# [SOLVED] Fishtank Computer



## Burto87 (Aug 24, 2011)

Good afternoon all, 

I was thinking of undertaking a project at some stage and just after some thoughts. I was thinking of building a computer submerged within mineral oil using a fish tank as the case. The main question i'm asking is what sort of components would you use? I am thinking that you wouldn't go out and buy the high end parts but more the low-mid budget items. What are your thoughts on this?


----------



## MPR (Aug 28, 2010)

*Re: Fishtank Computer*

Fish tank computers are interesting to look at but not very practical. However, many of us have hobbies that aren't very practical and such a computer would be an interesting conversation piece. 

YouTube has hundreds of videos on the subject:

mineral oil computer - YouTube


----------



## Burto87 (Aug 24, 2011)

Yeah, I've seen videos on YouTube and whatnot, it's more asking "would you use high end components for a more artistic piece of "useful technology" or as its more for looking at than practicality, would you settle for the more budget components"? (An yes I do believe I answered my own question haha)


----------



## MPR (Aug 28, 2010)

*Re: Fishtank Computer*

Personally, I'd build one using an motherboard and spare parts that I had lying around and see how they fared before attempting to do it with something that I was needing to rely on.

Every time I see one of those I think of all that oil all over my desk and carpet.


----------



## Burto87 (Aug 24, 2011)

Yeah it would make a bit of a mess if the tank was to fail.


----------



## Alexander E (Aug 15, 2012)

*Re: Fishtank Computer*

hi, i have seen a few of these shown on YouTube, they look really cool and it sounds like a fun project. i haven't seen one yet where they have managed to get the hard drive and the optical drive inside there as well.

Some of the old PC parts, or maybe just the ones i own, are a bit block like (huge heatsinks, IDE cables ect.) and wouldn't look great submerged.

If you have trust in your abilities to contruct this they i would personally get some parts that would look nice under"water" since thats what i assume your going for. 

It would be interesting to see this completed, and i hope it goes well for you.


----------



## Burto87 (Aug 24, 2011)

Yeah I'd definitely go for new parts and I'm thinking an SSD would work in the liquid tho I definitely would not spend that kind of money to see if it would work haha. This project will probably be a few years in the making, don't have money to waste yet haha.


----------



## Alexander E (Aug 15, 2012)

*Re: Fishtank Computer*

yea, i would agree with you on the SSD, i wouldnt want to put a HDD in liquid. and buying an expensive SSD would completely go against your low-mid budget parts idea :/ i, too am also hoping that SSD prices will come down, i though the samsung 830 might drop in price with the arrival of the 840 but it hasnt 

Another idea for you, is UV or coloured cable sleeving, it would look great in mineral oil, actually just thinking about it, it would solve a problem if you dont want "ugly" cables everywhere in your project. And you would be lucky if you could find a fish tank with a cable management option


----------



## sarla (May 14, 2010)

*Re: Fishtank Computer*

:rofl:LOL I thought this was some kind of a joke. I have never seen this before.


----------



## Burto87 (Aug 24, 2011)

Lol no it is doable, just use mineral oil for its extremely low conductivity qualities. Yeah I've seen coloured cables which look good. Yeah I thought the Samsung 830 series would have dropped but no, not by much anyway


----------



## MPR (Aug 28, 2010)

*Re: Fishtank Computer*

If you were into micro-robotics, you could build yourself some "fish" to actually swim around in your fish tank computer.

Small robot fish powered by solid polymer fuel cell : DigInfo - YouTube


----------



## Burto87 (Aug 24, 2011)

Haha nice, that would look cool if it was a 40gallon fish tank


----------



## Alexander E (Aug 15, 2012)

*Re: Fishtank Computer*

i haven seen those robotic fish before, although if i were to put them in a fish tank with fans in, i would be constantly worried that they would be cut to pieces.

On that robotic fish idea you could have your components inside a fish like the large on on the video above, swimming around your fish tank, that would be interesting and rather difficult lol


----------



## Burto87 (Aug 24, 2011)

Yeah I'd try no fans, maybe just to keep the oil circulating, and then have a mesh over them. When I win the lotto I think this would be an awesome idea


----------



## MPR (Aug 28, 2010)

*Re: Fishtank Computer*

If you had enough robotic fish swimming around you wouldn't need anything else to keep the oil circulating.


----------



## Burto87 (Aug 24, 2011)

True, that could work


----------



## Alexander E (Aug 15, 2012)

*Re: Fishtank Computer*

fish acting as underwater fans, that sounds cool.


----------



## Burto87 (Aug 24, 2011)

Just make sure the pump intakes from one side and circulates it back over to the other side (using a liquid cooling radiator to try and keep liquid temps low)


----------



## MPR (Aug 28, 2010)

*Re: Fishtank Computer*

Fish tank computers look neat but in reality oil is terrible as a cooling medium. Water has a specific heat of 1 (US units), whereas mineral oil has a specific heat of 0.4, which means that its temperature will rise much more quickly given the same amount of heat applied.


----------



## Burto87 (Aug 24, 2011)

Yes, but if there is good enough flow through the tank this shouldn't be much of an issue


----------



## Alexander E (Aug 15, 2012)

*Re: Fishtank Computer*

You could pump the oil through a low temperature area, a fridge or freezer then back into the tank?


----------



## Burto87 (Aug 24, 2011)

Possibly but then don't want to run the risk of condensation getting into the oil, a few well placed fans would aid the circulation with a good pump further circulating the oil


----------



## wkw427 (Nov 9, 2008)

*Re: Fishtank Computer*

From what I read, using mineral oil, you don't need to circulate the oil, because over time it conducts heat to the rest of the oil. Circulation would just lower the time it takes the oil to get to the maximum heat.

Pumping it through a cooler.. that is just the same, or pretty close to using a watercooling system, and I don't see it would be very benificial except for cooling the system down, or for a system that creates more heat then the oil can naturally dissapate. 

Though either way, if you don't have a machine that is going to be running at, say, 70c for hours at a time, it would take DAYS of on-time for the oil to heat up enough that it isn't working properly.

Mineral Oil Submerged Computer; Our Most Popular Custom PC


----------



## Burto87 (Aug 24, 2011)

Yeah true, but IMO it still seems like a good idea just to circulate it at least.


----------



## wkw427 (Nov 9, 2008)

*Re: Fishtank Computer*

I would feel that the power supply and cpu fans would be sufficient enough to circulate the oil around.


----------



## Tyree (May 10, 2009)

*Re: Fishtank Computer*

The whole point of that setup is no other cooling method is required.
That method setup been around for some time and is little more than a novelty.


----------



## GZ (Jan 31, 2010)

*Re: Fishtank Computer*

I was actually contemplating oil cooling for a specific in-car PC that I had planned a couple years ago... Of course, most of my project ideas never get off the drawing board... 

If you do attempt this, I would like to hear all about it, the specifics....


----------



## Burto87 (Aug 24, 2011)

Yeah would definitely post pics and vids. When I win the lottery this project would definitely be a go-er, but at this stage it's just research and drawing boards.


----------



## Burto87 (Aug 24, 2011)

And yes it would be a novelty, but no harm in having a novelty that is also functional although not very practical (in the way that it would weigh around 50kg and to perform any maintenance or hardware swapping would be a bit of a nightmare)


----------



## Tyree (May 10, 2009)

*Re: Fishtank Computer*

And that's what makes it a novelty and not a practical undertaking.


----------



## Burto87 (Aug 24, 2011)

Lol yes I see your point


----------



## Tyree (May 10, 2009)

*Re: Fishtank Computer*

Can we mark this thread solved?


----------



## Nonprophet (Dec 31, 2012)

I've built a mineral oil PC. It's really just a novelty, as has been stated here already, but it also has some practical uses. The thermal conductivity (not specific heat, specific heat isn't the important measure here) of mineral oil is 5x better than air, but the oil is much less viscous than air so it's important to have good circulation. Leave the fans on the computer...they'll spin slower, but provide very good circulation. Use a radiator too unless you're only planning on running the computer for less than 12 hours at a time, with the same amount of cool down time. I've accidentally run my machine for over 24 hours before I had a radiator and it was OK, but I wouldn't chance it.

Cost:
Fishtank: $30
Oil: $80 (Walmart baby oil, 32 bottles)
Pump/radiator: $70
Computer: free, used an old one

Pros:
Never needs cleaning. Had my fishtank PC for a year and it's spotless.
Dead silent
Somewhat more efficient cooling, although not as good as watercooling

Cons:
Leaking can be disastrous (solved by using 2 tupperware containers...one large one for catching the oil in case of a leak, and another upside down in the larger tupperware container to sit the fishtank on)
Upgrades can be difficult (solved by using the radiator's pump to pump out most of the baby oil into another container before upgrading)
Typical hard drives don't work under liquids (solved by putting the hard drive on the outside of the case...could also use SSD)
Very heavy


Oil would be very good in a watercooled PC. A major problem that some watercooling users have is accidental water leaks will short the system in a second unless the coolant is replaced every so often (to prevent it from becoming electrically conductive through foreign particles or stripped electrons). If oil is used in combination with water cooling, the water coolant wouldn't even need to be nonconductive, since water and oil don't mix and the water will just sink to the bottom of the tank.

Oil cooling (with separate radiator) + water mixed with some powerful antifreeze and some sort of refrigeration system could lead to some seriously low temperatures, perfect for overclocking. The setup would be perfectly safe too, as long as the tank had enough room at the bottom to allow for the spilled water to pool without touching the motherboard.


----------

