Unedited original project log @ Xtremesystems

I have been planning this little project of mine for some time now and today I finally managed to pull it off. I've played with Dry Ice and LN2 in the past and identified possible problems and solutions which I plan on implementing today. So of we go:



You see, the main problem to Dry Ice/LN2 benching is condensation, it's a b*tch and will mess up your hardware. About a year ago I discovered DSI fluids and a product called Opticool. It's a di-electric oil that is pourable to about -90°C.

So I thought, hey, why not submerse a motherboard a couple inches under OIL? No foam, no saran wrap, nothing! So I picked up this great little resealable plastic tub. I placed the motherboard on spacers in the tub, elevating it about 1cm from the bottom just in case any water made it into the oil. I mounted the LN2 container, a massive 1000gram block of Copper and all miscellaneous cables and such. Then I poured in 2 gallons of Opticool from the nice folks at DSI Fluids in Texas. It also had the nice effect of pushing fluid through the graphics card cooler, an Arctic Cooling Silencer 4…



So I rigged up a FLUKE 50D dual probe thermometer, one lead to the side of the CPU, and one into the tub measuring fluid temp.

Wait, let me back up, the equipment is:

Athlon 64 FX-55 (week 46)

MSI K8N Neo2 (good 0441 chipset)

G.Skill 2 x 256mB "LA"

OCZ Powerstream 520W PSU

Motherboard is running BIOS version 1.4 with a vcore mod, everything else is stock, except for the CPU cooling, of course ;-) So there we are, the rig is taking a bath, and is running fine 2" under fluid!! WHAT A SIGHT!



So I start taking the temp DOWN, seems to be taking QUITE a bit longer than usual with all the fluid. It seems the OIL was acting like an INSULATOR and was taking a bit of energy to cool. But slowly temps dropped. The rig was OFF at this point, just watching temps.




Time to fire her up! ->