[Case Gallery] mineral oil on the cheap!

[shadapar]

To view this case mod, go here.



Specs:
Amd Sempron 1250
Gigabyte GA-M61PME-S2P
1GB DDR2 800
Scythe SCORC-1000

Mods:
Modified the eclipse system 3 lid a tad by removing some internal structure supports, removed the red LEDs from the tri color fans, used industrial velcro strips to mount the power supply and hard drives externally and then added some aquarium rock, buried an airstrip in it, routed the cables and hoses behind the motherboard, and filled with 2 gallons of light viscosity mineral oil.

The purpose of this mod was not speed or cooling. Its a pure endurance testbed, I'm looking to see if I can get 2 years of reliable service out of this. I didn't submerge the power supply, as its mainly the motherboard, cpu, and memory I'm intrested in testing at this time. At this time its only running off of an 80Gig WD IDE drive but in the future I'm planning on removing that and adding 2 1TB WD SATA II drives for network video storage. Building one of these new from scratch would run around $425 US dollars including mineral oil and wi-fi card. I built mine on a budget of less than $200 by using a lot of parts I already had on hand, and it still looks good. Besides being a test bed, the Gee Whiz factor has a lot to do with why I built this.

 

[Athlon2K15]

i like the concept,im not sure i understand the purpose of the fans? sweet job though

 

[shadapar]

the purpose of the fans is...

....to help to circulate the oil and light the thing up.

 

[Athlon2K15]

thank you for clarifying, i dont know much about the mineral oil setup myself

 

[Arrakis9]

Gave you a 7 for the nice way you set it up, i like seeing the rocks at the bottom i do however think the fans will be the first to go out

 

[h3llb3nd4]

Ahh so you saw what they did in pudget systems... nice!

 

[boulard83]

Im planing the same test !!! 9 for you milord !

 

[shadapar]

it's a mini

Mine's a mini though, puget uses the eclipse system 6 which is a 5-6 gallon tank, this is the eclipse 3 which is a 2-3 gallon tank

 

[Reditus]

Gave you a 7 for the nice way you set it up, i like seeing the rocks at the bottom i do however think the fans will be the first to go out

I duno, because when fans have trouble spinning, they get hot and die, bu they are not going to get hot in the oil, so they should be fine.
Will find out tho, lol

 

[shadapar]

fans

Dunno if they'll fail or not. if they do fail I think it's likely to be because they were $4.99 a piece instead of getting hot. look at it this way...the bearings will always stay lubed....

 

[newtekie1]

Instead of the fans, I would have bought a small water-cooling pump, with one hose at the left side of the tank, and the other at the right. This would circulate the oil around the tank.

 

[shadapar]

I have two pumps somewhere in my house.. I haven't managed to find either. Not to worried about it though, the main test is durability.. when i find it i'll probably hook it in with a radiator because i get asked that a lot. intrestingly enough the airstrip I used is good for dropping the oil temp almost 10C. I found that intresting. I think it wouldn't drop the temp quite so much in a larger tank. I'm considering running a test later (when I have the money, yay me, after 8 years I'm a victim of corporate downsizing at the moment) where I'll buy two tower heatsinks and a hefty pelter and sandwich it with the cold side in the oil and the hot side above.

 

[shadapar]

parts list

A part's list is below, except I used a different WD HDD and wi-fi card, I already had most of my components or picked them up off of clearence racks. to build mine at cost ($400, I spent way less) you'd need the following:

GIGABYTE GA-M61PME-S2P $50 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128383
AMD Sempron LE-1250 CPU $30 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103189
Transcend JETRAM 2GB $25 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820208283
Scythe SCORC-1000 $50 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835185064
LOGISYS Power Supply $30 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817170017
Western Digital Hard Drive $35 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136195
Antec Tricolor Fan times 2 $12 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835209010
wireless card for $17, http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833166020

Eclipse System 3 Aquarium $48 http://www.petsmart.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2752385
Air pump $6 http://www.petsmart.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2754091
Airline Tubing $2 http://www.petsmart.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2752198&keepsr=0
Bubble Walls $8 http://www.petsmart.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2752294&keepsr=0
Aquarium Gravel $2 http://www.petsmart.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2752290&keepsr=0

Mineral Oil, 2-3 gallons $37 (for 2) http://www.tractorsupply.com/webapp...02|14619|43436?listingPage=true&Special=false

You'll also need 8 1/8" or smaller bolts to mount the fans, some idustrial strength velcro, and the power and reset switches from an existing computer case. you can make one with parts at radio shack, order one for around $25(ridiculous) or buy a whole dang case to get the switchs for $24 ( http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811147127 )

Hope you like!

 

[shadapar]

update

after approx 2 months I developed a class 1 leak, which was the result of a micro fracture in the acrylic. I drained the oil, (messy!) cleaned the case somewhat, especially the leak site, and epoxy sealed the micro frature.(yeah i know silicon is recommended, but my thought process is the epoxy I used is used by my dad, who got the idea from my uncle, who is a plumber, sure its grey but it's water proof and amazingly strong, perfect for a fracture) its currently refilled and appears fine after several hours. note to anyone doing this though, don't store the mineral oil outside if its cold. I booted this guy up and evrest intially reported a CPU core temp of -2C... yea negative two, its sitting at 6C right now and will probably be a bit of a long night as i won't be able to trust the seal til the case is completely warmed up.

 

[chooky]

I'll buy two tower heatsinks and a hefty pelter and sandwich it with the cold side in the oil and the hot side above.

I tried this on my oil PC but found that too much condensation was produced. So I put a water block on the hot side and submerged the lot.