The Project, A Moss Adventure

[Moss]

The Project - An airtight, environmentally sealed PC.​

The ghost who posts, returns to regail you with his awesome plans for world domination!

As most of you know I left the forums a few weeks ago, under not so great circumstances.

For those who missed the goodbye thread, the short version is that I have a medical condition that makes me "allergic" to certain chemicals, heated plastics, being something I have a bit of an issue with. Computers used to not be such a problem, I'd get a few bad symptoms if I used one for too long, a bit of a headache, light headedness and slight bleeding in my mouth, but nothing too serious, however over the course of the last two or so years my health has been getting progressively worse, and although it's improving now, it's never going to be "back to normal". I can't really use a computer for much longer than an hour or so at a time without getting pretty seriously hammered by it.

The short term solution, obviously, was to cut back on all unecessary computer use and only use it for writing up/researching assignments. But even then it's still a hastle, and to be honest I'm a little sick of choosing between spending as much time as I should researching and writing up assignments or not spending the next day or so walking around with a cane. And as my Uni course goes on the work load is just going to get heavier and heavier.

So logically I need a computer. And I need one I can use for hours on end without getting sick.

So as you may have guessed, I'm going to build one.

The purpose of this thread is to give you updates on the planning and construction of my box with stuff in it. I've only ever put together one computer before, and have never done anything involving cace custimisation, etc. Needless to say I am way over my head. This is going to be interesting.

On a side note, this doesn't mean that I'm coming back to the forums, at least not right away, I'll duck in occasionally and in a few weeks I'll have a shiny new positive atmosphere respirator, so I should be able to be on every now and then without it pressuring my health. And I plan on having this thing done sometime before lectures resume next year, so I'll be able to do things like sit in front of a computer and breath. Which is going to be awesome.

Stay tuned for the next section where I explain just what I'm building. And then everyone can remind me how insanely over my head I am.

 

[Sedericus]

sorry to hear about all that has gone on moss. but a few words of encouragement.
if you need any help i and i can imagine everyone on this forum will be happy to help infact if you have any question about pc building just PM me Im an IT techy so ive done it more times than i care to remember!  and its not that much of a problem! with a few nudges in the right direction you should have your project up and running in no time 

good luck moss!

 

[Pharaoh Llandy]

Huzzah!

Good luck, the only advice I can give you is don't stick your finger in the plug socket.

 

[Nethros]

And not in the fans either

Anyway, are you gonna buy the required hardware and just build the case, or am I on the wrong track here?

 

[Moss]

That's the idea, actually building the individual components, is just a little bit beyond my skills. However it's going to be a little more complicated than a simple stick it all together job I'm afraid. I'll post the details a little later tonight.

 

[Sedericus]

oooo i do love projects 

 

[Archonsod]

Heat is going to be your problem. Although you could use baby oil as a coolant, assuming it would lock in the chemicals sufficiently and just leave you the heat to get rid of....

 

[El Georgeo McFudge]

Use a hammer, come on, bang bang! Get to work!

 

[Moss]

Well spoken Arch, although baby oil wasn't quite what I had in mind.

Part two - The Plan:

So how exactly do you go about building a sealed PC? There are obvious complications and limitations that have to be overcome and dozens of different ideas and problems were brought up discussing it, if you'd like to see how I came to my final plan, check out this thread over here.

The most obvious complication with a sealed PC is cooling, without external ventilation the interior fans are pretty much useless, resulting in everything heating up and melting down. Not good.

The obvious solution is to use a but load of water cooling and heat sinks in combination with low power parts to generate less heat. But between the ridiculously expensive cooling equipment, the under clocked PC and the unbelievable complexity of getting all of that working it didn't seem like the greatest idea.

So what method of cooling would work? Sinking the thing in non-conductive mineral oil. The oil has impressively high specific heat capacity, so it can absorb a lot of heat, and then slowly dissipate it through the walls of the case. And if you throw a radiator in it becomes about the most effective PC cooling system possible. It's cheap, relatively easy to put together and incredibly effective. Here's the build I'll be loosely basing mine off:
http://www.pugetsystems.com/submerged.php

So why isn't it used more often? Well, there are some complications. Firstly you need a water tight case, secondly all the external plugs need to be above the water line, or very thoroughly sealed and neither the hard drive (unless you're using a solid state) or the disk drive can be submerged. On top of that a system filled to the brim with mineral oil tends to weigh a fair bit too.

There's also one or two other problems that can be harder to predict, such as wicking. The oil has a bad habit of flowing up smaller cables (like a mouse or keyboard cable, due to the height and pressure differences between one end and the other). It's not the hardest problem in the world to overcome, but it's a nice indicator of all the possible things that I could do wrong.

So having decided on my awesome plan for the tower, I was left with one slight hitch. What about the monitor?

Oddly enough the monitor proved to be the hardest component to figure out. Nearly all non-industrial monitors are made of plastic, meaning that the case itself heating is going to be a problem. My first thought was to mount a monitor in the side of the case and use the oil to cool the back of it. This was an awesome idea for all of the five seconds it took before I started picturing the oil seeping out the sides of the screen in an awesome "bleeding walls" like fashion. So idea dropped. Eventually I settled on one of these:

Spoiler

I know. It's a Mac monitor. I feel just as dirty as I should. However it is pretty much perfect, I walked over to a Mac store on campus the other day and checked it out. The case is almost entirely aluminium, baring a few spots of plastic, which thankfully is the hard, non-degassing kind. And best of all it doesn't have a vent. The thing is already perfectly sealed, it simply uses the metal of the case as a heat sink. Just unbelievably perfect.
Minus the $900AU price tag of course. For a twenty inch.

Needless to say that sucks, but it's the easiest and probably the best option. If it turns out that I simply can't afford it, I'll have to strip back a cheaper monitor and build a custom case for it from aluminium. Not my first choice, but do able.

Anyway, a little burnt out at the moment (just finished my last assignment for the semester/year!), so I'll go take a break and get some fresh air.

Still to come:
The budget.
The schedule.
The hastily sketched blue prints.
The FAQ.
The construction.
The sweet Moss love.

 

[Gculk]

Heat is going to be your problem. Although you could use baby oil as a coolant, assuming it would lock in the chemicals sufficiently and just leave you the heat to get rid of....

He could just make the air intake and exhaust be from outside air, or even better... Actually, I'll brainstorm it today, I'll post my ideas when I'm finished school and everything for the day, but I think you are totally overthinking it.

 

[Adorno]

If it's possible to make an airtight PC then why haven't I seen one?
It would prevent all kinds of filth getting into the machine. Don't forget to copyright it after you're done 

 

[Ilex]

If it's possible to make an airtight PC then why haven't I seen one?
It would prevent all kinds of filth getting into the machine. Don't forget to copyright it after you're done 

It's called water cooling.

 

[Moss]

They don't make completely sealed PC's because it's really, really impractical/expensive.

Water cooling would only work if you had the watercooling units on the outside of the case to get the heat out, and even then you'd need a lot more than if you just used a normal fan/water cooling combination.

As to why people don't use the mineral oil option more often, between the difficulties making the case and the voiding of all your warranties it's probably not the most attractive option for anyone not making a serious gaming rig.

Or a completely impractical sealed computer.

 

[Cloud Breaker]

Or a completely impractical sealed computer.

Silicate and an air conditioning unit inside the CPU.

 

[tommyboy]

Could you not just take a standard PC and put it in an airtight space with an external exhaust tube leading outside for any necessary ventilation?
A wooden or better yet, metallic box with a few rubber grommets for cabling to pass through (unless rubber is an issue too). That would be a lot cheaper and easier to construct than any customized pc would be, because it would only need to be bigger than the pc and be airtight. Whereas a custom pc case has to have mountings for the mainboard, on/off, reset, drives etc, and be airtight.
Even something like an aquarium or terrarium might do the job for you, though these are going to cost more than constructing it yourself.

 

[Moss]

That would have been plan a, but I'm afrid it won't work in my current circumstances. I'm staying in on campus accomodation so it's not really an option.

For those interested, here's the floorplan of my room:

Spoiler

As you can see, there's no airtight place I can lock it in and venting through the window isn't an option for various reasons.

Thankfully the build I'm making won't be too complex, I'll pretty much be modifying a standard case and stuffing it in a glass tank, then sealing the top. Here's a quick sketch I did of the general idea:

Spoiler

Essentially taking the side panels off, then cutting back an old case, sticking a compartment for the hard drive and disk drives on top, then sealing the sides with waterproof glass panels. I won't have to touch the mounting for the power supply or motherboard, so that should be simple enough and it'll just be a matter of getting extensions for the cables for the other bits. The materials won't be expensive and when it comes down to it it won't really be that much more complex than the other solutions. That and I'll enjoy the challenge.

 

[Yeyinde]

Couldn't you just take a normal PC, take off the sides, and stick it in a small aquarium filled with oil?

 

[Dindi]

As for cost is there anyway you could get your university to fund you at all?

After all you need a computer to be able to do your work.

Dindi,

 

[Moss]

Student loan. I'll be getting one at the start of next year to help cover the costs of stuff, basically an advance on my scolarship.

Couldn't you just take a normal PC, take off the sides, and stick it in a small aquarium filled with oil?

The hard drive and disk drives don't cope well with being covered in oil.

That and having to reach down into a tank of oil to plug/unplug speakers, the mouse, keyboard or a flash drive is a little less than ideal. Or you know, to press the power button.

 

[Archonsod]

If it's possible to make an airtight PC then why haven't I seen one?
It would prevent all kinds of filth getting into the machine. Don't forget to copyright it after you're done 

There's airtight computers available, they're usually used in specialised work (underwater, deserts, arctic and similar) and they cost about the same as a house. I doubt you'd be able to do much gaming on them either

The hard drive and disk drives don't cope well with being covered in oil.

That and having to reach down into a tank of oil to plug/unplug speakers, the mouse, keyboard or a flash drive is a little less than ideal. Or you know, to press the power button.

You can cover all of that with some creative wiring