Sandia’s floating, spinning heatsink promises 30x better CPU cooling

[Axemantitan]

http://www.geek.com/articles/chips/sandias-floating-spinning-heatsink-promises-30x-better-cpu-cooling-20120625/

 

[DingleButt]

Im wondering how the air bearing heat transfer between the chip/bottom layer and the spinning fins (Convection I take it) is so efficient compared to conduction through thermal paste (Why do we make a big deal about good thermal paste if that isn't a bottleneck point?

Also this thing probably cant be used in a mobile product because you have a huge spinning metal disk with a high rotational inertia that wont want to tilt (Like a gyroscope).

I'll be waiting to hear more in the future.

 

[maflynn]

that's very interesting. I wonder if this will usher in a new wave of cpu coolers.

I do wonder about the mtbf of a motor that causes a impeller to spin 2k

 

[Mousse]

Im wondering how the air bearing heat transfer between the chip/bottom layer and the spinning fins (Convection I take it) is so efficient compared to conduction through thermal paste (Why do we make a big deal about good thermal paste if that isn't a bottleneck point?

Eh? From what I read they only replace the fins and fan part of the heatsink. The bottom plate and thermal paste would still be required...I think. Having something spinning above a naked processor would be pretty risky in my book.

 

[DingleButt]

Eh? From what I read they only replace the fins and fan part of the heatsink. The bottom plate and thermal paste would still be required...I think. Having something spinning above a naked processor would be pretty risky in my book.

Regardless of how, it seems like having to use convection to transfer heat to the spinning heatsink seems like it wont be very efficient.

 

[Tinmania]

Eh? From what I read they only replace the fins and fan part of the heatsink. The bottom plate and thermal paste would still be required...I think. Having something spinning above a naked processor would be pretty risky in my book.

You did not read what I read. In fact there would be no thermal paste as the heat-sink is not physically connected to the processor.

The new design is called the Sandia Cooler. It spins at just 2,000 RPM and sits a thousandth of an inch above the processor.

As noted in the article this might not work in vertical installations. I also fear that, just as we are moving away from spinning disks for our main bootup drives, we know have to worry about the CPU fan "crashing?"



Michael