New type of cooling fan in development.

AshenShugar1873

AshenShugar1873

AshenShugar1873

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Any one know much about this or have any thoughts?

http://www.techspot.com/news/44636-sandia-intros-revolutionary-heatsink-with-rotating-fins.html

Press Release

A new type of cooling system that works by spinning the heatsink fins rather than using a fan to move air through them. Looks interesting although there are some questions such as the tiny distance from base plate to spinning fins and the distribution of hot air all around the inside of your case. They make some grand claims about better cooling, reduced power, smaller size and no dust clogging, too good to be true or the future of CPU cooling?
 
AshenShugar1873 said:
They make some grand claims about better cooling, reduced power, smaller size and no dust clogging, too good to be true or the future of CPU cooling?
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All sounds a bit sceptical to me.

Reduced size possibly, but reduced power? The inertia of getting a spinning chunk of metal going is going to take more power than that of an equivalent CFM rated fan. Better cooling, I can't see how, perhaps for the CPU, but what about the rest of the system, with no directed airflow from the heatsink to the outside? No dust clogging is also a bit WTF! If a fan gets clogged with dust (ignoring the heatsink for now), and it is just a spinning set of blades, how do they expect that a spinning set of fins won't achieve the same thing? :confused:

Plus the added issues of getting something that's both well connected to the source of the heat AND able to spin freely? Don't see this becoming the "future" any time soon.
 
i'd be very worried about a hunk of spinning metal ever coming loose too, would easily do loads more damage then a loose fan blade lol
 
If they can truly efficiently transfer heat across this 0.001" gap then this concept will be a good thing for cooling. If the heatsink itself wouldn't have to spin that fast to get a fair amount of airflow. The major problem will be moving heated air away from the area to prevent it recirculating.

Not sure how safe it will be having spinning metal edges inside a case and it would have been better if they'd actually designed a prototype cooler around their idea.

I'm thinking little LEDs on the rotating heatsink would look pretty good.
 
paradigm said:
Reduced size possibly, but reduced power? The inertia of getting a spinning chunk of metal going is going to take more power than that of an equivalent CFM rated fan. Better cooling, I can't see how, perhaps for the CPU, but what about the rest of the system, with no directed airflow from the heatsink to the outside? No dust clogging is also a bit WTF! If a fan gets clogged with dust (ignoring the heatsink for now), and it is just a spinning set of blades, how do they expect that a spinning set of fins won't achieve the same thing? :confused:
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I assume the reduced power claim is due to the fact the design supposedly increases the efficiency of heat transfer from fins to air by minimising this dead zone, which means it could spin at a lower RPM than a fan. I agree it would probably need a rethink of case airflow, maybe a big side fan shoving air down onto the motherboard and the fans on the front/back/top all extracting for some kind of bizarre radial airflow. It would be interesting to see how it all worked, regardless. The reduced dust thing is logical though, as the air enters through the centre and is blown out through the fins, and the gaps between the fins get wider towards the edge, meaning dust is less likely to get lodged.
 
paradigm said:
All sounds a bit sceptical to me.

Reduced size possibly, but reduced power? The inertia of getting a spinning chunk of metal going is going to take more power than that of an equivalent CFM rated fan. Better cooling, I can't see how, perhaps for the CPU, but what about the rest of the system, with no directed airflow from the heatsink to the outside? No dust clogging is also a bit WTF! If a fan gets clogged with dust (ignoring the heatsink for now), and it is just a spinning set of blades, how do they expect that a spinning set of fins won't achieve the same thing? :confused:

Plus the added issues of getting something that's both well connected to the source of the heat AND able to spin freely? Don't see this becoming the "future" any time soon.
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The reduced power might come from it using a brushless motor which are much more efficient than conventional, still it looks like a pipe dream at the moment.

A little quote from wiki ''BLDC motors require complex electronic speed controllers to run. Brushed DC motors can be regulated by a comparatively simple controller, such as a rheostat (variable resistor). However, this reduces efficiency because power is wasted in the rheostat''

It would seem no rheostat will be required for these new coolers.
 
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looks like it would be a cool thing to have, esp with some leds. but i too would be worried about a peice of metal coming loose and causing havok, perticulay if like me, you have your case upright. can imagine turning it off and then going to turn it on the next day and finding a gouge wound like something out of Lord Of The Rings running down my motherboard !
 
Thanks Cat ! Interesting concept.

And not only is it also far quieter, but the blades are spinning far too quickly to ever collect dust. So while it lets you safely overclock your system, it's also automatically keeping it clean at the same time.
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Report just lost all credibility with that statement. :rolleyes:
 
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2000rpm one heavy piece of metal and likely held by standard screws ... so my questions are:

1.) whats the warranty and what does it cover & 2.) what gaurantee do they offer that each will be made flawlessly without imperfections in the blades to prevent vibration? As I can jsut see this thing walking it way loose.

I'd never consider this, my case is on my desk with a perspex view screen in it
next to my head - I like my head
 
I never say never anymore. Can remember a conversation with professors of computer science and they were saying 40mb hardrives!! How will we ever need more then 40mb? ;)
 
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