Here's a new idea in PC cooling

chylld · Post by **chylld** » Tue May 04, 2004 7:24 pm

and the prometeia as well. but i thnk they've been renamed to something else

sthayashi · Post by **sthayashi** » Tue May 04, 2004 8:34 pm

250 Watts output? That's a strange way of measuring things.

I'm going to assume that it DRAWS 250 Watts of power, i.e. it takes 250 Watts from the wall which will ultimately be seen as an additional 180 kW/hr if run continuously in one month (assumptions: 30 days/month, 24 hrs/day, 0.25kW drawn continuously).

Still, the part that bothers me about the numbers is that the average P4 computer draws somewhere in the neighborhood of 120W-160W. That means that the compressor draws about 90-130W. Now since no machine is perfect, some of that energy gets transfered to heat energy. The rest of the energy will go into compressing the air. The problem is that the very act of compressing air (or any matter) will increase heat, even in a perfect system where there is no wasted energy.

If you know the compression ratios and the volume of air compressed, we can calculate roughly how much of a temperature increase there will be due to air compression alone (PV=nRT for those playing the numbers games at home).

Then we need to figure out how much energy is required to compress air. Sadly I don't know the numbers or equations for that, but I'm hoping someone here does. Based on that, we can calculate how efficient the compressor is and how much excess heat it's dumping into the case. It can't be much according to the data you've provided, but I have a difficult time believing that the case temperatures can be LOWER than ambient temperatures with a compressor inside the case. There must be some flawed assumption that I'm making here.

maryh · Post by **maryh** » Tue May 04, 2004 9:34 pm

sthayashi wrote:250 Watts output? That's a strange way of measuring things....

You're right, I checked my notes and I should have written '250 watt consumption.' I went back and edited the post.

I sent out an e-mail to ask for the efficiency data.

Everyone's been very gracious, thank you.

silvervarg · Post by **silvervarg** » Thu May 06, 2004 12:58 am

This does sound interesting. To be able to run at close to 5GHz today with only 42dBA is very good. I can defenatly see some places where this cooling would rock.

Running a stock 2.4GHz P4 at stock speed at 42dBA is not hard at all.
What I would like to know is if it is possible to run this system at lower noise with lower cooling efficiency (preferably also drawing less power).

A comparison with a simiplar system using other techniques would also be very interesting. Like a vapochill system and a system with peltier and watercooling san perhaps also a system with peltier and aircooling.

A great benefit with this system compared to most other cooling systems is that the risk of a fluid leak is non existent. Also the lack of maintanence need looks promising. So it might be most fair to compare with a peltier+aircooling system.

Leto · Post by **Leto** » Fri May 21, 2004 3:58 pm

Any news? How are the meetings with GM, Intel etc. going?

maryh · Post by **maryh** » Fri May 21, 2004 5:01 pm

Leto wrote:Any news? How are the meetings with GM, Intel etc. going?

Hi,

Briefly, He met with GM and Ford some time ago when he had his first prototype installed in an El Camino. They did lots of tests, it passed with flying colors and everyone loved it but one thing after another stopped us from getting to the next step. Basically, the R&D arms of these companies have lots of irons in the fire and money is short due to the economy. We remain hopeful as they haven't closed the door completely and we realize that the race is on for Freon-free air conditioners because the use of Freon will come to an end in a couple of years (2008, I believe.)

Meanwhile he made this new mini-unit for computers and other electronic applications with the hopes of getting new interest. He did meet with Intel. Apparently the meeting went well. They love it and made arrangements for him to meet with another department next week.

Personally I think a he could use a little advertising. I'd like to see him meet with a reviewer who can professionally compare his unit with other products out there. I'm just not sure who's the right person to contact.

Thanks for asking.

Leto · Post by **Leto** » Tue May 25, 2004 11:47 pm

Sounds great, how about talking to Mike Chin (MikeC), the admin of this site?

maryh · Post by **maryh** » Wed May 26, 2004 6:50 am

Leto wrote:Sounds great, how about talking to Mike Chin (MikeC), the admin of this site?

Do you think he'd be interested? I thought our system was too noisy. Some things can be done to make it more quiet, like adding insulation to the compressor, but would it be quiet enough?

Skylined · Post by **Skylined** » Thu May 27, 2004 2:24 am

This sounds great.
Are you going to release this for public use or are you going to sell the patent to some company?
I'm very intereted in this, and if I'm able, I would do it myself.

Nowhere_man · Post by **Nowhere_man** » Mon May 31, 2004 3:36 pm

Is it me, or is this all very vague, grey and unfocused, kind of like a smokey room full of mirrors?

Trip · Post by **Trip** » Mon May 31, 2004 3:59 pm

Search for "heatsink review" and contact each of the review sites about the product. Ask everyone and then just choose the best one. If Mike is interested, he'd be a top notch candidate.