Mineral-oil cooled SFF

[Shahmatt]

https://www.pugetsystems.com/submerged.php

Here is an idea for the innovators of this forum.

 

[VegetableStu]

Ahh the last I heard they got patent trolled by some other sour company, and couldn't sell the kits anymore ._.

 

[Shahmatt]

Ahh the last I heard they got patent trolled by some other sour company, and couldn't sell the kits anymore ._.

Yes that's unfortunate. I guess we could track down the patent and see what exactly was claimed. Will do a search tonight and see what comes up.

 

[jtd871]

Sorry to be a buzzkill, @Shahmatt, but it's really ancient history now. And you can do amazing things on air these days.

 

[SpringerTheNerd]

Sorry to be a buzzkill, @Shahmatt, but it's really ancient history now. And you can do amazing things on air these days.

Imo mineral oil cooled computers have always been more of a show piece rather than for performance.

 

[Shahmatt]

Well in the world of small form factor the main problem is that air cooling is less efficient than it otherwise might be. Cooling is heavily reliant on casing shape due to necessary access to vents or proximity to sides for use of passive methods.

I wondered then if mineral oil could be a good solution. The casing shape can be anything really as long as the oil is sealed in properly. All you need to do is to establish some liquid movement around the hot areas, but the normal fans (or bubbles) could do that. Also the weight penalty of carrying liquid around is reduced due to lower case volumes.

 

[thewizzard1]

Well in the world of small form factor the main problem is that air cooling is less efficient than it otherwise might be. Cooling is heavily reliant on casing shape due to necessary access to vents or proximity to sides for use of passive methods.

I wondered then if mineral oil could be a good solution. The casing shape can be anything really as long as the oil is sealed in properly. All you need to do is to establish some liquid movement around the hot areas, but the normal fans (or bubbles) could do that. Also the weight penalty of carrying liquid around is reduced due to lower case volumes.

Having to seal everything up is counter-productive to the size and portability ITX and SFF provide.

 

[Josh | NFC]

As long as we are talking about submerged innovators, remember these guys?

https://theawesomer.com/reactor-oil-cooled-pc/5173/

This was the coolest thing in early 2008. So much custom work, and so many innovative ideas that were way ahead of the curve.

 

[jtd871]

Well in the world of small form factor the main problem is that air cooling is less efficient than it otherwise might be. Cooling is heavily reliant on casing shape due to necessary access to vents or proximity to sides for use of passive methods.

I wondered then if mineral oil could be a good solution. The casing shape can be anything really as long as the oil is sealed in properly. All you need to do is to establish some liquid movement around the hot areas, but the normal fans (or bubbles) could do that. Also the weight penalty of carrying liquid around is reduced due to lower case volumes.

Eventually, though, you need to transfer that heat to the air, and most oil-cooled PC projects that I have seen were not that portable - mostly due to weight/bulk of oil required to immerse an entire PC.