New passive cooling tech?

[TheGreatSatan]

I remember reading somewhere about a new (at least a year ago) technology that will let you have cooling for your machine without a heatsink or fan. Somehow, the presense of heat creates cooling?

I know it sounds fuzzy.

[x88x]

The only thing I know of that sounds vaguely similar is a NB cooler I saw a while ago that used the heat from the NB to run a sterling engine, that in turn turned a fan to cool dissipate the waste heat.

[slaveofconvention]

http://www.thebestcasescenario.com/slaveofconvention/imagestore/sterling.jpg

Yeah MSI were experimenting with this early in 2008. As with all technological "innovations", the ones that work become news, the ones that don't just seem to fade away. I think this one falls in the latter category unfortunately, as it hasn't yet materialised as far as I recall. if you look at the northbridge cooler in the pic above, it's fairly safe to say, with a pair of heatpipes and a radiator that big, it'd cool most northbridges passively so the fan is little more than a gimmick - or if you want to be a little more forgiving, just a proof of concept...


vG36EIFNI-Y

[d_stilgar]

I would google evaporative cooling. It's not completely passive, but uses 40% less energy.

[TheGreatSatan]

That MSI one I think is it. I was trying explain what I knew of the tech to someone who thought I was crazy. Thanks +Reps!

[x88x]

Here's more info on the concept, if you're interested. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sterling_engine