[clug] Submerged PC (White Oil) & TV Capture Cards

[Jeff Stiff]

2010/1/5 Arjen Lentz <arjen at lentz.com.au>

> Hi Jeff
>
> ----- "Jeff Stiff" <smee.heee at gmail.com> wrote:
> > I am looking at trying my MythTV server submerged in White Oil
>
> Couple of comments and questions...
>
>  a) as shown by a url posted in the thread, PC in mineral oil can work
> fine.
>
>  d) I don't understand why you want to use white oil, this may in fact be
> dangerous. I'll explain:
> White oil is essentially veggie oil + dishwashing liquid. Detergent is fat
> + emulsifier. What does an emulsifier do? It allows fat/oil to mix with
> water. And that's my worry. Why the blazes would you want to add something
> into your coolant that allows water to mix in the oil?
> Water is something you don't want to have any of. When mixed with pure oil,
> it won't mix, it'll separate with the oil on top and water at the bottom.
> Easily managed.
>
> So, based on that I would suggest going for pure mineral oil like the other
> example did successfully, and not use white oil? And please feel free to try
> and tackle this train of logic, that's what it's there for.
>
>
>
The reason for the white oil was based on the original url posted.  They
used it, and did not have any issues.  I believe from past reading, not a
recent refresh, that the others that used the pure mineral oil had it go off
after a few months.  This might be wrong, it might have been using "pure"
veggie oil.

I was under the impression that white oil was essentially pure mineral oil.
I agree that I do not want it to help water mix with it, or to have anything
added to it.

Given the above, what is "Pure" mineral oil, and where can it be sourced
from?

The fumes/vapour issue is interesting.  Maybe the garage might be the new
location for the Myth backend.  I do wonder (more research needed) what
temperature the oil would need to get to to start giving off vapour.  While
the cpu might still get around the 70c mark, I am hopeful that the amount of
oil, about 40 litres, should stay relatively cool.  Also, the tank will be
capped, not air tight, but it will have a lid, that what where I was
planning on housing the hard drives.

I will still go ahead with the experiment, but will revise some features
based on advice and concerns raised.  Any more advice appreciated.

Cheers,
Jeff.