cooling a pc with vegitable oil?

[hercules_upw]

Originally Posted by bmxfreakrider

i remember reading somewhere, that water it self is not electrically conductive, its the impurities on it that make it that way,

You are correct

The resistance of ultra-pure water is 18.2 million ohms. it is a decent resistor. The problem is that when you expose ultra-pure water to air, it instantly absorbs oxygen and carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. The addition of carbon dioxide from the air forms carbonic acid. The carbonic acid has a pH around 5.5 and DOES conduct electricity.

Ultra-pure water can be described as the most pure form of water that is possible. Contaminants are most often measured in parts per trillion.

I work on and operate the equipment that processes ultra-pure water or UPW.

[saltynay]

its the ionic minerals and some base/acidic compounds in water which conduct the electricity. I don't know what dust is made up of but I doubt it is ionic compounds.

Matt

[Nitestick]

Old but still clever. I wonder how the first person thought of this. Maybe he was holding a can a vegetable oil while walking buy his open case and he tripped and spilled it all in there and noticed it didn't fry and checked his temps and noticed that they had lowered.

it probably came from the old obsession with "can a computer operate submerged in pure water?". it's not a big secret that oil doesn't conduct electricity so someone probably made the mental leap from there and gave it a shot with oil instead.

[S0ULphIRE]

Oil doesnt conduct? WOW!! didnt no! musta been a secret aye!

[b0dge]

Originally Posted by hercules_upw

You are correct

The resistance of ultra-pure water is 18.2 million ohms.

18.2 million ohms per what? If you measured the resistance of a tiny trail of many metres, then possibly. But it would depend on the voltage at which you measured the resistance...

The CONDUCTIVITY of pure water is about 0.055 µS/cm. You can't state the resistance of a substance unless you also state the exact size and shape of the sample, where your two measurement points are, either voltage or current (depending how you measure the resistance) etc... and even then, it's only the resistance of that sample, between your stated points.

Even tapwater is non-conductive enough to insulate... I know, I did the experiment...
YouTube - Who Says Electricity and Water Don't Mix!