Why am I doing this? What is wrong with cooling a computer's component's with just air? Well, when I first saw videos of this kind of project on the youtube (see below), I was amazed. I knew I wanted to do something similar. However, air cooling is very capable of cooling computers. Oil cooling is what PC enthusiasts would call exotic cooling - cool, but really unnecessary. Oil is really one of the few ways that can yield a completely silent computer. Because the fans are basically unnecessary, and because they rotate much slower because of the increased resistance of the oil, they make no noise at all.
The main reason I am doing this project is because I really love working with computer hardware. Over the past year, I've closely followed all of the new technologies that have come out, and all of the hardware - video cards, processors, or whatever else.
My goal for this project is to create something similar to this:
(I'm still working on formatting)
For me to build something similar, I will need to construct a tank. That will probably take up the majority of my time. There will be several design challenges: designing a way to mount all of the components; a way to hold all of this mineral oil; a way to make sure the enclosure is not damaged by the mineral oil; and quite a few more I have yet to encounter.
Two week plan:
I don't feel like I can give a day by day schedule yet, because there are still a few things I have to iron out. I am interviewing Casey Dill this Wednesday. Casey has built an oil computer before, and will be an invaluable resource during the course of this project. I also still need to finalize my mentor situation. I am meeting with Mr. Sauve tomorrow during school to give him the necessary mentor papers and such. Another thing for me to conquer this week is to locate another video card. That will be the main thing holding me back these first two weeks. Basically, I have three complete system's worth of parts. One is my main computer, which will basically be uninvolved in this project, I have my old system, pictured in a previous post, and I have this test/oil system. I want to have 2 complete, oil-free computers at the end of this project, and for that I will need another video card. There are a few floating around the Ithaca craigslist I need to take a more serious look at this week. After that is accomplished, I will begin the process of overclocking the processor as much as I can, simply because I find that fun. Once I am satisfied, and I have found a completely stable setting, I will start design work on the case.
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