Date:
Thursday , May 01, 2008
Author:
Marc Adams
Editor:
Kyle Bennett
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Noise Limit SilentFlux CPU Coolers

Does an "innovative refrigerating pumpless liquid cooler" for your CPU that promises "near water cooling performance" sound interesting? Us too! Finally we were able to find them at Directron after seeing these at Computex in 2007.

INTRODUCTION

Here at HardOCP we have seen technologies change over the years and it is always exciting to see what possibilities these new technologies hold. One area of the enthusiast world that hasn’t changed very much over the years is air cooling. One could argue the point that the principle behind many designs works as best as can be expected. Spreading the heat created by a CPU over a large surface area to be dissipated by a fan has proven to be effective of the years. The method for transporting this heat to the array of fins has seen some advances in the last few years. Most notably through the increasing use of heat pipes that can work just as effectively in any orientation. So while there has been some innovation in the world of air cooling there hasn’t been a radical departure from this proven method. One company is determined to change the way we cool our PCs by combining the world of water cooling and air cooling into a Frankenstein creation utilizing bubble pump technology. The company is Noise Limit and the coolers are the SilentFlux ATX and SilentFlux Media. Two coolers designed to be very different from what you have come to expect heat sinks to look like.

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A big thanks to the good guys and gals over at Directron for supplying our testing samples

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Bubble Pump Tech

How do these two coolers combine elements of air cooling and water you ask? By the use of a “bubble pump” of course. Basically, these coolers are completely sealed off and filled with a fluid that has a very low boiling point. When the fluid is heated is forms bubbles that rise and help to push the fluid above it through the system and into the radiator where it is then cooled and returned to the chamber to pick up more heat and the system starts all over again.

Here is a bit more info taken from the Noise Limit site:

The SilentFlux® coolers work solely on the basis of thermodynamic principles. The bubble pump forces the coolant liquid to flow very fast in one direction through the cooler. This forced flow of cooling liquid is more effective than heat pipe cooling because the liquid and gas do not flow against each other within the same pipe. The heat from the CPU is transferred directly from the cooling head to the coolant. The thermal resistance is less than that of traditional heat pipe coolers.

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So all that is left is to see if these actually work as marketed.