Wax cooling ......!!!

[qwertywarrior]

http://www.extremetech.com/extreme/164698-wax-cooling-can-massively-speed-up-processors-for-short-bursts

 

 

Researchers at the University of Michigan have turned to wax to help push microprocessors to the limit. The wax can efficiently absorb heat as it changes phase and begins to melt.

[Emperor_Piehead]

why were they using a Ultrabook cpu?

[SSOB]

why were they using a Ultrabook cpu?

Up to 50 watts is not an ultrabook CPU

[Emperor_Piehead]

Up to 50 watts is not an ultrabook CPU

sry misread I saw 10w and thought they made it run at 50w.

[SSOB]

sry misread I saw 10w and thought they made it run at 50w.

[Guest]

this seems... odd, yet cool, yet dangerous....

[Dravic]

Id rather put whole system into oil.

[megadarkwood]

Just add a wick and instant light!

[M-ursu]

R.I.P 

(that CPU)

[Beskamir]

I really don't think that would work...

[Nicktrance]

I really don't think that would work...

 

It sort of would, just like any other material, wax will absorb heat energy to change in state (solid-> liquid) without actually changing in temperature before it has completely finished melting.

 

So it would work... for the seconds it takes for the wax to melt, then it's pretty much useless. and it's not like it performs so extremely well that extreme overclockers might want to use it (the type of wax used here melts at 54C) so I really don't see the point in this for PCs...

 

This makes more sense on smartphone/tablet chips, which usually run without any sort of active cooling, some smartphones already frequently throttle due to temps so this could be used to give the chip a little bit more cooling while running at 100% and then the wax becomes solid again after the user stops using performance heavy tasks/puts it to sleep.

[Peopie]

If they are using phase change of the wax, couldnt they use a different material that melts at a higher temperature, so that it can absorb more heat?

[Nicktrance]

If they are using phase change of the wax, couldnt they use a different material that melts at a higher temperature, so that it can absorb more heat?

 

 

Yes they actually said so in the article, that doesn't necessarily mean the material will absorb more heat, just that it will do so at a higher temperature. The melting temperature should be somewhere in between the normal operating temperature of the chip and the "boost" operating temperature so that it would allow the material to melt and cool repeatedly.

[mgsstar]

Wonder what kind of overclock you can achieve with this. But this wouldn't last long so it won't be a good solution for long term cooling since you can only cool it with short bursts.

[Kamil]

I think this would have some potential in phones and tablets, maybe ultrabooks. Anything big enough to fit in a real heatsink and fan probably should go with that in order to have more consistent cooling.

 

But take the HTC One for example. If I start doing anything significant it gets warm almost immediately due to the metal construction allowing the heat to move from the internals into the back. If one of these wax things (or, if it gets popular, probably some kind of custom material they science up) were installed, it could go longer without becoming uncomfortable to hold, or go full-power for a while to get something done quickly without getting hot at all. I mean, I don't consider it a great replacement for real cooling options, but it seems to be small enough that it could be used in things that don't really have any other options.