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If distilled water is non-conductive, why do extreme overclockers need to worry about condensation? (lemmy.ml)

submitted 10 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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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?

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[–] [email protected] 19 points 10 months ago

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