Headlines - Danamics tackles CPU cooling with liquid metal

[GoNz0]

wait until someone cuts one open, it may just be a sales ploy and a really thin pipe that doesnt do much at all apart from remove money from the bank balance

[moogle]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galinstan

et voila

used instead of mercury in modern thermometers,

Looks like the Coollaboratory Liquid Pro that ate my Athlon.

[DataMatrix]

wait until someone cuts one open, it may just be a sales ploy and a really thin pipe that doesnt do much at all apart from remove money from the bank balance

I doubt they'd risk being sued for false advertisement. It's quite easy to see how it works also, as the liquid metal reaches a higher temperature, it's viscosity increases and the electromagnetic pump pulls the warmer metal up easier which in turn pushes the cooler metal down.

[drunkenmaster]

Not sure why a fan wouldn't be needed, the fanless, no moving parts pump simply moves the heat around a normal sized/shape heatsink, you still need to move heat from the heatsink to the air and then out of the case. The equillibrium point between this and any other cooler won't be much different using the same temperature air and a chip putting out the same amount of heat. THe only way to improve cooling is to reduce the overall temp of the heatsink or at least balance out the temps as the base and lower heatsinks area's should be hotter than the furthest parts of the heatsink, if they are the same temperature there is no room for improvement.

Need someone to do a review of a standard big tower sink and check the difference in temps between the parts closest to the base, and the parts furthest away, that will show us how good the spreading out of heat is being done.

I do wonder what happened to those TMD fans as theres still room for improvement for higher airflow quieter fans, less failure and a much smaller deadzone due to the middle of the fan being smaller on the TMD's. Oh well.

[Main]

I like the sounds of this! if it works on PSUs GFX etc then it should take the industry by storm

Yeah it's an interesting piece of technology but I have doubts it will ever become mainstream. the biggest reason was mentioned by lost eden, the Sapphire Blizzard card - a company did all the work required to make a functioning prototype with the promise of mass production, but dropped it, presumabley because something didn't actually add up, at least for graphics coolers.

Could potentially be rubidium, francium, caesium or gallium.

Possible, but highly unlikely it's any of those, at least in their pure state, simply because they all melt above 25 C, and room temperature is usually taken to be around 20 C. It would mean that your coolant would first have to melt before your cooler can work properly, and since the thermal conductivity of all these metals are 10+ times worse than things like copper your chip will be reaching the 80 C range before the cooler has even started flowing properly, just so there's enough of a temperature difference to transmit the melting energy required...

hmmmmm

If anybody finds a specific heat capacity figure for Galinstan post it back here and I knock out a rough calculation of operating conditions along with a comparision to water cooling and the like (I'd look now myself but food calls ).

[Cistron]

There's no need for a fan thanks to the electromagnetic pump, and unlike water cooling, there's no need to mount radiators, pumps or other equipment. With no moving parts, noise isn't a factor, either.

And how's the heat supposed to leave the fins? As far as I understand the principle, the electromagnetic pump simply circulates the liquid metal eutectikum in the 'heatpipes'. Why else would that thing have such a staggering amount of (extremely) closely spaced fins?

[staffsMike]

And how's the heat supposed to leave the fins? As far as I understand the principle, the electromagnetic pump simply circulates the liquid metal eutectikum in the 'heatpipes'. Why else would that thing have such a staggering amount of (extremely) closely spaced fins?

I was thinking along those lines. I'm sure you will need a half decent air fow to get it to work very effectively though I am interested to see how effective it is

If it does work it will be interesting to see how compact they can make the technology, for HTPC's etc..

[Evilshuriken]

There are alloys that melt at lower temperatures than gallium, they usually contain gallium them selfs though. They could be easily used for this application.

Edit: Such alloys typically consist of gallium indium and tin.

[AdamAnubis]

it's a good idea, and if it works would be great. The only problem is is going to be how much it costs.

[Cog]

I doubt they'd risk being sued for false advertisement. It's quite easy to see how it works also, as the liquid metal reaches a higher temperature, it's viscosity increases and the electromagnetic pump pulls the warmer metal up easier which in turn pushes the cooler metal down.

no, the temperature shouldn't have an effect on the performance of the motor, if it was an open system it might, but as the pipes are sealed any change in temperature will affect the pressure but not the density of the liquid.
the electromagnetic pump just works like an ordinary pump and just circulates the liquid around the circuit continuously, the only difference is that it is using electromagnetic induction -which relies on the liquid conducting electricity- to push the liquid

[badass]

Could potentially be rubidium, francium, caesium or gallium.

The most stable isotope of Francium has a half life measured in minutes and is a solid at room temperature..
Caesium explodes in when it comes into contact with water and is also a solid.
Rubidium is solid at room temperature and reacts violently with water.
Gallium is also solid at room temperature although it would melt at CPU/HS temps. However its cooling wouldn't be any good until it has all melted.

[baius]

Where is it transfering the heat to? From my understanding the "liquid metal" is just going around in circles keeping the heat within the system?

Yeah, as other replies have said, I think a fan would be needed, which means there are "moving parts". Doesn't that defeat the purpose?

What about cost of this very interesting yet new technology.

Yeah, I'd like to get an answer on that.

Their website's quite primitive. Will wait for Hexus' review on this - that should clear things up.

(Edit: Just seen the last post was a while back. Sorry to "thread-urect".)