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Can heat pipe cooling keep up with the new processors?

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I'm getting ready to build a new quad-core system and was wondering if current heat pipe coolers will be enough to keep everything cool or should I start looking for water cooling? Is computer gaming going to reach a point where water cooling is standard?

One other question....what kind of case should I be looking for my build? The last case I bought had two 120mm fans and it wasnt enough to cool everything. I had to keep the side panel off and use a floor fan to keep it from burning up.

More about : heat pipe cooling processors

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Anonymous
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The intel reference cooler doesn't even have heatpipes, so yeah they'll be good enough, if they were good enough in the first place 8)

2 120mm should do good cooling, it depends on much more then the Fan to get proper cooling. How hot is the ambient temperature? How big/cluttered was you PC?

For good cooling I recommande the Antec 900/CoolerMaster stacker 830/631 / SilverStone TJ07/TJ09.

All of those case have 4+ 120mm, the 900 even has a 250(?)mm fan on top.

Just because the processors are more powerful doesn't necessarily mean they put out more heat. Prescott cores put out loads of heat and any C2D will dominate any Prescooker in overall data calculation power.
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That being said, the only quad core processor out currently does produce more heat than the dual cores do. It is still not even close to being too hot for air cooling though. And with more die shrinks, the quad cores will become less hot. Then of course we will have even more cores producing heat. Either way, I don't think we are even going to approach Pres-hot temps any time soon (at stock speeds).

That case I had with the two 120mm fans made too much noise as is....I can just imagine what a case with four 120's would be like. ( does the words "wind tunnel" mean anything to you? ) Seems like to me that manufacturers are going overboard with fans just to keep these flame throwing cpu's under control. There's got to be a better way to remove the heat without our boxes sounding like a jet airplane.

On a side note...how does those people with dual graphics cards handle the noise with those turbo gpu fans blaring?

Does anybody make a 100ft monitor cord so I can sit far enough away from my box so I dont have to wear ear plugs? :lol: 

Quote:
Just because the processors are more powerful doesn't necessarily mean they put out more heat. Prescott cores put out loads of heat and any C2D will dominate any Prescooker in overall data calculation power.


data calculation power? you got a copyright on that lingo? wannabe.

Quote:
Is computer gaming going to reach a point where water cooling is standard?

Yeah, by then all the overclockers will have LN2 running 24/7 in a setup not yet invented :D 


Right. Because Korean LN2 players lead the industry in mods and fabrications.

Quote:
Just because the processors are more powerful doesn't necessarily mean they put out more heat. Prescott cores put out loads of heat and any C2D will dominate any Prescooker in overall data calculation power.


data calculation power? you got a copyright on that lingo? wannabe.

:evil:  wats wrong with u? u have a problem with his advice?

You can mod that case and place some fans on it's side panel. That would increase airflow and cool air intakes. Place one so that it blows cool air in toward the cpu cooler and another for the graphics cards. That will lower temps inside the case and the components.

To answer the original question of if heatpipes are up to the task of cooling modern CPU's the answer is yes, they are capable enough assuming they have been designed correctly.

Heat pipes are designed for what amounts to a wattage window.

Where there is an optimum range of heat dissipation at one end of a heatpipe and cooling at the other.

Give a heatpipe too little heat and the C/W* rating suffers a bit.
(*degree Celsius rise per watt of heat input)

Give a heatpipe too much heat and the C/W rating really suffers a lot.

Remember, heatpipes are designed for a given thermal load.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heatpipe
Quote:

The materials and coolant chosen depends on the temperature conditions in which the heat pipe must operate, with coolants ranging from liquid helium for extremely low temperature applications(boils between 4.2 and 3.2 kelvin#) to mercury for high temperature conditions(boils at 630 kelvin#). However, the vast majority of heat pipes uses either ammonia or water as working fluid.

...

Heat pipes must be tuned to particular cooling conditions. The choice of pipe material, size and coolant all have an effect on the optimal temperatures in which heat pipes work.

When heated above a certain temperature, all of the working fluid in the heat pipe will vaporize and the condensation process will cease to occur; in such conditions, the heat pipe's thermal conductivity is reduced to the heat conduction properties of its solid metal casing alone. As most heat pipes are constructed of copper (a metal with high heat conductivity); an overheated heatpipe will generally continue to conduct heat at only around 1/80th of their original conductivity.


Bold added for emphasis. Bold italics added by me.
#Numbers given for 1 atm pressure.

Quote:
Read the reply too line.


I will make an effort to do so in the future.


It is worth noting however, that unless you are logged in as a member you can not read the reply to line.

I prefer quotes anyway; bah, each to his own. :lol: 


Edit: "Ugh!"

Quote:
Hey BGP_Spook,

Great reply. What would be your best guess for how many heat pipes are needed for today's cpu's? Three? Six? With those quad-core's I'm guessing at least six heat pipes.


You can do it with one or you can do it with a thousand.

It depends on the heatpipes being used.

Though, I will say that if you used a thousand of them it would be a pain to implement.

For best results, you should always research whatever cooler you are looking at.

Most coolers that use heatpipes will either list a maximum TDP or will say "it works for all type X CPU's."

Hey everybody,

I seen those new heatsinks with a water jacket in them on Tom's holiday buyer list ( part 1 ) and was wondering if heat pipes are going to be replaced by them?

I just checked and its called the Sunon's Waturbo.
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