Interview with Hardcore Computer: The quest for a full immersion cooled desktop PC

Posted at: Tuesday 14th October 2008 by Mark Mackay

Thoughts of full-immersion PCs still fresh in our minds from this years Dream PC competition, a new, more accessible embodiment of the technology hits the market. Custom PC interviews CTO of Hardcore Computer to find out more.

At Nvision 2008 earlier this year, Custom PC Magazine was witness to a very unusual-looking PC being wheeled through the parking lot of a San Jose hotel, surrounded by some decidedly techy-looking individuals. Having already been privy to so much awesome hardware over the course of the event we decided to enquire about what the strange system might be and see if we could swag a couple of shots. However the techy-types were none too keen for the system to have its picture taken.

After some jostling and several fruitless attempts at information gathering the trolley was hurried inside. However, one of the chaps came back out, business card in hand, and apologised for the shortness of the group but said to get in touch.

And so we did. That individual was Chad Attlesey, Chief Technology Officer and co-founder of Hardcore Computer, the company responsible for the beast on the trolley. In an exclusive interview earlier this month Custom PC got the low-down on the company's project: a full-immersion cooled PC, much like Amari's XCP only more compact in size and far less exotically priced.

CPC: What can you tell us about Hardcore Computer as a company?

Chad: Well we were incorporated in the state of Minnesota here in the US back in January 2006. My business partner and I founded the company and just got started working on making computers better.

He was building computers for friends and family. Buying equipment from online order companies such as New Egg and building machines for friends and family for years and years.

When my business partner and I got to talking, I said if I’m going to start a company, we’re going to do it different than everybody else. If we can’t make the industry better by doing what we’re doing we don’t want to be in it. There are plenty of other companies out there using the same motherboards and same components as everybody else. We got tired of the PC industry’s idea of innovation being having a different colour chassis than the next guy.

Well my background is a little different. I’ve been doing cutting edge technology for the military and US government for a number of years. Overclocked and water-cooled systems was just a hobby, although I’ve been doing programming and working on computers since I was probably in 4th or 5th grade, when I got my first Apple.