News - Danamics LM10 CPU cooler hits retail, costs almost as much as a Core i7 CPU

[Webby]

The issue is not how effective the medium (in this case liquid metal) is at transferring heat away from the CPU it is how effective the cooler is at dissipating that energy to the surrounding air and that is limited by the fins, water cooling is effective because a) water can move a lot of heat without increasing in temperature dramatically and b) we can have huge radiators to remove that heat into the air. If you attempted to watercool with a radiator which had the same cooling performance as a standard heatpipe cooler you would see similar temperatures, case in point see the Xigmatek all in one watercooled tower thing. This is why serious watercoolers are likely to have at least a triple 120mm fan rad (assuming they are cooling more than just a CPU, for a CPU only loop a decent duel 120mm rad will be sufficient).

The important thing to remember is that your heat transfer is limited by the slowest step you can move the heat from the CPU to the liquid metal as fast as you like but if the liquid metal can not give it up to the fins because they are not effectively cooled then you may as well have heatpipes instead.

All in all the LM10 was a nice innovative idea but it falls at the first hurdle it is not even as efficient as a good air cooler (the TRUE) and so will not touch custom built watercooling. To make it effective they will need to dramatically increase the surface area for cooling but the is no easy way to achieve that without turning it into something of the Scythe Oroochi standards which is really to heavy to have hanging off a motherboard.

[Robscure]

The issue is not how effective the medium (in this case liquid metal) is at transferring heat away from the CPU it is how effective the cooler is at dissipating that energy to the surrounding air and that is limited by the fins, water cooling is effective because a) water can move a lot of heat without increasing in temperature dramatically and b) we can have huge radiators to remove that heat into the air. If you attempted to watercool with a radiator which had the same cooling performance as a standard heatpipe cooler you would see similar temperatures, case in point see the Xigmatek all in one watercooled tower thing. This is why serious watercoolers are likely to have at least a triple 120mm fan rad (assuming they are cooling more than just a CPU, for a CPU only loop a decent duel 120mm rad will be sufficient).

The important thing to remember is that your heat transfer is limited by the slowest step you can move the heat from the CPU to the liquid metal as fast as you like but if the liquid metal can not give it up to the fins because they are not effectively cooled then you may as well have heatpipes instead.

All in all the LM10 was a nice innovative idea but it falls at the first hurdle it is not even as efficient as a good air cooler (the TRUE) and so will not touch custom built watercooling. To make it effective they will need to dramatically increase the surface area for cooling but the is no easy way to achieve that without turning it into something of the Scythe Oroochi standards which is really to heavy to have hanging off a motherboard.

If it's that expensive then why not just get watercooling... I feel sorry for the company for wasting all of their time and money... and I feel sorry for anyone who buys it...

[baius]

The Nordic review mentioned earlier in this thread is damning.

However, a point it seems to make is that improvements can be made to this new technology - or new application of tech'.

Certainly, if a later release of this product can halve the price, whilst improving performance, (and I think that is highly likely,) this product will be well worth considering.

The fact that the Ultra 120 Extreme seems to beat it is enough to persuade me not to buy it - currently.

[Webby]

The problem is not on the new technology front its in the heat dissipation aspect of the cooler.

You can only dissipate heat as fast as the slowest process, Heatpipes are already efficient at moving heat quickly from one point to another and the limiting step is moving the heat from the fins to the air. The same is true for the liquid metal cooler the liquid metal bit is efficient but the fins are still the limiting step.

Water cooling works well as the water can transport the heat away efficiently and at the same time you can heve very efficiently designed radiators for dissipating the heat to the air. An average triple 120mm rad probably has 4 or 5 times the cooling surface area of an averavge air cooler and gets to use more fans for cooling as well.

The only way I can see for them to improve on the current unit would be to increase the efficiency of the fins and this will be difficult without dramatically increasing the size of the cooler, or they could up the fan power or maybe move to something like a watercooling radiator with a lot of thin tubes and fine fins you would still be limited by the size of the unit though to a single 120mm rad and as any water cooler will tell you for the best temps that make the outlay worth while you need at least a duel 120mm rad really.

[baius]

Water cooling works well as ...

Interesting comment - thank you. (Learn something every day...)