Sapphire 'Blizzard' Liquid Metal Cooled Graphics Card

[Joel]

"Sapphire Technology Limited, the supplier of ATI-powered graphics solutions, has recently announced a revolutionary new cooling system on its latest family of high end graphics cards - Liquid Metal Cooling.
Built upon a liquid metal technology that is 65 times more thermally conductive than water and requires no moving parts, the new Blizzard range is equipped with the definitive long term cooling solution for the demanding enthusiast."

Read more (http://www.physorg.com/news4198.html).

[Cyker]

Wait... "Liquid Metal"?!?! :eek:

Either that means Mercury, which is toxic, or that this card get's so f'ing hot that it can be cooled the same way as a nuclear powerstation :p


Seriously 'tho, we're going to have to think up better ways to make computers. The heat generation and subsequent waste is probably enough to power a small country!
And frankly I'm getting bored of not being able to upgrade my computer without it sounding like a Pratt & Whitney turbofan everytime I turn it on....

I guess it'd be okay if I lived in northern Canada or something, but jeez....

[Joel]

"Liquid Metal is non-toxic, non-flammable, and completely environmentally safe. Sapphire's exciting new cooler is a compact, low-profile design using only one additional PC slot. Filled and sealed, it requires no user intervention, no reservoir or refilling and it is card resident so it requires no additional mounting space. The revolutionary use of an electromagnetic pump means no internal moving parts, low power consumption and delivers near silent operation. " :)

[Cyker]

Darn press release! Need more info and less buzz words!

It sounds more like a glorified heat-pipe than anything else 'tho. Still, anything that stops these next gen videocards from turning into steaming balls of burning plasma is a good thing I guess...

[SamuraiCatJB]

Darn press release! Need more info and less buzz words!

It sounds more like a glorified heat-pipe than anything else 'tho. Still, anything that stops these next gen videocards from turning into steaming balls of burning plasma is a good thing I guess...

http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn7348
http://www.nanocoolers.com/products_cooling.php

I posted them a while back along with several other new cooling technologies coming along. Heat pipe is close to what it is, a heat pipe is a circulatory machine powered by the heat it is trying to disperse. working on the idea that heat rises, designed properly you let a warmed liquid (heat pipe is water or other thermal liquids -- there is a new one that is neither water nor metal that claims the middle ground between the two) rise, cool the liquid, the water sinks providing its own flow without any moving parts. Extracting the heat from the heat pipe to cool the liquid inside is, of course, the tricky part.

I actually like one of the new water droplet vaporization coolers. Piezo buzzer provides super-miniature near molecularly sized water droplets that vaporize instantly in hitting a heat source (not boiling, but the same water vapor exchange that allows water to evaporate), this provides a phase change cooling effect with the heat rising from the chip. Its advantage is that it is super small, and super cheap... a very nice combination. We may see laptops using that one if all goes well.

These are all expected technologies that are necessary for the next generation of CPUs and GPUs.

[Cyker]

Wow, this stuff uses a gallium alloy? I hope they alloyed it with something to lower it's melting point. IIRC this stuff expands like nuts going from a liquid to a solid (Kinda like ice, only more-so...)

I totally wouldn't want this stuff dripping on my motherboard...!

They ought to have some sort of seperate heat exchanged for optimum efficiency, otherwise it really won't be that much more effective than conventional heatpipes.
The magnetic pumping is nifty 'tho. Gotta love Magenetohydrodynamics :D (Assuming that's what they meant by electromagnetic pump...!)

I just hope that when they figure out how to make CPUs that run on light we won't need such extravaghant cooling systems...!

[SamuraiCatJB]

well, next step in technology is carbon nanotube, it's mentioned over in the PC OT threads. That should be soon, there are several carbon nanotube technologies already in market, though none of them are electronic on the scale of a CPU, there are prototypes that are. When they come to market will be on everyone's mind because it is a massive drop in scale, reversing the "etching" process concept (cutting lines in a silicon wafer) to building up a processor a molecule at a time.

Holographic CPUs I think are a ways off. Holographic storage though is already in use in prototype form by the folks who have enough bucks. That will be coming to replace memory/disk storage media. There may be some advances I don't know about, I am certainly not all knowing. We've got at least one more generation of chips starting in the next couple of months before we move to nanotube and holographic(light) methods, maybe two or more, it is always difficult to predict when prototype breakthroughs switch over to production. Both exist already in prototype form, limited use, limited distribution, highly specialized and highly expensive. When the process of production drops to the point that it can be mass-produced, they will enter the market as viable replacements for the silicon etching processes.

After that it will be like switching from vaccuum tube to silicon etching (integrated circuit), big jump. :)

[Joel]

About when can we see all these in G5 Powerbooks? :D

[Homie S]

Just wait, T1000 will jump out all of our futuristic computers asking where John Connor is.

[SamuraiCatJB]

About when can we see all these in G5 Powerbooks? :D

The liquid metal coolers? I think everyone is kindof divying up the various new types of cooling. It's a toss up for who goes liquid metal, or one of the other new types. :) but I expect you will see all the types by this Christmas/Next spring. :)

[SamuraiCatJB]

Just wait, T1000 will jump out all of our futuristic computers asking where John Connor is.

naw, more than likely it will be a Forbin project parallel. :)

[strider_mt2k]

Excellent.

11 points awarded for Forbin Project reference.

Resume play.