Solved The fanless spinning heatsink: more efficient and immune to dust

I give you the Air Bearing Heat Exchanger [PDF]. Developed by Jeff Koplow, a researcher at the US government’s Sandia National Laboratories, the new heatsink (which has also been dubbed the “Sandia Cooler”) basically resembles a big, metal fan. The cooler consists of a static metal baseplate, which is connected to the CPU, GPU, or other hot object, and a finned, rotating heat exchanger that are cushioned by a thin (0.001-inch) layer of air. As the metal blades spin, centrifugal force kicks up the air and throws it up and outwards, much like an impeller, creating a cooling effect.

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The fanless spinning heatsink: your questions answered by the inventor

After we covered the fanless, dust and detritus-immune heat exchanger last week, we were inundated with questions about the new technology. How does it work? Does it really use a thin layer of air to transfer heat — and if so, how can that possibly be better than copper or thermal grease? Is it really immune to dust, or are you just being hyperbolic? Are you sure that it can actually save 7% of annual electricity consumption in the US?

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A Guy

That is insane, I never thought someone could come up with a simple design that could do a better job than thermal grease.

That thing is SO COOL.

~Lordbob

Seems cool and I think it would make a killer looking heat sink inside a water cooling container of some kind. But I seriously doubt a "thin layer of air" transfers heat better than thermal paste. I do think it might be better at removing the heated air from the area and better overall but I don't think the heat transfer rate is going to be better

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Download the pdf file. It must be better, he has equations!

A Guy

Air is a poor conductor of heat. That's what makes fiberglass batting such a good insulator. I also don't understand why it's called fanless. It is a fan! ("...and a finned, rotating heat exchanger...") Looks like snake oil to me with low "high-end" capacity. And I would guess, very expensive.

@Carwiz:
It is fanless, it's a rotating heatsink with no fan.
A fan sucks air in and then blows it out the other side.
This rotating heatsink obtains air from the grooves of the blades and channels the air to the center creating a vortex of air, the vortex will put newly acquired air in the center as the hot air travels upward in the vortex.

Simple geometry of the design allows equal distribution of heat with an effective way of cooling by controlling the movement of the air.
I personally think that some kind of thermal grease would be needed since these things get up to 500 degrees Fahrenheit without the thermal paste.
If this thing can keep a Quad-Core CPU operating at 3.5GHz per core cool enough to operate safely and have long life expectancy, then I may consider it as a good option to use.

i would like to see one running... i should think it'd need a finger guard at least... (something to keep wires out of its way)

PwnFrnzy said:

@Carwiz:
It is fanless, it's a rotating heatsink with no fan.
A fan sucks air in and then blows it out the other side.

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LOL... Riiiiiiiiiiiight. Did you read what you wrote?

Forgot to mention: The heat sink is the 100mm base plate. The "FAN" is the spiral formed blades turned by that 5W motor. It draws air through the vanes and across the heat sink. The .001" air gap is between the heat sink and fan. Call the parts what ever you want, it's still a fan.

I don't know about your motherboard but there's no way a 100mm disk will fit on top of my CPU and clear the surrounding parts. That's outside the thermal area for the CPU too.

From what I read in the inventor's responses to questions:

The fanless spinning heatsink: your questions answered by the inventor | ExtremeTech

It is very clear that this is still very much in the formulative stage. I will keep my Noctua cooler, until this has actually matured to the point that it has been on the market for a while, and has been thoroughly tested and reviewed.

Apparently, it's no better than a stock CPU cooler right now. The inventor says he "would like to see" the cooling improved by a factor of 10 but I don't see that happening in the current configuration. I'll wait too.

Definitely cool for looks though

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