The Register® — Biting the hand that feeds IT

Feeds

Chip cooler launches liquid nitro at CPUs

New frontiers in frigidity

A US company that specializes in CPU-cooling systems has just released its latest weapon in the war against melty microprocessors: liquid nitrogen.

Auburn, Washington-based Koolance offers a broad range of CPU coolers, but none that will make a serious overclocker's heart skip a beat more than the CPU-LN2 Liquid Nitrogen Evaporator.

Koolance liquid-nitrogen CPU cooling system

Prepare your CPU for global warming

The $144.99 system's acetal evaporator pot is coupled to a nickel-plated solid-copper cold plate that will suck heat off your CPU faster than anything short of the X-Men's Iceman. Just fill up the pot with some liquid nitrogen (around −195 °C or −320 °F), and you're good to go.

According to Koolance, the included bracket supports the following processor sockets:

  • AMD AM2, AM2+, AM3, and 939/940/754 processors (64, Opteron, X2, FX, Sempron)
  • Intel LGA 1366 (Core i7)
  • Intel LGA 775 (Quad, Core 2 Duo, Core Duo, Extreme, Pentium)
  • Intel 478 (Pentium 4, D, EE, M, Celeron)
  • Intel Xeon (603, 604, LGA771)

Liquid nitrogen sold separately. ®

Pah!

Why use nitrogen? Just get your frigid partner to sit on the motherboad.

1
0

So in summary..

.. Liquid nitrogen offers questionable benefits over other methods, is aimed at over-clockers and not the majority of pc owners, is only dangerous if used by non-experts (majority of the worlds population) - hmm...

I'm guessing its not the best idea ever!

Paris, cos she's the hottest icon available (the penguin is a close second)

DHD

0
0

I am a slut genius

The reason they stick Liquid nitrogen on CPU's isn't to remove the heat per sae, it's to remove the resistance.

Basically NO electrical resistance =sort of super conducting silicon = extremely high CPU cycles.

Hence (I think stupid) over clockers like to see how FAST they can push a chip before it goes bang or they create a new record or something.

e.g. DX 486 works at petaflop speeds for 9 seconds etc.

0
0

how often

Well the dewar on my microscope looked about the same size and in a room temp (approx 20C) lab I had too fill it twice in an 8 hour work day (although had plenty left at end of day). I would say allowing for expansion and loss during filling it used about 0.5 litre per filling (less in the afternoon if it was still cool). However this was to cool a CCD so was not really generating as much heat as a processor would.

0
0

Where to buy?

I have a gaming rig that despite owning the Antec 900 case my CPU really gets hot and would like to buy one ASAP!

I just wonder how often must I refill the thing and where to buy liquid nitrogen?!?!?!?!

0
0

More from The Register

Android is a mess and needs sprucing up, admits chief
Can Google really fix it? It isn't in control any more
New Lumia 925: This, loyalists, is the BIG ONE you've waited for
Nokia veep drills high-end master plan for El Reg
Android device? Ooohhhh, you mean a Samsung phone
Koreans nabbed nearly all the Q1 profits – more even than Google
Review: HP Pavilion 14 Chromebook
All roads lead to Chrome?
Borked your iDevice? Pay EVEN MORE to have it fixed by Applecare
Or scream at their hapless techies on their forums
Euro PC shipments plummet into bottomless pit of DOOOOM
11th quarter of decline, 20pc drop on last year - Gartner
MIT takes battery-powered robot cheetah for a gallop
Biomimetic big cat needs no power cord, just a walker