submerged computer

[Nitestick]

before anyone says i'm crazy hear me out. i've been working this out with my physics teacher (my hairbrained idea) and we are going to test an old theory. will a computer operate submerged in pure water? science says that pure water should not conduct electricity. the only problem is getting pure water. the water needs to be de-ionised and free of impurities. chances are the computer will die but i'm providing the computer, just a collection of antique components i'll throw together. the only problem will be that the water will become contaminated with impurities from the computer itself. well just posting this for comment.

i think i'm aware of most potential problems:
hdd/optical drives probably will not work submerged.
contaminants

any others?

 

[Alvin.C]

Re:

Fans!? You gonna remove them?

I'm sure there are more problems, but the ones that come to mind are shocks, fire and possibly...death ...

...But it is an intriguing question. I see your point. The water would become contaminated because of impurities lodged here there and everywhere in and around the PC...

...My guess is that you'll probably short-circuit the thing on touchdown...perhaps if you are going to perform this experiment, make sure you've hooked the thing up to a RCD!

 

[Nitestick]

yeah, planning on using a surge board. i'm rigging it up with an AT psu and planning to leave the power button on so that it can be turned on via the wall switch.

edit: pc will be using a p-150 with passive heatsink, no fans aside from psu.

 

[DJ-CHRIS]

Hard drive dies in water. Try to use distilled water as it should work.

 

[Simon]

How about distilled water? [the stuff you put in your car batt]

 

[Simon]

Opps DJ-CHRIS just said that...

 

[Nitestick]

no, distilled water still contains ions. it needs to be distilled and de-ionised. anyone who can remember some chemistry or physics will remember that ions in solution conduct electricity. thanks for the input guys. hopefully if there are any other problems someone will point them out, if not i will keep posting and hopefully have some interesting results. if i can succeed in operating the computer once submerged, i'll take a shot at oc'ing it. the most i've managed on air with that particular cpu is 166mhz. i think i might be able to make 185mhz (unspecified setting of 75mhz on the board i'm using) maybe 200 because i'm thinking the water would be brilliant for overclocking.

 

[Simon]

anyone who can remember some chemistry or physics[.0/B]

Thats where you get me

 

[cedjunior]

If I remember my chemistry right, a molecule of H20 can't be ionized. Its the sodium, magnesium, calcium and potasium ions dissolved in the water. A water molecule can dissociate its self into H+ and OH-, but that would only happen with one out of about 10 million H2O molecules, not nearly enough to conduct any electricity at all.

 

[ShoobieRat]

...will a computer operate submerged in pure water....

This topic is so old, so kicked around, and so "iffy", it's surprising you havn't come across at least something of its ugliness before.

In short, few people have done this, and none have been able to effectively sustain it for any practical period of time. The concept is truthful, but even when working it is totally impractical.