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Another Water-Cooling System For Laptops

big writes "NEC has developed the world's first slim sized water-cooling module for notebooks. It uses a piezoelectric pump driving method. This water cooling-module enables a highly advanced, slim sized, notebook PC with minimal operating noise." Toshiba has been working on water cooling in laptops at least as far back as the year 2000.

14 of 154 comments (clear)

  1. OK, more efficient at cooling than a fan. by hashish · · Score: 5, Insightful

    But with laptops getting smaller and lighter, who wants a heavier bulkier machine that can run faster. Better off using a desktop if that's the way you want to go.

  2. Re:Hail ye Entropy by packeteer · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Water cooling does not make the computer put out less heat. All it does it draw the heat away from the CPU faster, A water cooled system with a radiator with put out as much heat as the same system with a fan and heat sink.

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  3. Does anyone else think that this is a bad idea? by TWX · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Between being dropped, xrayed, beat on, slid, bumped, scratched, and the like, doe we need _more_ liquid than that which is normally spilled on a laptop to be present in it?

    I'd like a nice cool-operating laptop, even if it is a little slower, as long as it has enough RAM, decent enough video, and good storage. Speed, as long as it's fast enough, isn't a major concern. The Athlon at home takes care of that. I want connectivity and portability.

    If IBM still made the 240 series Thinkpad, I'd snap a newer one of those up in a heartbeat...

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  4. Transmeta anyone? by Agent+R · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Wonder if the user would be able to shut off the computer fast enough should the water pump decide to buy the farm?

    Why not just develop a Transmeta-type CPU that uses less power? That way there won't be such an extra need for the extra cooling capacity. What's next? Helium cooling? Not that there are THAT many users out there who really needs all the CPU cycles/sec. (Engineers and gamers don't count. :-))

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  5. Laptops - the spoilt kid in computing... by jkrise · · Score: 5, Insightful

    More attention that warranted seems to be the issue with laptops these days. So long as laptops run Windoze, what's earth-shatteringly different between different models? The true worth of laptops could be about $400 (what HP offered Thailand). Anything much above that is just waste of money.

    Rather than cooling, why not work towards standardizatrion on laptops. The power supply for these gizmos range from 8.6V AC to 33.4V DC. Power supply connectors come in all fancy pinouts and crazy designs.

    The lesser the laptops, the better it is for the environment. laptops break down more often thsan desktops (13.5 times more often actually) and are often ir-reparable, or too cost prohibitive. It's time there was legislation requiring standards on all laptops - those that didn't conform ought to be banned outright. This is a classic case of capitalism screwing global interests for a few dollars more.

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  6. Re:I have a better solution. by rzbx · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I fully agree with using Crusoe chips and such, but I understand the need for faster processors and better cooling. For the most part, we will continually see processors drawing much less power before and staying very cool. Yet heat is something that is hard to get away from, especially when you need more processing. I have a laptop running an AMD processor that runs fairly cool compared to other laptops, but when it is under heavy load, the fans kick in. Water cooling has the advantage of being far less noisy if done right and at times does a better job as well. Until the day that processors use extremely small amounts of wattage and are able to keep up with demand (it will come, just a matter of how long), then we have to compromise and use the best available means to cool our hunger. I'm pleased that NEC is taking the initiative on making water cooling more popular. Obviously it is in their best interest. Yet, more efficient and quieter methods of cooling are of interest to anyone in the IT arena.
    Also, Crusoe's are really nice when it comes to power consumption. Unfortunately, many need/want more power.
    Also, NEC is not attaching a huge tank to the side of their notebooks.

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  7. Re:Hail ye Entropy by evilviper · · Score: 3, Insightful
    But seriously folks... I can't believe how hot laptops and computers are running these days. It really is enough to keep a room warm without a heater. Is water cooling the future or just cooler processors?

    I hate to say it, but I don't think most people care how hot their notebook is going to run, at least not when they purchase it.

    "Ooh, look! This one is 25% faster! Yippie!"

    I would say the same thing about the weight of notebooks... The 4 pounder I'm using right now is the lightest one I could find, sort of Sony's multi-thousand dollar ultra-minitature notebooks.
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  8. Re:Servers? by Alien+Being · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Water cooling of mainframes and other multi-million dollar electronic systems is nothing new. What's your point?

  9. Re:I have a better solution. by ramk13 · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Not to be an intel-fanboy or something, but isn't this the purpose of the Pentium-M line? Lower power comsumption and less heat through slower processors and smarter power management?

  10. Re:hot trend will continue by 73939133 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Seriously though, there are no new technology on the horizon that would make silicon run cooler, and the speed of core-voltage drop does not keep up with frequency bumps (heat is square of frequency for CMOS gates).

    Sure there are: asynchronous logic, reconfigurable computing, reversible computation, and many other technologies. Of course, that requires significant changes to the way we design software and hardware...

  11. Re:hot trend will continue by kinnell · · Score: 3, Insightful
    Seriously though, there are no new technology on the horizon that would make silicon run cooler, and the speed of core-voltage drop does not keep up with frequency bumps (heat is square of frequency for CMOS gates).

    How about more efficient software, which doesn't require a 3GHz processor to run on? The problem with power consumption on laptops is that we need to run them so fast in the first place. With the exception of specialists who need to do video processing and the like, the vast majority of people don't need super fast notebooks, except for the fact that they are forced to use software designed with absolutely no consideration for power consumption.

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  12. Re:All that heat comes from the batteries! by jsmyth · · Score: 3, Insightful

    The heat comes from dissipation due to current flow in the components, such as the processor itself. The battery heats up substantially, but heat also comes from resistive components, silicon, power supply, etc. The reason Crusoe runs cooler is because it requires less current, not because the battery technology is better. Oops. Just realised I'm ranting!

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  13. nice, now you can boil your legs at 80W by Urd · · Score: 3, Insightful

    What I would like to see in laptop: heat radiated from the panel top and not the base.

    'nuf said.

  14. I'm going to see alot of these come in here broken by 56ksucks · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I work on laptops at my job and I see alot of mistreated laptops. Most people, but not all, don't seem to realize that just because it's portable doesn't mean you can toss it around like a pillow. Is it really smart to put something this fragile in a machine and sell it to the general public? I've seen screens ripped off, hinges broken and hard drive failures from shock because truck drivers like to velcro them down in the truck, and anything else you can think of from them being treated roughly. All we need is for mom to let the kids play on the laptop and boom, it crashes to the floor and water goes all over the place.

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