CDsDontBurn

in a water cooled machine, why isn't isopropyl alcohol a good reason to use instead of water?

i know that alcohol evaporates MUCH more quickly than water does, and that has been the only good reason for not using it. Well, that, and if you got a leak and a few sparks, you might catch your whole machine on fire.

I think that alcohol would be a much better solution to use than water because it conducts heat much better than water does. Evaporation is part of the cooling process, but if all the lines are sealed, and no liquid (water or alcohol) is exposed, where would it evaporate to? it would just convect throughout the entire system again.

Alcohol is also non-conductive. So, if you do spring a leak, it won't damage any of your components. Also, since it does evaporate quickly, you can just blow on it to get it cleaned up.

i've done some googling on this already, and the only point that keeps coming up again and again is because of the evaporation.

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mkk

Given that water manages to evaporate through these systems I'd guess that alcohol does it much faster. The sealings aren't perfect and alcohol may even be hard on some of the materials used in the long term.

Judas

yeah, it's likely it'll CAUSE leaks by eating at all the seals, it's also NOT a lubricant at all in any form, anti lubricant, where as well doesn't chew at those things..

a gallon of 99.6% alcohol is roughly 15 bucks (CAD gallon not US)

While it would be pretty good, there is a few issues that could quickly arise, only one way to really find out though.

Still prefer the mineral Oil with a submerged computer in it and cooling by way of freezer or similare is imo the most impressive.

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kris23

might as well fill it with mercury

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Lowfat

Alcohol is definately not a good liquid to use. It has nothing to do with it eating through the tubing or anything. It is just horrible at dissipating heat. It may absorb more heat, but it it holds the temperature in, its useless. The only place alcohol would be good in a watercooling system would be in a Bong/Evaporator tower, since alcohol evaporates much quicker than water. However that would get expensive very quickly.

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CDsDontBurn

why mercury? that's a metal man. that stuff will probably do damage to the whole system itself.

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RaveneR

mercury is liquid metal, high density and supposedly good heat conduction and dissapation?

anyway, alcohol is a type of solvent which is quite unfriendly towards plastics and rubber products, so you're gonna have to find another type of seal if you're going to use alcohol as the coolant.

CDsDontBurn

but if that were true, why would it come in a plastic bottle? all the hoses AFAIK, are made of plastic.

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kris23

because those are usually treated with stuff to handle the alcohol in it, the bottles are also rigid most of the time. its not likely that regular vinyl could handle it for long, that stuff gets really hard and cracks when used with something like alcohol

tygon tubing should work, it was meant to handle any and all laboratory chemicals. expensive though.

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ChaosMinionX

Tygon is the only way to go

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procupine14

I dunno, personally I have done some research on this type of thing. Alcohol wouldn't be a good liquid for reasons already stated. Water is the most dependable because that is what everyone uses. The ideal chemical I would use (if i acctually watercooled) would be a salt that, when mixed with water, (I did a little experiment in my chemistry class) becomes super cold. The only problem with that is...well you are dealing with a super saturated mixture of this salt in water. So, basically the salt will eventually "fall out", without something to mix it all the time, an collect in your reservoir. So that is an official pain as well.

Lelisevis

The biggest problem I can see with alcohol as a coolant is that there'd me fractionally less beer and ale in the world for me to consume. Air-cooling has never let me down yet.

procupine14

I believe...sir, that we are talking about rubbing alcohol. Just thought i'd clear that up .

CDsDontBurn

yes, rubbing alcohol. isopropyl 91% to be precise

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Lelisevis

LOL, I know but if your me even bleach can look good when the beer runs out.

procupine14

ah i see haha

H3X4D3C1M4L

So true!!

Anyway... Alcohol will conduct electricity. Anything with free ions will, and most things have free ions in this imperfect world we live in.

The main reason other than quicker evaporation that alcohol wouldn't be good is exactly what lowfat said: It will take the heat away fast but it won't dissipate it very well.

Notice too how some people use antifreeze/water mixtures in their water cooling? As well you should know CD's, being a car enthusiast yourself, antifreeze is mostly water, and if water is good enough to keep a combustion chamber/detonation chamber (in the case of diesels) cool, it should work pretty well on your (by comparison) ice cold CPU

CDsDontBurn

The reason why car's use anti-freeze is because water has a boiling point of 212F/100C. Using anti-freeze will increase the boiling point of water to above that temperature. Anti-freeze will also decrease the point at which water will freeze to below 32F/0C, typically about 28F/-2C or there abouts.

I wouldn't however, run anti-freeze through a watercooled system. Anti-freeze could cause the metals used in the blocks corrode.

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procupine14

oh so true. There's a reason why cars have to get all the slime and buildup flushed out of their cooling system. I don't think that anyone wants to deal with that. From my own experience, in my 1980 Chevy truck the entire coolant system had to be replaced from corrosion and build up. (this was when my father and I restored it which was finished last year)

H3X4D3C1M4L

Antifreeze shouldn't corrode the metals in the system if they're all the same type, i.e. not mixing copper with aluminum with gold or whatever.

The reason coolant systems get sludged up in cars and whatnot is beacuse you have alot of other things happening in there. Besides, its a Chevrolet (Can Hear Every Valve, Leaks Every Time ). A car's coolant system is also exposed to much higher temperatures, higher pressure, the elements (do you have road salt, sand, dust, bits of plastic, dead animals, etc. passing underneath your computer case? If so that's pretty friggin' cool!!).

Probably in a watercooling system you might want to mix the antifreeze with distilled water. It just seems like fluid in water cooling systems is one of those topics where there's no right answer, and everyone has their own opinion. As long as nothing gets fried it can't be bad right?

RaveneR

what about using beer as a coolant?

Lowfat

are you serious?

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The_Neon_Cowboy

um alcohol has lower boiling point, add to that "pressure" will lower that point even
more. It's flammable, corrosive, it costs more... "lubrication" basically watter is slicker, thus lubricateing the pumps etc...

ummm the list goes on....

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H3X4D3C1M4L

Water does not a lubricant make

jasperchc

I wonder what will happen if liquid nitrogen is use, hmm...?

H3X4D3C1M4L

Wouldn't work or stay liquid very long in a typical water cooling loop. Not to mention the fact that it would probably instantly kill the pump due to the fact that LN is quite cold