Mineral Oil PC - 4/7/2010 Houston, we have liftoff!! *56K Warning*

[legoman666]

This is an aggregate of the work I've done in the past few days. I don't get home early enough to get any serious modding done during the week.

Specs of the MicroATX PSU that I'm considering using to power the lower compartment. It's left over from another mod (peltier drink cooler).

Barely has any clearance. I don't think I'll use it. I already have to run a few cables from the upper compartment to the lower compartment; USB, 2 temp sensors, and Reset. The PSU eliminates the need for 3.3v, 5v, 12v, and GND. But it also adds the complication of 1 more point of failure and the need for another relay.

So I cooked this up real quick as a solution. I'll place a few of these down the back of the case to guide the wires nice and straight. 1 on the bottom aluminum section made out of alu, 2 on the plexi section made out of plexi, and 1 more on the top section.

All nice and done. The wires will all be sleeved the same color so they look uniform and neat.

I cut some of the remaining aluminum sheet metal to 18.5" width so I can rip the pieces for the upper section from it.

The two long sides.

And the rest.

The top section will be removable. It's still up in the air whether it'll be hinged or not though. I want to hinge it, but I can't think of an obvious place to attach the hinges on the lower section. I'll take a look at the different kinds of hinges the next time I go to the hardware store.

The top section will simply sit on top of these pieces of 1/2" angle aluminum. The pencil mark is how far down the aluminum goes. The ~1/4" of overlap is intentional.

And here it is all together. The top section is simply taped for now.

What do you think?

 

[legoman666]

Been working on the upper frame all day.

Did this Thursday. It allows me to plug 3 fans into 1 fan header on the SCAB and still pull the RPM data from one of the fans (the one with the shortest lead).

Tucked away, in position and plugged in. Works well.

I cut the 12 L brackets needed to construct the upper frame.

I spent the entire day on this silly thing. This will have no weight on it, so it's entirely over designed.

The frame completed and in place.

Drilling the holes for the panels.

All of the panels attached. There's a lot of work in between these pictures that goes undocumented simply because it's so tedious.

And then in position on the rest of the frame.

Quick pic with the acrylic in place.

That's where I stopped today. Tomorrow I want to work more on the upper section. Hopefully I'll think of a way to hinge it. As is, I can simply just lift it off the top of the case.

 

[legoman666]

Today was a beautiful day. After a rather dreary beginning of the week with temps around 10F, it was a very pleasant 75F today. I went for a bike ride in the afternoon.

I decided I should probably test submerging some components in the oil. I'm mainly concerned with the oil eating away plastic, so I made sure to get 2 types of capacitors on my test subjects. My guinea pigs are a dead HD3870 and a 9200LE.

Then I got to some more serious work. Back shot of the wiring for the plugs and switches that the PSU and pump power cords will plug into.

And from the front. I think there is an LED in the switch, but I don't know how to wire it up.

I made sure to draw the template for drilling the holes on the back this time.

These actually aren't as much work to file as all of the buttons for the LCD were.

Still took a long time though.

And then with the two sets mounted and in place.

 

[legoman666]

The wiring on the back.

Quick test to make sure it fits on the frame.

And now to wire up the internal outlets. I bought the conduit boxes, single outlet receptacles and the covers along with a few other goodies at Lowes today.

Then I bent a piece of aluminum for use as a mount.

And then did it again.

View from the top. 4 screws for each mount and a small 8-32 nut to hold it in place.

And what it looks like from the inside. I had to make sure to mount them out of the way so wires coming out of the motherboard wouldn't run into them. I almost mounted them in a position that would have made it impossible to plug stuff into the motherboard backpane.

The outlets wired up.

And all done.

That's where I stopped today. Since it was so nice, I went for a bike ride before dinner. Then after dinner I went and saw Watchmen, which was epic. Go watch it.

 

[legoman666]

This is a combination of work from Sunday up to today (Thursday).

I bought 4 small hinges that will be used to allow access to the top compartment. I cut a small strip of aluminum and drilled the holes for all 4 hinges.

I cut about 3/4" off the bottom of the right side sheet and then cut a piece to replace it. I drilled the holes through it for the hinges.

Each hinge is held in place with 2 small 8-32 nuts.

And then I did the same for the top. You will notice, on the top section I had to put small 1/8" spacers in between the hinges and the panel. This is to make both sections of panel even as the lower section is bumped out by the 1/8" angle risers.

View from the outside.

And the hinges in action. I still need to do a little more filing so I can open it at least 90 degrees. If it can't open far enough, I won't be able to pull the motherboard tray out of the oil. Speaking of which...

I cut 2 strips of 1/4" acrylic that will be have the drawer sliders attached to them. Although not shown in this picture, these were cut to the proper length, about 12".

Here are the drawer sliders I'm going to use. I washed them with dishsoap several times to remove all of the oil and grease on the ball bearings. These will be submerged in mineral oil and as such, do not require extra lubrication. Besides, I don't want the two oils mixing.

After a discussion on [H] (posted above), I figured out what I needed to do to get the neon bulbs in the switches to light up. The third pin on each switch had to be grounded. So I soldered a short connection between the two ground pins on both switches and then grounded them both by wiring them to the case (which is grounded). It is a bit dark, but you can just make out the ground going to the screw in this pic.

And then here it is in action. Looks good.

Comments?

 

[legoman666]

And on to the update....

I did some filing and am now able to open the top more than 90 degrees.

Cutting the pieces for the "tank" that holds the 8" LCD on the front acrylic panel.

Then I glued it together with Weld-On and sealed the corners with silicone.

Then I glued the "tank" to the acrylic sheet. Weld-On is awesome. You just stick the two pieces together and apply the stuff to the joint. You can't apply it to the edges and then connect the two pieces since it evaporates so fast. Plus it dries in about 10 minutes and is strong enough to handle. Nearly full strength occurs after about 24 hours.

Making sure the tank is watertight so oil doesn't leak in.

I don't see any drips!

So I emptied the water and made sure the LCD fit (lol, maybe I should have done that before I glued it all together )

I want to glue the tank together tomorrow, so I need to get the bottom of the tank ready. With that in mind, I marked the 3 locations for the bulkhead fittings. 1 for the radiator inlet, 1 for the outlet, and 1 for the drain.

 

[legoman666]

First I drilled a pilot hole since my 7/8" drill bit does not like starting holes and I really don't want to ruin this sheet of acrylic.

Then drilling the big hole for the fitting. Sure takes a long time.

Here's how the bulkhead fittings work. The top doesn't come tapped, but that's easily fixed.

And all 3 holes done.

That's where I stopped today. Tomorrow I want to glue the entire tank together. I think I'm ready to do it; I'm fairly certain I have everything prepared. Comments?

So the plan today was to get the tank done. To accomplish that, I had to prepare the side panels. Yesterday I made the "tank" for the LCD. I had just one thing left to do today before gluing it all together.

The left side panel needed to have the drawer slides attached to it.

I cut these strips of acrylic a while ago. The holes are already drilled. Gluing stuff with the Weld-On is really easy; just clamp the two surfaces together....

...And apply the glue with a syringe or similar to the joints. It seeps into the tiny spaces between the two pieces of acrylic and dries in about 5-10 minutes.

Here it is glued on!

 

[legoman666]

And then checking the fit in the case. Looks like it'll open just fine.

After my experience with the LCD tank and the strips, it was time to glue the tank together. Clamps = win.

About 25 minutes later, it's already dry. I didn't put any silicone in the joints yet. I'm not 100% certain that I'm going to.

And then dropped it into the frame. It fits!

The lid is a little difficult to close though. I'll see what I can do about that.

The lid above the LCD is slightly crooked. The lid closes too far; easily fixed.

Close up of the rear of one of the drawer slides. The bubbles are where there isn't glue.

The back.

That's it for today! Comments?

 

[legoman666]

Here are those pics I forgot to post last night:

No leaks so far!

 

[legoman666]

Hello everyone. I wasn't able to work at all yesterday since my dad was using the shop, but I did a little work today.

I wanted to get the motherboard tray done today, so I was checking the spacing.

Then I cut the sheet to size, drilled all of the holes for the spacers, and mounted the mobo backpane.

I cut a slot for the little pegs on the bottom of the PCI cards.

This was a pain in the neck to file to the right size after I completed the initial cut with a Dremel.

I had to use one small washer to get the correct spacing between the motherboard and the motherboard backpane.

I stuck a motherboard on it and installed a PCI card to make sure I got the spacing right. Looks like it'll work. I'm not sure if the motherboard connector shield (mouse, USB and such) will fit. I don't have one for this particular motherboard that I can test with.

Then I drilled the holes to allow me to attach the motherboard tray to the drawer slides. In this pic, only two screws out of four are attached on one side.

View from the back. As you can see, the holes allow a fair amount of play, which is nice.

And then with all eight screws holding the tray to the slides. Each is held on with a small nut.

 

[legoman666]

Action shot!

A piece of aluminum works great to hold the tray up so I can work on it.

And then closed.

I used a piece of 1/2" angle aluminum to attach my handle. The handle is centered with respect to the entire tray. The screws that hold it on are the same ones that hold the backpane to the tray. That's why it doesn't look centered.

Works great.

That's where I stopped today. Next on the list is to mount the power supply and make a "cover" of sorts for the top of the tank. Comments?

 

[legoman666]

It's been a while! I'm beginning my final push for completion. With any luck, the case will be completed for a lan party in Louisville July 12th (or somewhere around there, I can't remember). Enough talk, to the pics!

I made a second 3 to 1 fan adapter to allow me to control all 3 fans from 1 header on the SCAB unit. It still has RPM control from the fan closest to the plug.

Did a bit of work on the buttons.

Bunch of wires that will have to run between the top compartment and bottom compartment.

The PSU was a challenge to mount. I couldn't attach it directly to the mobo tray because of the bolts that hold the tray to the drawer slides. So I attached 2 pieces of L angle.

On top of which will rest the PSU.

To hold the PSU to the actual tray, I made this bracket....

...which attaches thusly.

I removed all of the panels from the frame for sanding. I used 150 grit sandpaper on my small random orbit sander. The object here was not to make it smooth, merely to put a finish on the sides that will not easily show finger prints and small scratches. A mirror finish would look amazing but only for about the 5 minutes it's clean.

Crappy sand paper = crappy job. I had to change the sanding pad regularly; the aluminum wears down the sand quickly.

Sanding aluminum makes a mess, I did this outside. All nice and finished.

 

[legoman666]

Holding the LCD in place was a challenge as well. There was no simple way to screw it to the front panel. So with the help of a little JB Weld and L angle, I made a mold to hold it in place.

I needed a little bit of masking tape on one side to make the screen perfectly level.

There are two pieces for the sides.

And to actually hold the screen in the mold, I made a little bracket that keeps tension on the back of the PCB. There's masking tape on the side in contact with the PCB to prevent shorts.

Looking pretty sharp!

I fired it up real quick to make sure I didn't kill anything. It's really quite secure in there.

And that's as far as the pictures go. I did a little more work but nothing significant. All that remains is finishing up the wiring to the bottom compartment and finding a way to mount the hard drives.

 

[legoman666]

Moving right along...

Finding a place to mount the hard drives inside the case was difficult. I attached a piece of L angle to one of my drives to find the best spot.

This was as good as I could do, but even here it's blocking the top most ports on the motherboard (keyboard and mouse PS2 ports). Hopefully this won't be a problem. All of my crap is USB anyway.

I have 6 drives I would like to put in the case, but only two are going to fit. I drilled a piece of sheet so I could attach the 2 drives.

Lookin' good.

After double checking and triple checking the measurements for these screws, I drilled the holes in the top of the case.

And here they are on the inside with the lid closed. As you can see, they kind of lean one way since they're only supported on one side.

A quick little bracket on the other side fixed that.

Much better.

The drives on screwed to the top of the top compartment and will not be submerged in oil.

 

[legoman666]

:wallbash: Who planned this thing anyway? The handle for pulling up the motherboard tray is in the way of the hard drives. Since this is the only place that the hard drives will fit, the handle will either have to be modified or removed.

This shot and the ones following are simply money shots to show the overall progress on the case.

And from the back.

These are the cables that provide power for the lower compartment. The remaining slot on the spacer will hold the power, reset and power LED wires.

And that's all for today. All that remains is fixing the mobo tray handle, re wiring the plugs, installing the fans on the 2nd radiator, installing the tubing, installing the pump, and cleaning the case before I fill it with oil.

Comments?

 

[legoman666]

I should be able to finish the case tomorrow or the next day! All I need to do is break down my current PC, clean it, put it in the new case, and fill it with oil. Here's what I've been working on for the past 2 days.

I installed the second rad. There isn't much space between the two. And to think I had originally intended to stick two pumps down there...

The two radiators are connected in parallel. Oil will flow in to both simultaneously and then back out. The two rads are identical so the same amount of oil should go to both.

Then I attached the tubing to get the oil to the inlet and outlet on the bottom of the tank. You can see the two temperature sensors that I mounted in the sawed off T's here.

Then I installed the drain. I made sure to mark which position was what so I didn't accidentally fill the tank when the drain wasn't shut.

And this is the view of the bottom compartment in its final state. Fingers crossed on no leaks. I only get 1 shot at this, I can't leak test with water because I will never be able to get all of it out of the radiators.

The bottom of the tank sure is dirty....

After thinking hard about what to do with the handle so it doesn't hit the hard drives, I just simply moved it off center. It was previously attached to the left two screws that hold the backpane to the tray. Now it's attached to the right two. Brilliant eh?

I gave the tank a good cleaning with a few blasts from the compressor and some Windex. Squeeky clean!


Can't wait to get it running!

 

[legoman666]

So close to completion... I just want to pour the oil in the tank and let it rip, but good things come to those who wait.

I cut out a hole in the back of the top compartment for all of the cables and such to go through. I made sure it was nice and smooth so I don't chop any of my wires in half. Would probably be a bad thing....

I had to scrounge around the house for 2 of these flat wall plugs. The regular kind won't fit. I cut the end off of the pump cord and attached one (which is in the bottom of the pic). The other is for the PSU. Both go to the internal electrical sockets.

Then I attached the pump to the outlet of the radiators. I had to use a few zip ties to prevent the tubing from kinking.

The sharp bend also has the unwanted consequence of causing one end of the pump to rise up in the air instead of sitting flat on the tank floor. I put a weight on it to help it bend. I'm hoping that over time, the bend will become permanent even without the weight.

I ripped my old machine to shreds. Taking the case apart made me remember one of my reasons for wanting to build a new case; it's damn near impossible to do any work on the case without removing a million screws. The simple task of swapping a hard drive would require removing the left side panel (~44 screws), the front panel (~20 screws) and removing the mounting brackets (10 more screws). Who designed the stupid thing anyway.... [shifty]

My new case doesn't really get any new components. Theoretically, no harm should come to any of the bits when they're submersed in oil.... but better be on the safe side. I'll use my old stuff in the oil for a few months and then upgrade if all is well.

I learned this from another modder here. Mineral oil breaks down and dissolves thermal interface material. The trick to get around this is to use mineral oil itself as the TIM.

I removed all of the heatsinks from the motherboard and gave the chips and heatsink surfaces a good cleaning before reattaching them all with mineral oil in place of the original TIM.

Checking the fit with the HSF on; barely fits. Another mm or two on the right side and I would've had to make some changes!

The video cards get a treatment similar to that of the motherboards heatsinks; the only difference here is that the ram sinks are superglued on. I left the thermal tape in place, but put a dab of glue on each corner on every RAM chip. Thermal tape is dodgy even at the best of times and I don't want ramsinks falling to the bottom of my tank.

 

[legoman666]

And here they are in place. Looking good!

A couple of the these pics were randomly taken during the process of bringing it all together. I put the hard drives in and made sure the tray could still go up and down.

Here's a closeup of my fix.

Why do I do these things to myself?:wallbash: The distance between the PSU and the ATX power header on the motherboard is really short, so I don't need a long cable. Snip!

God, I wish soldering all of those wires only took as long as it took you to scroll from the image above to down here. Sigh

More stuff in place. Most of the power connections are run and zip tied at this point.

Firing it up! It only lasted a few minutes before over heating. As the temperature increased and thusly decreased the viscosity of the oil, the mineral oil I applied to the CPU as a TIM all probably seeped out of the small gap since the motherboard is vertical. No worries, it'll have no where to go once the tank is filled.

I carried the beast up to my room. Oh my god, is that sucker heavy. I estimate it weighs at least 80lbs empty. I was panting after carrying it up one flight of stairs. I had to rest in the kitchen before taking it the rest of the way up to my room.

And that's where it stands now. There are a few more things I have to do before filling it, but nothing major. The next update will either be my triumphant return or me crying in a puddle of mineral oil all over my bedroom floor (brand new hardwood flooring no less).

 

[legoman666]

I got everything nice and tidy in preparation for filling the tank.

The first of the oil spreading across the bottom of the tank. It sent a shiver down my spine to see a liquid spattered all over my PC but still function.

A little higher....

The light hitting the oil was pretty neat.

This is either 2 or 3 gallons in the tank.

**** **** ****! A leak! I drained it as fast as I could. It didn't start leaking until there was enough oil to start filling the tubing and radiators.

Speaking of draining, the drain itself is a piece of crap, it leaks like crazy when you open the valve. Oil was not only going through the tubing, but it was all over the tubing as well. I had to hold the tubing off the corner of the desk so the oil followed the tube into the 5 gallon can.

 

[legoman666]

There's a big puddle of oil in the bottom of the case. It must be quite a leak....

I assumed that one of my temperature sensor elbows was the problem, turns out I was wrong, all of the fittings in the lower compartment are dry. That only leaves the radiators.

The only way oil could have gotten here is if this radiator itself had been leaking. Crap.

So my next task is to remove this radiator and look for the leak. I got my plugs ready!

If the radiator is in fact the cause of the leak, I'll obviously be needing a new one. I'm not sure if I should buy another XSPC360 or go with a a different brand.... An exact replacement would fit perfectly though.... hm. I'll probably just get a direct replacement and leak test it this time before trying to fill it with oil.:waah:

 

[legoman666]

Taking that off was a pain in the butt.

When I sat this down in the container with all of my oil sodden rags, oil mysterously poured from a place that oil should not be pouring, Hm.....

I believe this is the cause of all of my problems. It looks like it might even be my fault from when I was drilling the stock holes on the radiator bigger.

Oh well, easy enough to replace. I'm just glad I don't have to take the computer out of the case.

 

[legoman666]

Sorry for the poor picture, it's 12AM and my computer doesn't really receive good lighting. I'll take some better pics tomorrow when sunlight is coming through my sky lights.

Got my new radiator today. Looking sharp. This time I won't poke any holes in it, I promise.

Filling it up again! Fingers crossed. (And parents hovering over my shoulder).

Still looking good.

You can see the fan pushing the oil onto the heatsink, but it can't push it through it.

It's up to the very top of the PSU (whose fan isn't spinning for some reason, oh well, seems to be fine).

Yay! No leaks. Like I said, more and better pics tomorrow.

[YOUTUBE]9nEeTLKZvLs[/YOUTUBE]
I recommend watching it in HD. SD kills the eddies, convection currents and swirlies.

I've had prime95 running for ~45 minutes and here's the temps.

Fans are running at 60% of their max speed.

That's all the pics for today. More better ones tomorrow. I'm just glad there's no leaks.

 

[legoman666]

Edit: Updated with more pics.

I thought this was pretty interesting. These bubbles have been on the bottom of the tank since I filled it 2 days ago. I had originally thought they were air bubbles but upon a closer look, some of them are simply too big to not have detached from the bottom and risen to the top. I believe they are water droplets. No harm in them being there, I just thought it was pretty neat.

 

[legoman666]

I drained all of the oil into 1 gallon jugs. This was more painless than I thought it was going to be.

Empty tank!

Up and running in Louisville! No problems at all.

Click for big
Awesomeness everywhere. I'll try to get a few shots of any good looking cases I see.

As I've said, the system looks awesome, i need to go to one of those big lans that looks like so much fun. I guess you have a quick drain at the bottom of the case? Glade to see it worked out one of my main things holding me back from a liquid cooled, or submerged case is the lans and moving it around.

Thanks. This is only the second big LAN I've gone to. It's usually too much trouble to take my custom cases, but I do like to go once in a while.

As for the drain, yes, there is a drain on the bottom. I was having problems with it leaking earlier because the tubing I was using was too small, but I switched to a larger size and there haven't been any more problems. It takes about 15 minutes to drain completely into 7 separate 1 gallon jugs. Refilling it takes about the same amount of time. It was a lot less hassle than I thought it was going to be.

More pics!

My neighbor at the lan getting some rest after a hard day's action. He was the loudest snorer I have ever heard.

I left Sunday morning at ~9AM. Most of the folks were still asleep. I had to pull off the highway once because my eyes were starting to get droopy. Over the 3 days, I think I managed to fit in 7-8 hours of sleep.

Some of the people were smart and brought inflatable mattresses. I'll definitely be doing this if I go again, my sleeping bag on the ground wasn't exactly the most comfortable setup.

I made another panorama before leaving. This one is almost a 360.

Overall, it was a fun time but I don't know if I want to lug around the oil cooled PC again. I need a SFF shuttle PC or something for lans.

 

[legoman666]

Final Photo Shoot! Click the images for a high resolution version.




















Me!

Future work on the case:
Buy and install 2 SSDs and submerge them in the oil.
Attach the reset button.
Attach the power LED.
Connect the wire for the power to the LEDs in the feet.
Installs a few CCFL's above the radiators but below the tank.

Thanks for reading and sticking with me through the 3 month break!