Liquid Metal CPU Heatsink Beats Water Cooling

unassimilatible writes "Bios Magazine is reporting that the world's first commercially available liquid-metal based CPU cooler is about to ship. Danamics, a Danish company, claims that its LM-10 outperforms standard air-cooled heatsinks and most watercooled systems with a mere 1W power draw. 'The liquid metal is a key component in Danamics cooling systems. Liquid metal has two major advantages when cooling high power density heat sources: Firstly it has superior thermo physical properties that decrease temperature — and temperature non-uniformity — on die and across chips. Secondly, the electrical properties of the liquid metal enables efficient, reliable and ultra compact electromagnetic pumping without the use of moving parts, shafts, seals, etc.' Awesome technology, if it actually works and is affordable. The submitter requests that the moderators terminate all T-1000 jokes."

Comments

Toxicity?

[i_ate_god]

And just how good for the environment is this liquid metal? Or for your health?

Re:Toxicity?

[mrmeval]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liquid_metal_embrittlement

Hope they figured this out or mitigate it somehow.

Re:Toxicity?

[WolfWithoutAClause]

NaK melts at -13 C. It could be that in principle. It would burn if released, but in the intended use it should be safe enough.

Re:Toxicity?

[Xtifr]

If it's being used to cool CPUs, I don't think it needs to be liquid at room temperature, since the area near most modern CPUs is considerably hotter than that! If your CPU is running at room temperature, you probably don't need much cooling (and if you do, you're going to need a much more elaborate system than merely one based on a liquid metal, since a passive heat-sink isn't going to take you anywhere below room temperature).

If the liquid metal you're using for cooling tends to freeze at room temperature, that's going to present a few engineering challenges, but I don't think they're insurmountable, and, given the relative rarity of metals that are liquid at room temperature (and the unpleasant nature of some of them, e.g. mercury) it may well be worth it.

Pure gallium melts at body temperature and is generally considered non-toxic. If it weren't for the expense, it might be a decent option itself. That said, Galinstan does sound like a promising option, though one of its ingredients (indium) is even more expensive than gallium, which could be a problem. Tin's still relatively cheap, though. :)

Re:Toxicity?

[KGIII]

Bugger Moore's law, how about Murphy's? You can get non-conductive liquids which help to remove some of the risks associated with liquid cooling but does this galinstan (or any other liquid metal) also conduct electricity well? My searching hasn't given me much information though I did find one page warning that a spill could conduct electricity but it didn't say how well nor did it really go into details as to the actual resistance or the likes.

Re:Toxicity?

[love-blood-rhetoric]

I work with gallium-indium-tin eutectic metals routinely. They definitely do not play well with some metals, specifically those commonly used in heat sinks. It will readily react with both aluminum and copper resulting in a nasty grayish black compound...not so good for moving heat. However, I do use it against nickel plated copper surfaces with no problems provided that the nickel strike is well done; i.e. it's not porous. The metals it does play well with are typically stainless steel, but stainless is a very bad conductor of heat relative to copper and aluminum.

Depends...

[ArchieBunker]

Too much of anything can kill you. Water, salt, mercury, oxygen etc etc. They probably use some alloy with an extremely low melting temperature. The article is a bit short on the specifics.

Re:Depends...

[Anonymous Coward]

Yes indeed. Anything can kill you. Just consider how much much mercury it would take to accomplish that feat when compared to the amount (and the effort involved in the act) of water it would take.

Either way, it would be nice to know what they're slipping into those things (especially since they operate on a single watt).

On another note, wouldn't it be interesting if your computer literally "froze" because temperatures dropped and the alloy solidified?

Re:Depends...

[Sj0]

If your computer was that cold, wouldn't the purpose of the heat sink be pretty much negated until it thawed?

Re:Depends...

[4D6963]

Too much of anything can kill you.

Semi-obligatory :

-Yes but too much [tobacco] is bad for you.
-Well of course too much is bad for you, that's what "too much" means you blithering twat. If you had too much water it would be bad for you, wouldn't it? "Too much" precisely means that quantity which is excessive, that's what it means. Could you ever say "too much water is good for you"? I mean if it's too much it's too much. Too much of anything is too much. Obviously. Jesus.

Re:Depends...

[xalorous]

The melting point came from the wiki on liquid metals.

Having recently looked into heatsinks/cooling fans/water cooling systems at Tom's Hardware, I'd go so far as to say if you can run your computer full blast and peak temperature settles at anything less than 70C, you've got a good system. The best heatsink/fan combos were at about 72C, IIRC. The water cooling systems were obviously cooler but I don't think they got down to 50.

As a less pricey possibility, has anyone looked into brine cooling systems (using a water-based solution instead of plain water for better thermal transfer)? And do water cooling systems use pure water or tapwater?

What metal?

[dpbsmith]

How odd that the article doesn't even hint at what the metal is. I wonder why not?

Re:What metal?

[rubycodez]

a mimetic poly-alloy

Re:Sodium cooling

[icegreentea]

Sodium only works because nuclear reactors put out a lot of heat. You won't be able to sodium cool your computers. That's where the uncertainty comes in. What metal/metal-alloy is liquid below 100C, is relatively cheap, and safe. Mercury (the obvious answer for one and two) is almost certainly a nono for number three.

Magnetic pump?

[lawpoop]

The article mentions that this device uses an electromagnetic pump to move the heat around. In my naivete, I suggested a similar thing, without a pump. I imagined a sort of metal lava-lamp, where at the base, next to the CPU, blobs of molten metal would rise up towards the top of the heat sink. As they rose, they would cool off ( with the help of the fan) , and then sink again to collect more heat. So, the outside of the heat sink would be copper or aluminum or something, and the inside would be some low-temperature metal like tin. Traditional fin architecture would assist in dispersing the heat.

Im just asking

[meeya]

cant it be sodium? or something of the class?

'Article' is ripped from the product website:

[Jaqenn]

Go To the Danamics website: http://www.danamics.com/technology/background.aspx

Click on Technology. Then click background:

Cooling of semiconductor hot-spots has developed into a demanding task. In recent years the high power density of microchips has increased rapidly, thereby increasing temperature and temperature non -uniformity on die and across chips. The drive for extremely low thermal resistance if further accelerated by the trend towards smaller system enclosures which has made the cooling task even more difficult. This gives the cooling companies a new challenge. To create cooling devices that is reliable, efficient and compact. Danamics does all of those.

Then click Pump:

Electromagnetic pumps have been used for decades and have been seen in a variety of applications. From space crafts and satellites, on nuclear-driven surface warships and submarines and also in land based nuclear reactors and industrial applications. In space, at sea, at land and now also as a key element for hot spot cooling. An electromagnetic pump has several advantages over typical mechanical pump designs. It contains no moving parts, shafts, seals, etc., emits no noise or vibration, has unlimited MTBF and suffers no performance degrading over time. Typically electromagnetic pumps have had the drawback of a high current requirement. The Danamics patent pending multi-string electromagnetic pump eliminates this limitation and delivers a high flow with minimal current input. Due to the small size and power requirements, the multi-string pump makes a liquid metal cooler suitable for use in smaller applications such as home computers, workstations and even laptops.

Then click Liquid Metal:

The liquid metal is a key component in Danamics cooling systems. Liquid metal has two major advantages when cooling high power density heat sources: Firstly it has superior thermo physical properties that decrease temperature - and temperature nonâ"uniformity - on die and across chips. Secondly the electrical properties of the liquid metal enables efficient, reliable and ultra compact electromagnetic pumping without the use of moving parts, shafts, seals, etc.

Then click Benefits:

Liquid Metal has numerous key advantages compared to competing technologies, such as water-cooling or traditional air cooling. The most important ones are: Ultimate performance Danamics LM10 is the worldâ(TM)s best performing air-cooler. By utilizing the unique properties of liquid metal, the cooler has the lowest thermal resistance of any air-cooler in the market. The cooling capabilities exceeds most watercoolers in a single device. Easy mounting Compared to competing solutions, the Danamics LM10 is a true all-in-one product. There are no external housings, large reservoirs or bulky radiators. With liquid metal cooling you have true performance in a compact, self-contained unit. This makes mounting a breeze and the Danamics LM10 cooler can be mounted in minutes. No moving parts The superior liquid metal brings another advantage besides its efficiency. The properties of liquid metal make the use of an electromagnetic pump possible. Danamicsâ(TM) patent pending multi-string pump delivers high flow combined with a very low power-draw of less than 1W. No noise and no vibration Compared to watercooling pumps, the electromagnetic pump used in Danamics LM10 cooler has numerous benefits. It is hermetically sealed and has no moving parts, which means that no noise or vibration is added to the system from the electromagnetic pump. Also the pump is orientation independent, which ensures maximum flexibility for users and system integrators. Innovative technology Danamics LM10 is built from the ground up using innovative technology. The combination of liquid metal and an electromagnetic pump is all new in commercial cooling devices, bringing

Re:Just add som potassium

[bmo]

"A little reactive? It would burn pretty violently if simply exposed to air"

You're exaggerating. You're thinking of cesium.

It all depends on how far down the periodic table you go and how much.

This is sodium and potassium

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l9z5-mJ8NZk&feature=related

"EXPLODE"

Yeah, but you're exaggerating more. If anything, there would be a gram or two of metal in the coolant tube to cool a CPU. Not a whole heck of a lot. We're not talking about throwing 20 pounds of the stuff off the bridge near MIT. And besides, if water is in contact with your motherboard, you've got other problems.

Here's a video of cutting slices off a brick of sodium. As you can see, it doesn't ignite on contact with air. All the fun happens when you put it in water.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JD85OUkEKKw

"remember the time you stole some sulfuric acid from school?" Ahahaha

BTW, a video of cesium:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sNdijknRxfU "ooooohhh"

--
BMO

Improving air-cooling instead

[Anonymous Coward]

What about replacing the normal metal heat-sink with Reticulated-Vitreous-Carbon foam... it has a high heat conductivity, and a huge surface area. Its also very light having only 3% relative density. This would seem to me to be the cheapest way of improving CPU cooling.