OCZ demonstrates the future of cooling

[Jimmy 2004]

OCZ has been showing off its latest computer cooling technology at Computex 2007 this week - a heatsink made of directional carbon nanotubes. Carbon nanotubes are an allotrope of carbon (ie. a certain form of carbon - diamond and graphite are other examples) and are predicted to be the next major advancement in cooling, due to their superior thermal conduction properties compared to current materials such as copper and aluminium. According to OCZ, carbon nanotubes are five times more efficient than copper when it comes to cooling, and due to their design they can be used to transfer heat in just one direction - other materials such as copper tend move heat more radially, which isn't always desirable. They are constructed by making small wire-like structures using sheets of graphene just one atom thick and rolling them into cylinders, which allows heat to be moved in one direction as it is moved along the alignment of the nanotubes. The cooler itself is called the OCZ Hydrojet, but there is no information on when this will be available for retail - or how large the dent in your savings will be if you want to buy one.



View at TechPowerUp Main Site

 

[Wile E]

Didn't they have the prototype at CeBit as well?

Anyway, are these meant to be fanless? It kinda appears that way. I plan on building a full size HTPC very shortly out of my spare parts, and I think something of this nature may be just what the doctor ordered, so to speak.

 

[tkpenalty]

yeah...

 

[Jimmy 2004]

Didn't they have the prototype at CeBit as well?

Anyway, are these meant to be fanless? It kinda appears that way. I plan on building a full size HTPC very shortly out of my spare parts, and I think something of this nature may be just what the doctor ordered, so to speak.

I can't find whether they are fanless or not - I'm assuming that they could be either, because I doubt there are any passive coolers that are more efficient than these.

 

[tkpenalty]

it looks very ugly though

I remember it was an intergrated radiator as well...

 

[Wile E]

it looks very ugly though

I like the way it looks, personally. It looks like a race part vs a rice part. lol But in a HTPC, that doesn't really matter anyway, I suppose.

 

[mandelore]

yeah thought i recognised this...

 

[Mussels]

They can be fanless, because the heat can only travel one-way. It cant come back and heat up the CPU, so yeah they work damned well.

Cant wait til they hit retail, as with a fan (blowing the right way, of course) they should be quite good.

Its basically a miniature water-cooled system, its got a nanotube base instead of copper, and uses a small internal pump to get the heat to the fins - because the nanotubes are one-way, in theory this means that so long as the produced heat is pushed away via a fan or two, CPU temps will barely rise even as you overclock/raise the voltages, since the heat cant come BACK.

Reading from the inq link, OCZ think this can take upto 400W of heat.

 

[frankenchrist]

Darn guess the water pump goes back to the critter cage and the radiator goes back in the car.

 

[Casheti]

Wow this looks very promising. Not friendly to the bank account either.

 

[kakazza]

Picture from the cebit thread.

 

[Jimmy 2004]

Here's W1zz's OCZ work from CeBIT - you guys are right, it does have this cooler. I'll leave the news though, partly because I've given more description of the nanotubes, and partly so that more people can see it if they don't tend to look at the reviews.

 

[unsmart]

So when they say "one way" do they mean like a diode Or is it one way meaning back an forth in a line not random radiance in the path of least resistance? If it's like a diode then a T.E.C would kick some a*s teamed up with this thing, especially with the 400w rating.

I thick it would look cool with some L.E.Ds in it

 

[Jimmy 2004]

So when they say "one way" do they mean like a diode Or is it one way meaning back an forth in a line not random radiance in the path of least resistance? If it's like a diode then a T.E.C would kick some a*s teamed up with this thing, especially with the 400w rating.

I thick it would look cool with some L.E.Ds in it

Back and forth in a line in theory - but as the net heat movement is always from hot to cold (unless you have a heat pump like a fridge) it will only be travelling one way along the cooler.

 

[WarEagleAU]

I cant wait for these to come out. Ive been very eager about these since it was first reported on TPU, to be quite honest. Id expect it to come out around $100 USD seeing as its new technology and unchartered waters, so to speak.

 

[FreedomEclipse]

I cant wait for these to come out. Ive been very eager about these since it was first reported on TPU, to be quite honest. Id expect it to come out around $100 USD seeing as its new technology and unchartered waters, so to speak.

Possibly more!! carbon Graphite Isnt cheap!!!

 

[hat]

I can see this lowering the price of "traditional" coolers...

 

[Mussels]

This cooler should cost a decent amount, maybe $150 USD at launch, possibly more. However, cooling should be quite awesome too.

 

[DaMulta]

The 300USD OCZ phase never saw the light of day. So who knows if this will.

 

[xvi]

What you have to realize is.. is that CPU cooling is not a dump truck. It's a series of tubes! ..and you have to realize that those tubes can be filled.

Any word on how expensive the material itself is compared to Aluminum and Copper? We need to start seeing cooler prices coming down, and above all, benchmarks.

 

[Mussels]

The 300USD OCZ phase never saw the light of day. So who knows if this will.

I found out why that unit died, as i was originally getting one to review - The problem was that the gas inside the unit was a restricted substance, and could only be shipped by boat to certain countries. Some countries (I think Eu included) are really fussy and didnt even want it over water, so it had to be gassed in-country - which meant OCZ needed to set up gassing facilities in every country they wanted to sell the unit - way too expensive.

Thats why this new unit comes in water/air flavours and no phase change - so they wont have teh same problem again.

 

[DaMulta]

The eu is worse than the US sometimes....