Engineers Develop Solid-state Fan That Puts Traditional Coolers to Shame

CDsDontBurn · Mar 20, 2008, 04:22 AM

Researcher says the solid-state fan is the biggest improvement in cooling since the heat pipe

Many computer enthusiasts understand that how fast a processor runs is in part dependent on how well the chip can be cooled. This is why record-setting benchmark runs are typically made with processors cooled by exotic means.

Cooling is just as important for mobile systems like notebook computers and other portable electronics. The size of the fan required for the system can affect how small devices can be built. A pair of engineers from Thorrn Micro Technologies Inc, Dan Schlitz and Vishal Singhal, have developed a new solid-state fan that works similarly to household air purifiers.

Source: DailyTech

Judas · Mar 20, 2008, 09:40 AM

that's awesome... the less moving motorized parts.. the better

imagine how queit things would be.. hell the only thing making a sound would be the HD and the optical drives

CDsDontBurn · Mar 20, 2008, 01:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Judas

that's awesome... the less moving motorized parts.. the better

imagine how queit things would be.. hell the only thing making a sound would be the HD and the optical drives

actually, once solid state HDDs are mainstream, it would only be the opticals that would be making any noise

**kris23** · Mar 20, 2008, 01:28 PM

lol Judas of all people, i thought youd know of SSDs

but when can we buy solid state fans? if they come in 14cm and 12cm then im set for life..... 0 Dba fans man..... all you hear is the pleasant sound of the wind.

i think optical drives are gonna be replaced by flash drives eventually.... they just run way better

Judas · Mar 20, 2008, 02:25 PM

yes i'm familare with SSDs... but atm.... they aren't exactly a mainstream possibility ANY time REAL soon.. no one is going to give up there 320gb hd's for 32gb SSD that cost about 4x more... or better...

it'll be awhile.. i was refering to practical applications today

That would be interesting buying games loaded onto flash drives.... i wonder if that would be overall better? You think it would cost less hey.... imagine buying a UT3 stick....

**kris23** · Mar 20, 2008, 02:29 PM

having a game on a stick with bandwidth of 266x could pretty much allow one to play the game straight from the stick man.....

pretty awesome if that were to happen though, gives a new meaning to plug-and-play

Judas · Mar 20, 2008, 02:40 PM

i reaslly don't know why they haven't tried this yet...

aside from the fact that current flash drives... the ones fast enough to do it anyways.... aren't large enough and are far to expensive to do it..

plus they would need to build the drives from being read only with copy protection... what kind of ugly mess would that be.

@/2ct!< · Mar 20, 2008, 08:58 PM

From the performance curve, it looks like fans are still better for systems that have high restrictions. However, since most things will not have much pressure loss, looks like these things might have a new niche. I wonder how much energy they use compared to fans and therefore how much heat they generate themselves.

OldBuzzard · Mar 20, 2008, 10:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kris23

having a game on a stick with bandwidth of 266x could pretty much allow one to play the game straight from the stick man.....

pretty awesome if that were to happen though, gives a new meaning to plug-and-play

They already have that Kris...theyr'e called CONSOLES

Not all THAT bad an idea, but it would kill things like 'mods' to games like HalfLife. I have the Cinematic Mod for HL2, and it's a real improvement frome the original game. If HL2 was on a 'stick' then that wouldn't have been possible.

Now why do I suddenly get a picture in my head of Jeff Dunham, and Jose?

**kris23** · Mar 20, 2008, 10:26 PM

what if they could be rewritten by disabling a lock? lol but if things go wrong, the file could be gone.