Silent Power PC Uses Copper "Foam" Heatsink? [Gizmag]

[ilikemacandpc]

http://www.gizmag.com/silent-power-pc-passive-cooling/33145/

 

 

The Silent Power PC is claimed to be the first high-end PC able to ditch noisy electric fans in favor of fully passive cooling. In place of a conventional fan, the unit uses an open-air metal foam heatsink that boasts an enormous surface area thanks to the open-weave filaments of copper of which it is composed. The Silent Power creators claim that the circulation of air through the foam is so efficient in dissipating heat that the exterior surface temperature never rises above 50° C (122° F) in normal use

 

[...]

 

The real innovation is in the cooling system. A copper base, which is in direct contact with the CPU and GPU via thermal paste, forms the top of the chassis and absorbs heat and releases it evenly to the copper foam on top. In this way, the Silent Power PC’s heat dissipation is claimed to be 500 times greater than that offered by conventional fin-type heatsink systems and is more than sufficient to maintain adequately low operating temperatures. The design also features a reverse-layout compared to normal PCs – the CPU and GPU are on the top of the stack, rather than in the bottom of the case – to aid in heat dissipation.

 

Dang. That's... interesting. We always talk about surface area in a heatsink, and I guess these designers just said, "screw it, let's add as much surface areas as humanly possible."

 

I, for one, wonder how airflow works through this. How restrictive is it? 

 

Also, this looks SUPER ugly. 

 

What are your thoughts?

 

Edit: Also, the dust buildup would be insane. How could you clean it?

[flibberdipper]

It makes sense, and I'd image it would work rather well if they can get enough airflow through it.

[Shd0w2]

Wouldn't foam just be melted?

 

 

Also, looks like a chia-pet garden

[NInety]

Looks like steel wool.

 

[Dietrichw]

the issue with "passive" cooling is that you still need case fans blowing air on it soooooo it is pointless

[Vitalius]

the issue with "passive" cooling is that you still need case fans blowing air on it soooooo it is pointless

Not really. The way passive cooling works is that the heatsink heats the air, which moves up due to convection & fluid dynamics. It creates it's own flow. It'd just have to be epic cooling with tons of surface area.... like they have here.

Actually i like it^^

would be very interesting to see real performance on that thing.. but yeah, except ugly looks and probably not beeing as stable as usual heatsinks, it should bring quite a bit better cooling performance...

Since it's passive, you could probably put a housing over it with air ducts to allow air to flow in, thus hiding it's ugliness, while also protecting it's fragility.

GENIUS

[Dietrichw]

Not really. The way passive cooling works is that the heatsink heats the air, which moves up due to convection & fluid dynamics. It creates it's own flow. It'd just have to be epic cooling with tons of surface area.... like they have here.

Since it's passive, you could probably put a housing over it with air ducts to allow air to flow in, thus hiding it's ugliness, while also protecting it's fragility.

GENIUS

true, but that is very dependent on the case for inlet and exhaust. for example it would work well in the shell of a mac pro as it pulls cold air from the bottom and lets it out the top but most computer cases aren't very good for air flow

[TheInverseKey]

It looks like a cyborg with ginger curly hair. 

[Vitalius]

true, but that is very dependent on the case for inlet and exhaust. for example it would work well in the shell of a mac pro as it pulls cold air from the bottom and lets it out the top but most computer cases aren't very good for air flow

... Sound proof cases are. NZXT H440 is a good example. The only air holes are at the top, bottom, front & back.

[Snickerzz]

Wouldn't foam just be melted?

 

 

Also, looks like a chia-pet garden

i want to pet it

[Liam-McShane]

What about dust? That will be impossible to clean and i don't think compressed air will be enough.

[Notional]

 

That computer would even get beat up by a Wii U. Interesting concept none the less

[theroflcopta]

What about dust? That will be impossible to clean and i don't think compressed air will be enough.

Well IF you can take it out of the system a run through the dish washer will take care of it. Keyword being if.

[kuddlesworth9419]

Sounds interesting but it also sounds incredibly expensive. I wonder if you could use this idea and miniaturize it to the nanoscale for heatsinks. So find a way of growing a material in the form of a sponge but it still makes up fins like you have on the conventional heatsink. That way we could still have quite units that perform so much better.

[geogga]

afroPC

[bob345]

I remember hearing about this copper foam being experimented with on CPU water blocks a while ago. Any one else remember that?

[Deli]

 Noisy electric fans. Ever heard the name "Noctua"? 

[warmmilk]

50C in "normal" use is high... my 4770k with a stock intel heatsink with the fan manually turned down to an inaudible speed never reached 50C in "normal" use...

 

so instead of this, get any decent cpu cooler (something for 20-30 bucks will do), turn down the fan speed, and you'll have silence and you'll have headroom for when you wanna do something more than surf the web

[ToxicFire]

50C in "normal" use is high... my 4770k with a stock intel heatsink with the fan manually turned down to an inaudible speed never reached 50C in "normal" use...

 

so instead of this, get any decent cpu cooler (something for 20-30 bucks will do), turn down the fan speed, and you'll have silence and you'll have headroom for when you wanna do something more than surf the web

 

It does say exterior surface temp rather than chipset temps

[That Norwegian Guy]

Interesting. Now put it in a turbine. k go

[Buckley]

So basically steel wool? Except copper

[warmmilk]

It does say exterior surface temp rather than chipset temps

 

oh... oops...

 

I guess thats what I get for just skimming through...

[Keudn]

Put one big fan (think 300mm or more that runs at like 500rpm) at the bottom blowing up into the case to get air moving around the components and finally through the passive heatsink so it is just BARELY audible and it would probably cool pretty good actually

[martinrox1568]

the issue with "passive" cooling is that you still need case fans blowing air on it soooooo it is pointless

You realize that this isn't a heatsink, right?

[Kamil]

That actually seems really decent and not even overpriced, though I doubt it's upgradable other than storage and maybe RAM. Still, its price is pretty similar to the PC I just built with the same GPU and a CPU that... well, I don't know exactly how to compare between all the Intel CPU designations, does the T at the end mean something? I have a 3rd gen i5 while this has a 4th gen i7, but it could be like a low-end i7 of some sort. Either way, it probably gets throttled like mad.

Assuming it actually works at all.