Parallella Community

I want to build a mineral cooled system. I think this would be nice to a beowulf cluster with adapteva cards. I have a few technical issues I am not very sure. I read in many forums I got a bit headache about a this subject. Maybe here there's people more skilled that can guide me.

Few considerations. Few thoughts:
- I think such system is ideal for Parallella boards since they don't have moving parts.
- There's a liquid called Novec. I found this wat too expensive, but interesting http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Novec_1230
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CIbnl3Pj15w
- I want it very silent, that's why I'm working on mineral cooling.
- Not very concerned with the cost. Of course cheaper better, but this is not my main issue.
- There's a company that has worked on a similar idea http://www.pugetsystems.com/mineral-oil-pc.php
- Find more interesting this system than heatsinks for it's scalability and density.

My "idea":
- Put a aquarium with the cars in it.
- Fill it with mineral oil/ silicon oil ...
- Aquarium pump to circulate liquid inside.
- Make the liquid circulate through a big heat sink inside or outside the aquarium. (http://www.sanigids.nl/wp-content/Jaga- ... ichtig.jpg)
- I want to control the fans of the heat sink (working on an Arduino design).

My "problems":
- Is this idea crazy?
- I'm not sure witch liquid is less toxic.
- I am not sure what chemical reaction occurs when mineral oil contacts aluminum/copper. Does happen passivation on Aluminium? Or does not occur so the reaction continues and there's corrosion.
- Will I need additives to prevent corrosion? Will I need to refresh the oil?

Thanks in advance.

I can't comment on the suitability and toxicity etc. of cooling liquids, but would say that if a silent system is the objective, passive cooling with simple heatsinks and depending on the cluster density, perhaps heatpipes also, is going to be far less hassle!

However, questions of warranty, cost and safety aside, I suppose it could look very cool (!) and would be interesting to see what cluster density you could achieve with liquid cooling. Although any such experiments will be a case of caveat emptor.

Cheers,

Andrew

Here is a description of the oil cooling system of TSUBAME-KFC (Tokyo Institute of Technology's super "green" computer).

http://translate.google.co.jp/translate ... 25044.html

is an excellent resource. I've looked into silent computer cooling before and the problem with liquid cooling is that it introduces a noisy pump into the equation, in addition to fans for your radiator. Your best bet would be to get something with copper heat pipes, with or without low-RPM fans.

Please, I want to build, at least try, this "mineral cooling thing".
I don't quit jet, and wish to have oppions of some one knows profound chemistry or tried this technology.
Thanks

PD. For a "fun" thread about the good/bad english you can begin another thread. I'm as accurate as I can in my bad english.
I can write multiple lines of how hard is sometimes to understand natives, but I will in this new thread.