zOMG IT SPINS! New "Air Bearing Heat Exchanger" Sandia Cooler

[dannydale]

Youtube

Sandia.gov press release


I for one can't wait for moar spinny bits in my computer, especially if I can keep my cpu and gpu cooler! B)

 

[bobbymike]

Sandia should be building new nukes

 

[Orionblamblam]

Just think of it as a miniature gas separation centrifuge. Feed uranium hexafluoride gas and it separates the 235 from the 238.

For too long the dream has been a nuclear bomb that you can put in a suitcase. But now, here comes the nuclear bomb *factory* you can put in a suitcase.

 

[mithril]

Youtube

Sandia.gov press release


I for one can't wait for moar spinny bits in my computer, especially if I can keep my cpu and gpu cooler! B)

if i read the press release right, this would basically replace the cooling fins and fan on a computer with one part that does both jobs at once?
i wonder how they get the heat from the item being cooled into the cooling fins.. regular fins+fan set ups it's just surface contact (either directly for a tower, or a heat pipe for laptops), with a fan to pull air over the fins.

since this rotating radiator approach would put a axle right over the item being cooled, they have to be pumping the heat into it somehow..

 

[Nik]

Given there's usually a critical slick of expensive heat-transfer material between CPU / GPU / RAM and the heat-sink, I'm not happy at the prospect of an air-gap in the 'thermal circuit'.


But, if it is stupid yet works, it ain't stupid...

 

[Stargazer]

But, if it is stupid yet works, it ain't stupid...

Never forget that bumblebees are an aerodynamic aberration, and yet they fly...

 

[Hobbes]

From the press release:

In a conventional CPU cooler, the heat transfer bottleneck is the boundary layer of “dead air” that clings to the cooling fins. With the Sandia Cooler, heat is efficiently transferred across a narrow air gap from a stationary base to a rotating structure. The normally stagnant boundary layer of air enveloping the cooling fins is subjected to a powerful centrifugal pumping effect, causing the boundary layer thickness to be reduced to ten times thinner than normal. This reduction enables a dramatic improvement in cooling performance within a much smaller package.

So there is an air gap, but there's also an air gap in conventional heat sink+fan setups.

From the image in the press release, they rely on heat radiation from the CPU, just like a conventional setup. Instead of increasing the radiative surface (heat sink) they've increased the heat transfer rate.

 

[DSE]

Flyer:

 

[mithril]

But, if it is stupid yet works, it ain't stupid...

Never forget that bumblebees are an aerodynamic aberration, and yet they fly...

incorrect. they exploit a unique wing motion.
they follow aerodynamic principles, just in a different way than expected.

 

[Stargazer]

incorrect. they exploit a unique wing motion.
they follow aerodynamic principles, just in a different way than expected.

Thank you very much for the link, mithril!

 

[Mat Parry]

Viktor Schauberger will be spinning in his grave ;D (joke)