MineralOil
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Intel treats servers to mineral oil bath in year-long cooling test
If putting liquid cooling pumps, hoses and water inside a highly electrified computer case doesn't seem crazy enough, how about just dunking the whole kit and kaboodle into oil? That's what Intel did with a rack full of servers, and if the oil in question is of the non-conducting mineral kind, it's actually a very chill idea. After a year of testing with Green Revolution Cooling, the chip giant saw some of the best power usage efficiency ratings it's seen, with the oil-cooled PCs easily besting identical, air-cooled units. The company believes more adapted heat sinks could push the gains even further, and affirmed that the technology was safe and didn't affect hardware reliability. Cost savings could be enormous, as server rooms wouldn't need raised floors, air conditioning units or chillers -- if you don't consider oil spills and ruined clothing, of course. [Image credit: Green Revolution]
Puget Custom Computer's mineral-oil-cooled PC
We've definitely seen our share of wacky CPU cooling (and silencing) schemes, but most liquid-cooling setups aren't as, uh, immersive as Puget Custom Computer's mineral-oil-cooled PC. Essentially a motherboard in an aquarium topped off with fluid, the Washington company claims the oil effectively cools system components for up to 12 hours at peak load. While traditional homebrew oil-cooling setups use vegetable oil, the Puget crew chose mineral oil because it's perfectly clear and, more importantly, doesn't go rancid after a while. Disadvantage? Large quantities of mineral oil are difficult to find -- Puget had to explain what they were doing to a local vet, who normally uses the stuff as a horse laxative. That means those of you looking to build one of these better get friendly with Fido's doc, cause Puget isn't planning on selling these. Peep a vid of the crazy setup -- including the aquarium's bubble bar in action -- after the jump.
