New plastic heatsinks(in the future)

[mlee49]

So the pinball wizards over at MIT have developed a way to use polyethylene to conduct heat.

The new process causes the polymer to conduct heat very efficiently in just one direction, unlike metals, which conduct equally well in all directions. This may make the new material especially useful for applications where it is important to draw heat away from an object, such as a computer processor chip.

Might see this production in phones, laptops, and other electronics before applications to the personal computer. It's another breakthrough that could force the industry forward, then again it could turn out completely useless and go to the wayside.

Read more:

http://web.mit.edu/press/2010/heat-nanofibers.html

Just wait until we get off silicone and start producing better thermal quality, where 200W tdp just doesn't matter. Ahhhhh the future, a better place than now.

 

[sneekypeet]

Remeber folks Intel tried it first!

Would be cool to see a whole new idea in CPU cooling to come from this though. Sounds like a plastic heat pipe concept.

 

[PVTCaboose1337]

From experience, I can say that polyethylene melts at around 120c. This is an entirely viable cooling option if it:

A: Does not melt
B: Conducts heat well (not likely yet but just wait)

HOWEVER:

We will never get away from silicon for computers in so ways, we need computer to be destroyable! Why? Military needs to destroy data fast, and something that conducts heat well and does not melt / burn... well, we might need something special.

 

[mlee49]

Remeber folks Intel tried it first!

Would be cool to see a whole new idea in CPU cooling to come from this though. Sounds like a plastic heat pipe concept.

Go tell that to MIT, this is what they would be at you:

 

[Mussels]

hmmmm. if heat only goes one way, this could lead to heatsinks being stupidly hot (100C+) while the chip being cooled is much cooler.

 

[a_ump]

hmmmm. if heat only goes one way, this could lead to heatsinks being stupidly hot (100C+) while the chip being cooled is much cooler.

well, since its in my computer i don't really see anything wrong with that idea...i mean it wouldn't be any hotter in your case as the same amount of heat or energy is still being made as if it was under a normal heatsink/fan right? or am i wrong. i'm htinking more heat in the heatsink like you said, so just a shift in where the majority of the heat is.

 

[Mussels]

well, since its in my computer i don't really see anything wrong with that idea...i mean it wouldn't be any hotter in your case as the same amount of heat or energy is still being made as if it was under a normal heatsink/fan right? or am i wrong. i'm htinking more heat in the heatsink like you said, so just a shift in where the majority of the heat is.

yes. its a very common misonception that heat output = heat. My favourite was what a friend said "my LCD monitor is hot to the touch, so therefore it must be using more power than my PC, which is cold to the touch"

yeah. srsly.


Anyway, yeah. my point was that if this works as i said above, it could result in some weird stuff. like a heatsink melting while the CPU is fine, that sorta weird shit.

 

[sneekypeet]

Go tell that to MIT, this is what they would be at you:

I know, I know, I just couldnt resist the chance.

 

[jasper1605]

That's awesome that they figured out how to get heat to move in 1 direction. I didn't even know that was possible! lol. I agree w/ the massive heat build ups. What happens when the heat gets to the end of the plastic and can't go back? Be needin' some of these guys to dissipate it fast enough

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...3001&cm_re=delta_120mm-_-35-213-001-_-Product

Could have some very interesting uses in the future though; it'll be fun to see what they come up with

 

[pantherx12]

hmmmm. if heat only goes one way, this could lead to heatsinks being stupidly hot (100C+) while the chip being cooled is much cooler.

No as the heat will still dissipate from the heat-sink, just in one direction , just means you need to set up the fan to blow along the direction of heat travel and you get a fine and dandy heatsink

Still I'll wait to see how this pans out before making any sort of judgement XD

 

[Mussels]

No as the heat will still dissipate from the heat-sink, just in one direction , just means you need to set up the fan to blow along the direction of heat travel and you get a fine and dandy heatsink

Still I'll wait to see how this pans out before making any sort of judgement XD

think of it this way: if the heatsink was hotter than the CPU, the heat couldnt travel backwards to the CPU.

So while its not much different if your CPU is at a steady load (say, 100%) - imagine if your CPU and heatsink were running hot at 80C - and then the CPU usage dropped to nothing and it idled (or the machine was turned off) - the heatsink would remain hot, radiating its heat out... but the CPU would not get any of that heat returned to it. the one way travel would make it cool very fast, without any of the leftover heat going back to it.

 

[MRCL]

But then Greenpeace comes along and annoys everybody because plastic heatsinks require oil that we need to rob from mother earth and if we might want to look into heatsinks made of leafs.

 

[Mussels]

But then Greenpeace comes along and annoys everybody because plastic heatsinks require oil that we need to rob from mother earth and if we might want to look into heatsinks made of leafs.

mud for thermal paste!

 

[pantherx12]

The heatsink would not get hot, as it would still be a heat-sink dissipating heat.

It would draw heat away, and then dissipate it, or hell you could have the tubes all going into a mini bowl of water or what ever the hell you fancy.

just because the heat doesn't go back or sideways doesn't mean it won't come out the top .

 

[Mussels]

The heatsink would not get hot, as it would still be a heat-sink dissipating heat.

It would draw heat away, and then dissipate it, or hell you could have the tubes all going into a mini bowl of water or what ever the hell you fancy.

just because the heat doesn't go back or sideways doesn't mean it won't come out the top .

we're on the same page here, you just mis-interpreted. OFC the heat will still leave, i'm not bothering to mention that since its so obvious.

What i'm saying is, that the heatsink itself will still have a limit to how fast the heat dissipates - so if the source of the heat suddenly reduces, it can result in the source being far colder than the new heatsink, since the heat cant travel BACK to average out the temperature

 

[pantherx12]

Well yes, but that's true of heatpipe tower coolers even, turn of the cpu and due to the phase change system going on in the pipes the heat energy will be distributed through the fins and not the cpu.

I to think were getting our wires crossed somewhere.


But yeah your right, it you shut of the CPU it would get to room temperature very quickly whilst the heatsink will remain warm for a while.

But assuming they designed the heatsink decently it won't be hot : ]

Even with this fancy material.

 

[Mussels]

heat can still travel backwards in heatpipes, it merely goes from hot end to cold end - if the CPU suddenly cools down, the heat starts flowing backwards until the temps even out.

my point is that with this fancy material, overheating GPU/CPU's could be a thing of the past - they dump the heat, heat gets moved away, something else gets hot. think of a watercooling loop where the hot water gets dumped out and only cool water ever touches the CPU - it could maintain a static temperature without its own heat feeding back into itself.

 

[hat]

Meh... I like my metal heatsinks.

 

[Mussels]

Meh... I like my metal heatsinks.

plastic is the new metal.

 

[pantherx12]

Mussles man, heat wouldn't go back to the CPU if you shut it off, since the CPU will be the warmest point for a while, giving plenty of time for the gas inside the pipes to dissipate heat to the fin array, at this point the air around the heatsink would be the coldest thing so heat will naturally go to the air before the cpu, since the cpu will still be cooling down and thus above ambient temps.

It would only be if the the CPU was infact colder then the air temperature ( impossible unless you were cooling it with something else ) that heat would want to travel back towards it.


heat always wants to go to cold : ]

 

[Mussels]

trust me that the heat goes back - CPU's cool very very quickly when they get turned off/load ceases. Its not like the heat flows back all of a sudden, but some of it does, for sure (especially in a passive cooled situation)


if you dont beleive me about how quick they cool
, fire up linpack on your CPU and let it heat up to max - then stop the test. watch your CPU temp drop 20c+ in under a second.


its like turning an electric heater off but leaving the fan on - in 1-2 seconds it goes from red hot to normal color, and a few seconds after that you can touch it with a bare hand without burning yourself - the source has cooled, and only radiant heat (from objects heated up, but with slower dissipation rates) remains

 

[pantherx12]

Yes I know an amount would go back as there would still be some heat-energy at the base of the pipes/copper base etc.

But the main point of these tubes is that they conduct heat very fast in one direction so you can get the heat far away from the cpu, also potentially cheaper/lighter etc.

How ever your not going to have any worry-some amount of heat going back to the CPU in a heat-pipe due to the air temperature being cooler then the cpu.

The reason the cpu temps drop so fast is due to the heatsink doing precisely what I'm describing by the way.

I.E doing its job .

 

[Mussels]

my point is: small amount of heat return, vs none.

If these are truly one-way, then NONE would come back - which has some interesting things to think about



you see what happens when i get curious about something? i post mini rants and my post count skyrockets

anyway, off to work now. you'll get a few more walls of text when i get off work, probably.

 

[pantherx12]

That's not the main advantage though man XD

It essentially works like a wicking system in clothing, only with heat instead of liquid.

It takes the heat to a point where it can be effectively dissipated, you analogy of water cooling was accurate in that respect.

Your focusing on the wrong bit in my opinion XD

I'm more thinking this sort of thing would be great as heat-shield as-well since the heat can only travel one way . If they could combine it with other materials this could be GREAT for firemen. ( keeps them cool whilst keeping heat out)

I look forward to you getting back from work.

I like having discussions like this ha ah



Also I see lots of people reading, cmon guys post up!

Can't just be me and mussels chatting about this lol

 

[Mussels]

hmmm, clothing sounds interesting. possibly industrial applications as well (replacement for ducted heating?)