Danamics debuts liquid metal-based LM10 CPU cooler

Still not satisfied by the many, many cooling options out there to keep your toasty CPU under control? Then perhaps upstart Danamics' new liquid metal-based LM10 cooler will meet with your approval. According to the company, the LM10 is not only the first liquid metal-based cooler to hit the market, but it says it'll do a better job at keeping your CPU cool than most water-based cooling systems. That's apparently possible thanks to a combination of liquid metal (the exact specifics of which seem to be under wraps) and a "multi-string" electromagnetic pump, which has no moving parts and doesn't require external housings or large reservoirs. Unfortunately, there's no word on pricing or availability just yet, but judging from the way the company's talking about it, it seems like it's about ready to go.

[Ignatius @ Jul 18th 2008 9:52PM]

Liquid metal? Well, I'll pretend that I know what they're talking about and be happy with the benefits.

[tbone @ Jul 18th 2008 9:55PM]

i think it's the same liquid metal as the t-1000 from terminator 2

[deyanimay @ Jul 18th 2008 10:07PM]

Let me re-word it for you "Metal-based, liquid cooler."

[deyanimay @ Jul 18th 2008 10:08PM]

my bad i should have hit the "read" link before i posted.

[someone... @ Jul 19th 2008 12:16AM]

For the people who don't know, liquid metal is a special type of metal developed partially by NASA. People get confused by the name, but liquid metal isn't actually a liquid at all; its name is really referring to the process by which it was made. Basically here's how it goes.
When most metals cool, they form crystalline structures. Liquid metal is cooled in such a way that it doesn't form these crystalline structures, which makes it stronger than normal metals (a 1-inch bar of titanium holds, if my memory is right, about 175,000 pounds. A bar of liquid metal of the same size holds about 300,000 pounds), along with other useful properties, including the ability to return kinetic energy very efficiently, a property that is called a coefficient of restitution. I'd imagine that, since it is amorphous, and not crystalline, it would conduct heat more efficiently

[madgamer @ Jul 19th 2008 12:46AM]

You could actually get liquid metal thermal paste for a while like here:
http://www.frozencpu.com/thr-26.html?id=KAGmsSCh
but it would eat up parts if it got off the cpu(anything aluminum I think). This may be based on something like that inside the heat pipes?

[cmonkey @ Jul 19th 2008 2:37AM]

Wow, there are a lot of comments that are flat out wrong.

Seeing as there is an electromagnetic pump, the liquid needs to be ferromagnetic. Meaning, its probably just using ferrofluid.

[ppk @ Jul 19th 2008 7:19AM]

Mercury is a liquid metal and I do not find anything particularly odd about it.

[arthur barnhouse @ Jul 19th 2008 9:37AM]

they can't possibly be using mercury for a coolant in a consumer heat sink. imagine how much mercury would be required in order for that to work. All you'd need is one crack in the case, and you'd basically have to call in the EPA.

[Wwhat @ Jul 20th 2008 11:31AM]

Most people find mercury plenty odd, and then they get odd themselves from being near it.

[cjameshuff @ Jul 21st 2008 9:43AM]

They almost certainly do *not* mean a metal glass, but rather an actual metal alloy with a low melting point. There are numerous examples of alloys with melting points near room temperature, several with melting points below room temperature.

Metallic mercury is not extremely toxic, it's compounds of mercury that cause trouble. However, several of the alloys mentioned above are entirely non-toxic, and likely to be used despite their higher price for ease of disposal. (And a mercury spill inside a computer with various high-current power supplies could produce some rather more dangerous mercury vapor, and worse.)

Finally, the electromagnetic pump does not imply a ferromagnetic liquid, only a conductive one...a current passes through the liquid perpendicular to the direction of flow and to an external magnetic field, and Lorentz forces push the fluid forward. They do not mean ferrofluid, they mean exactly what they say, liquid metal, and one that is not at all ferromagnetic.

[Kris S. @ Jul 18th 2008 9:58PM]

I'll wait for a few benches and price tag on this one.

[jigokusan @ Jul 18th 2008 10:03PM]

Liquid Metal on my CPU? I donno if I want my pc to melt into a T1000.

[pball_inuyaha @ Jul 18th 2008 10:04PM]

I bet it's some type of low melting point alloy. I'd be interested to know what it is, and too some benchmarks some time

[Nimbo @ Jul 18th 2008 10:03PM]

Sounds like it has snake oil. I hear they cool NASA supercomputers with that stuff.

[takeme @ Jul 18th 2008 10:10PM]

Its inside the pipes:

"Liquid metal brings another advantage besides its efficiency. The properties of liquid metal make the use of an electromagnetic pump possible. Danamics’ patent pending multi-string pump delivers high flow combined with a very low power-draw of less than 1W. And compared to watercooling pumps, the electromagnetic pump used in LM10 cooler 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."

[ddub @ Jul 18th 2008 10:11PM]

I really hope the "liquid metal" in question isn't mercury.

[Conor Maher @ Jul 18th 2008 10:20PM]

Yeah it has a worse Specific Heat Capacity than water but the interesting thing about this design is that the liquid metal is circulating which could make it perform better than heatpipes

[Ethyriel @ Jul 18th 2008 10:21PM]

Why for? It's enclosed, and it gives a few lucky souls the opportunity to make Darwin proud.

[jfjb @ Jul 18th 2008 10:41PM]

Mercury melts at 234.32 Kelvin... somewhere around -38.83 °C or -37.89 °F
Mercury boils at 629.88 Kelvin... somewhere around 356.73 °C or 674.11 °F

so I'd say you're pretty safe, unless you eat some salmon... LOL

[Phil Perman @ Jul 19th 2008 6:07AM]

It'll be a gallium indium tin alloy which has a melting point of around -20° C

http://sci-toys.com/scitoys/scitoys/thermo/liquid_metal/liquid_metal.html

[Rob @ Jul 18th 2008 10:24PM]

http://www.liquidmetal.com/

It may be something relating to that. I have a baseball bat as well as a flash drive made with the stuff, and its pretty flexible (for the bat) and strong (for the flash drive). I'm not sure how conductive of heat it is and what kind of efficiency it will bring.

[BatteryAcid @ Jul 18th 2008 11:22PM]

I have a Head tennis racket with liquid metal. I think its just solid metal with odd properties.

[KeegdnaB @ Jul 18th 2008 10:21PM]

Is this the same liquid metal as in my 4GB Cruzer Titanium?

[Wormbolt @ Jul 18th 2008 10:28PM]

Does it have a hemi?

[Alex @ Jul 19th 2008 8:45AM]

Liquid metal? No Moving parts? I guess It can only kill its owner with knives and stabbing weapons....

[David @ Jul 18th 2008 10:56PM]

The metal could be http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galinstan - from the article - "it is a promising coolant..."

[KEROLiUKAS @ Jul 18th 2008 10:54PM]

Apparantally it turns out my Sansa e200 series has liquid metal..whatever that is.. This seems like a very cool way to keep your CPU cool if it works as good as this article is making it sound.

[DK @ Jul 18th 2008 11:06PM]

Isn't putting ELECTRO-MAGNETS inside your computer case with all that magnetically based storage media kinda... stupid?

[Zeratul @ Jul 18th 2008 11:20PM]

It all matters on how well it is shielded. Remember that within the hard drive itself are very powerful magnets that are directional and well shielded. Personally I will not worry about a 1W electro-magnet on the heatsink.

[paragraph @ Jul 18th 2008 11:23PM]

How do you think that motor that spins your hard drive platter works? magic?

Magnets can be used within computers, they just need to be carefully engineered to not interefere.

Additionally, if your hard drive is right on top of your CPU cooler you have other issues.

[Spyvie @ Jul 18th 2008 11:29PM]

Not only the HDD, but every fan or other moving part in the case.

[Stan @ Jul 20th 2008 10:26PM]

The strength of a dipole magnetic field falls off as 1/r^3, so it doesn't take much distance for the field to fall to levels that are safe for disks. (This is why the magnetic fields generated by fans and hard disk motors don't kill your data either.)

[Joshua Walters @ Jul 18th 2008 11:28PM]

Self Contained?

Still...

My Blue Orb does a decent job keeping things cool, so Ill stick with that. For now at least.

[Camper @ Jul 19th 2008 12:15AM]

This isn't the first, I remember seeing a cooler that did the exact same thing back in August of '06, when I built my last PC.

[Travis @ Jul 18th 2008 11:58PM]

Is no one else worried about having an electro-magnet for a pump? I know that the electronics (more specifically the memory and hard drives) are no longer as sensitive to outside EM interference, but having one inside your computer running the entire time your computer is makes me a bit leery of this technology.

[Jaimi @ Jul 19th 2008 12:48AM]

@Travis: While you're at it, take the magnets out of your hard drive motors and fans too. You'll be a lot safer then!

[andres @ Jul 19th 2008 1:08AM]

hard drive uses magnets and magnetic motor
cd drive uses magnetic motor
power supply uses transformer emitting magnetic waves

theres a ton of magnetic fields going on, not that its better to have more, but im pretty sure a little bit more wouldnt do much harm.

[jwiebmer @ Jul 19th 2008 1:17AM]

If you want more information on Liquid Metal check it out here:

http://www.liquidmetal.com/

[why not the LS2LS7? @ Jul 19th 2008 11:59AM]

I think you're right about what it is. It's likely made of amorphous aluminum. But why? The crystalline structure in metals conducts heat better than amorphous metal does.

[catfish @ Jul 19th 2008 12:18AM]

overall its actually a rather simple system. a low melting point alloy consisting primarily of indium and or galium (which is lq at room temp) run in coils powered by electromagnetic pumps (which work in a really neat way actually).

the real question though is whether the amounts of indium/galium required can be had at a cheap enough price to make the thing marketable. (though it does promise very good efficiency, so I'd say yes for at least a small demograph)

[someone... @ Jul 19th 2008 12:21AM]

Sorry... I accidentally posted this in the wrong place... >.<


For the people who don't know, liquid metal is a special type of metal developed partially by NASA. People get confused by the name, but liquid metal isn't actually a liquid at all; its name is really referring to the process by which it was made. Basically here's how it goes.
When most metals cool, they form crystalline structures. Liquid metal is cooled in such a way that it doesn't form these crystalline structures, which makes it stronger than normal metals (a 1-inch bar of titanium holds, if my memory is right, about 175,000 pounds. A bar of liquid metal of the same size holds about 300,000 pounds), along with other useful properties, including the ability to return kinetic energy very efficiently, a property that is called a coefficient of restitution. I'd imagine that, since it is amorphous, and not crystalline, it would conduct heat more efficiently

[someone... @ Jul 19th 2008 12:20AM]

Sorry for re-posting this... it wound up in the wrong place >.<


For the people who don't know, liquid metal is a special type of metal developed partially by NASA. People get confused by the name, but liquid metal isn't actually a liquid at all; its name is really referring to the process by which it was made. Basically here's how it goes.
When most metals cool, they form crystalline structures. Liquid metal is cooled in such a way that it doesn't form these crystalline structures, which makes it stronger than normal metals (a 1-inch bar of titanium holds, if my memory is right, about 175,000 pounds. A bar of liquid metal of the same size holds about 300,000 pounds), along with other useful properties, including the ability to return kinetic energy very efficiently, a property that is called a coefficient of restitution. I'd imagine that, since it is amorphous, and not crystalline, it would conduct heat more efficiently

[someone... @ Jul 19th 2008 12:22AM]

AAAAAHHHHHHH!!!!!! 0_0

Buggy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

SORRY >.

[Darryl @ Jul 19th 2008 2:14AM]

I think they mean a liquid cooling system where the coolant is a metal with a low melting point, so "liquid metal" is referring to a metal that is literally in a liquid state, not liquidmetal(tm).

[drt @ Jul 19th 2008 5:49AM]

Not new, this has been tried before by a small company in Austin called Nanocoolers, they went bust about a year ago. A couple of problems with the technology. While it works, liquid metal is toxic, no how, no way to get around that it just is, think mercury and you get a sense of this stuff. That issue comes into play with disposal, you can't just toss it in the trash, all computer mfg have to be Rohas compliant, this is not.

Also it is very expensive so anything larger than a small system is going to cost way to much. If it leaks it certainly is going to fry whatever it touches and then how do you clean it up?

Other than very esoteric applications it will never be mainstream.

[霽月瀛台 @ Jul 19th 2008 6:29AM]

how much how much how much how much does it cost is the question.
HOW MUCH.
I will buy it if it is under $100

[grifmusic @ Jul 19th 2008 1:43PM]

I cannot wait for a silent fan-less computer! Every time my G5's fans take off, it sounds like a jet and I think it is the stone ages!

Here's another way to do it - basically invented in the 1800's. WIKI excerpt:

The first Stirling-cycle cryocooler was developed at Philips in the 1950s and commercialized in such places as liquid air production plants. The Philips Cryogenics business evolved until it was split off in 1990 to form the Stirling Cryogenics & Refrigeration BV,[63] The Netherlands. This company is still active in the development and manufacturing of Stirling cryocoolers and cryogenic cooling systems.
A wide variety of smaller size Stirling cryocoolers are commercially available for tasks such as the cooling of electronic sensors and sometimes microprocessors. For this application, Stirling cryocoolers are the highest performance technology available, due to their ability to lift heat efficiently at very low temperatures. They are silent, vibration-free, and can be scaled down to small sizes, and have very high reliability and low maintenance. As of 2008, cryocoolers are considered to be the only commercially successful Stirling devices.

[Bodhammer @ Jul 20th 2008 6:45PM]

ah.....

http://www.stirlingenergy.com/projects/solar-one.asp - Another commercial Stirling application.

[Dharun @ Jul 19th 2008 1:56PM]

When I scroll up and down, the image of the heatsink flickers.