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images/news/hardware.jpgTHE INQUIRER was the first media outlet to cover the new compressor casing from Thermaltake. Sitting right in between water coolers and deep freezers, the simple, neat, near 0 degree fridge-type compressor has attracted our attention ever since CeBIT.
Thermaltake showed a near-final version of the setup, with more insulated and flexible pipes, as well as supposedly improved cooling performance. While it might not keep your CPU below zero, it should ensure that the die temperature doesn't go above some 30 C even at full load on quad cores. Thermaltake states an average 20 C temperature drop compared to the best 'classic' radiator-based water cooling.
The system is basically a micro vapour-condensation refrigeration contraption - think of it as a much larger and stronger cousin of the vapour chamber stuff seen in some recent Sapphire 3-D graphics cards, for instance.
All the heat it absorbs and removes from the, say, CPU, chipset and/or GPU location is then expelled out. The main components are the compressor, where the refrigerant liquid becomes a high-pressure vapour; the condenser, where that vapour again becomes cold refrigerant; a spiral expansion valve where that refrigerant drops its pressure abruptly; and an evaporator, the cooling block on your CPU or GPU or whatever. After passing through it, the stuff goes back to the compressor.
In summary, the Thermaltake compressor stuff is there, ready to roll: it is clean and neat, without massive tube mess, seems to cool well while keeping silent, and yeah some other vendors seem to now be looking at this method of cooling very seriously too. Hopefully we'll be able to bring you an early review soon.
Inq
Thermaltake showed a near-final version of the setup, with more insulated and flexible pipes, as well as supposedly improved cooling performance. While it might not keep your CPU below zero, it should ensure that the die temperature doesn't go above some 30 C even at full load on quad cores. Thermaltake states an average 20 C temperature drop compared to the best 'classic' radiator-based water cooling.
The system is basically a micro vapour-condensation refrigeration contraption - think of it as a much larger and stronger cousin of the vapour chamber stuff seen in some recent Sapphire 3-D graphics cards, for instance.
All the heat it absorbs and removes from the, say, CPU, chipset and/or GPU location is then expelled out. The main components are the compressor, where the refrigerant liquid becomes a high-pressure vapour; the condenser, where that vapour again becomes cold refrigerant; a spiral expansion valve where that refrigerant drops its pressure abruptly; and an evaporator, the cooling block on your CPU or GPU or whatever. After passing through it, the stuff goes back to the compressor.
In summary, the Thermaltake compressor stuff is there, ready to roll: it is clean and neat, without massive tube mess, seems to cool well while keeping silent, and yeah some other vendors seem to now be looking at this method of cooling very seriously too. Hopefully we'll be able to bring you an early review soon.
Inq
