Zalman Showcase Massive P4 Heatsink

Kez writes "I couldn't express the size of this heatsink in the space provided for the subject of this post. It's the size of a small country and when the fan is running, turbulence from it means a no-fly zone needs to enforced above it. At Hexus.net we've got a picture of this behemoth."

Comments

Wow,

[Oculus Habent]

It wasn't too bad until they mentioned daisy-chaining five power supples together.

Re:Wow,

[Oculus Habent]

For all of you who can't see it, there's a picture of a heatsink - with six or eight heatpipes up to a 6-inch fan surrounded by copper fins - with a pack of cigarettes for comparison. It would make the heatsink over 1 foot tall. The text refers to 25 cubic meters per second of airflow, and a 1400 watt power requirement.

Re:Wow,

[sixteenraisins]

This was an almost-believable story. The biggest flaw is the 6-inch fan capable of moving 25 cubic meters of air per second, or on the order of 54,000 cfm.

A fan that size isn't measured in watts, it's measured in horsepower. An axial (propeller) fan capable of moving that much air might be about six feet in diameter and be driven by a 10 hp motor.

Maybe there's a typo in there - 25 cubic meters per minute (I know, not a proper SI unit) would be about 900 cfm, much more believable for a 6" fan, but still howling.

Re:Wow,

[WasteOfAmmo]

Before your read through all the following posts stating "why it can't be real" and "holy crap is that huge" and "size does matter", read this:

From this picture it looks like the picture that everyone is talking about is the marketing display unit on the left. This looks like a blown up version of the real unit (shown on the right side of the picture) used for the purposes of trade shows (and slash dot advertising) only!

The quoted article is obviously a joke about the marketing version and not refering to the real heatsink unit shown on the right of the linked picture. Even though the real unit is not as large as a small dog and does not use 1.4 kW of power it is still an impressive unit.

Yep, most of the above is my take on the article and may not be 100% correct but it does make more sense then the OP and some of the comments below.

M.

Standard Units Please

[LiquidCoooled]

It doesn't matter how big it is, I want to know how many Han Solos it can freeze per minute.

The world must know.

Wow

[itchy92]

Well, since this is slashdot, even though the site won't load for me and I haven't seen the heatsink, let me just say: HOLY CRAP THAT'S HUGE!

Re:Wow

[justthisdude]

Don't think of it as sad bunch of nerds, think of it as a Geek Chorus that chanting familiar refrains to tie the current discussion into the larger communal tapestry. That or I am a sad nerd with a BA in English.

slashdotted already...

[alexandreracine]

The shit just hit the fan.


Sorry for the language, I just could not resist.

Wow

[LewsTherinKinslayer]

No less than 30 seconds after being posted, and subsequent slashdotting, no fewer than eighteen posts immediately use the same stale joke as me about how they could use that heatsink.

We are a collectively sad bunch of nerds.

That old stereotype?

[chowdmouse]

C'mon dude, it's been said time and time again that size doesn't matt....GOOD GOD! IT'S HUGE!

Speed is no longer the biggest selling point

[3770]

For me speed is no longer the biggest selling point for a CPU.

It is on second place after power consumption.

Three Words:

[Stanistani]

Grilled cheese sandwich.

mmmm...

MIRROR

[DJ_Goldfingerz]

This should be the link for the mirror.

Now let's start the "How slashdot should mirror before posting" thread.

Re:You couldn't express the size?

[Lxy]

Volume expressed in Volkswagons would have been acceptable.

Re:Why oh why, slashdotted before the first commen

[numbski]

I've been passing this around for a while, trying to get it noticed without appearing to be a Karma whore:

How to fix the slashdot effect.

Any mod points would be hot. :) I don't need the mod points, but I think this idea is important enough to be noticed, and this is really the only forum for which to discuss it. :\

PICTURE

[Oculus Habent]

Took me a bit to dig through the cache, but here's a pic: Zalman Big Cooler

Size Doesn't Matter

[Ruzty]

Everyone knows that expressing greater surface area is more important than size for heat dissipation. Simply making the fins thinner and folding them into crinkles should significantly improve performance of the heatsink. There is no need to make them this big.

I'm thinking a metalic design like currogated cardboard with air blown through the "tubes" between the layers should work very well. This would fit in well with a pass through fan design pushing air from the front of the case to the back right through the tubes. Just align the heatsink properly and go. No more need for seperate, big CPU fans mounted right onto the heatsink.
-Rusty

Working picture link

[aicrules]

http://www.uiaa.org/urbana/illinoisalumni/images/0 402_sculpting3.jpg

Mirror of pic

[Alien54]

This not hosted on GeoCities, but on a file host tested by the power of F***

Mirror here

Re:This has to be a joke

[trentblase]

From TFA:

Of course, you'll need a serious case upgrade too, and we would recommend the CoolerMaster 821 Garage, which comes with a tasteful variety of electronic doors and leaves enough room for even the largest GFX cards in SLI and a Nissan Micra too.

Seriously people, it's a JOKE. Stop trying to explain why it'll never work because it uses 1.4KW.

Re:Why oh why, slashdotted before the first commen

[ignorant_coward]

Actually, web sites that cannot stand Slashdotting are badly designed. Ace's Hardware survived a Slashdotting using a single ~500MHz UltraSPARC II server, running Java no less.

I think people just don't realize how powerful even an ancient CPU is at pushing data, when it isn't running GNOME. Think about it, whole companies ran data centers on systems less powerful than a $400 PC not twenty years ago.

SI measurements on this monument to excess

[WebCowboy]

Although the metre is an SI unit, m^3 per minute is not considered "proper" becasue SECONDS is the standard base of measurement for time for all SI engineering units. If one second is not a reasonable amount of time for the application then it is prefixed like any other SI unit (microseconds, milliseconds, kiloseconds....). Stuff like "kilometres per hour" is commonly used metric but scientists wouldn't use that for the same reason--for them velocity is always metres per second.

However you measure it though a "15 centimetre" fan that draws 1500 watts of power to cool a CPU is just stupid. Not sure if it is a slow news week for nerds but it seems the stories are getting silly (still a good laugh though). This CPU cooler would be good for the guy who buys that dumb "type R" PSU that was featured earlier. It seems the PC-modder crowd is seeing more and more "rice boxes" out there.

I can picture it now..."cool" nerd going a LAN party, driving a brightly painted Civic with that screaming 115HP motor, windows tinted almost opaque with 18" wheels on a goofy camber due to the chopped springs/hack lowering job and glowing neon and red "R" stickers all over the place.

In the passenger seat sits his 'leet gamer PC (the trunk is full of amps and speakers). It is an amazing construction of aluminum, plexiglass, neon and silver and gold Tremclad housing a type R power supply (as advertised on /.!), the biggest heat sink that'll fit inside and six fans to coll that screamin' $80 mobo and Celeron CPU. Good thing that mobo has built in audio, video and LAN becasue the slots are blocked by all the other gear...

Just a word of advice...if you "pimp your ride", then "pimp your PC" to match your ride, it is time to seek therapy.