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Zalman TNN 500A - Complete Heatpipe Cooled Case
SlashCrunchPop writes "Zalman is about to release a completely fanless computer case based entirely on heatpipe cooling capable of keeping even the hottest CPUs cool. Cool silence, at last?" The article's in German, but the pictures speak for themselves.
I have a computer in my bedroom that I keep on all the time. Lately I've been kept up at night by the fan noise. The noisy fan in my computer also posted a troll on Slashdot and killed my cat. Thus, I'm quite happy to learn that this problem is history. Soon I shall get rid of my noisy fan, and... *stab* Oh no! The fan got me! I'm going down!
Looks like it could double for a space heater too!
--
The Marines: The few, the proud, the not very bright. - Slashdot tagline 04/21/05
For those of you who want to know
> The article's in German, but the pictures speak for themselves.
Maybe it's like the SCO comments, and someone can translate it by substituting English letters for the German ones.
Sheesh, evil *and* a jerk. -- Jade
For the people who don't read German, here's the page translated by babelfish... Which is, unfortunately readable at best...
The point is that your $20 dollar case probably sounds like a jet plane taking off, possibly overheats occassionally, and if a fan fails you're screwed. This one doesn't have those problems.
These also look a lot, um, cooler. In an ugly-modern kind of way.
Forget thrust, drag, lift and weight. Airplanes fly because of money.
US Democracy:The best person for the job (among These pre-selected choices...)
http://www.buildsilentpc.com
[My english is better than most other people's Turkish, so please point out mistakes politely. Thank you.]
I like my CPU's hot! It gives me an opportunity to fry my breakfast in the morning.
Those pipes look like solid copper. It must be a pain to re-route them if you use non-standard sized components. Isn't there a flexible material they can use that will still withstand the heat?
It looks really evil
If I seem short sighted, it is because I stand on the shoulders of midgets
http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=75390&cid=6742 171
I can't think of a good sig...
Air cooling still has plenty of mileage - bigger fans at lower rpm are what we need. I have two 120mm case fans running through a rheostat, and the noise is insignificant compared to the little 60mm CPU fan (no, it's not even a Delta).
When I am king, you will be first against the wall.
Reminds me of the high power PSUs we were building back in the early-80s for I-can't-tell-you-about-that applications. That was for 60V 50A DC-audio amplifiers. Why do Germans still go for all-black, finned military chic?
Even so, the limited convection of this thing is still wasted capacity. It would be better, and almost as quiet, to have a chimney round the back with the fins pointing inward, and a slow air stream from a large fan being sent up it. It could easily be as quiet as a hard drive.
Panurge has posted for the last time. Thanks for the positive moderations.
The best thing about it is that it's big enough to live in.
...but the whole block is getting a TV picture like TV2 Albania!
When I am king, you will be first against the wall.
Does it fit under my Desk?
What does it cost?
If both is under my maximum I want one!
We suffer more in our imagination than in reality. - Seneca
"Zalman fanless PC
:-)]. It took long for such a product to appear on the mass-market. The manufacturer will be hardly able to produce enough to satisfy market demand. Though it's promising on paper we will now need to wait for priceinfo and more information. One thing is clear already, the price will be far below DIY construction sets, since Zalman is known to be specialized in mass production. The 6 heatpipes for the CPU, 2 for the graphicscard and 10 for the harddisk will keep the system as cool as possible. We are looking forward to this new Zalman case and hope to say say bye bye to our fans and noisemakers by Christmas.
..." ???]
Finally, it's told to us [uhm "(un)endliche Ruhe im Karton" means so much more though
Off coarse I'll try to inform you about this in the future [ "Ja naturlich bleibe ich am Ball
What's more to say about this thing, only creme de la creme superlatives will suffice. It makes you feel all soddy inside [ "Da bekomme ich feuchte Augen"]. Heatpipes (18 !!), and more heatdispensers than you will probably need.
It will be perfected silence because the case is fully sealed. It's the first one where even optical drives will be decoupled from the case.
Better is not possible!
More silent is not possible!
Due to be sold in october at
www.alternate.de
Maybe you should start saving money."
PDF specsheet on the case => http://www.sharkacorp.com/pdf/TNN500A_Catalog.pdf
Those who can, do. Those who cannot, sue.
Maybe I sound very European when I say this but isn't it more sensible to try to reduce the amount of energy spent by the various components of the computer to minimize heat output?
-- Cheers!
This would be a pretty handy device for those living on the eastcoast in the middle of winter. As someone mentioned above, it would make a dandy space heater. I agree. When I was still living in Boston, I left the several machines on my home network running 24/7 during the months of intense cold. Oddly enough my utility bills* was lower that year than the year before. (When I didn't have the machines running all that time.)
*apartment was gas heated.
!@#$% whole-grain cereal. When I want fiber, I eat some wicker furniture. - G. Carlin
...how much does this weigh? Would it fall through my wooden desk... the only guide I have to heatsink cases is the Mac Cube, which was a rather nice doorstop in the weight area.
Are you local? There's nothing for you here!
Zalman TNN 500A - Complete Heatpipe Cooled Case
From Zalman's site:
Whenever the offence inspires less horror than the punishment, the rigour of penal law is obliged to give way...
is available here:
http://www.sharkacorp.com/pdf/TNN500A_Catalog.pdf
RedShirt
Microsft spel chekar vor sail, worgs grate !!!
IDE drives may not need individual coolers, but they definitely like significant airflow. As there isn't a fan, you need to be sure that they don't cook or cook anything else in the cab.
As for airflow inside the case, yes there is still some because of convection. The air is relatively cool because most of the the heat is being dumped elsewhere, so a measily little Northbridge shouldn't have problems.
Lastly, zero fans is perhaps too much, but some of the ideas could be used to reduce case fan rpm and to maybe get rid of the CPU fan.
See my journal, I write things there
If you do that, you dont need a silent case :)
Call on God, but row away from the rocks.
The article's in German, but the pictures speak for themselves.
Sorry, dude. I don't understand german pictures either.
Anyway, that's one big-ass heatsink. The think is.With a chassis like that , you'll probably end up just spreading the heat through your entire case instead of directing heat away from CPU, HD etc. I don't mind the noise. I'll keep my fans thank you.
"I used to have that really cool,funny sig
I just counted the fans in my desktop, and amazingly came up with 8: CPU, PSU, graphics card, and 5 spread around the case. (A CoolerMaster) And I'm not even a cooling freak. This thing should reduce those decibels.
Publish your ultra-short tales at espresso stories.
- Read fiction at www.espressostories.com
Although the submitter got it right, the article heading says "Fanless PC".
Let's see, where are the fans inside a normal PC? On the case sure. But also in the PSU, on the motherboard, and on the graphics card.
Now maybe they have solutions for these, but this invariably means ripping off the supplied fans to fit the new heat pipes etc., thus completely voiding your warranties on those items. And if you just paid 400 bucks for the latest graphics card (which is by far the noisiest component in my current system), you might not want to do that!
So, while I certainly applaud any step forward in the quest for silence, the case on its own is by no means the end of it.
Skiing? Check out The Independant Skiers Portal
The case is very cool (metaphorically) but looks like it will cost somewhat more than the innards of the PC. In that case, I would hope that it'd last at least 5-10 years, meaning several upgrades. Given that motherboard changes seem to make this pretty much impossible, I would rather buy a cheap case and stick the whole thing in a separate room.
For notebooks, this looks like a good technology: notebooks cost more anyhow and you can't really stick them away in a room somewhere. Plus, most notebooks really suffer from heating issues, and an on-off fan tends to be more annoying than a constant hum.
But best of all would be a way to turn excess heat back into power. Heatpumps of some kind?
Ceci n'est pas une signature
Instead of blowing air around, putting hoses in your computer or using heat-pipes, would it be possible to submerge the whole motherboard and hard-drive in some non-electricity-conducting liquid? De-ionized water???
Michael.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but if there's no air-cooling going on whatsoever, does that mean the case can be completely sealed against dust?
I'm sure inhaling the dust that collects in computer cases is a health hazard, if you do it often enough.
OK, this is the complete text translated (and I have to add, this guy gets *pretty* emotional about this case, and uses a lot of colloquialisms).
:-)
Zalman fan-less PC
Preamble:
Finally, never-ending silence in the box. It took a long time for a product like this to be produced for the mass market. The manufacturer likely will be swamped by the large number of pre-orders. While its technical specs already convince us on paper, we are waiting for the first samples and pricing information. But one thing should be clear right away: The price will be way below any self-made constructions, since Zalman is known to specialize on uncompromising mass production. 6 heat pipes for the CPU and two more for the graphics card, as well as 10 for the hard disk should keep the system optimally cool. Let's look forward to it, and start saying good-bye to all these fans and noise makers right now. I hope it's christmas soon
Well, what more can I say, the cream of the crop. It brings tears to my eyes. More heat pipes (18 of them!!) and cooling elements than you ever wanted.
Silence in its perfected form, since this is a completely closed case. The first PC case where also optical drives can be de-coupled and their noise dampened.
More is not technically feasible!
More silent is not possible!
From october on, this case will be available at www.alternate.de
So, start saving now!
And of course, I'll keep at it. (I guess the author means he'll post updates)
The surface area of the pipe is significantly diminished compared to other similarly designed systems. This leads me to believe that there will be much more "air heat". Fortunately, this shouldn't affect the circuitry.
Another difference I picked up on immediately is the use of motor oil as the cooling fluid. This will mean that the entire chassis will be at least 5 pounds heavier. Not a big concern for most.
The final aspect I will comment on is the use of "induction through aerodynamics". I will only say that you better have your air conditioner blowing toward the computer, or better yet, a small fan.
Preliminarily, I give it a B-. I do hold out hope that it is better than the pictures show it to be.
You can achieve a quiet PC for much less cash. I bought:
A Big HSF with 80mm temp controlled fan (normally runs at 200rpm).
A Fortron PSU with 120mm fan.
2 temp controlled case fans which run at 1300rpm
For about $100 you can make your machine so quiet you can barely tell it's on.
More info
[uhm "(un)endliche Ruhe im Karton" means so much more though
This refers to "peace/quiet [Ruhe] in the case/box".
[ "Ja naturlich bleibe ich am Ball
"Naturally I remain on the ball" - "On the ball" is a colloquialism that means "attentive" or "vigilant".
It makes you feel all soddy inside [ "Da bekomme ich feuchte Augen"].
"My eyes [Augen] get moist", i.e. "I am emotionally/spritually moved".
I want to drag this out as long as possible. Bring me my protractor.
You don't really need to go this far to achieve silence. At least, not for sufficiently small values of silence.
Check out the new Apple G5's cooling system. It uses a ton of ultra-quiet fans instead, moving high-volume low-speed air over the components. It puts out 35dbA, which is less than even a fairly quiet laptop fan these days.
Now, admittedly the cooling technology isn't as creative, but considering that for $670 more than the estimated cost of the case alone here, you get a nice IBM 970 processor, hard-drive, OSX, and a lot of other goodies, that's really not a bad trade-off.
And yes, I took the high end of the estimated case cost ($1100) and the cheapest G5 ($1770). But still.
You're special forces then? That's great! I just love your olympics!
Here's a link to a story about the case in English. HTH.
Heat pipes generally don't contain water but some other kind of solvent which is specific to the temperature range they want the pipe to work at. Generally it's not particularly conductive, but a bit flammable, not that there is enough heat to ignite it in a PC. Leaks would also tend to be slow and could be picked up by a rise in temperature.
Actually, as shown on the spec sheet pdf which somebody else in this thread linked to, the box uses a "No-Fan Power Supply" employing "MPPT technology and the HSC method" ... in brief, heat from the PSU seems to be transferred to the case shell, which acts as heat sink.
> I don't mind the noise.
Then you're not exactly the target market for this case, are you?
Virg
In context with the post to which you are replying, "instant" would mean zero delay from one event to the next, that is, zero fractions of a second.
If there is a delay, any delay, even the tiniest fraction of a second, then it's not instantaneous. Maybe it's "almost instantaneous".
I realize that I am straying somewhat off topic here, but to give an example, the memory modules that I design, simulate and test have a transmission delay of something on the order of half a nanosecond from a register to the memory device. That's
The long and the short? "Instantaneous" means zero delay between one event and the next. "Almost instantaneous" is something else.
-h-