

Kronos Advanced Technologies claims that's the way we're headed





Comments     Threshold


Pros and cons of ion cooling
By Guigsy on 1/5/2007 7:31:39 AM , Rating: 2
As mentioned, InventGeek show you how to make a home-made ionic fan for a few dollars ( ), but it doesn't look very safe or healthy.

With a normal heatsink, there is a 'skin' of air that's stuck to the surface of the heatsink. The closer you get to the surface, the slower the air moves. The more pins, dimples and fins you add, the worse this effect becomes. The heatsink conducts the heat into this skin of air, which then conducts it further from the heatsink until it reaches the wind-blast of your nice big fan you've got strapped to the top. This skin of air is very thin, only a few mm, but it insulates your CPU very nicely.

Ion cooling works by charging up the heatsink so much that the electrons literally jump off of it into this skin of air. This electrically charged (ionized) air is then repelled by the heatsink. This removes the skin effect and drastically increases the effectiveness of a heatsink, and without any moving parts, so it's very quiet.

The negative is that you've got a high voltage inside your PC that could hurt you. The voltage can also fry chips very quickly. Also, many people think ionized air is bad. Maybe Dell will produce a case with security bolts on the outside and switches to prevent you from switching it on when it's open? I can't see a solution an enthusiast's market any time soon.

By masher2 (blog) on 1/5/2007 7:43:30 AM , Rating: 2


RE: Pros and cons of ion cooling
By mindless1 on 1/5/2007 9:26:21 AM , Rating: 2
You've succeeded in learning a basic principle then misinterpreting the extent of the effect.

No it does not extend several mm, and no the effect is not "worse". It is greater but not worse, the difference is the larger surface area of the 'sink.

Further your idea ignores the temperature gradient between 'sink surface and surrounding air. That ALONE makes the skin concept of minimal effect, that skin is constantly expanding air (which is then less dense) rising away, and if it did not then it and the surrounding air would also have a similar thermal gradient to whatever extent it did not (rise away). If we weren't talking about a heatsink it would be more significant.

That doesn't mean we wouldn't see a bit of an improvement by increasing the velocity of the air across the heatsink surface, but it's not such a primary focus that it's worth isolated consideration.

RE: Pros and cons of ion cooling

RE: Pros and cons of ion cooling










Related Articles
