Greetings,

This is pretty cool (no pun intended):


(click on image for link)

It has built-in thermal control!

[Edit: I would imagine that this could be used for a CPU heatsink, too?]

it is very cool & geeky but since fans only use about ~2W it's not exactly going to save the world, in fact it probably uses way more energy to produce than it saves. still, neat little gadget.

One thing that this fan won't use is a motherboard fan header, making it useful for boards that don't have many fan headers.

the sterling engine will also use some of the heat as source of its mechanical energy, thus cooling the chipset even further.

The idea (if works as intended) is great. Think about cooling all the heater elements in a computer with their own heat.

If they're silent (;)), it'll be a fun little gadget for on my north and southbridge. Wouldn't trust it with a OC'ed Quadcore just yet though.

I'd expect that to cool at least as well as any passive heatsink - it's still got a dual-heatpipe radiator element. And of course, it's hard to say how loud it would be, but as a geek I feel it's my responsibility to say that is completely awesome regardless to the noise.

I wonder if they'll sell an aftermarket version?

More info here: www.bit-tech.net

Too bad it doesn't kick in until 60deg C. Still pretty cool, though.

Not to mention more moving parts => probable shorter MTBF => replace more often => even more energy/resources used.
(On the other hand, a cooler that ceizes up, frys the northbridge, makes you buy more motherboards - great marketing concept!)

Gadgetry - way cool
marketing - mindlessly slather ECO on everything in sight - yuck.

70% of what? Theoretical max Stirling engine efficiency at this temperatures is ~14%.

Very fancy. Not overly useful, since larger north/southbridge heatsinks provide passive cooling just fine and are far more simple, this would only be for show.

It'll be interesting to see how well it works...I understand Stirling engines need at least 50C differential.

<edit> my bad....wikipedia gives references to as little as 7C differential.

"Small demonstration engines have been built which will run on a temperature difference of as little as 7 °C, e.g. between the palm of a hand and the surrounding air, or between room temperature and melting water ice.[2][3][4]"

not just demonstration, you can buy them as toys from e.g. http://www.stirlingengine.com/

...from the same referenced wiki entry...
Low Temperature Difference Engines