Submersing a rig

[Defkin]

All oil is flammable, so Im not sure what risk the PU (or fibreglass) would add to that. If it catches fire, my shed will burn down anyway. But in case the pump fails, the cards will just shut down, and long before the oil reaches flash point.

I was not concerned about the oil directly in fact due to the high flash point of oil I would say it is likely to put out a fire.

Consider this, you have intermediate fuels in close proximity to the card, PU foam, plastic wire insulation, plastic moldings etc all nicely heated up by the card. If you lose the oil flow all those materials are now lightly coated in oil and with the splash method you might even have created an air-fuel mixture. Your ignition source would be the card, it has a lot of current running through it, a fatigued solder joint, poor connector or faulty component and there is your initial flame. Normally in an air cooled pc you would only expect get a brown spot on the PCB or a blackened connector, maybe not even that much with the oil running, without the oil running the risk of fire is considerably higher.


Anyhow good luck with the project and don't forget to post pictures when you get it up and running

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[P4man]

Im bumping in to my first problem. PU is lighter than oil. It doesnt stick well enough to the PVC container, so it will float. I guess that can be worked around by mechanically forcing the block down, but its not a good start lol. On the bright side, its a joy to dremel canals and stuff in PU foam. If I didnt have 2 left hands, Id start sculpting!

[FlipPro]

Don't do it. I have a sli watercooled 6990s and its been nothing but problems. Running water and electronics non stop is not a good combination!

[P4man]

This is about oil submersion.

[DeathAndTaxes]

Don't do it. I have a sli watercooled 6990s and its been nothing but problems. Running water and electronics non stop is not a good combination!

People have nothing but problems w/ aircooling too.  Check mining troubleshooting thread.  I have a quad 5970 workstation water cooled for 2 years now.  Cold & Quiet 24/7.

[P4man]

Consider this, you have intermediate fuels in close proximity to the card, PU foam, plastic wire insulation, plastic moldings etc all nicely heated up by the card. If you lose the oil flow all those materials are now lightly coated in oil and with the splash method you might even have created an air-fuel mixture.

With my setup, a pump failure wont cause the card to run dry. The only real chance of running dry is when the oil leaks out in to my pond. I intend to install a floatswitch of sorts to shut the system off, possibly even close a valve, more to protect my pond than my shed . Even so, assuming oil cooling could manage to keep these cards around 50C, you could just define a shutdown point at 70C or whatever.  If there isnt a big difference between working oil cooling and no oil or static oil, then the whole exercise would be proven futile.

BTW, I also already have smoke detectors near my rigs. Of course that only helps if Im home. Still not a bad idea to grab one, they cost next to nothing.

[Defkin]

Im bumping in to my first problem. PU is lighter than oil. It doesnt stick well enough to the PVC container, so it will float. I guess that can be worked around by mechanically forcing the block down, but its not a good start lol. On the bright side, its a joy to dremel canals and stuff in PU foam. If I didnt have 2 left hands, Id start sculpting!

Maybe stick nails into the foam to weigh it down?
Have you tried plumbers glue?

[DeathAndTaxes]

Maybe stick nails into the foam to weigh it down?
Have you tried plumbers glue?

I like the idea of nails or maybe model weights over glue.  Who knows how well plumbers glue holds up over course of a year in hot oil.

[P4man]

Maybe stick nails into the foam to weigh it down?
Have you tried plumbers glue?

Good thinking. Would need a lot of nails but something like that should work. Or just rocks or bricks. Create a bottom layer of pu foam , then put whatever weight on it, then apply the next layers so its firmly embedded. Ill try that for V0.2 Now Ill just make some "bridges" in the PU that stick out above the PVC bowl and press it down with rubbers. Or something.

[P4man]

Progress report #1.

Pur foam dried out and I started cutting :



As you can see im very good at measuring and sawing straight lines



I also underestimated the size of these cards, so this will be a single motherboard, 4 card box.

The PUR foam will need some sort of coating, it will always keep giving off particles, that cant be good. 

[P4man]

BWAHAHAHA.. I won the auction on Michael Schumachers Benetton F1 oil radiator 

http://cgi.benl.ebay.be/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=350525626493&ssPageName=ADME:L:COSI:BE:1123

21 GBP.

ROFL. Im sure that will increase my hashrate by at least 10%!

I hope its not rusty or leaky, whoever sold it probably didnt expect anyone to actually want to use it LOL

[jake262144]

... I won the auction on Michael Schumachers Benetton F1 oil radiator...

Good for you P4

Don't do it. I have a sli watercooled 6990s and its been nothing but problems. Running water and electronics non stop is not a good combination!

Buy the nonconductive coolant then.

[mxxx363]

I've seen some rigs in mineral oil before. 

Looks pretty sick when it's submersed in an aquarium.

[Fanatic]

Don't do it! This is madness!

[JusticeForYou]

I believe there are some CFC's that would work. Actually, so would 'pure' water.

However, wouldn't it be less risky to figure out the thermodynamics of the system and appropriately set your Freezer to the correct settings. 

[DeathAndTaxes]

... I won the auction on Michael Schumachers Benetton F1 oil radiator...

Good for you P4

Don't do it. I have a sli watercooled 6990s and its been nothing but problems. Running water and electronics non stop is not a good combination!

Buy the nonconductive coolant then.

Garbage.  Distilled water is non-conductive (or more correctly has very low electrical conductivity).  Lots of horror stories of all that wonder goop breaking down inside waterblocks and destroying radiators.

Distilled water + silver kill coil + opqaue tubing (I swear by Tygon Silver medical grade tubing).  You don't need anything else. 

Of course distilled water is boring so companies sell ULRTA SUPER QUANTUM WATER NOW W/ 82% MORE MOLECULAR COHESION AND LEET NANOPARTICLES!!!!

[P4man]

I believe there are some CFC's that would work. Actually, so would 'pure' water.

CFCs? Only CFCs I know are gasses (at room temperature) and many of them powerful solvents. Aside from the fact they are illegal in most places, sounds like a terrible idea. Almost as bad as "pure" water that will ionize within the hour and short everything out.

However, wouldn't it be less risky to figure out the thermodynamics of the system and appropriately set your Freezer to the correct settings. 

If you dont mind more than doubling power consumption, coping with condensation and be able to move the heat to where you want it, yeah sure.

[jake262144]

Don't do it. I have a sli watercooled 6990s and its been nothing but problems. Running water and electronics non stop is not a good combination!

Buy the nonconductive coolant then.

Garbage.  Distilled water is non-conductive (or more correctly has very low electrical conductivity).  Lots of horror stories of all that wonder goop breaking down inside waterblocks and destroying radiators.

DAT, I targeted that piece of advice at a guy apparently having issues with his WC installation. Distilled water rocks but if you have even a minor leakage, it will pick up dirt and the conductivity rises fast. In this context, going with chemical coolants might not be that bad an idea, huh?
I'm not advocating that stuff over good-old water for general use, neither am I not trying to change your opinion.
I'm trying to find an optimal solution to a specific problem so that a newb operator doesn't burn his rig down.
You're right though - if the installation finally proves watertight and runs without problems, you can easily replace the chemicals with water.

[P4man]

How about mineral oil? Its not like those watercooling tanks take 10 gallon, so cost isnt a big concern. Of course it would reduce flow rate a bit, depending how viscose the oil is, but Im unsure if that would be a problem. At most upgrade the pump. Im sure someone has tried this, anyone seen results?

[DeathAndTaxes]

Don't do it. I have a sli watercooled 6990s and its been nothing but problems. Running water and electronics non stop is not a good combination!

Buy the nonconductive coolant then.

Garbage.  Distilled water is non-conductive (or more correctly has very low electrical conductivity).  Lots of horror stories of all that wonder goop breaking down inside waterblocks and destroying radiators.

DAT, I targeted that piece of advice at a guy apparently having issues with his WC installation. Distilled water rocks but if you have even a minor leakage, it will pick up dirt and the conductivity rises fast. In this context, going with chemical coolants might not be that bad an idea, huh?

No because those chemical coolants are mostly distilled water and thus have the same "issue".  There are coolants which remain non-conductive but they tend to run $100+ a gallon and they tend not to come in "ultra leet" packaging.  

Not one of those "super goop" coolants makes any claim that they are less conductive than distilled water or will remain non-conductive when exposed to contaminants.  Reread the product description.  They don't provide better cooling, they don't provide better anti-fungal protection, they don't provide corrosion resistance on an all copper system, and they don't provide electrical protection.  Pure snake oil in a bottle marked up a couple thousand percent. 

I haven't seen one post EVER where any of that "super goop" helped a system but I have seen many horror stories of the stuff breaking down, leaving deposits, and "gooping" up components.

Water works.  It is used to cool super computers.  Plain distilled water.