I was going through my old photobucket account, posting pictures in anther thread I made - and stumbled onto the oil cooled computer my roommate and I did in college. I thought I would share.
I tested the idea using a cheap alarm clock I got at the local wally world. I didn't want to sacrifice a computer - even an old one - if I wasn't sure it would work.
Yes, what you are looking at is a clock in pure veggie oil
After leaving the clock sealed in that container for a week with no problems, I decided it was time to get my test subject ready.
I used a mini ITX motherboard out of a shuttle XPC, and an AMD Athlon XP processor.
I left the fan on the heatsink, and threw another care fan into the oil to keep it circulating. The fans spun very slowly, but still enough to keep the oil moving.
Then, I decided how I wanted to keep all the oil cool. My mini fridge was just sitting in my living room. Due to a lack of tools, the result isn't pretty - but it worked! I wanted to mount the PSU, optical drives etc on the outside of the fridge - so I didn't risk condensation damaging the parts not submerged in oil.
Duct tape works!
Of course, my friends had to give some help and much unwanted advice
Had an old CRT laying around so I threw it on top of the fridge
And she got great temps
I ran it like that for about 3 months until the oil started smelling bad. It was ... interesting.
The clock in the oil worked for about 8 months until my roommate got mad one day and threw it across the living room, sending an explosion of oil everywhere. He wasn't mad at me.
I tested the idea using a cheap alarm clock I got at the local wally world. I didn't want to sacrifice a computer - even an old one - if I wasn't sure it would work.
Yes, what you are looking at is a clock in pure veggie oil
After leaving the clock sealed in that container for a week with no problems, I decided it was time to get my test subject ready.
I used a mini ITX motherboard out of a shuttle XPC, and an AMD Athlon XP processor.
I left the fan on the heatsink, and threw another care fan into the oil to keep it circulating. The fans spun very slowly, but still enough to keep the oil moving.
Then, I decided how I wanted to keep all the oil cool. My mini fridge was just sitting in my living room. Due to a lack of tools, the result isn't pretty - but it worked! I wanted to mount the PSU, optical drives etc on the outside of the fridge - so I didn't risk condensation damaging the parts not submerged in oil.
Duct tape works!
Of course, my friends had to give some help and much unwanted advice
Had an old CRT laying around so I threw it on top of the fridge
And she got great temps
I ran it like that for about 3 months until the oil started smelling bad. It was ... interesting.
The clock in the oil worked for about 8 months until my roommate got mad one day and threw it across the living room, sending an explosion of oil everywhere. He wasn't mad at me.
