Worried about water - Mineral Oil Alternative?

[imported_iNGEN]

I am interested in watercooling a new system build primarily for the noise reduction. Having fried a mobo and sound card due to a defective hose several years ago, I have stuck with aircooling for my last several builds. I want to try liquid again, but am still hesitant to use water. What are my not electrically conductive alternatives?

So far I have come up with a short list:

1) Organic oils - veg., olive, etc.
2) Petro - Motor oil, Penetrating Oil
3) Mineral Oil
4) Alcohol
5) Silicon (I don't know any silicon based fluids, but it was suggested to me)
6) Ammonia

Anyone have any links for #2-6 ? I can only find info on full submersion for any of these and I want a traditional pump/reservoir/radiator type setup. So far, mineral oil looks like the best option. Can anyone here recommend one of these fluids based on personal experience as being superior? Can anyone suggestion a different medium?

 

[VinDSL]

As an alternative, pick:

4) Alcohol

Many tweaks prefer it to water... never even heard of ppl using the others!

 

[iscsidude]

Originally posted by: iNGEN
What are my not electrically conductive alternatives?

Distilled water comes to mind.

Much cheaper and a lot less hassle than your alternatives.

 

[Howard]

Originally posted by: iscsidude

Originally posted by: iNGEN
What are my not electrically conductive alternatives?

Distilled water comes to mind.

Much cheaper and a lot less hassle than your alternatives.

It can become conductive.

 

[Greenman]

I think Cray makes juice for liquid cooling, don't know where you could get it though.

 

[Elfear]

This or this will work but they are spendy.

 

[Noubourne]

They also have much different viscosity than water, making them far from ideal.

My suggestion would be to use distilled water and not spill.

 

[cpl edge]

i believe that they meant 'silicone' fluid. it is used as a lubricant, kind of like hydraulic fluid, which is also non conductive...

 

[iscsidude]

Originally posted by: Greenman
I think Cray makes juice for liquid cooling, don't know where you could get it though.

Actually 3M makes it and it's called Fluorinert.
Fluorinert

Be prepared to spend more than your computer cost to fill a small loop.

Originally posted by: Noubourne
They also have much different viscosity than water, making them far from ideal.

My suggestion would be to use distilled water and not spill.

Ditto. :thumbsup:

 

[Greenman]

Originally posted by: iscsidude

Originally posted by: Greenman
I think Cray makes juice for liquid cooling, don't know where you could get it though.

Actually 3M makes it and it's called Fluorinert.
Fluorinert

Be prepared to spend more than your computer cost to fill a small loop.

Originally posted by: Noubourne
They also have much different viscosity than water, making them far from ideal.

My suggestion would be to use distilled water and not spill.

Ditto. :thumbsup:

Thanks for the info.

 

[JEDIYoda]

approx $500.00 a gallon

 

[SparkyJJO]

The way I see it, if you are worried about leaks so much that you are thinking of using some other "non-conductive" stuff (which isn't always the case) then you probably shouldn't watercool. There is a step called leak testing which you run the pump with the loop set up but not really attached to your other hardware so if there is a leak it won't short out the system. Maybe you forgot that step the last time?

Now I'm not watercooled - I can't afford to do it - but I plan to do it eventually.

 

[imported_iNGEN]

Kudos Howard!

The system that fried on me previously used distilled water. Over the course of about three months a manufacturing defect in one hose caused it to become brittle. The small pressure changes caused by my pump and chiller along with the expansion and contraction caused by temperature fluctuation was enough to form stress fractures in the tubing. I suppose something in the antifungal agent could have been the conductor, but it doesn't matter.

The drug store alcohol bottles are all approx 90% ethyl alcohol. The remainder is, you guessed it, water. Anyone have a source for 100% pure alcohol. Anyone know the boiling point of ethyl alcohol?

 

[imported_iNGEN]

Thanks Elfear,

This looks like the easiest alternative yet. I'll keep it in mind. I don't mind spending $50-100 on the thermal medium.

 

[imported_iNGEN]

I'll check out alcohol. My first thought was Ammonia, but because of its use in making explosives I doubt I will find it undilluted with water. And I'm not going to get a license to build my PC. Ammonia is also does pretty nasty stuff to the human body when exposed to concentrations over what you find in a bottle of Windex so distilling it myself is out of the question.

Alcohol on the other hand. I'll work with that.

 

[aigomorla]

Originally posted by: iNGEN
I'll check out alcohol. My first thought was Ammonia, but because of its use in making explosives I doubt I will find it undilluted with water. And I'm not going to get a license to build my PC. Ammonia is also does pretty nasty stuff to the human body when exposed to concentrations over what you find in a bottle of Windex so distilling it myself is out of the question.

Alcohol on the other hand. I'll work with that.

First off why are you deciding on jumping liquids?

EDIT: for correction!!

Okey, reason why you shouldnt use alcohol is because straight up, it sucks compared to h2o in heat transfer.

Water de0.6 de293

Alcohols OR Oils e0.1 - e0.21


Its better then AIR, but it straight up sucks compared to h2o.

Also, if you get dust on the alcohol, it too will become conductive, so whats the whole point in shifting over to another coolant? In fact, ALL coolants will attain conductivity if you allow it to sit there with dust floating around. You cant avoid this.

Reason 2:
All the other options is extremely expensive to the option i listed on my Guide. The results on charge will be the same, the coolant will remain non conductive. So why the heck would you want to drop more money on useless coolant, when you can make the same stuff for fraction of the price?

Reason 3:
Oil is much thicker then h2o. To my knowledge, most DC pumps arent ment to pump that thick of a liquid. I think you can and will damage your pump if you shift to this type of liquid.

Just read my guide, and get over your fear of leaking. Dont half bake your leak test, and use Distilled H2o with the additives i listed on that guide. Your risk of something bad happening will be the same as all the other options you listed with better cooling.


Or you can get that uber expensive 3M stuff at 500.00 / gal. But if you had this much money, you wouldnt be so scared of a leak.