$40 vapoChill Micro
 

http://www20.tomshardware.com/busine...it2005-09.html

Ase Tek claims 130w dissapation...

The technical translation of such a marketing claim typically goes like this:

Using the most howlingly strong fan available that will easily fit on to the device, the CPU in a 20C ambient room will be reaching the peak operational case temperature as rated by the CPU manufacturer.

Such temperature are typically measure by Tcase, being the temperature of the IHS atop the CPU die (the CPU die actually being quite a deal warmer than Tcase).

Always be wary of power dissipation limit figures. Such figures are given at the outer operating extremes of ALL the devices in the test system (CPU, temperature, fan, etc), but for some reason the natural human response is to fail to perceive such information for what it is.

The natural human response from me observing people's behavior online, is to think "Oh, so long as my CPU is dissipating less than 130W, then it won't get hot", which I guess exactly explains why such marketing information is given.

An analogous example would be to think of a car engine's peak power output. One rarely considers that and thinks "So long as I'm just below that figure, the car engine will be running quiet and cool", but for some reason this logic is switched off for many people when reading thermal dissipation figures.

We can only look at their figures up to this point and go "Hmmmm..."

I was amazed at the price for a very miniature phase-change setup (if indeed it really is a phase-change setup).

I thought it was interesting and would make great fodder for the cynical bunch we have here. :)

It's a heat-pipe. Heat-pipes since the dawn of when they were invented have worked by the phase-change principle.

A common marketing practise for many companies is to single out an element of an otherwise well-known, quite old and commonly used piece of technology, express it with a flashy term that really is describing in a less commonly understood way how the device works, and claim innovation and something special.

Another heatpipe HSF review:
http://www.silentpcreview.com/article223-page1.html

I think Asetek is just banking on their flagship product's reputation with this thing. Its just another heatpipe cooler like every Taiwanese company now stamps out in China before China invades them. :) And its not just any heatpipe cooler, its a particularly ugly one. The only neat thing about this contraption is that you can twist it to face the optimal airflow position in your case. And yup, heatpipes are a phase change technology, just like a real Vapochill...yawn.

Long time ago I remember reading rad specs with a note to the effect that to achieve the stated performance you would need to stick a recomenent sticking a frankly implausible Delta fan on each side.......

It's a thermosyphon, not a heat-pipe (no capillary action, just gravity for flow return) and it's another copy of the old (6+ months ago) Calmera KS10 from Noiseless Cooler (manufacturer is always LG Tech.). Asetek just does a little trick to avoid the loop (test here : http://www.cooling-masters.com/articles-28-18.html , not too bad) :

http://www.cooling-masters.com/image...S10/image1.jpg http://www.cooling-masters.com/image...0/calmera3.jpg Calmera KS10 2&3 tubes version
Nothing new under the sun...

i thought the whole point of the micro was that it'd be cheaper but have the same performance as it's heatpipe based bretheren, but $40 isn't exactly a steal.

Thermosyphon as in like this?

http://devitec.de/thermosiphon.htm

If so, then it's not phase-changing.

If it is involving a phase-change action, then it is still just a heat-pipe, but is just one that appears to not have a wicking structure and instead relies on gravity for coolant return. That sort of thing is a heat-pipe too, and is what the first heat-pipes used to do. The capillary wicking thing is a later development in heat-pipe advances.

I'm in agreement with HAL here (I think everyone is). Asetek is just getting some mileage on the name built by "real" vapochills. I will conceed that the variable positioning of the HSF is an innovative feature.

Looks heavy...

Looks ugly...

Asetek won't get any of my business from this product. I doubt that the performance would be substantially better than a thermalright xp-120, or an xp-90. The sad fact is that they will get a lot of business by just duping people with the name. WOW! That gets me pissed off. :mad: It's almost as bad as thermaltake making money off of oddly shaped "rocket" coolers. :mad:

one of my friends showed me this thing and i busted up into laughter. I saw the title before the product and i was excited.. a mini vapo... but when I saw it i was sorely disapointed for .005 seconds and then started laughing.

max.. what can you expect from a company. they are here to make money. not to make us happy. cathar isnt a company. he is an individual he is here to help us (make us happy with his products)... he isnt in it for the money.

money= unscrupulous
love of the game = everyone happy (well almost)

ill stop babbling now.

This product is everything they claim it is. A cooler using phase change technology.

But there is no compressor used, it's just a passive process, just like an evaporative water cooling loop. That's why this cooler is limited to room temperature. In optimal conditions, you can go a little below it, but to get 'real' phase change performace, you need to actively 'push' the process, using a compressor.

I guess that defines the difference in preception between 'phase change' and 'heat pipe' or 'evaporative' cooling from our point of view ...

Asetek doesn't lie about the product, but they do indeed twist the names, to make people believe it's something else. But never worry, if they fool people, it will result in a worse image people have about their company. So they WILL end up fooling themselves.

I don't talk about thermosyphon which use density differences to induce natural convection to work... There are several terms in phase-change cooling systems and thermosyphon is the exact one here because no capillary return, it's just a definition based on differences between manners to use flow. Thermosyphons systems are generally better than conventionnal heat-pipe because viscous limit in wick structure don't exist for example, but gravity is a issue to keep them working well. Heat-pipes could work against gravity but they loose a lot of the efficency, drop to ~10-15%, thermosyphon can't.

Like the thermacore thermosyphon, exactly the same under a little different shape :
http://www.thermacore.com/images/LTS.jpg

Sounds like a quibble over terminology. A "thermosyphon" as you describe it above is really just a traditional unwicked heat-pipe with capillary return.

I didn't create these definitions, I only use them correctly. Let's call a cat a cat.

A cat is a cat. Ya know!? I feel better already!!

More like this thing is an Abyssinian Cat.

I'm saying it's a cat.

You're saying, "It's an Abyssinian".

I agree, yes, it is a cat. It's an Abyssinian too, granted.

It's like a square is a rectangle, but not all rectangles are squares. All thermosyphons are heat pipes, but not all heat pipes are thermosyphons.

cats, hmmm, that makes me hungry for chinese food

Of course if it turns out not be be effective it would be a dog.....