new computer cooling method?

[Penguinhero]

so computers can be cooled by water and fans, but has anyone thought of sound? If you think about it fans just push cool air in and suck warm air out, so couldn't you replace the fans with a large speaker? It came to me cause all sound is just pressure waves of air, so couldn't it theoretically the pressure waves push the warm air out? and it could also double as the bass of the computer speaker system. i thought the bass is the most fitting speaker is the sound cooling the computer will have to be too high or too low for humans to hear(but your dog may hate you)

so does anyone think its possible, or am i just dreaming?

[deskjetser]

I don't think sound waves work like that, while in many graphical demonstrations you see the sound waves radiating from a sound source, that isn't how it happens.

The sound air is pushed and pulled by a speaker, so any pressure wave created is almost immediately canceled out by the pull stroke of the speaker.

The sound 'waves' are actually pulsating air, back and forth.

At least that's what I was taught in school...

Edited October 1, 2013 by deskjetser

[lajoswinkler]

If you're just pushing air molecules forward-backward, the exchange of heat is very poor.

[Kerbart]

I don't think sound waves work like that, while in many graphical demonstrations you see the sound waves radiating from a sound source, that isn't how it happens.

The sound air is pushed and pulled by a speaker, so any pressure wave created is almost immediately canceled out by the pull stroke of the speaker.

The sound 'waves' are actually pulsating air, back and forth.

Yeah, think of a slinky that you hold by the top and then you let the bottom bounce. The moving coils are pretty representative of the "sound waves"

[Kerbart]

On a side note I've watercooled my laptop. It works really really well.

[deskjetser]

On a side note I've watercooled my laptop. It works really really well.

What did you do, throw it in a bath tub? xD

[minerman30]

It might work, but you would probably have to have speakers the size of cruise ships to produce a powerful enough sound wave.

[TwoHedWlf]

It would be possible, hypothetically, if you were to put a one way valve on each side of the case, one in only and the other out only. Then if you had a speaker mounted to the side the vibrations could move a tiny bit of air in and then a tiny bit of air out.

And what you would have done is made an extremely poorly performing, positive displacement air pump. Basically the same as a diaphragm pump like is used for fishtanks.

[Kerbart]

What did you do, throw it in a bath tub? xD

No, that would kill it.

My laptop has a metal (aluminium?) body that transfers heat pretty good (so it tends to get freakishly hot when playing ksp).

I fill a ziplock bag with two supercooled blocks of solid water ("ice" as some call it) and put those on the hotspot on the laptop body. As it sucks the heat out of the body, so does the internal temperature. Once the water has progessed to fluid phase I open the bag, pour the water out and replace it with two new solid blocks. Repeat as required.

I now actually use cooling pads from the local pharmacy; they stay cold longer and are less (leaks) messy. But the principal is the same.

[lajoswinkler]

Kerbart, use antifreeze solution. It's cheaper.

[AngelLestat]

You cant.. becouse the sound waves move, not the air.. The same happen in water, if you have a wave and a boat in surface, the wave pass and the boat remains in place.

So you cant use a speaker to renew the air (well maybe in some cases you can but in an ineffective way)

If you wanna alternatives in the cold technologies, then you can keep an eye to the new magnetic fridges.

[nine_iron]

Immersing computers in non electrically conductive liquid is probably the most efficient cooling, after sublimation?

[drakesdoom]

Who cares for efficient, effective is much more fun. Like getting a glass doored walk in commercial deep freezer and mounting all your internals to the wall with passive heat sinks.

As a bonus you will be able to save on meat by buying a half cow now.

[ZedNova]

Who cares for efficient, effective is much more fun. Like getting a glass doored walk in commercial deep freezer and mounting all your internals to the wall with passive heat sinks.

As a bonus you will be able to save on meat by buying a half cow now.

I'm taking this idea into consideration...

[WhiteWeasel]

Immersing computers in non electrically conductive liquid is probably the most efficient cooling, after sublimation?

Like this?

[Dooz]

Iv seen alienwares and they are hardcore on fans

Mabye bags of cold fluid

Edited October 6, 2013 by Dooz

[Dooz]

Like this?

For some reason i find that looking at computers being submerged in fluid makes me feel weird

[Motokid600]

Does a submerged pc actually cool better in mineral oil?

[TwoHedWlf]

Does a submerged pc actually cool better in mineral oil?

Yep. Mineral oil transfers heat a lot better than air. Though, if you have a thick plexi tank that it's in you might end up with a poor heat transfer to the atmosphere. Ideal would be piping the mineral oil through a big radiator or chiller unit.

I don't think you could put the hard drives in though. The electrics would be fine, but HDs are not sealed units. Due to the big changes in air temp(And therefor pressure changes) they have a filtered air port. So the hard drive when it heats and cools would push a little air out and then try to suck a little oil in. Don't know if the filter would stop the oil, but if it doesn't a HD full of oil would be very bad.

[drakesdoom]

Yep. Mineral oil transfers heat a lot better than air. Though, if you have a thick plexi tank that it's in you might end up with a poor heat transfer to the atmosphere. Ideal would be piping the mineral oil through a big radiator or chiller unit.

I believe the idea is that the mineral oil has so much thermal inertia that unless you are running the computer 24/7 it should never heat to the point to become a problem. I work on machining equipment and it works the same, there is no radiator for the transmission or cutting oil there is just so much of it that it never gets too hot.

[Seret]

No, that would kill it.

My laptop has a metal (aluminium?) body that transfers heat pretty good (so it tends to get freakishly hot when playing ksp).

I fill a ziplock bag with two supercooled blocks of solid water ("ice" as some call it) and put those on the hotspot on the laptop body. As it sucks the heat out of the body, so does the internal temperature. Once the water has progessed to fluid phase I open the bag, pour the water out and replace it with two new solid blocks. Repeat as required.

I now actually use cooling pads from the local pharmacy; they stay cold longer and are less (leaks) messy. But the principal is the same.

So, you're really just using your refrigerator to cool your laptop?

[jfx]

I believe the idea is that the mineral oil has so much thermal inertia that unless you are running the computer 24/7 it should never heat to the point to become a problem. I work on machining equipment and it works the same, there is no radiator for the transmission or cutting oil there is just so much of it that it never gets too hot.

Machine oil has les than half the thermal capacity of water (about 1,6 kJ * (kg * K)^-1 compared to about 4,1 kJ * (kg * K)^-1 at standard temperature).

You can calculate how your oil temperature will change pretty easy if you know how much power your PSU draws from the wall outlet and how much oil you have in your PC-tank. (Not regarding internal heat capacity of the components (minimal) and heat loss of your tank (will become noticeable once the oil gets warmer)).

[Saberus]

I've always wondered if it was possible to use a double refrigeration setup.

In other words, have a refrigerant setup on the CPU/GPU/anything else practical, but the radiator/condenser coils are nested inside another refrigerated space (Like a mini-fridge), and the condenser for that space vented elsewhere.

Would that allow the primary refrigeration system to force things even colder? would the whole system have a better delta-T than just the primary alone?

even if it worked... it would be a serious waste of electricity.

[jfx]

The concept you describe was(is?) pretty popular some time ago with overclocking enthusiasts. It is called cascade cooling.

e.g: http://www.nordichardware.com/CPU-Chipset/overclocking-intel-core-2-extreme-x6800/Overclocking-Cascade-compressor-cooling.html

[Technical Ben]

On a side note I've watercooled my laptop. It works really really well.

This I have to see!