Dousing your gaming rig in oil is a technique we've
seen from custom shops before, but not quite like the offerings from Minnesota-based start-up Hardcore Computer. Its Reactor line of submerged gaming rigs, shipping to real, live customers in about a month, use custom enclosures to dunk everything from the CPU to the SSDs in a
blue-dyed, non-conductive concoction that we hope is mineral oil (it doesn't break down and go rancid like canola). A pump circulates the liquid through a side-mounted radiator for cooling while all the wet components slide out of the top for potentially mess-free maintenance. You can get your choice of
Core 2 Extreme processors, up to 8GB of DDR3 memory, and even three
GeForce GTX 280 GPUs stacked right on top of each other if you have the bank. Prices start at about $4,500, which isn't as bad for a crazy setup like this, with a well-spec'd, triple-SLI machine coming in just under $10k. We'd certainly call that
hardcore -- despite the gushy center.
Update: It looks like
Maximum PC spent some time soaking in this one and posted some early impressions and a bunch more pics. As it turns out the goo inside isn't blue after all; it's just lit-up that way.
[Thanks, Havok and Jamie]
posted Oct 21st 2008 9:47AM
Just add french fries !
You eat that crap with french fries and you will have uncontrollable bowel movements for weeks.
... and Macs are STILL harder to upgrade! bahahahahaha
So, its not much different than regular fast food?
@Low Ranked: Love your avatar :-D
I told you I was stealing yours yesterday:
http://www.engadget.com/2008/10/20/cafero-robot-waiter-serves-coffee-does-nothing-for-your-lonelin/
§=]
me wanty this so badly, but me having wife, no wanting divorcy in bad economy. :(
Your horrible typing scares me.
I don't know why, but sir, your comment wins- I can totally relate to that- my GF isn't going to enjoy all the time and money I'm spending on the fall games lineup XD
she must make more than you. (man up and grow a pair)
What kind of temperatures can you expect out of a machine setup in this fashion?
Look at those prices =-o
I think they said it shouldn't get any warmer than room temp. They're looking into using peltier coolers in later models. With everything submerged they won't have to worry about condensation.
I doubt there's any dye in the oil. It's just blue lights in the case. MaximumPc has a good article on it. http://www.maximumpc.com/article/features/hardcorepc_reactor
And when fungus and bacteria start growing and then dust gets in and makes the oil conductive and then all your components fry.
Using oil is stupid.
It's not cooking oil. Yea, it's so stupid electric companies use it in almost every one of those big gray transformers hanging on the electric poles. The only time the unit is open is for component replacement, any other time it's sealed. There's 20 screws holding the top on. I don't think much dust is going to get in.
LOL the website cracks me up. There are so many clichés in the headlines.
"Rock-solid Performance"
"Get Comfortable on the Edge"
"Pushing the Limits of Technology"
"Domination Never Looked So Good"
"What You Need, When You Need It"
"No Compromises"
Hopefully the killing they make off of these will help them to hire a copy editor.
jeez, it sounds like all the spam in my mailbox.... haha
What they really need on there site is some music licensing. I'm sure there is a little ditty by AC/DC that would go just perfectly with this product.
Not till I saw a long term review of this system's performance under, say, some daily hardcore gaming for say a month or so. Because for the price I wpuld want something that's going to last, no fizzle out in a few weeks of actual use.
Benchmarking. Look into it.
Isn't there an issue with very tiny air bubbles getting trapped in the smaller nooks of the components that the oil can't fully cover and those small pockets of air heat up and trash the rig? I feel like I remember reading that awhile ago when people first started doing this.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PtufuXLvOok
its mineral oil. not car.
this was at PAX 08 it was awesome ran the hole con and didnt get heat
that is a very valid concern. if they assemble it right though, the same way one would assemble a sealed high pressure hydraulic system, by pre-coating the components and seals, air compromising is likely not an issue.
I doubt it's mineral oil, it plays havoc with many plastics and rubbers so the motherboard and cabling would have to be specially made. I've been tinkering with the idea of making one and my choise for the liquid would be perfluoropolyether. It's used in the ovenwelding process and it's pretty inert and nontoxic. They are probably using same stuff.
I'm pretty sure they used mineral oil in the Puget Systems one and theirs has been fine for a while now...
Again - probably not oil. My bet is a flourinert like Galden - hella expensive ($100/gal)
surely phase change cooling is better than this for overclocking..
Yea, but those compressors are loud.
Don't call me Shirley.
My Vapochill systems just sounded like a soft humming. Any compressor noise was almost entirely drowned out by hard drives or cooling fans. This would be a decent replacement for water cooling or air cooling, but it cannot physically achieve the cooling ability of phase change or a powerful TEC.
I don't really like the like the idea of a computer immersed in a liquid . It might keep it pretty cool but there are too many draw backs. How much would that weigh, cause that would be a pain to even move room to room let alone out of the house. Once a computer part is submersed in it I doubt you could clean it well enough to use in something else or sell. Also how does this compare with a regular liquid cooled system?
Hmm, you must have been living under a rock for the past decade. Also, if you need to move your computer around your house that frequently, I suggest investing in a laptop.
I may not move it around my house that often, but I move enough since I'm in college and do a semester of school then a semester of co-op. Thus I move every semester, which is often enough to worry about things like that.
Besides is it a sealed case? If not have fun moving it without spilling oil all over your car.
Its something like 20 screws that hold the top on, i doubt leakage would be too big of an issue.
Personally I think this is only practical for someone with a budget and a desire for a ridiculously awesome compy, for you just a normal gaming rig would work, i would assume.
Here's my main problem with all of these crazy oil, phase change, and to lesser degree water cooling; getting parts out to replace or repair in time frame measured in minutes not hours. I'm a tinkerer so I like to replace parts or upgrade regularly as time and money allows these systems are for people who want to buy one machine and when they want to upgrade they need to buy another. That's not for me and probably a lot of others. That being said this is obviously targeted at a niche market that roughly the size of pin head so to those people enjoy. :)
That would be very easy to upgrade when the GTX's are no longer the champs :P
Very cool though, interesting concept
Sure would suck if my graphics card was sitting in this and shorted with a spark flying like it did this past week. Kaboom.
Fire requires oxygen, so I doubt it would do much.
Just add Sea Monkeys FTW!
$4500? Regardless of it being new in the market it's just too much for what I'm willing to pay. I like the system though.
If the cooling fins were big enough, would passive-cooling be enough for an oil-immersed rig?
With big enough cooling fins, you could passive cool with air. :D
This was my senior project in high school last year, though only cooling the CPU.
Silicone and ester oils can be used. They are more expensive but are relatively nonflammable compared to mineral oils.
Hmm i still wonder how much it weighs?
I mean its meant to be stationary but Im still curious...
The Reactor dimensions are W - 24", H - 23", D - 10" and weighs 115 pounds.
Something I've never thought about oil cooling. Your optical drives would need to be nearly sealed air-tight in order to prevent a gooey DVD from emerging upon ejection.
Sorry. That sounded perverted.
The optical drive is on the outside. I've never seen the need to cool an optical drive, I guess the little motor would get warm, but not as hot as a hard drive.
Has anyone seen the overclocking specs for this thing? I know what specs they are using but they don't seem to say what speeds they can reach
How do you upgrade this bloody thing?
Big deal, this is easy enough to do yourself. Just caulk the bottom & sides of any old ATX case and pour a jug of mineral oil in. You don't even need the circulation pump. Try it!
It SOUNDS good, but there are so many proprietary parts that it piles up the costs dramatically.
Then there is the fact that it is "room temp"?? regular water cooling does better than that, and for the price it is
a LOT better to go phase exchange- $800 drops it to freezing.
The only problem with that is I have not seen the addons for phase to include gpus and plates for HDD's