Purdue researchers want tiny refrigerators cooling your PC
By Darren Murph 
posted Jul 24th 2008 7:02PM
posted Jul 24th 2008 7:02PM
[Via TheFutureOfThings, thanks Iddo]
posted Jul 24th 2008 7:02PM
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they're using little penguins.
that's how it's done in the fridge.
trust me i've seen it in a cartoon.
"a ways'
I was just thinking about that a couple of days ago, but what about condensation?
@Matthew Hilario: how did you get a reply without a comment?
god, i have been watching this site for 15 mins,
well de rank me
You heard him boys, mark him down!
I guess you needed to be more specific when you said "him".
I never said me...
Build them into a Eee and I might just buy one... NOT!!!
Your buying habits are FASCINATING!
well there is an eeeRefrigerator coming out soon
you have just used up all your firsts for the rest of your engadget days. never again are you allowed to post first
original comment deleted. crap
they are also developing tiny tiny beers to go in it.
Purdue Rocks! I'm'ma be a freshman in 1 month!
Boiler Up!
http://torrentfreak.com/purdue-university-launches-p2p-network-to-bypass-riaa-080415/
http://www.engadget.com/2007/02/22/riaa-lists-top-25-universities-handing-out-piracy-notices/
That's a great school. I always enjoyed eating their chicken parts. Their oven-roasters weren't bad either. Give my regards to Frank.
Steffen..stfu. and danakin, i attend purdue, you're gonna love it. come by sigma pi and ask for scott, i'll show you around campus, or answer any questions you might have =)
BOILER UP!!!!
BTFU
Now you can store your coke inside the computer! Sign me up.
bad day jd? nice way to vent your anger
Sounds sweet, now to make a cupholder that also runs off of your computer using this... It really would be pretty nice.
give it a week tops and someone will have a mod that does that you watch
They have these odd 5 1/4 bay air conditioner units for PCs right now, it seems...
http://www.overclockers.com/articles1233/
But... well, A/C needs a place for water to go (right?) so this may be the superior solution.
What a waste of food and water
You have obviously stumbled upon the wrong website! Here, I'll get you to where you're obviously supposed to be going.
http://www.children.org/
Nah, i was replying to a guys comment who was a buncha spam, meaning he was a waste of food and water. But the comment got deleted so mine looks very out of place.
Graham, did you ever get over to MCAS Cherry Point?
OH. Yeah Engadget needs to delete the entire damn thread when they do crap like that.
Look, I said "obviously" two times in one comment before.
Gross.
i want one for my 360. haha
Isn't this what phase change cooling is? Because they already sell units that do that.
"Which would hopefully boost cooling performance while enabling computers to be smaller."
Actually, continually improving processors do that and they don't introduce unnecessary cost and complication.
Actually, you're an idiot.
Won't that create condensation?
The best comment so far. We rank the worng people sometimes.
I'm sure our engineers have thought of that.
It won't create condensation in the critical areas because, unlike a refrigerator, the purpose of this device is not to cool things down to below room temperature (that's when condensation occurs) but to prevent the processor and other components from rising significantly above its ideal working temperature, which is a good couple of degrees above room temperature.
The idea is to keep the processor "cool" as in, say 45 degrees Celsius, and not to keep it cold.
Right, but how does this technique end up being superior than peltiers? Any solution is going to generate excess heat in some location. Perhaps this one moves the heat generation elsewhere, but it seems (at least in the picture) to involve bulky plastic wires and things.
The article goes on to say that 'The best that all other cooling methods can achieve is to cool the chip down to ambient temperature'. Though you have to solve condensation issues, I can't imagine that statement being remotely true.
"Honey, I shrunk the refrigerator!"
Just hope you don't blow it up when it's already in your computer.
I don't know why someone hasn't done this sooner all a fridge is a compressor that uses a gas that cools when it expands shouldn't be too hard to miniaturize .
Great. So when my system develops a refrigerant leak I have to pay a horribly overpaid technician to service it. Wonderful...
My Xbox just sits next to the a/c unit. no red rings of death for me
Can it play....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................ROCK N ROLL?!?!?!?!?!
Damn..... Engadget cut off the word "ROCK"
Whatever you do, do not (I repeat - DO NOT) download the photo from the Purdue website... the guy in the blue shirt is in the middle of a very bad hair day.
On topic: this type cooling has been around for over 100 years and its predecessor has been around since the 1860s... and it's CARNOT efficiency is about 13-18%... not the best but as the article says it beats air cooled radiant type of heat dissipation.
There are other methods that are "in chip" - cool to about 1 degree C above absolute and convert the thermal gain to electricity but that's a whole nuther topic!
+1 to you sir for knowing of thermalelectrics, some day they will hopefully be another major game-changer in many aspects of our lives.
LOL I'm going to Purdue in about 2 years for college
Commenting from a Purdue dorm - woot
Some day Engadget will do a story on the amazing Purdue underwater robot (just started being made - I'm on the team)
how big are her boobs?
just a thought, but don't refrigerators put off a significant amount of heat from the back of them? sounds like an issue for an enclosed tower to me..
but hey, that's what millions of research dollars are for, right?
Correct. All refrigerators output more heat than they take away. But so do fans, so if you could make a refrigerator more efficent than a fan it would work.
Or make it more efficient at losing heat to the environment, by having a larger or hotter area on the outer surface.