Revolutionary cooling method?

[erikss0n]

Anyone has any inputs/thoughts about this one...?

http://www.activecool.com/products/ac4g.html

Looks really interesting if you ask me!

//Magnus

 

[Stedeman]

looks like a pelt type of set up but I could be wrong not enough infomation on it

 

[Sonny]

I can't seem to find any information about the technology they are using. Is it a T.E.C aircooled by that Alu HSF & that blue box the PSU for it or what?

 

[Mpegger]

Cools Pentium 4 up to 4GHz?? Where did they get that cpu to test it on? And from the looks of the pic, it also requires a PCI slot. And with no specs on it, or even what method its using to cool, it looks like its just a gimmick for a pelt setup.

 

[erikss0n]

some more info...

http://www.infoworld.com/articles/hn/xml/02/10/24/021024hnactivecool.xml

Remember that product will be presented 18-22 November at COMDEX.

 

[Stedeman]

some more info...

http://www.infoworld.com/articles/hn/xml/02/10/24/021024hnactivecool.xml

Remember that product will be presented 18-22 November at COMDEX.

so its a high tec pelt but did you see the part about hps inkjet printer device to dispense dielectric fluid to cool chips WOW gotta see that

 

[Mpegger]

I can't see how thier going to power a (normal) pelt from the PCI bus. Unless its something totally new and different from the norm (which the article implies it might be), a pelt running off the PCI bus power lines will fry the board traces. The PCI slot was designed to supply and handle only so much wattage. I'd rather wait till some reviews are up from some independent sites.

 

[Sonny]

Here is the article for people to lazy to click

ACTIVE COOL ON Monday is launching its AC4G CPU cooling system, a thermo-electric apparatus designed to address the processor heat "crisis," according to the company.

As PC processors get smaller and faster, heat remains a challenge to system reliability, Active Cool said. The company claims its system, based on a solid-state thermo-electric heat pump, can cool the most advanced Intel Pentium 4 processors and AMD K8 processors. The ACG4 pumps heat out of the processor and dynamically reduces fan noise through use of a noiseless electronic heat pump.

Active Cool's system, which occupies a PCI slot, features microprocessor-controlled thermo-electric cooling, maintenance of PC temperatures at 26 Centigrade during normal operation, and independent operation from the PC.

The technology is based on thermo-electric components used in aerospace and military applications, said Ronen Meir, founder and president of the Ashkelon, Israel-based company. The technology can cool chips with speeds of as much as 4GHz, he said.

Initially, Active Cool intends to sell its technology through conventional cooling system manufacturers. In about a year, the company will approach PC manufacturers to either sell or license it to them, Meir said.

Hewlett-Packard this summer announced that it, too, is working on system-cooling technologies, applying its inkjet printer device to dispense dielectric fluid to cool chips.

So it's a T.E.C/Peltier that is controlled by that seperate blue PCI card but is to be powered by your systems PSU & cooled by an Alu HS with a tiny fan. Anybody else think its a dangerous product?

 

[brodo]

I doubt it will be dangerous. I am sure they are doing testing and they have to show it off at COMDEX.

Sounds like they have come up with a way to get enough power from the pci - perhaps that device converts power in a way that gives this glorified pelt enough cooling power for 4Ghz procs.

Btw, either they did not get anything close to a 4Ghz but have some data that their solution can scale out to 4Ghz (that's kinda obvious) or maybe they got some engineering samples (2-3Ghz) and overclocked them

 

[CChaos]

It looks to me like it is going to use a seperate power cord. There's a spot to plug something in next to the little vent there. Maybe it just needs the PCI slot to monitor temps?

 

[Sonny]

You can not cool a TEC with that HSF unless it is so weak that it doesnt really work which is next to impossible 'cause you'll burn out the pelt doing that. It's obvious that if anybody did their homework on this that the power will NOT come from the PCI slot but will be modulated by the add on PCI card. Why not powered from the PCI? T.E.C/Peltiers need a dedicated PSU to run them or could be run from the system PSU IF it has enough capacity & no a 430W will not handle it.

This isnt really new since Swiftech has long since sold products like this, MC362(oldest I can remember) & MCX462+T(most recent), & so has ALPHA Novatech. The biggest difference is that Alpha or Swiftech didnt have onboard monitoring & regulation like this one has.

How many of you guys think that power will come from the PCI slot? Just think that the fan headers usually have a max capacity of .4W & a pelt will pull way more juice than that.

 

[brodo]

how many of us have a theory you mean? well until I get more info, I am assuming that they have a way to get enough power to cool down the cpu. actually I think you might be right, CChaos, it does look like there is a separate plug in that pci slot - so maybe it is a special cable that will fit and run off 110.

they say 26ºC so they must be doing something right or lying.

we can speculate and theorize all we want, but we are just going to have to wait a couple weeks before we get more info.

anyone going to COMDEX? stop by and give these guys a grilling. sounds like you need to be there to show them up Sonny.

 

[Sonny]

stop by and give these guys a grilling. sounds like you need to be there to show them up Sonny.

Would love to if I was in the same country Or they could be showed up by a relatively older company who built THIS.

 

[cwb27]

Has anyone by chance emailed the company and asked for more details on it? Just a thought.

 

[macklin01]

Looks to be an AC/DC adapter at the back of the PCI part of the module. Another type of product that uses this sort of trick is Cenatek's solid-state ramdisk. (ECC SD-RAM with its own controller in a PCI slot, with its own battery backup and external power supply through the back of the PCI slot.)

The PCI interface may or may not actually communicate with the PC (e.g., report power usage, monitor CPU usage in its determination), as it is supposed to have its own microchip and it would be farily safe to assume it has its own temp probes.

It almost looks like the PCI deal is a convenient way to mount it in the case w/o cutting holes, hacking the PSU, etc.

What may make the difference for theirs is that they don't have to juice up the pelt to 100% (or 70-80%) all of the time, as its usage is tied to the CPU temp and usage. So, it isn't quite as difficult to cool as a pelt setup around here that runs at the same level all the time. 24-7 folding would be an interesting test, though.

Perhaps what's ``revolutionary'' about this product is that it brings TEC cooling to the mainstream with completely non-obtrusive installation. No case modding, no extra PSU to install, or anything. Similar to efforts to sell self-contained watercooling kits, but without the mess.

It would probably do the most good in the OEM area in the future -- not for huge overclocking -- just to enhance performance of existing HS technology without exceeding aircraft-level fan noise. Good for the general population. Now, it would be really interesting if this company teamed up with the coolchips company (which is essentially developing ultra-efficient TEC components). Then, it would be especially easy to cool with a hsf.

Just a few thoughts. Probably sums to $.015.

-- Paul

 

[sillyunclemark]

Their news & events page for the ac4g Does state that it is independantly powered from the PC. Also hints that the claims are only good for office apps. Both the fan and cooling unit are variable.

Hope they expect the NORMAL user to have case airflow that can handle an extra 150W or better of heat, unless they realy do have a more efficient method than pelts.

 

[macklin01]

Also hints that the claims are only good for office apps. Both the fan and cooling unit are variable.
Thanks for pointing that out. That statement may well be key, and seems to mesh well with earlier statements.

Hope they expect the NORMAL user to have case airflow that can handle an extra 150W or better
D'oh!

 

[macklin01]

Here's what I'd love to see their product paired with:

http://www.coolchips.com/

70-80% of Carnot efficiency, vs. about 5-10% for current peltier products.

-- Paul

 

[Tipycol]

Looks to be an AC/DC adapter at the back of the PCI part of the module. Another type of product that uses this sort of trick is Cenatek's solid-state ramdisk. (ECC SD-RAM with its own controller in a PCI slot, with its own battery backup and external power supply through the back of the PCI slot.)

The PCI interface may or may not actually communicate with the PC (e.g., report power usage, monitor CPU usage in its determination), as it is supposed to have its own microchip and it would be farily safe to assume it has its own temp probes.

It almost looks like the PCI deal is a convenient way to mount it in the case w/o cutting holes, hacking the PSU, etc.

What may make the difference for theirs is that they don't have to juice up the pelt to 100% (or 70-80%) all of the time, as its usage is tied to the CPU temp and usage. So, it isn't quite as difficult to cool as a pelt setup around here that runs at the same level all the time. 24-7 folding would be an interesting test, though.

Perhaps what's ``revolutionary'' about this product is that it brings TEC cooling to the mainstream with completely non-obtrusive installation. No case modding, no extra PSU to install, or anything. Similar to efforts to sell self-contained watercooling kits, but without the mess.

It would probably do the most good in the OEM area in the future -- not for huge overclocking -- just to enhance performance of existing HS technology without exceeding aircraft-level fan noise. Good for the general population. Now, it would be really interesting if this company teamed up with the coolchips company (which is essentially developing ultra-efficient TEC components). Then, it would be especially easy to cool with a hsf.

Just a few thoughts. Probably sums to $.015.

-- Paul

So are you saying that although it is a peltier, it will give you the same perfomance as an average (better than stock) heatsink would perform, but with a little less noise?


Tipycol

 

[ziah]

the blue part has a power supply buit in to it. and a network card??? WTF i dunno

~z