The Future of Air-Cooling
 

Remember the golden days when microprocessors did not require high performance coolers? The lower clock speeds and simpler architectures, at least for the most part, produced reasonable heat that could be dealt with by quiet stock coolers. Now, if we were to focus our attention on air-cooling for enthusiasts, designs for air coolers have also changed drastically over the years. Thankfully, as microprocessor clock speeds soared passed 1.00GHz to 2.00GHz and then to 3.00GHz (Intel only), cooling manufacturers such as Thermaltake, Cooler Master and Thermalright have kept up with market standards and necessary requirements. How were these changes tackled? Air coolers (heatsinks) started to gain more copper throughout their structure. We also saw heatpipes and stacked copper fin technologies being implemented into various high-end models, but soon after that everything just paused.

http://www.cooltechzone.com/index.ph...k=view&id=1085

Part of what Chip company do is to "create" industries ..... early AMD XP chips were hot then came Intel Prescott. Remember people were going for water cooling in 1998 when processors were barely "warm". Vapor Chill came when processor heat dissipation was below 80 watts @ overclocked speed. Today, a decent alum heatsink with 80 mm fan easily handle an 80-watt processor. The niche market was created because customers want the products.

First came the "delta" "tornado" fans, loud sound became the "in" thing. As "they" got tired of living next to an airport W/C became the must have while 90 and 120mm size fans grew.

If you think 120mm fan is good; imagine the size of laptop. It is the perception that creates half of the industries we see.

By freezing the processor to -100C, does it mean it will run twice the speed? May be Not. So, AMD runs from hot to cold; Intel runs from cold to hot. Either way, W/C and giant HSF were created followed by huge fan. Will we see 160 mm fan on the horizon?

As far as I'm concern, we go the wrong direction. The better solution is to produce chips that have high efficiency and low loss of energy.

What if processors do not generate much heat at all; we could spend more of our time in demanding for more productive softwares and computer applications.

I like the LCD display ...... less heat or heat issue never came to our mind. Today, a 17" LCD display cost less than $200. That's progress. In the next couple of years, perhaps a 40" LCD will cost less than $1,000. ;)