What would be nice, is if you could have a liquid that changes colour at the two stages of heating and cooling in a computer liquid cooling system.

It would make for some very nice visuals.

Plus is an interesting indicator of general cooling performance.
-- mofosyne, Jun 11 2016

CPU Mounted Lava Lamp CPU_20Mounted_20Lava_20Lamp
Alternatively ... [8th of 7, Jun 11 2016]

WIBNI ... (tends to lead to mfd)
-- Vernon, Jun 11 2016


Although this starts with the WIBNI text I don't think it falls into mfd territory. Thermochromic fluids exist. And if they don't, take hundreds of those stick-on colour-changing thermometers and shred them into bits, and have some colour-changing glitter in your coolant.

It might be easier though to just have red and blue LEDs inside the waterblocks, so the inlet looks blue and the outlet looks red.
-- mitxela, Jun 11 2016


//take hundreds of those stick-on colour-changing thermometers and shred them into bits// makes no sense. Thermochromic compounds exist and they make up those things you want to shred (which, incidentally, is a great idea for the Mirror Mulch idea).

Anyhoo, back to the idea. There is a serious trade-off between accuracy and aesthetics in thermochromic compounds. So you can have some thing that is accurate but not pretty or something that is pretty but not accurate.
-- 4whom, Jun 11 2016


What, like a female accountant...?

<dives behind sandbags>
-- 8th of 7, Jun 11 2016


<Automatic Bag of Sand>
-- 4whom, Jun 11 2016


Have you tried thiotimoline?
-- not_morrison_rm, Jun 12 2016


// thiotimoline //

That's endochronic, not thermochromic.

But it might be worth a try. Don't use the resublimated stuff, though, it's much more expensive and it dosen't taste the slightest bit different.
-- 8th of 7, Jun 12 2016


Another idea I didn't post first because I thought it was not interesting/novel enough to be worth posting. But someone else posting it confirms to me that it's a good idea.
-- notexactly, Jul 03 2016


Neat idea, but the first paragraph is an mfd magnet.
-- FlyingToaster, Jul 04 2016


I wanted to do this about 10 years ago. I built a clear box and fitted the bare bones of a PC into it before filling the whole thing with some transformer oil that a neighbor had laying about. I was looking for an oil soluble substance that changed color at the 40-60C range, right about then I discovered that oil likes to creep up electrical cables, and I had a big mess to clean up. So I stopped.
-- bs0u0155, Jul 05 2016



random, halfbakery