supply at the bottom of the tank, and in this system, we directly soldered the cord to the power supply, to eliminate the bulky socket. In this system, the pump and hard drive (solid state) are both submerged. Using a special bracket, we are able to secure them both in the oil. We also used a larger heatsink, but performance was about the same. ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() How well does this setup cool? AMAZINGLY well! In this system, we put in the best hardware available at the time -- an Intel QX9770 overclocked to 4.6GHz, 8GB of DDR3-1600 memory, and a NVIDIA GTX280 video card. It ran at 50C under full load, and that was with our fans on the low setting! This graph shows the CPU temperatures we saw as we ran 3DMark Vantage, then let the system idle. You'll notice the temperature barely changes at all -- the radiator handles the heat with ease! |
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June 2010 | Two Years Later, Still Running Strong! |
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We continue to run our V2 system as a workstation for one of our employees, and it is still running strong with no problems. The oil has remained quite clear, there have been no leaks, and the cooling system is running as strong as on day one! |
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July 2010 | V3 DIY Kit Launch |
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As we continued to learn from our original Aquarium PC, and as we used our Aquarium PC V2 in our office, we kept a list of all the things we'd do differently or improve. The Aquarium PC V3 represents these improvements! The system is larger, allowing for full eATX motherboards. The biggest improvement is that it allows the power supply to be mounted on the motherboard tray, making it much easier to maintain the PC, as you don't have to worry about the power supply sitting on the bottom of the tank as you pull the motherboard tray out of the aquarium. It also has more than twice the cooling power! We built a test system with the most extreme hardware available, with impressive results. Design ImprovementsV3 System Gallery ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
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Aug 2010 | Phase Change Cooling Development |
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While we were very happy with the cooling performance of this unit, we actively researched methods to try to bring the oil to sub-zero temperatures! We tried a number of different extreme cooling techniquies, including dry ice, phase change cooling, aquarium chillers, and liquid cooling blocks with TEC coolers. Ultimately, the snag was always the same: The thermal conductivity of oil is not as good as that of water, so all products designed to cool water do not have the sheer surface area necessary to cool the oil. It is possible that you can build your own aquarium chiller, taking care to dedicate a large amount of extra copper coils to the oil side of the heat exchanger. However, we have spent a lot of time on this, and have to get back to our main jobs -- building high quality computer systems! We encourage those with experience in phase change cooler design to pick up this ball and run with it, and if anyone can achieve a sub-zero cooling technique, we'd love to talk about it and post it here. Our standard radiator setup does a great job of cooling, so we're happy leaving our project there...but sub-zero would be pretty amazing! |
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Oct 2011 | V4 DIY Kit Launch |
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We continue to make design improvements, rolled into our latest V4 release. We have now purchased our own laser cutting machine, which allows us to bring manufacturing in house. This will speed up future design improvments, and will improve the overall quality of the product. With V4, we move back to a single pump design, which is much simpler, and therefore more reliable and quite a bit less expensive! For more details and to purchase a V4 DIY kit, check out our ordering page with this information. |
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Sept 2013 | MicroATX and Mini ITX DIY Kits Launched |
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We've often heard how much someone wants to build an aquarium PC, but the cost of the EATX V4 kit is simply outside their budget. In order to provide more affordable aquarium kit options, we have developed two new DIY kits. The Micro ATX kit is a bit smaller than the current EATX V4 kit, but by utilizing multiple different cooling options has the exact same cooling potential as the EATX V4 kit. But if you do not need a massive 9x120mm radiator, you can greatly reduce the cost of the kit by purchasing more other, more modest, cooling options. The Mini ITX kit, however, takes a completely different approach. Instead of offering multiple cooling options, we simply designed it to be as low cost as possible. While this does come with some drawbacks (for example, no PCI cards can be used), this is a great kit for those than want an aquarium PC at a very modest price. With this launch, we are also completely changing how we sell our aquarium kits. It is now easier to purchase all the items you need including fans, grills, and accessories. Check out our new configure page and configure a kit yourself!
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Nov 2014 | Sales Discontinued |
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Unfortunately our mineral oil aquarium PC kit project has been alleged to infringe on the patents held by a company who holds several patents related to mineral oil cooling of PCs. They offered to license this technology back to us. We decided to shut down this project instead, because the licensing cost was infeasible for this type of project, and we did not want to set a precedent of paying to license something we conceived and developed on our own. Here at Puget Systems, this project has never been motivated by profits. It is a project that we have had a lot of fun with, and that we enjoyed using to enable the enthusiast community to do new and interesting things. As such, regardless of how we feel about the validity of this patent pressure, we cannot devote the time, finances and energy to take up that battle. We have a very successful business manufacturing high performance and high quality PCs and workstations, and will be focusing our energy there going forward. We will continue to host information, photography, and videos about our mineral oil PC kits, but we will be unable to continue to sell the kits themselves. We look forward to seeing what you all come up with as we pass off the torch to each of you! |