Dean Carpenter's Mail
[EMAIL PROTECTED] on 05/05/99 09:07:00 AM AFAICR, a heat pipe is a sealed pipe/tube, with a convection fluid inside. It's not just a simple tube, but does have some structure within. Apply heat to one end, and natural convection causes the fluid to circulate, moving the heat to the other end. I remember seeing a 1 meter heat pipe at school in Sydney Aust. way back when. We took turns feeling one end while the teacher lit a match at the other end. It only took a few seconds to feel our end get warm, then hot. Pretty cool :) -------------------------Forwarded------------------------ From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]@INTERNET To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]@INTERNET cc: debian-user@lists.debian.org@INTERNET Subject: Re: diskless box: fanless too ? On Tue, 4 May 1999, John C. Ellingboe wrote: >Michael Stenner wrote: >> I disagree that the cpu would need a fan - I used to run a very old P60 >> (a REALLY hot chip) without a fan (fan kept breaking...) and it was >> toasty but caused no problems. If you choose a cpu that runs cool, you >> should be OK. You can also look into thermoelectric (or Peltier) >> coolers -- no moving parts. > >You still have to get the heat (cpu + Peltier device) out of the box. >Even though the cpu will be cool, when using a Pelier device the box >will become quite toasty. One of the heat pipe devices would be a >better choice. There you would have a heatsink plate mounted on the >cpu and a tube running out side the case to a heatsink. Admittedly, I may not be as cautious as I should be about these things, but it doesn't seem to me that the box would necessarily get dangerously hot. When I was doing it, I left the box open, but as I said, that was a VERY hot chip. I've never heard of a "heat pipe", but that sounds quite nice. I'm a little confused: is it a true pipe (i.e. with air inside) that relies on convection? or is it something like a copper rod? I must also say that the suggestions about controlling the Peltier cooler are quite good. You can buy a ready-made device for cheap.