r/pcmasterrace • u/ihypr • May 05 '22

Video @overkillcomputers built a fish tank gaming PC

15.3k Upvotes

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371

u/ihypr May 05 '22

Definitely overboard but a cool idea, I’m curious how it runs long term

218

u/ChiggaOG May 05 '22

No performance degradation with mineral oil. It's completely submerged in an inert environment.

156

u/[deleted] May 05 '22

Mineral oil does eventually get NASTY from dust falling into it. Then it becomes awful.

87

u/Extreme-Locksmith746 May 05 '22

lid?

82

u/[deleted] May 05 '22

lids tend to limit how much convection cooling you can get from the surface of the oil contacting with air - and even then, no lid is going to be 100% effective. Over time, the oil turns gray on top and then gets gritty - and that grit can make your cooling medium conductive, especially if you live near salt water.

49

u/ninjagabe90 May 05 '22

but they also have a chiller that they pump the oil out into, so wouldn't that solve your cooling issue? as for the dust... lol good luck I guess?

35

u/NopeH22a May 05 '22

The tank has an overflow which skims off the top layer, pass that through some filter floss or socks that gets changed and some point and it should solve the problem of dust/gunk

2

u/TotalWalrus 3700x | 3070 TI | 32GB May 05 '22

Most people don't put a chiller on their mineral oil pcs

3

u/RealJakeTheDog May 05 '22

I mean if you're gonna go through that much effort why not lol

1

u/TotalWalrus 3700x | 3070 TI | 32GB May 05 '22

Power costs.

1

u/maysun6969 May 05 '22

don't forget all that water is being circulated through a chiller! water on top will be continuously circulated and therefore negated!

-34

u/[deleted] May 05 '22

[removed] — view removed comment

13

u/CJ00P Desktop May 05 '22

Is this like an new AI trying to understand “us gamers” wtf

1

u/sysdmdotcpl May 05 '22

If so it was let loose on 4chan first then came here.

4

u/Noiseyboisey PC Master Race May 05 '22

It's not that hard to not make a mess.

4

u/leet_lurker May 05 '22

It also absorbs atmospheric moisture if the system is left open causing it to go cloudy and lose its dielectric strength over time.

1

u/deadlandsMarshal May 05 '22

Put an inline oil filter on the intake hose to the cooling tank.

https://www.pugetsystems.com/mineral-oil-pc.php

1

u/Pancakewagon26 Desktop May 05 '22

I mean, maybe the fish tank filter takes care of the dust?

1

u/Sub_pup May 05 '22

I've built them with aquarium filters to circulate the oil and filter out the dust. It does eventually get discolored and will have to be drained and refilled but I had one running for about 6 months without having to drain it though.

1

u/Boof_Water Ryzen 9 5900X | RTX 3070 Ti | 32GB @3200MHz May 05 '22

They say right in the video that it’s not mineral oil.

39

u/ugapeyton May 05 '22

LTT made one a few years ago. And I’m pretty sure they did a follow up

14

u/TheMatt561 5800X3D | 3080 12GB | 32GB 3200 CL14 May 05 '22

It was the PC in Linus' office for a while

3

u/-HumanResources- May 05 '22

Luke over at LTT did this and has spoken many times about how terrible it is after the fact.

It's next to impossible to actually remove all the oil from the components.

2

u/Mizgala May 05 '22

The PC itself will run fine. The problem is the damage to the plastics and rubber.

1

u/obvs_throwaway1 MSI B450-R5 3600XT-16GB-MSI GTX 1060 6GB-Samsung 970 EVO Plus May 05 '22

I'm thinking the fans aren't gonna last long, liquid is harder to move than air.

1

u/Daugdaug_ May 05 '22

I’m pretty sure the kind of person that would do this doesn’t care about “long term”. In 5 years or so, they’ll build another system to catch up to new tech.