Date: December 31st, 2008
Article by: Joe Anderson (Hardware Reviewer)
Edited By:
Nathan Glentworth (Owner / Head Editor)
Product was submitted by: Thermaltake USA
<--SHOP FOR A CPU COOLER HERE
THERMALTAKE CORPORATE PROFILE
Thermaltake Incorporation, based in Taipei, Taiwan is the global leader Thermal Solution and Thermal Management for PC & Industrial Market. Its Engineering Staffs masters in Airflow Analysis, Material Conductivity and Heat Dissipation Efficiency. Thermaltake offers a wide range of products and services, providing effective and cost-conscious cooling devices. The Company has more than 1,000 employees worldwide supporting customers from its headquarters in Taipei, Taiwan, as well as from offices in China, Europe and United States Continent.
PRODUCT INTRODUCTION
It's always refreshing to see a new design come out. I like seeing companies taking risks and trying out new ideas. Even if those designs don't live up to expectations, there are likely lessons to be learned in the process, and the consumer gets to see product evolution in action.
Always a leader in the PC aftermarket, Thermaltake is never shy about trying new ideas. Their new SpinQ cooler has a distinctive look and unusual cooling design that is visually appealing and promises top-shelf cooling performance. Thermaltake has graciously provided a sample of the SpinQ for evaluation. It has gotten some design awards already, let's put it on the testbed and see how it does.
SMALL HEATPIPE TECHNOLOGY TUTORIAL
I am going to keep this as simple as possible to get the basic premise across to all of the Tweaknews readers. Please don't be insulted if this is too simple for your education level. I have to cater my writing to the least technical reader looking for information.
The basic idea behind heatpipe technology is really simple.
1.) With a tube containing a compressed fluid/gas, the fluid comes in contact with the heat source (the cpu core, in this case) which heats up the volatile fluid and turns it to a gas. The energy is absorbed in the gas production process and is ready for transportation.
2.) The heated gas now travels along the inner portion of the tube where it comes to the cooling portion of the heatsink in this example.
3.) The radiator, with or without a fan, will cool the liquid and transfer the energy (AKA heat) to the radiator to be dispersed to the surrounding air. With the heat removed, the vapor quickly condenses back to a fluid and runs along the inside surface of the pipe, back down to the bottom, where the process can be started all over again.
For another example, you can consider a boiling pot of water with a glass lid as a very very basic heatpipe. When the water boils, the water vapor comes in contact with the cooler glass pot lid which forces the vapor to condense back to water, where it dribbles back down the inside of the lid back into the pot.
It's basic, but it gets the point across.
