Building a PC in a fish tank.

[SandMan6]

Welcome ladies and gentleman to an interesting topic for those who enjoys looks on a pc

We have all seen a PC in a fish tank and it looks pretty dam nice if I have to say so my self.
I was in Uppington's new mall and I went into the PC store and saw a beautiful PC in one of these small fish tanks.
I asked the cashier what the price is and she told me it is R15 000 then they built the computer for you.

Me being a student frowned and left the store with a empty hart not even asking what the specs are. After my car is done serviced I went home and did some research about this neat trick. I fell into a series of DIY YouTube videos and it looks easy and time consuming. I want to make it my January project to build one for my self. I am a bit scared that my hardware will blow up but now that I am upgrading I will test it with my old parts.

I was thinking of making my own DIY YouTube videos series as well. I already own everything that is needed to make this except for the oil.

You cant use water other wise it will certainly blow up. What I saw was people using oil, not cooking oil but Clear mineral oil. The problem is I cant find anyone that sell smaller then "450 ~ 500 / Metric Ton" of this oil my second option is baby oil but I think the smell might drive me mad after a month.

So what is your thoughts about this project. Would you care to make one your self or rather stick with a pimped out case. Also if you know about any suppliers that would sell me a smaller amount for the oil that would be appreciated. Here is all my sources toward the DIY YouTube videos. When I got the oil I will link my YouTube videos in here as well

This guy made a section for the mineral oil and the other section was water to add fishes.

[video=youtube;fDHYKZsHS00]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fDHYKZsHS00[/video]

These guys took 48 bottles of mineral oil to fill it up

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fJdUhtD1zns

Their is more of those videos just search for it

Also the place where I got some mineral oil is at:
http://southafrica.tradekey.com/white-mineral-oil.htm

I went and did more searching for these oil and this is what I got

http://www.takealot.com/home-kitchen/my-butcher-s-block-clear-mineral-oil-340ml,29924549

My question is will this work ?

Thank you
Francois

 

[D4N]

It looks nice but it is generally a mess to deal with, especially once you start fiddling and swapping

 

[Arthur]

Little-known fact: Water does not conduct electricity. It's the "impurities" in the water (minerals, certain ions) that conduct. Back in the 80s it was quite a common stunt at Comdex and other trade shows to have a PC running underwater. Of course it was demineralised and deionised. Water ionises again after a few days, so make sure you regularly change your tank-PC's water.

 

[SandMan6]

I would go through all that mess once a year to upgrade. I am more then happy grab a few old towers put on that longs sleeve rubber gloves ( those that goes to your elbows ). Take out the part I want then replace it. More then happy to do it. Also I am not planning to just put in my parts but to put in some neon lights and special fans.

The tank off water seems cleaner but a lot of work to replace it every month or week. So i would rather go with the oil.

 

[biena]

Please do not submerge a hard drive, it has breather holes and you will kill it.

 

[riscbroker]

Maybe you could consider brake fluid or hydraulic fluid, I'm not sure how they compare cost wise. You'd also have to check their conductivity. There's a lot of info on this site:

http://www.lubricantsonline.co.za/

Can the hard drive be immersed in oil?

 

[SandMan6]

Ok so i did some research looks like Hydraulic fluid has a thermal conductivity of 0.08 ( Sources will be at the bottom ) and break fluid i could not find I diged really deep and am now scarred on the things I saw on the internet. The problem with these fluids is that it does not have a almost invisible color like mineral oil so I would prefer going with Mineral oil.

No your hard drive has a chance of breaking. Since their are holes in them ( The 2nd YouTube video I linked explains in more detail )

With all said will i be forced to buy a lot off bottles from takealot or is their another place that can sell mineral oil for a smaller price maybe I can buy by the gallon or litter ?

Conductivity for Hydraulic fluid
http://www.hyvair.com/pdf/hydraulicfluid.pdf

List of other conductivity for oils

https://bitly.com/JyQksq

Hope you enjoy

 

[riscbroker]

Ok so i did some research looks like Hydraulic fluid has a thermal conductivity of 0.08 ( Sources will be at the bottom ) and break fluid i could not find I diged really deep and am now scarred on the things I saw on the internet. The problem with these fluids is that it does not have a almost invisible color like mineral oil so I would prefer going with Mineral oil.

No your hard drive has a chance of breaking. Since their are holes in them ( The 2nd YouTube video I linked explains in more detail )

With all said will i be forced to buy a lot off bottles from takealot or is their another place that can sell mineral oil for a smaller price maybe I can buy by the gallon or litter ?

Conductivity for Hydraulic fluid
http://www.hyvair.com/pdf/hydraulicfluid.pdf

List of other conductivity for oils

https://bitly.com/JyQksq

Hope you enjoy

Both of these links deal with thermal conductivity. I think you'll need to be more concerned with electrical conductivity. I get what you're saying though re the oil colour.

 

[Rocket-Boy]

Why not ask the pc store where they get theirs from?

 

[SYNERGY]

Location?
Try Dynachem.co.za or Hychem

They should be able to source it for you.

 

[SandMan6]

Why not ask the pc store where they get theirs from?

I believe they shipped their stuff in

 

[DerpiesFreud]

I actually investigated this a while back, there's a company that does this called pudget systems or something.

I had all the hardware and everything. my only problem was I needed 2-3k of mineral oil...which was simply too pricey.
I came to around 4-5k depending on parts(I had a lot of 2nd hand parts lying around)

 

[DTBA]

Brake fluid is a bad idea. Coming from a guy that works a lot with it, it tends to eat of paint from your vehicle if you leave it on and also it will burn your hands overtime

 

[xera]

Wish I had this kinda time to do this kinda thing :wtf:

 

[SandMan6]

Yes wasnt planing on throwing break fluid ontop of my pc .

 

[SandMan6]

I got a place where I could buy the mineral oil. The question now is will they be able to get it from USA/UK to South Africa for me ?

http://store.steoil.com/mineral-oil-pc-kit/?sort=featured

Their is a website if their is anybody else that started a project as well.
I also e-mailed them so I am just waiting for a reply

 

[The_Unbeliever]

If mineral oil is too pricey, then why not make a waterfall type of thing where mineral oil cascade all over your motherboard instead of having the motherboard submerged in the stuff?

 

[SandMan6]

The_Librarian its not that its to pricey its just that I can't find a local distributor that is all

 

[SandMan6]

Ok so I went to some local shops and I came across something that read mineral oil. At the shop it looked colorless but to my suprise it wasn't. The color of the bottle deceived my eye sight.

Nonetheless the color won't bother me so much since its green and might look nice in a tank. The only problem with it. It has an odor. You wont smell it really its not strong but I think 30 liters of the stuff might make a stench it smells like a car oil ( don't know how to explain it )

I already bought one bottle just to see what its like. I tested the conductivity and it came out positive. It was between 0.001 V or 0.000 my meter kept jumping between those 2. Here is a picture of the bottle and the liquid it self. I took the picture with my S3 phone but the camera took a knock and reduced the quality a bit.

Just to make it less confusing the black dots you see is in fact my camera

 

[HavocXphere]

If mineral oil is too pricey, then why not make a waterfall type of thing where mineral oil cascade all over your motherboard instead of having the motherboard submerged in the stuff?

You lose the main advantage...the oil in the tank acts as a heat sink. It doesn't spread it to the outside air very well, but a tank full of oil can absorb a crap load of heat...so temps will rise but it'll take many hours for the tank to reach dangerous temps. Waterfall it & the temp of the oil will shoot sky-high pretty fast. I'd imagine you'll also screw over the fans (inconsistent resistance) and lose components much faster (similar level of conducting contaminants over much smaller volume of oil). Still...its an innovative angle to the expensive oil problem - one that I would not have thought of.

Personally I find projects like Archer's case more appeal - but thats a personal preference. If OP goes for it please keep us updated.