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MSI Wind U100, Overclocked With Liquid Nitrogen

Posted by timothy on from the it's-a-free-world-baby dept.

james writes "What do you get when you combine a MSI Wind U100 notebook with liquid nitrogen? The new Intel Atom frequency World Record ... and some damn cool pictures! A large copper pot is used, sitting on top of the GPU and chipset, and cold transfer through the original heatsink plate to the CPU. This was cooled down to about -20 C to achieve the new world mark. (Intel Atom N270 @ 2315mhz) For more information you can check out the original forum thread.

23 of 95 comments (clear)

  1. Bonus by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    +5 hack points for being completely impractical. I like...

    1. Re:Bonus by fm6 · · Score: 2, Funny

      Plus an extra hack point for overclocking a low power CPU!

  2. Man oh man... by T.E.D. · · Score: 4, Funny

    ...and you thought it was bad when your laptop's battery started leaking into your lap. Just wait until its liquid nitrogen cooling system starts leaking.

    1. Re:Man oh man... by Abstrackt · · Score: 3, Funny

      Well, the upside is you'd have no trouble getting it hard.

      --
      They say a little knowledge is a dangerous thing, but it's not one half so bad as a lot of ignorance. - Terry Pratchett
  3. The REALLY impressive thing... by KingSkippus · · Score: 4, Funny

    This was cooled down to about -20 to achieve the new world mark.

    The really impressive thing isn't that they overclocked a processor, it's that they cooled it to -20 K!

    1. Re:The REALLY impressive thing... by dkf · · Score: 3, Informative

      There's no such thing as -20 K

      Not so, though it's a very strange thing indeed.

      --
      "Little does he know, but there is no 'I' in 'Idiot'!"
  4. All this shows is that Atom is clock limited by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    All this shows is that Atom is clock limited by design. A 700MHz speed up - less than 50% in this case - from using liquid nitrogen? And all to get a CPU that's about as powerful as a 1.5GHz Pentium M or a 1.2GHz Core 2 Duo ...

    Atom is reasonably neat, but I would have been more impressed with under-volting to half power consumption. Or designing a better chipset.

    1. Re:All this shows is that Atom is clock limited by billcopc · · Score: 2, Interesting

      I say it's not cheap enough.

      What does an Atom processor and board cost ? $75 or so ? What does the cheapest Core-2 processor and board cost ? $90

      Somehow, I'm not impressed by those numbers. Bring the Atom kit down to $30 and we'll talk. Building it into $300 subnotes is not what I call impressive, they just scored because people are magpies and they like the cute little paperweights.

      --
      -Billco, Fnarg.com
    2. Re:All this shows is that Atom is clock limited by Dare+nMc · · Score: 2, Interesting

      underclocking/volting is a massively overlooked aspect.

      on a chip like the atom with a high emphasis on dynamic clock gating, I would assume under-clocking the CPU would only make the system less power efficient. Under clocking a dynamic clock CPU would only limit it's peak performance, when your system is waiting on the CPU, but not affect the low/average power draw of the CPU at all. (I realize your likely under clocking the memory, and everything else so that would help some.)

  5. Geez... by Capt+James+McCarthy · · Score: 3, Funny

    Better wear the insulated cod piece.

    --
    There are no loopholes. It's either legal or it's not.
  6. side-effects of mod cooling? by v1 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I've always wondered why things like this don't cause physical problems related to thermal expansion/contraction - why doesn't the processor package crack due to the temp differences? Or condensation form in bad places etc? There's gotta be a whole list of bad side effects to worry about when supercooling one part of your computer...?

    --
    I work for the Department of Redundancy Department.
    1. Re:side-effects of mod cooling? by Eccles · · Score: 5, Funny

      I work for the Department of Redundancy Department.

      Which one?

      --
      Ooh, a sarcasm detector. Oh, that's a real useful invention.
    2. Re:side-effects of mod cooling? by Chief+Camel+Breeder · · Score: 4, Informative

      You might think so, but silicon seems to deal with it OK. When I worked in astronomical instrumentation, we built LN2-cooled CCD cameras with the chips cooled to about -150 deg C (they had heaters in the cryostats to hold this temperature; they went down to about -200 if the heaters were turned off). These things were thermal-cycled many times a year and we rarely lost a chip. Astro CCDs are big chips, albeit very simple compared to CPUs.

      Conversely, detectors cooled to liquid helium temperatures are likely to die if cycled up to room temperature a few times.

      With the CCD cryostats, the chips were in a vacuum vessel, so condensation wasn't normally a problem; all the water had been sucked out before cooling. If moisture did get in, then they had to be warmed and re-evacuated.

    3. Re:side-effects of mod cooling? by Lumpy · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Not really. you cant get condensation because there is no air with moisture anywhere near the motherboard. All that nitrogen is displacing the air faster than the air knows what to do. Same with overclocking with Co2.. No condensation.

      Now supercool it, then yank it out of the cooling bath, yes it will grow frost faster than anything. I killed my first K6 processor by using a over sized peltier cooler. I cooled it faster than the processor could create heat... I frosted the motherboard for a 3 inch circle around the processor, something melted some of the frost and it shorted two power pins and it went POOF.

      --
      Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
    4. Re:side-effects of mod cooling? by squoozer · · Score: 4, Informative

      My guess as to why chips last so well when thermally cycled would be because they undergo very little contraction as they cool. Microchips are made from extremely pure single crystals of silicon (essentially) so they are already in a very low energy state. Cooling them down isn't going to change very much. I wouldn't be surprised if newer SOI chips break more often when thermally cycled as they are in a higher energy state to begin with. Anyway, I have no evidence of this, just a gut feel from studying materials at a wide range of temperatues.

      --
      I used to have a better sig but it broke.
  7. A better link for the pictures. by AltGrendel · · Score: 3, Informative

    Try here.

    --
    The simple truth is that interstellar distances will not fit into the human imagination

    - Douglas Adams

  8. What the hell is a put? by SpasticWeasel · · Score: 3, Funny

    The author clearly has a very broad definition of cool.

    --
    No sooner do I get over one, then you put a better one right next to me. Bastards.
  9. Re:NevergetthatpasttheTSA by gblackwo · · Score: 2, Funny

    Maybe they won't sniff out the nitrogen (I'm not even sure that it is even sniffable, there is ton of it in the air- not exactly a weird element to have around). But they will likely catch the massive hollow copper beam they are using for a heat sink and at least want to check your bag.

  10. Could have been done earlier.... by TheNecromancer · · Score: 2

    was cooled down to about -20 to achieve the new world mark.

    They could have done this alot easier by performing the experiment in my back yard in January (I live in the upper Midwest).

    --
    Attention all planets of the Solar Federation! We have assumed control! - Neil Peart
  11. ob. Futurama reference... by Tastecicles · · Score: 5, Funny

    first one, then t'other.

    --
    Operation Guillotine is in effect.
  12. Where's the ka-boom? by DrogMan · · Score: 2, Interesting

    It's generally not a good idea to keep liquid Nitrogen in a closed system - it expands by something like 700 times when it goes from liquid to gas, so either you need to keep it cool - hard to do if it's sitting on a hot-plate, or make the pot extremely pressure proof... And then you still need to keep it cool. Best to just let it boil away and top it up...

  13. Windows Vista by FourthLaw · · Score: 3, Funny

    What no Vista jokes yet? Must be the Slashdot holiday skeleton crew...

    --
    Skilled in differentiating ravens from a writing desks.
  14. Re:Is LN2 really necessary? by Alastor187 · · Score: 2, Informative

    I mean, unless the processor *needs* to be at LN2 temperature wouldn't it be more practical just to increase the flow rate of a water cooling system?

    The processor is never going to be the same temperature as the liquid nitrogen (or any cooling median). As long as there is thermal resistance and/or heat being dissipated there will be some temperature difference.

    You could just increase the flow rate of a water cooling system, but that is not without issues either. For example, pumping power increases exponentially with flow rate and heatsink geometry is typically optimal for a given flow rate.

    Using the liquid nitrogen is just an easy way to get a high heat transfer rate by maximizing the temperature difference between the processor and cooling medium.

    What I wonder is why people just put the liquid nitrogen is simple hollow copper tube. This isn't any different than a natural convection air heatsink. Why not create fins inside and try to maximize surface area and convection?