In the last days, Ibai Plains has premiered a very striking new computer: not only is it a powerful beast, but it is also is submerged in a kind of fishbowl. The PC was created by the youtuber nate gentilewho chose a truly peculiar cooling system.
Liquid cooling is becoming more common, especially in PCs built for gaming. Using a pump, tubes, couplings and blocks specially designed for the processor or GPU, it is possible to keep water in recirculation, so that the equipment always operates at ideal temperatures, even under very intense workloads. And if we add coloring and a lot of RGB, we get the dream computer for any fan of video games.
However, the Ibai Llanos submerged computer offers a different concept. As we well indicated, the motherboard and its main components are in permanent contact with the coolant. But how is this possible? Doesn’t the hardware go bankrupt? Are there no dangers of corrosion or short circuits? We see it below.
Ibai’s new submerged computer
In terms of technical specifications, Ibai’s new submerged computer has everything you could expect from a setup high performance. The processor is an Intel Core i9-13900KS, with 64 GB of DDR5 RAM, 4 TB of SSD storage and an Asus ROG Strix GeForce RTX 4090 GPU. A more than enough configuration “to play Lol already Minecraft“as the renowned streamer.
But what really stands out is that the cooling of the PC is done through a immersion system. As we mentioned before, the motherboard and the rest of the components —except the power supply— are in direct contact with the liquid, submerged in a specially designed polycarbonate tank.
The key point of this story goes through the coolant itself. At this point it may already seem like a no-brainer, but it’s still important to clarify: it’s not water. In the detailed video of Ibai’s underwater computer creation, Nate Gentile explained that he must have spent significant time researching what was the best option.
Looking for the ideal refrigerant
Immersion cooling is not a new concept. In fact, it has been experimenting with it in business environments for quite some time. Microsoft, for example, began immersing some of its servers in a non-conductive, fluorocarbon-based fluid that is designed to boil at 50 degrees Celsius and works in a closed loop. When heat from the components is transferred to the liquid, it evaporates. When the vapor reaches a cooled condenser in the compartment lid, it turns to liquid and falls back into the “pool” where the racks.
Of course, setting up such a system for a home PC would be crazy. However, Nate Gentile managed to transfer part of the concept —that of immersing the components— to Ibai Llanos’s submerged computer. He youtuber explained that the fluid used to cool the equipment is a “dielectric liquid”, which does not prevent the operation of the electrical elements with which it is in contact. He defined it as a kind of oil, or a derivative thereof.
The liquid used to cool Ibai’s new computer is called EC-110which is produced by Engineered Fluids and has been designed for this type of submerged equipment. It stands out for not being toxic, for not releasing vapors and for being biodegradable. In addition, it has an estimated useful life of 10 years. It is worth clarifying, however, that this does not guarantee that it is 100% compatible with all the materials used in the parts of a PC. However, Gentile assures that it is one of the most complete in this sense.
immersion cooling
But Ibai’s new submerged computer is much more than a sealed tank with PC parts in contact with dielectric liquid. Nate Gentile and his father developed a system of pipes attached to the PC chassis, that work with pumps and radiators with fans that recirculate the fluid and allow it to be kept refrigerated. In addition, in the case of the processor, a Noctua heat sink with a fan was also included.
The latter is truly striking, since it is a component used in cooling systems with air, and not with liquid. However the youtuber explained that its implementation has been especially useful for more efficiently extracting the heat generated by Intel’s i9 processor.
It is also important to mention that when installing a heat sink over the processor, could not use conventional thermal paste, but paste based on liquid metal. The same material was implemented in the GPU, which had to be disassembled and reassembled for its corresponding application.
Ibai’s submerged computer has not come cheap
Creating the submerged computer for Ibai Llanos has required about 8 months of work to Nate Gentile and his team. Let’s keep in mind that, in addition to the metal chassis with a polycarbonate tank, aluminum finishes were made. To which has been added the manufacture of special and personalized cables, a very tedious task.
For its part, the hardware implemented is top of the line, which has not helped to make it a cheap end product either. Ibai’s new PC costs about 10,000 euros for components alone, and the final price to submerge it has been around 30,000 euros.
As a last curious fact, Ibai’s submerged computer has turned out to be as heavy as it is visually impressive. Only the chassis with the components has weighed almost 50 kilograms, and with the liquid it is over about 70 kg. For this reason, a base with wheels had to be installed to make it easier to move it. A curious project, to be sure, but still too expensive to be within the reach of the masses.