A YouTuber has built a special gaming PC. The hardware is housed in an aquarium. But wouldn’t the hardware get damaged with all that liquid?
Hardware and water are usually great enemies. When technology comes into contact with water, it usually results in a short circuit and damaged hardware, and you have to buy new devices.
A YouTuber has now placed a computer in an aquarium or built an aquarium around a gaming PC. But why doesn’t the hardware get damaged by all that liquid?
Liquid ensures that the hardware is well cooled
What exactly did the YouTuber do? The YouTuber first built a normal gaming PC. For this, he mounted all the well-known components like processor, graphics card, and RAM on a motherboard.
Then he mounted the components in a glass container and added a few decorative objects, like those found in aquariums. After that, he poured the liquid into the container, which covers the hardware. You can watch the entire video on Tiktok. You’ll find the video on reddit as well:
What liquid does the YouTuber use? The fluid is not actually water. The YouTuber himself explains that a special type of synthetic liquid is used, which he fills into the glass container.
Usually, mineral oils, synthetic oils, or HFCs are used as cooling liquids in such projects.
The fluid is a dielectric. Dielectric is an insulating fluid that can conduct electricity only minimally. The liquid is also supposed to prevent corrosion and serve as a coolant.
A good liquid dielectric should have high thermal stability and inertia towards the materials used in construction so that they do not dissolve. It should also offer non-flammability, low toxicity, and good thermal conductivity.
If the fluid were conductive, certain parts of the hardware like the processor or graphics card would have to be additionally insulated, which would be very complicated.
The idea with the aquarium is not completely new: The YouTuber is not the first user to put hardware “underwater”. In fact, it is especially common in IT to cool large devices this way. For example, servers or storage devices are cooled in liquid to dissipate heat better. Laboratories also like to use this technique.
The community is impressed but misses the fish
How does the community react? On reddit, the community is engaged in a lively discussion about the short video. Many are highly impressed by the setup and the final result.
However, some users miss the fish. A few respond that the fish would not feel comfortable with all the blinking and spinning of the fans and would go crazy over time.
Some also explain that cooling with such a fluid is absolutely no joy when it comes to maintenance. For example, a user writes:
Interesting setup, but dealing with the consequences of mineral oil cooling is a nightmare. The entire PC is a total loss.
via reddit.com
Because during maintenance, the fluid settles in all holes and openings and sticks to the components. Anyone who builds something like this should be aware of the effort required to clean or maintain the hardware each time. Another user adds that such fluid often dissolves thermal paste (via reddit.com). This would contaminate the cooling liquid.
But who says the case can’t look cool? MeinMMO presents to you 7 PC cases that look really good. Because the owners have invested a lot of time and love into their gaming PCs.
