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Sandia's Laptop Heatpipes Closer To Market
mckennabluedot.com writes "Laptops aren't truly portable until you can stand to sit with one on your lap for more than 30 minutes. Sandia National Labs has
developed small copper 'wicks' to transport methanol--and waste heat--from one area of a computer to another, where it can be dispersed more efficiently, comfortably and compactly than with heat sinks. The technology is being licensed to an undisclosed startup." So this stuff (mentioned here previously) might soon make it to a lap near you.
I'm probably going to be sterile from having my new Powerbook on my laptop all day long. It gets unbelievably hot.
I don't mean to sound like "that guy", but my iBook really does not have any problems with heat. I can set it on my lap for a good long while and barely notice any heat. This is one of the reasons that apple has not moved up to the G4 yet, so my computer is quite slow, but at least I never think twice about setting it on my lap for a game of mid-class Starcraft.
In the long run, we're all dead.
Is there such thing as computer heat that is not waste? Unless you are recycling the heat somehow, which seems unfeasable, it seems that all heat would be waste.
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If you don't always buy the latest desktop replacement from Dell or whoever. My Toshiba Satellite Pro 4330, while getting a little long in the tooth nowadays (playing DivX movies and whatnot; I bought it in early 2001) doesn't break the 'quite warm' barrier and is comfortable for several hours of continued use, even when doing CPU-heavy things.
So remember, not everyone's trying to shove a desktop into a laptop and burning your legs off because of it.
If the heat isn't dispersed through the bottom, where exactly will it go? Are laptops going to feel cooler because the heat is dispersed better, or is most of the heat just going to be sent out of, say, the top of the laptop cover where it's less of a nuisance?
-- shayborg
So now I can have exhaust pipes coming off my laptop? Cool.
Can they be made to look like the pipes on a Harley?
Mmmmm chrome....
Huh?
Although I haven't received mine yet, I've read excellent reviews of the incredibly simple (and cheap) Laptop CoolPad. They offer Traveller and Podium (read: big and clunky) versions... Anyone had any experience with these?
Thanks, but I'll pass on this one.
Medium-rare and well-done are adjectives I'd just as soon not see applied to my goodies.
Is this truly the only Earth I can live on?
I'd like to see this option on Dell's site
* Upgrade to Gin or Vodka coolant $49.95
:wq
If we can't trust society with a cup of hot McDonalds coffee how can we trust people with phase change methanol?
I can see the warnings stickered to future laptops: Do not use this laptop near an open flame. Smoking near this laptop is strictly prohibited!
but that takes away from the good ol' days of snuggling by the laptop on a cold winter's night, surfing the internet wishing the laptop was a woman and the heat source was a real fire......*sigh*......im lonely...
xao
xao
http://TheHillforum.hopto.org
Whith all these heat sources and readily available combustible fuels around its only a matter of time before one of these computer heads is gonna get torched.
Now I find it acceptable that a computer can heat up somewhat during computationally intensive functions, like performing a huge batch job with Photoshop or something, but what annoys me a lot about this fan thing is that it seems to come on at the darnedest times. For example, if some application crashes, the fan comes on, then goes faster, then goes even faster, and finally it's spinning at its maximum speed, which sounds like a bunch of banshees flying around when there are heavy winds. All of this while the computer remains totally unresponsive to any input.
This has annoyed me so much on many occasions that I often consider disassembling the computer and removing that stupid fan. Yeah, it'll overheat, but at least I don't have to listen to that shit.
My suggestion, as far as heat is concerned, is that laptops can be built utilizing processors that use little energy and stay cool. Yes, these are much slower than your Pentium CXXVCVXIIIXCIX, but if you put about 5 of them in there, it won't be so bad. In fact, it might even be a bit faster in some cases. I wish people would consider that. What annoys me the most about this is that the computer seems to heat up during computing-intensive
You will have done a good deed, and have the satifaction that some Minnesota girl is removing some of her clothing while using your old hardware. After me, that is.
Wait a sec... isn't getting all hot and bothered down there supposed to be a good thing?
What? It's not? Do what with a girl?.....ohhhhhhhhhhhhhh I get it! So you're saying I've had it all wrong all this time? Damn...
Blockwars: a realtime, head-to-head game similar to Tetris.
"They do not preach that their god will rouse them, a little before the Nuts work loose." Kipling, 'The Sons of Martha'
That being said, my previous laptop (or craptop, as I like to think of it) was a Dell 8000 series. Not only did the thing weigh a metric ton, it also produced enough heat to fry eggs.
The only thing I sorta regret with my current laptop is the lack of screen real estate. However, given that the screen size on the Dell actually prohibited me from opening the thing up all the way on an airplane (unless I was in first class), and the travelling weight of my current laptop is less than half (nearly 1/3)of the Dell, it's a trade-off I'm more than willing to make.
Maybe someone will create a heat-sink mod that transfer the heat to a tiny griddle instead.
Mmmm....laptop steak.
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I want to make it clear to everyone here that any reference to the "glowing cyber balls" story, however indirect, is strictly forbidden in this forum.
---- "If we have to go on with these damned quantum jumps, then I'm sorry that I ever got involved" - Erwin Schrodinger
In the case that you're "citing" (I use quotes because you obviously don't know any of the facts.) the coffee was served at 180 F. This is quite a bit hotter than one expects to receive coffee at. For a fun experiment, try brewing some coffee and taking the temperature of it. Your experiment won't yield coffee at this temperature. Second of all, the McDonalds outlet had received over 700 complaints about their coffee being too hot. Other McDonalds have not and do not receive this many complaints about their coffee. It was partially because of these complaints that McDonalds was found negligent - they had plenty of information that the coffee was too hot but chose to ignore it because it was considered better for business to keep the coffee hot at all times so fewer fresh pots would have to be made. Furthermore, the woman in question (79 years old when the incident occured - your typical "victim" looking to get rich quick, right? Oh wait, she'd never filed a lawsuit before in her life.) received third degree burns on her groin, thighs, and buttocks. These burns required skin grafts and an extended stay in the hospital. The woman racked up medicals bill as a result of this. The award was also reduced from the original 2.6 million dollar settlement to 480,000 dollars.
Understanding law isn't quite as easy as just reading some headlines Mohammed.
I hate liberals. If you are a liberal, do not reply.
the lcd imac (and i think the Tibook aslo) already uses heat pipes. sandia is way behind.
This might be an ignorant question, but what happenes if you tilt it. No, granted, its sealed, but what if for some reason, you have it operating at some angle or you have it upside down. I realize this is not terribly common of a problem, but nevertheless. Probably a stupid question anyway.
Doctor, doctor, my laptop's burnt my penis!
The bodies of the thousands of innocent civilians who died (and will die) in these unprecedented events could give a good god damn about obscure science fiction, your childish Lego models, your nerf toy guns and whining about the lack of a "fun" workplace, your Everquest/Diablo/D&D fixation, the latest Cowboy Bebop rerun, or any of the other ways you are "getting on with your life" (here's a hint: watching Cowboy Bebop in your jammies and eating a bowl of Shreddies is *not* "getting on with your life"). The souls of the victims are watching in horror as you people squander your finite, precious time on this earth playing video games!
;)
I hate to say this but uh... if this is the case, those video gamers are squandering far less of thier life than those trolling slashdot.
The heatpipe attached to my Athlon cpu works pretty well. The temperature drop after replacing my AMD fan/heatsink combo was between 5 and 10 degrees C.
"Nine times out of ten, starting a fire is not the best way to solve the problem." - my wife
They have thought of redirecting the heat for "hand warmers" but one of the things heat pipes really buys you is lack of moving parts and fan requirements... in other words, you can use it for silent or even a waterproof computer.
Just lift the keyboard up on the tibook and you'll see five heat pipes running away from the processor heat sink. They go to various parts of the computer, and usually end bonded to a metal plate with holes in it, to dissipate the heat. I don't know if these are the same type of heat pipe the original poster is describing, but they serve the same purpose.
:-) That was a really good idea.
:(
My previous powerbook, a 1998 "wallstreet", had no heat pipes, but used the keyboard to dissipate CPU heat. The back side of the keyboard was aluminum, and sat squarely on top of the CPU heat spreader. It made for a nice warm toasty feeling on the fingers while gaming with it in the winter.
The problem the powerbooks have with heat seems to be the video... people always seem to forget that heat source in laptops. In both the ti and the wallstreet, that heats up the BOTTOM of the computer. I wouldn't even think of playing UT with the computer on my lap. The wallstreet had an interesting design on the bottom in that the sides where your legs would be were plastic - the center was the aluminum heat plate, and if you set it on your lap with your legs spread properly, you were free of any heat issues. Another excellent design idea not included in the new TiBooks.
I don't see a serious heat issue for most powerbook users. I'm sitting here typing up this post and I have, on average, one of the 19 bars lit up on my CPU monitor. The bottom of the tibook is only pleasantly warm to the touch, certainly not hot by anyone's opinion. I don't have any of the "power cycling" features turned on either... I'm sure it'd run even cooler if I enabled those. Now if I started ripping MP3s and compiling, the processor would get busy and the fan would spin up and she'd get warm.
How do PC laptops handle various workloads? I've used a few awhile back and they all seemed to be just as hot no matter if you were or weren't doing anything with them. I also noticed that if you pluged them into AC power, they'd crank up their CPU speed and get a lot warmer.
I work for the Department of Redundancy Department.
Without digging out my thermo book (so I could be wrong), I'd say that methanol had the most ideal heat removal properties for this application. Also, this scheme uses wicks smaller than the diameter of human hair. The volume is very very small so the amount of methanol (should it leak, and I guarantee you it's a sealed system.) that could affect you is microscopic. Also, my girlfriend (who's a chemist) tells me that the physiological effects you describe require large quantities of methanol and/or repeated exposure. So, long story short, no worries!
Why can't the heat be used to recharge the battery and give it a longer run time? Seems like this just throws away energy...