Want a cool and quiet PC? Dunk it in oil!

This was a project by the guys at Toms Hardware Guide. The Munich based lab was the setting for this project to design a system that cooled the components by total submersion in a liquid-filled case.

The AMD Athlon FX-55 CPU and GeForce 6800 Ultra Graphics Card on the motherboard doesn't short out because the vegetable oil filled in the sealed Plexiglas case, is non-conductive. It actually eliminates the noise pollution of the fans and the clear case offers a view off the inner workings of the computer.

Eight gallons of vegetable oil was poured into a constructed Plexiglas case, which was sealed airtight with silicone glue. They first used an aquarium, but the cables and connections couldn't be brought from the inside to the outside. So Plexiglas was used, so they could use boreholes and cut additional pieces as necessary.

In the beginning, they didn't use oil at all. They first used de-ionized water, which to every one's amazement, ran for a period of five minutes before crashing. The system components were not damaged after drying, but after repeating the process over and over, they decided to use vegetable oil instead. Water is actually a better medium than oil, but due to the free ions it cannot be used. They decided on vegetable oil for this experiment - but they actually recommend motor oil.

The cooling fan on the AMD Athlon FX-55 was removed and they left the heat sink. Same for the GeForce 6800 Ultra graphics card, only the metallic heat sink remained. After all, the fan's blades are not designed for low RPMs that result from high friction resistance in the liquid.

This is a really cool experiment and can actually be used in every day computing. But the flip side I see to this is, when you want to change the components, it could result in a messy job. Also, your parts would be oily, which seems like would be difficult to remove. And, the risk of the case leaking because the silicone seal is coming out or something like that. To change the entire motherboard, you would have to make a plughole in the bottom to drain the oil. Other than that this is an awesome idea, that can cool your computer and a cool machine is an optimal machine. Which their tests, showed the computer was running cooler than most high-end PCs with the same hardware. Plus, the luxury of having a completely quiet computer.