Sapphire

[Helevitia]

Just like water but doesn't get anything wet. Whoa! Cool stuff!

Imagine the watercooling technics you could come up with!

http://abclocal.go.com/wpvi/news/04132004_bb_sapphire.html

[Paddy]

so what is it?

[Helevitia]

Originally posted by Paddy
so what is it?

"a chemical"

[az]

Is it hazardous to humans? Yeah, I know, water can be dangerous, too (Is the comma mandatory there, or maybe even plain wrong?).

AZ

[agallag]

3rd comma is not necessary.

[SitFlyer]

Info for Printer-friendly format 3Mâ„¢ Novecâ„¢ 1230 Fire Protection Fluid.......

.....Can be found here


EDIT: fixed link

[rylan]

Mmmm, makes me thirsty

[Chrono_Wanderer]

great for "water" cooling lol

[Wombat]

Actually, this stuff woundn't be very good for cooling at all. It's specific heat is only about 1/4 that of water, and it boils ~120F.

[piaxVirus]

I don't understand why some people think this is a big breakthrough for watercooling. The problem with watercooling is that water is conductive, not that it will get things wet. There are other non conductive liquids out there that could be used instead of water.

I remember seeing someone submerge his whole mobo in baby oil. It ran for a week or two and could have ran for a lot longer, if he didn't have one major design flaw. He placed the radiator above the baby oil. The condensation from the radiator dripped into the baby oil and shorted out the mobo. That was probably 3-4 years ago, but I haven't seen anyone try anything like it since. I still think it could work.

[Wombat]

Originally posted by piaxVirus
I don't understand why some people think this is a big breakthrough for watercooling. The problem with watercooling is that water is conductive, not that it will get things wet.

This stuff is also non-conductive. They dropped a running laptop into it, and the thing ran fine, at least for the demo.

There are other non conductive liquids out there that could be used instead of water.

No, not many. Most don't work as well as water. Those that do have other chemical issues, or are damn expensive(e.g. fluoroinert runs something like $400/gallon), or toxic, of many of the above.

I remember seeing someone submerge his whole mobo in baby oil. It ran for a week or two and could have ran for a lot longer, if he didn't have one major design flaw. He placed the radiator above the baby oil. The condensation from the radiator dripped into the baby oil and shorted out the mobo. That was probably 3-4 years ago, but I haven't seen anyone try anything like it since. I still think it could work. [/B]

I don't think it would work for very long. People have tried mineral oil, too, but it doesn't last very long. Capacitors don't seem to like that sort of thing after a few days or so.

[KvHagedorn]

baby oil = mineral oil + fragrance

sounds like a bloody mess to me..

[Brian Ellis]

As I understand it, this is designed as a substitute for halons, now banned, except in aircraft and submarines, not as a substitute for water coolers. The two functions are poles apart and halons were never designed for cooling but for putting out fires.

Water is, by far, the best substance thermally for cooling and there is no getting away from that. Perhalogenated hydrocarbons are the best substances for fire extinguishing, although many are too unstable or too toxic for that. Halons fall into the best of this category. Unfortunately, the MSDS link is broken, but I would guess that the substance in question is possibly a hydrofluorocarbon with a fairly high F:H ratio. If it had a bromine in the molecule, as well, it would be even better as a fire extinguisher, but would be ozone-depleting and subject to incorporation into the controlled substances list of the Montreal Protocol.

The expensive 3M Fluorinert and the equivalent Galden and F3 products are perfluorocarbons which are used as inert and stable coolants, for vapour phase soldering and as blood substitutes. They would not be much use as fire extinguishers because they absorb oxygen like gangbusters and carry it to the fire!

I've worked for donkey's years with these chemicals, so have a little knowledge as to how they work.

[VJ]

Originally posted by piaxVirus
That was probably 3-4 years ago, but I haven't seen anyone try anything like it since. I still think it could work.

This guy is making a similar setup (based on mineral oil):

http://forums.2cpu.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=32859

(I have seen others as well)


Jörg

[Brian Ellis]

Messy using oil. Fluorinert has the advantage of remaining low-viscosity at low temps, allowing better convection. However, WARNING: modern mother boards have a lot of controlled characteristic impedance tracks; the dielectric constant of oil or anything else is higher than air and could upset the performance of the computer by changing the impedance.

Heat pipes are a good solution for conducting heat away from where it's generated. There are special ones made for CPUs. I used them in the past, about 15 mm diameter and 40 cm long, for a 2 kW vibrator amplifier. They are about 400 x more thermally conductive than a solid bar of copper of the same dimensions.

The manufacturer immediately offers a coffee to anyone visiting the factory. The spoon on the suacer is actually a heat pipe. You dip it in your coffee and immediately burn your fingers. They then give you a real spoon, after a very graphic demonstration.

Try http://www.thermacore.com for more info.