# Vegetable oil computer.



## paybackdaman (Oct 2, 2008)

I know this concept is pretty played out and we all know it works, but I just wanted to share my experience with you guys. Plus I had $40 and a friend to put this all together. 







We werent sure how much silicone we needed to use....so we used all of it.  But hey, no oil is gonna reach that processor....ever. Plus, I don't even think we will ever see the processor again. 






You can see some of the silicone spilling out from the excess.






the tools.






5 gallons of vegetable oil - $40
1 broken 10 gallon fish tank - $5
look on ladies face as we left walmart with 5 gallons of vegetable oil - priceless 






Filling her up.






Almost there.






It was actually running! 






It took about 2 hours for all the set-up, turning on, and the clean up. Also, for the first 20 minutes of it being on there was no video. Apparently, the video card needs to be in the AGP slot ALL THE WAY in. Didn't know that before this expierence . But the temps went from 80C with no airflow to 40C with no oil flow. All-in-all great success. Plus it past the time significantly. 

Specs: 
Case: Fish tank
cooling: vegetable oil (wal-mart brand)
mobo: MSI socket 478...i really have no idea the model number
processor: Intel 478 2.4GHz Celeron
RAM: 768mb of DDR-667
PSU: opened Hyppo 430W
OS: Vista Ultimate 32-bit =D
HDD: 80GB maxtor (hopefully not a fireball)
CD-Drive: standard CD-Rom


They may not be the best specs, but it was all I was willing to sacrifice to the project.


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## Triprift (Oct 2, 2008)

Ok ive heard of fluorinert been used in super computers cus its non electrically conductive i didnt no about vegetable oil though. Thanks ive learnt my new thing for the day and its not even 10am awesome.


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## paybackdaman (Oct 2, 2008)

Yeah. I got this idea from watching a video on youtube. Plus we had $40 to waste and computer parts lying around doing nothing so we dropped it in vegetable oil. Great project to work on if you have nothing to do. 

The only downside to this, is that the components eventually become "water-logged" and do not function properly and if touched they can be warped and fall apart, but that's after a few months or
 so. Plus humidity can get in there and fry components...so its only good for a while...not recommended for new parts, but parts you were just gonna throw away anyways.


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## mlee49 (Oct 2, 2008)

Check this out


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## DonInKansas (Oct 2, 2008)

Can you cook french fries in there?


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## paybackdaman (Oct 2, 2008)

mlee49 said:


> Check this out



Yeah we looked at that. But mineral oil [a laxative] costs like $20 per gallon. We needed at least 5 gallons...I'm not spending that much on oil that eventually will be dumped. 

But yeah, I saw this exact thing today...actually. when i went to look for advice. Great idea, but way too much for our little budget.



DonInKansas said:


> Can you cook french fries in there?



Timer hasn't gone off yet....


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## warup89 (Oct 2, 2008)

Lol thats awesome man, but i heard if you take the pc out, the vegetable oil will rot taking the PC with it, so i guess keep it there and OC!


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## panchoman (Oct 2, 2008)

warup89 said:


> Lol thats awesome man, but i heard if you take the pc out, the vegetable oil will rot taking the PC with it, so i guess keep it there and OC!



or you could be smart and use a little bit of isopropyl alcohol to clean out the oil... 

anyway, nice mod!


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## paybackdaman (Oct 2, 2008)

The point of this though....is that we didn't want the parts anymore. If I had wanted them I wouldn't have had guts to do this. But thanks for the tip. My friend was just talking about using alcohol....cause we are planning on maybe putting a X800GTO in there to replace the R100 Radeon Rage card. That thing got great OCs on a fan...we were curious to see how much it would get with oil.


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## Castiel (Oct 2, 2008)

Holy Shit that is f'n awesome!!!!!!

major props there bro!

Are you going to make something to stick the HDD in so you can put it in the tank also?


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## Triprift (Oct 2, 2008)

Check this one out http://www.custompc.co.uk/features/604728/video-dream-pcs-2008-armaris-amazing-xcp.html


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## paybackdaman (Oct 2, 2008)

EMok1d08 said:


> Holy Shit that is f'n awesome!!!!!!
> 
> major props there bro!
> 
> Are you going to make something to stick the HDD in so you can put it in the tank also?



I don't think so. If you put the Hard drive or the cd-drive in the oil they won't function. I mean for obvious reasons with the CD drive, but almost the same concept with the hard drive. Fans as well. It will be too hard for them to spin and overheat the motor and kill it. But maybe like a box or something...i am thinking like boat or something to float on top.


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## panchoman (Oct 2, 2008)

for the hdd and dvd burner, you could  use a metal mount and make a rectangular box in the side of the tank, and  mount the burner inside the tank but above the oil line.
you can also do that for the psu,  a lot of people like a closed oil system.


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## Error 404 (Oct 2, 2008)

If you cover the small air hole in the hard drive it might work, but it DOES have an air hole for a reason...


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## panchoman (Oct 2, 2008)

Error 404 said:


> If you cover the small air hole in the hard drive it might work, but it DOES have an air hole for a reason...



you're best keeping it outside, the hard drive is a fast moving device that uses special oil for its mechanical parts, dont let them mix up, it could damage your hdd's spindle motor/spindle. you're best leaving it outside.


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## 7pU~m0m (Oct 2, 2008)

wow thats pretty cool!! :O


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## paybackdaman (Oct 2, 2008)

Well. I am glad my "experiment" worked. The only thing now is...the whole house smells like french fries. Temps rise about 1C about every hour or so. I have 2 120mm fans on it now....we'll see how that goes.

Update:





















I am planning on picking up 2 or 3 more of the oil...just to fill it to the top and allow for more heat transfer. That may drop the temps a little.


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## Triprift (Oct 2, 2008)

Lol and if it werks fine then do it with ya current hardware.


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## paybackdaman (Oct 2, 2008)

haha no. It works great, but it smells terrible. I mean it is great to do with old stuff you wont use anymore. It will eventually stop working once humidity gets in there and creates a contact and shorts something. Not really a great cooling idea, but for this stuff it works great.....for now.


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## Laurijan (Oct 2, 2008)

Newer see something like that.. its stunning


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## paybackdaman (Oct 2, 2008)

I saw something with mineral oil...and i read somewhere online that vegetable oil wasn't conductive so i put it in...plus i believe there is a video out there that tells you how to do it.


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## FR@NK (Oct 2, 2008)

Error 404 said:


> If you cover the small air hole in the hard drive it might work, but it DOES have an air hole for a reason...



This drive worked for afew days without the air hole covered:






It was exciting dropping this drive into the oil while it was running. I thought for sure it was gunna flame up and start smoking but instead it worked perfect.

I plan on designing a system thats fully submerged in medical grade mineral oil and the oil will be cooled with a water chiller. This should get the entire system down into the subzero temps without any issues with condensation. The hard drive is the only really problem I've ran into so far. I might try covering the air hole and seeing if it works over the weekend.



paybackdaman said:


> Plus humidity can get in there and fry components...so its only good for a while.



The water that makes it into the oil will collect at the bottom of the tank; so you might want to raise the motherboard up about an inch so you can see the water build up before it shorts out anything.


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## paybackdaman (Oct 2, 2008)

too much friction caused a motor failure is my best guess.


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## arekieh (Oct 2, 2008)

thats sick lol,
i want to do this with my p3 now


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## Mussels (Oct 2, 2008)

Not a new concept, but its always fun to read up on what people did.

FR@NK: i'm very interested in what you can achieve with that chilled oil system.
(And if you feel like risking more 2.5" sata drives, send them to me!)


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## paybackdaman (Oct 3, 2008)

Thanks man. Yeah. I knew it was already known, but I wanted to just try it out. Works great...even today. 

I too am curious to see what Fr@nk can do. Keep us posted man.


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## panchoman (Oct 3, 2008)

remember, the oil will never be cooled unless if you make a custom radiator or something for the oil, thats why you gotta make sure the temps are okay.


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## 7pU~m0m (Oct 3, 2008)

i wonder if you could put a water pump in it and through a filter so that you nvr have to change it??


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## panchoman (Oct 3, 2008)

you'd need an extreme pump for that cause cooking oil is very thick, and i dont think a regular filter would work on the oil...


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## MKmods (Oct 4, 2008)

if it gets hot enough you can cook french fries in it... now thats a cool dual purpose comp.


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## BrooksyX (Oct 4, 2008)

MKmods said:


> if it gets hot enough you can cook french fries in it... now thats a cool dual purpose comp.



I think this is the future of green PCs. Now instead of going out and buying a new pc and a new fryer, you just buy a 2 in one combo. You can get your deep fat fried fix and your gaming fix all in one box! Talk about a sweet deal!!!


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