MSI's Powerless Air Cooler

[One4yu2c]

MSI will present a live demo of our "Air Power Cooler" concept product in MSI's ECO area block on the MSI booth in CeBIT Hall 21 B34. You will see the electricity-less fan which was powered only by the movement of heat and air, the fan speed will change relative to the chipset temperature. The prototype "Air Power Cooler" is our first attempt to investigate how the Eco concept can work in tandem with the evolution of the mainboard "ECOlution" and joins the theme for MSI at Cebit08. We will continue to co-work with our great partners and try to turn this early concept into mass production in the near future.

MSI -- World's First Powerless Air Cooler on a Mainboard!

[theburan]

That's a pretty nifty idea. Looks a little bulky though, but not too bad,I guess.

[polobunny]

Haha I saw this yesterday and tought of creating a thread about it, but totally forgot. It's a nice concept if well applied. I'm not too sure it will create enough air to cool a high-end northbridge however.
Another problem I saw with the demo board picture is that the fans blows toward the DIMM's, most likely this is going to impede airflow when ram is installed but also that it's going against most if not all case airflow (sucking air in a the front, blowing out at the back).
Other than this, like I said if well applied it's a cool concept. Is it really useful, considering how much a chipset fan costs in production and energy, that I'm not sure...

[RangerXLT8]

Originally Posted by polobunny

Haha I saw this yesterday and tought of creating a thread about it, but totally forgot. It's a nice concept if well applied. I'm not too sure it will create enough air to cool a high-end northbridge however.
Another problem I saw with the demo board picture is that the fans blows toward the DIMM's, most likely this is going to impede airflow when ram is installed but also that it's going against most if not all case airflow (sucking air in a the front, blowing out at the back).
Other than this, like I said if well applied it's a cool concept. Is it really useful, considering how much a chipset fan costs in production and energy, that I'm not sure...

I think they are over-doing this. A simple Copper heatsink with some heatpipes and a fan just in case is all that's needed.

[Lead Head]

Most Stirling engines need to be very hot in order to have any kind of power at all. Coupled with all PLASTIC parts, bearings, gears , etc..I see these coolers failing very very quickly, even from just a tiny bit of dust.

I agree with ranger, for how large this thing is, and how complicated it is, it would be cheaper just put a big passive sink, or a smaller active cooler.

IMO, this is just away for MSI to charge $10-15 more per board

[screwballl]

wow I did not see this thread... I looked before posting too... may as well merge my thread about the same thing into this one...

Originally Posted by Lead Head

Most Stirling engines need to be very hot in order to have any kind of power at all. Coupled with all PLASTIC parts, bearings, gears , etc..I see these coolers failing very very quickly, even from just a tiny bit of dust.

I agree with ranger, for how large this thing is, and how complicated it is, it would be cheaper just put a big passive sink, or a smaller active cooler.

IMO, this is just away for MSI to charge $10-15 more per board

When you are talking about 30-60ºC temps for a chipset and the small size of this setup, there should be no problem getting enough heat to turn the small fan

now we need one for a CPU with a larger 80-120mm fan

[gvblake22]

This is an interesting concept, but probably not best suited for computer parts. Any power savings due to this "powerless" fan are going to be completely insignificant compared to what the rest of the system is sucking up. Couple that with the obviously higher price of these (due to complexity), I really don't think we will ever see something like this on the typical, everyday computer motherboard (or processor or GPU for that matter). Props to MSI for being innovative, but this is not the place they need to be marketing it.

[Stormcrow]

Like that little fragile plastic fan can generate any kind of air pressure unless it's spinning at around 5,000RPMs. Also pointed the wrong way, lets move what heat we can onto the RAM...

[Quakindude]

I nominate this for the "Most interesting Post of the month" award. Very, very interesting concept there.

[RangerXLT8]

Like blake said, the amount of power a chipset fan uses is like 2-3w max. It's a reason to charge more for a MB. This concept has its place in the world but it's not on a motherboard.