If distilled water is non-conductive, why do extreme overclockers need to worry about condensation?
If distilled water is non-conductive, why do extreme overclockers need to worry about condensation?
Extreme overclocking involves cooling a CPU to subzero temperatures using an air conditioner, dry ice or liquid nitrogen. This causes the surrounding air to cool down, forming droplets on the CPU, motherboard and heat sink. Overclockers prevent droplets from accumulating on the motherboard using petroleum jelly or some sort of absorbent insulating material.
Since this condensation comes from the air, I figure it should be free of impurities, just like distilled water. This should mean that the droplets shouldn't be able to cause a short circuit. Due to the low temperature, corrosion shouldn't be a problem either.
Am I missing something here?
Pure H2O is nonconductive, it's the impurities in water like salt and the like that make water conductive.
As another post stated, take water, add dust and you have a conductive fluid
Condensation isn't distilled water. The air is a mixture of gases, and those gasses mix with the water.
Any contamination (even CO2 from the air) will make it conductive enough to cause corrosion, eventually ruining the circuit board. Once this corrosion starts, it can add metal ions into the water, further increasing conductivity, leading to more corrosion. If you've ever tried to build an electrolysis cell you will know how good water and electricity are at dissolving metal. (Even thick wires can disappear in minutes)