The heat pipes are a lot more efficient than a passive water circulation system.
Heat pipes work by phase change, the boiling of the working fluid in the pipe removes a lot of heat. The density of the gas is way lower than that of liquid, so it can carry away heat much faster than liquid only in a passive system.
If they plan the case well, they can get some amount of airflow by convection.
The Apple cube is only 8x8x8 and it dissipates about 45W by convection alone.
Upgraded Cubes do need fans though. If the cube was larger or had better airflow and heat transfer through the case, it could dissipate more heat.
At least that's Powerlogix's plan with thier aluminum case replacement.
The Zalman case is about silence, get the overclocking out of your mind, it wont work for that. If anything you will probably need to UNDER-clock a bit to keep things running well. It wont do Dual Opterons with a 10KRPM RAID array.
There is a good sized market for Quiet over fast and cool. Zalman's niche is in that space. They better get moving on this design before some other case maker beats them to market.
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