Sunon Waturbo Liquid Circulation Cooling (LCC) System

[malware]

In an attempt to bring to the mainstream market the thermal advantages offered by liquid cooling, Sunon has developed a unique Liquid Circulation Cooling System, under the brand name Waturbo. The five key components of the traditional liquid cooling system are still represented: a pump, heat exchanger, radiator, fan, and reserve tank. In the Sunon Waturbo system, however, four of those components (everything but the fan) are packaged in a single, sealed liquid-holding radiator device. This radiator device is sandwiched between the fan (the active cooler, which also drives the pump) and the CPU (the heat generating device in the system).


What is missing is all of the rubber tubing that connects the different components in the traditional liquid cooling system. By eliminating the rubber tubing, and all of the connection joints with the different components, the risk of leakage has been drastically reduced. The only possible sources for leakage now are the top and bottom of the radiator device, which interface with the fan and CPU respectively. These two junction points are more easily sealing with the use of standard O-Rings.

The Sunon Waturbo system works as follows:

The exterior fan (item 4) drives the interior pump (item 1) which circulates the cooling water inside the sealed liquid reserve tank (item 5). This circulating water allows the heat exchanger (item 2) at the bottom of the reserve tank to efficiently remove the heat from the CPU. The corresponding temperature increase of the cooling water is dissipated to the outside through the radiator fins (item 3).

The fact that the Sunon Waturbo system uses the fan motor to drive the liquid pump is significant. This dual-action of the fan motor eliminates the need for a separate motor to drive the pump, as is used with the traditional liquid cooling system. On the Sunon Waturbo, the driving torque of the fan impeller is transmitted to the liquid pump through a magnetic coupling. This means that no pump motor or other electronic parts are required in the cooling water. All of this results in a lower risk and lower costs of the Sunon Waturbo system, when compared to the traditional liquid cooling system.

In a conventional air cooling system, the distance between the heat source (CPU) and the heat dissipater (radiator fin) is critical. In practice, a fin that is located at a further distance from the CPU heat source will have a lower fin temperature, resulting in a less efficient thermal system design.

In contrast, the Sunon Waturbo system utilizes forced liquid convection to transfer the CPU heat to the radiator fin. Therefore, there is no significant distance effect between CPU and radiator fin and it is possible to keep the fin temperatures stable and obtain an overall increase in thermal efficiency.

Sunon has currently developed and tested the Waturbo technology in desktop computer liquid cooling systems. Similar Waturbo applications are currently under development for both notebook and server applications.

View at TechPowerUp Main Site

 

[Tory]

Seems just like heatpipes only with water.

 

[Sasqui]

Actually, I bet this is far less efficient then passive vapor phase change (heatpipe). In the end, the place where the heat goes is radiating off the heat sink fins. That's where good watercooling systems shine - large, efficient radiators.

Since water isn't nearly as efficient at tranferring heat as metals, it appears as though this would be more efficient if you filled the heatsink with copper, but perhaps there are advantages to the circulating water in that small space??? Would like to see a review done.

Sorry, wrote a lot and didn't say much

I guess this kind of paraphrases those thoughts:

"...In a conventional air cooling system, the distance between the heat source (CPU) and the heat dissipater (radiator fin) is critical. In practice, a fin that is located at a further distance from the CPU heat source will have a lower fin temperature, resulting in a less efficient thermal system design.

In contrast, the Sunon Waturbo system utilizes forced liquid convection to transfer the CPU heat to the radiator fin. Therefore, there is no significant distance effect between CPU and radiator fin and it is possible to keep the fin temperatures stable and obtain an overall increase in thermal efficiency...."

 

[sinner33]

I wonder if this is more effective than the Zalman heavy weight 9500CNPS?

 

[POGE]

Looks like a good idea to me. Should beat a lot of high end air.

 

[plywood99]

"In a conventional air cooling system, the distance between the heat source (CPU) and the heat dissipater (radiator fin) is critical. In practice, a fin that is located at a further distance from the CPU heat source will have a lower fin temperature, resulting in a less efficient thermal system design.

In contrast, the Sunon Waturbo system utilizes forced liquid convection to transfer the CPU heat to the radiator fin. Therefore, there is no significant distance effect between CPU and radiator fin and it is possible to keep the fin temperatures stable and obtain an overall increase in thermal efficiency."

Lol, while this is true, it is being used here for nothing but propaganda, make the device sound all high-tech and such.

Only thing interesting about this product is fan driving the pump...

 

[OneCool]

Looks like a good idea to me. Should beat a lot of high end air.

Doubt it,I would like to see a comparision tho ( with equal ambient room temps)

XP-90
Xp-90c
XP-120

 

[error_f0rce]

I love the idea, but look at the test result vs a standard cooler: http://www.sunonusa.com/index2.asp?f=news&p=pr_waturbo

I know the P4 660's run hot, but honestly, if it keeps the CPU at 54c under load, I'm not that impressed. That's considering that the stock cooler was already at 60c. My AC Freezer 7 Pro will do within a couple degrees of that....

The real question: what's the pricetag on it?

EDIT: Now I'd like to see this Waturbo on a highly OC'd rig, maybe it's true color would come out then!

 

[infrared]

Yep, there's hardly any difference between their cooler and the stock 660 cooler... even in their tests. There is a flaw in the design... there is good heat exchange from the cpu block to water, but there are no fins on the inside of the water-chamber... so there would be poor thermal transfer from water to outter cooling fins. Another thing to note is that the outter fins are tiny!!.

 

[error_f0rce]

WOW, hey congrats on the 5GHz infrared!!! w00t!!!
Is it the Swiftech that finally got you there?