MSI "powerless" fan

[AmberClad]

MSI "powerless" fan

The Reg called it a processor fan, but it's clearly shown on the northbridge. I wonder if they'd be able to do that with a much bigger fan, and how many RPMs it would be able to do.

Steampunk ftw :laugh:?

 

[aussiestilgar]

Doesn't look like those little fan blades would push much air, but still.. interesting.

 

[krnmastersgt]

Like aussie said, probably won't work too well, but still it's a nice concept, sure would make a lot of earth friendly people happier knowing all that excess heat is actually doing something.

 

[Ika]

It wouldn't be so bad on the northbridge, but it would probably be a bad idea on a hot CPU.

 

[EarthwormJim]

Originally posted by: aussiestilgar
Doesn't look like those little fan blades would push much air, but still.. interesting.

I don't think the fan is what does the real cooling, it's the act of powering that fan from heat expansion. The fan is just a bonus afterthought.

 

[Cheex]

Damn...Everyone beat me to it.

AmberClad beat me to posting it.
Aflac beat me to posting what I was gonna say.

Anyway...
It is good enough I'd say for NB cooling (better than passive) but I would probably venture to say that it would never be adequate for a CPU.

😛

 

[Cheex]

Here are two more links:
MSI @ CeBIT 2008
HardOCP Article

 

[gorobei]

neat stuff. saw a special on it on history channel.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stirling_engine

the model in the picture looks like the casing was rapid prototyped out of a 3d resin printer. the fan blade could be temp or designed to be ultra light to reduce inertial resistance during the startup heating cycle. a bigger heavier fan would take longer to get spinning during the heat up phase when the torque is low.

if i'm understanding it correctly, the fact that the heat is converted to mechanical/kinetic energy in the closed system loop means a lot of it never gets released into the external system/air. so your case doesn't heat up from the less hot air coming off the sink. the link says 70% conversion. if so, it would be a very good cpu cooler.

might be noisy though, and you might have to oil the parts every so often.

 

[krnmastersgt]

The only way it would be adequate for cpu cooling is if it had an efficiency of oh say 1000% 😀

 

[Rubycon]

Law of conservation? Perhaps it could work at lower temps in so called silent cases. Heck I'd get (the motherboard) just to play with the little sterling engine! :laugh:

 

[thilanliyan]

Apparently the 70% is the theoretical value in the originally designed Stirling engine.

If it was 70% that would be seriously amazing but I'd venture more like 30%...if that even.

Interesting concept...I'd definitely try it out too.

 

[AmberClad]

I wonder if they have plans to sell that thing standalone...I bet plenty of enthusiasts would be interested in it as a novelty item. Heck, if it were decently priced, I might want one to play with. I don't think there's any way it'd fit under the HSF in my main rig, but it'd work in conjunction with some of the smaller HSFs like the stock one.

I'm referring to using it as a northbridge heatsink of course - I agree with everyone here who thinks it's way too small for a CPU HSF.

 

[PCTC2]

Do you know what I learned? Never put a blow-torch to a $200 sterling engine. Sure, it goes REALLY REALLY FAST for a little bit, but it ruins the air-tight seals that make it work.

 

[AmberClad]

You have to admit though, it'd be pretty funny to watch one blow its top after you stuck it on a Pentium D (Smithfield) :laugh:.

 

[krnmastersgt]

Originally posted by: PCTC2
Do you know what I learned? Never put a blow-torch to a $200 sterling engine. Sure, it goes REALLY REALLY FAST for a little bit, but it ruins the air-tight seals that make it work.

Yes, but you'd have an awesome video for YouTube 😀

 

[Rubycon]

Originally posted by: krnmastersgt

Originally posted by: PCTC2
Do you know what I learned? Never put a blow-torch to a $200 sterling engine. Sure, it goes REALLY REALLY FAST for a little bit, but it ruins the air-tight seals that make it work.

Yes, but you'd have an awesome video for YouTube 😀

Reminds me of the time I took the glass vial from a bubble light irradiating it with about 10W of 532nm. (green medium power club laser) It boiled like mad and started shaking and before I could pull it back exploded like a firecracker in hand. Imagine getting tiny cuts from shards of glass and a bath of organic solvents similar to shellac thinner in those cuts! They say experience is the best teacher but it can be the most painful. (and expensive!) hehe

 

[Sylvanas]

Cool concept, as some said you won't need high RPM as the heat is converted to kinetic energy instead of being dissipated into the atmosphere. I want one just for the sake of it 🙂.

 

[Nathelion]

Here is a new concept for the water cooling types: Make a steam engine out of your quad core!!!111!!11!!

 

[EarthwormJim]

Originally posted by: Nathelion
Here is a new concept for the water cooling types: Make a steam engine out of your quad core!!!111!!11!!

Ah but you'd need to have your processor running at 100c, by then it'll have shut off 😉

 

[VirtualLarry]

Originally posted by: EarthwormJim

Originally posted by: Nathelion
Here is a new concept for the water cooling types: Make a steam engine out of your quad core!!!111!!11!!

Ah but you'd need to have your processor running at 100c, by then it'll have shut off 😉

That's a really neat idea. A steam generate to create electricity to run the processor, that generates heat, that runs the steam engine. Energy recycling!

 

[DerwenArtos12]

Originally posted by: VirtualLarry

Originally posted by: EarthwormJim

Originally posted by: Nathelion
Here is a new concept for the water cooling types: Make a steam engine out of your quad core!!!111!!11!!

Ah but you'd need to have your processor running at 100c, by then it'll have shut off 😉

That's a really neat idea. A steam generate to create electricity to run the processor, that generates heat, that runs the steam engine. Energy recycling!

With a staggering 10% efficiency!

 

[n7]

Interesting...

 

[Engineer]

Originally posted by: DerwenArtos12

Originally posted by: VirtualLarry

Originally posted by: EarthwormJim

Originally posted by: Nathelion
Here is a new concept for the water cooling types: Make a steam engine out of your quad core!!!111!!11!!

Ah but you'd need to have your processor running at 100c, by then it'll have shut off 😉

That's a really neat idea. A steam generate to create electricity to run the processor, that generates heat, that runs the steam engine. Energy recycling!

With a staggering 10% efficiency!

vs the zero % that you're getting now! 😉

 

[DerwenArtos12]

Originally posted by: Engineer

Originally posted by: DerwenArtos12

Originally posted by: VirtualLarry

Originally posted by: EarthwormJim

Originally posted by: Nathelion
Here is a new concept for the water cooling types: Make a steam engine out of your quad core!!!111!!11!!

Ah but you'd need to have your processor running at 100c, by then it'll have shut off 😉

That's a really neat idea. A steam generate to create electricity to run the processor, that generates heat, that runs the steam engine. Energy recycling!

With a staggering 10% efficiency!

vs the zero % that you're getting now! 😉

ok but, with 10% efficiency on even a 120W TDP processor you're saving 12W, how long at 12W would it take you to make your money back given that you'd have to run your processor at 100% load constantly and keep it above 100C which is wayyyy above being remotely safe in the first place, then you'd have to tap a water source into your computer, keep in mind it'll have to be distilled or the stack will clog up, plus, with 120W right at boiling you should be able to boil off about an ounce of water every minute, give or take, and that ounce of water will evaporate and expand and create about .25psi a minute, fed through an insulated tube to a generator where you'll have to build up about 3.5-4 psi to even get it moving and you may be able to generate 12v and what, half an amp so total that would be 5% power regeneration assuming the boiling could be complete contained and isolated and insualted to the point that it had 0 condensational loss.

 

[Engineer]

Originally posted by: DerwenArtos12

Originally posted by: Engineer

Originally posted by: DerwenArtos12

Originally posted by: VirtualLarry

Originally posted by: EarthwormJim

Originally posted by: Nathelion
Here is a new concept for the water cooling types: Make a steam engine out of your quad core!!!111!!11!!

Ah but you'd need to have your processor running at 100c, by then it'll have shut off 😉

That's a really neat idea. A steam generate to create electricity to run the processor, that generates heat, that runs the steam engine. Energy recycling!

With a staggering 10% efficiency!

vs the zero % that you're getting now! 😉

ok but, with 10% efficiency on even a 120W TDP processor you're saving 12W, how long at 12W would it take you to make your money back given that you'd have to run your processor at 100% load constantly and keep it above 100C which is wayyyy above being remotely safe in the first place, then you'd have to tap a water source into your computer, keep in mind it'll have to be distilled or the stack will clog up, plus, with 120W right at boiling you should be able to boil off about an ounce of water every minute, give or take, and that ounce of water will evaporate and expand and create about .25psi a minute, fed through an insulated tube to a generator where you'll have to build up about 3.5-4 psi to even get it moving and you may be able to generate 12v and what, half an amp so total that would be 5% power regeneration assuming the boiling could be complete contained and isolated and insualted to the point that it had 0 condensational loss.

Nobody stated anything about getting money back. I simply stated vs the zero that you're getting now. The devil is always in the details! 😀

If we had some of the damn unobtainium, we would have this problem licked and have an indestructible cpu heatsink while at it! 😛