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Thermaltake merges chassis and fridge technology. Chilly!

by Matt Davey on 4 March 2008, 23:33

Tags: Thermaltake (3540.TWO)

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Thermaltake's second backroom-surprise on its sprawling stand was a concept that landed late yesterday. The company was unsure whether to even show it at CeBIT 2008 but we're glad that it did.


It's a refrigerated system that's still very much at the concept stage. But Thermaltake hopes to use its research to push niche solutions out into the mass market.

A simple condenser - with fan - is mounted where the chassis' rear fan would normally go. This connects to an expansion valve from where cooled liquid passes up to the CPU plate. The liquid moves on into a reduced-sized compressor before returning to the condenser to start the process again.


With copper running throughout the system, though, different configurations will be needed to suit differing motherboard layouts. And that appears to cause big problems for Thermaltake's plan to take this system into the mass market.

The company's trying to figure out how to get around that problem but, right now, even slight variations between motherboard layouts could undermine the whole idea.



Even so, we admire Thermaltake for its efforts to date - it's good to see this sort of stuff being attempted.

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HEXUS Forums :: 12 Comments

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Did they say anything about a problem with water condensation within the chassis due to the extreme variation in temperature?
I showed this to my boss - he said ‘why not just put the whole computer in a fridge…’ :)
Any temps guys or are they too embarised to say any?



What gfx card is that aswell? Looks like a 7950GX2…?
I dont think the unit is capable of cooling a CPU much below ambient, so condensation should not be an issue.

Nice idea - needs more attention to detail to be a retail unit.

I will watch it's progress with great interest.

Mav
The CPU was running at 28 degrees - it was a VERY hot room at the back of the booth.

I havent detailed this in the article as i still need to go back and get machine specifications if its still here.

Matt