OCZ has been showing off its latest computer cooling technology at Computex 2007 this week - a heatsink made of
directional carbon nanotubes. Carbon nanotubes are an allotrope of carbon (ie. a certain form of carbon - diamond and graphite are other examples) and are predicted to be the next major advancement in cooling, due to their superior thermal conduction properties compared to current materials such as copper and aluminium. According to OCZ, carbon nanotubes are five times more efficient than copper when it comes to cooling, and due to their design they can be used to transfer heat in just one direction - other materials such as copper tend move heat more radially, which isn't always desirable. They are constructed by making small wire-like structures using sheets of graphene just one atom thick and rolling them into cylinders, which allows heat to be moved in one direction as it is moved along the alignment of the nanotubes. The cooler itself is called the
OCZ Hydrojet, but there is no information on when this will be available for retail - or how large the dent in your savings will be if you want to buy one.