I wish people would stop using liquid HELIUM for overclocking !

[Zak33]

https://hexus.net/tech/news/cpu/1234...-beyond-76ghz/

Helium is rare. It's a byproduct of uranium mining and there's just not much of it. It won't come back. And it floats out of our atmosphere.

Everything is limited to a certain extent.. fossil fuels, lithium... even water in an arid region. So why do I moan about Helium missuse?
Well we don't really need party balloons to float and we don't need to use it for overclocking records if I'm honest.

we need it for deep sea divers to breathe it mixed with oxygen, when they're down deep. (likely looking for oil if we're honest)
The universe has lots of helium.... a real lot.. but the universe is quite large and those helium molecules are ... quite far apart so we cant collect it from there, yet.

We use it in welding - we use it in rockets going into space and its rare....

but I guess most important is that it's used to cool MRI scanners. It's also used in some surgery and a few cases of respiratory medicene. And as it's so blummin rare, even with recent new finds i why should it be ok to use it to get an Intel chip to over 7gighz?
Liquid nitrogen is nearly as cold and not quite so good for overclocking.. but once Helium is "the go to" liquid gas to break records.. everyone has to use it for a fair race. And that's wrong.

Have a quick search on your favourite search engine and look for something like "how is helium used in the medical field?" or similar.

\\ Monday rant complete

[DanceswithUnix]

You would think after their recent loss of face with the large fridge cooler they would be rather more cautious about extreme cooling.

I think there should be a law, any run with liquid helium should have a comparison run with liquid chlorine, that should thin out the number of people using the stuff

[Zak33]

I think there should be a law, any run with liquid helium should have a comparison run with liquid chlorine, that should thin out the number of people using the stuff

or, if using Helium, you should be stood on a big lump of the uranium that was so lovingly mined when it was extracted, enriched to it's extra atomic mass.

[ik9000]

then there are the comedy singers.

[Output]

Helium-filled hard drives probably don't help the limited supply either.

But I do agree that using it for overclocking - and balloons, since it's probably a lot there too - does seem the most wasteful.

[DanceswithUnix]

Helium-filled hard drives probably don't help the limited supply either.

But I do agree that using it for overclocking - and balloons, since it's probably a lot there too - does seem the most wasteful.

Hard drives I can happily live with, it serves a purpose which can't be obviously provided any other way and as the gas is captive and at atmospheric pressure not much is actually used. As flash takes over, I suspect it will be a limited time use as well as simple bulk disk storage can run on normal air.

[Bagnaj97]

Well if prices rise too much perhaps it'll make Helium-3 mining on the moon economically viable. He3 mining is usually mentioned in the context of using it for fusion, but presumably it can still be used for floating (expensive!) balloons and overclocking.

[Zak33]

imagine that.. the mining of Helium on the Moon and relevant transport back.

that wouldn't use too much energy at all would it? Crack on then boys and girls... get that lunar mining going

[Zak33]

On a more serious note - party balloons. I'm not sure if it's worthy of a good begging.... but I'll make the suggestion.

Don't buy helium for party balloons. Don't feel like you're short changing your kid if they don't have a floating balloon at the fair or at the beach. Just don't but Helium balloons.

period.

[philehidiot]

Party balloons should be full of hydrogen. Fireworks and balloons combined in one product.

[Zak33]

Party balloons should be full of hydrogen. Fireworks and balloons combined in one product.

mini Hindenburgs yay!

[atemporal]

imagine that.. the mining of Helium on the Moon and relevant transport back.

that wouldn't use too much energy at all would it? Crack on then boys and girls... get that lunar mining going

i'd rather have that than fracking tbh.

[philehidiot]

mini Hindenburgs yay!

Fire, it's the only way to celebrate.

Although given the (small) risk of flaming debris, I'm unsure if these would be more or less responsible than those Chinese-Latern-amagigs.

[atemporal]

Fire, it's the only way to celebrate.

Although given the (small) risk of flaming debris, I'm unsure if these would be more or less responsible than those Chinese-Latern-amagigs.

haven't they been shown to set fire to thatched roofs?

[Spreadie]

mini Hindenburgs yay!

Oh, the huge manatee...

[Hoonigan]

Maybe the overclockers wish that people would stop needing MRIs, wasting their precious overclocking helium.