MIT Develops a Cooling Technology of the Future

Impressive. Lighter too?

But how cheap is it to produce in mass-quantities?

This has me quite curious. I'm wondering how something like this would perform after long term use. Most common plastics get very brittle and break (or even melt) after being exposed to a heat source for too long.

On the plus, it should be cheaper to produce than copper/aluminum based coolers.

sounds amazing.. but so do most things, i'm sure it has some issue such as high cost or something.

Its polyethylene, it cant be that expensive.

let us know when it is toddler stage. maybe there will be positive changes and maybe ready for implementation

@ shadow187
polyethylene is a petroleum-based compound. it is also the base component in plastics. because there is already a huge industry dealing with this kind of material, you should expect it to be more expensive than a child's action figure but less than a common, high end, full copper heatsink you can find today (assuming it is made without any other expensive components like copper).

according to the source, the only difference in making this stuff over normal plastics is slowly lining up the polymers so they all face one direction. IMO this could be interesting because we could eventually get flexible heat pipes out of this.

I want my cold beverage while surfing gaming

"Surfing the web AND Gaming"

Knowing Intel, they will brand it as an "Extreme Edition" cooler going for $999.99 in quantities of a thousand.

I'd say let it get out of adolescence first. It won't do what you want it to during this period.

This is quite an achievement to be honest. Nearly all polymers are terrible thermal conductors. I am however, skeptical as to how it maintains electrical insulation while increasing thermal conductivity...

Also, referring to shadow187's comment:
Chances are, if it's polymer, it can be mass-produced very cost effectively.

I wonder if it could be used as the basis of a new type of thermal compound as well. Perhaps even top of the CPU will be made of this material, allowing for an almost perfect transfer of heat from the CPU to the heatsink.

it's actually a misconception that plastic is cheaper cause of all the cheap plastic stuff floating around, as a material it's probably more expensive to fabricate than metal on a piece for piece comparison, plastics do however have one advantage, economies of scale, the more you make the cheaper it becomes, you need to be able to manufacture and sell in the regions of millions for plastic to be considered cheaper than metal, but for batch runs of thousands odd, then metal is by far a cheaper alternative

Yea, thermal conductivity and electrical conductivity usually goes hand in hand. However, the promise of nanotechnology to enable to us manipulate atomic structure means we can get the molecules to do what we want, rather than relying on "natural" properties.

All technology will be expensive before the price goes down. It'll be interesting to see how long it'll take to turn this piece of technology practical.

it wont look as good as shinny metal or copper

doesn't this really mean, that if we can conduct heat in certain ways with plastics that we will be able to move or 'conduct' electrons in the same way someday? an interesting thought. plastic computers!!!! no more ESD!!! although i suppose this is still far off. but it makes you think... fundamentally it's beginning to look possible.

I believe that plastic cpus were already invented, but sucked too horribly to bother with.

ok, when can i get my i7 heat sink?

Most polymers used for engine components hold up pretty well. They're not perfect, but many are also exposed to a lot more abuse, such as much higher temperatures, vibration, flexing, and chemicals. A polymer cooler in a PC will probably outlive most of the rest of the system, unless you physically break it during installation or removal. I am sure they will make them strong enough that this is not a major concern.
True!

Oh actually, that brings up another possibility... if these conduct heat well enough, you could build some pretty elaborate water cooler blocks. But that's a big "if".

Can't wait to have this use in heat sink for my super OC-ed CPU. I hope they use this in heat sink sooner.

I can only imagine how this will revolutionize pretty much everything.

It's so true the saying "1% of the world invents things that the other 99% use." Most of us go through life not contributing or improving a single thing on earth.

I doubt this. Thermal conductivity can be mediated by phonons (yes, I know that momentum is not a good quantum number in non-crystalline materials, but you get the idea) in addition to electrons, while electrical conductivity is limited to electron transport. I will have to read the MIT paper to see what mechanism they claim for enhancement of thermal conductivity.

I just invented the pepperoni garlic 5 cheese loaf.
I used some pepperoni I had and a 5 cheese garlic bread I had in my freezer.
Yay, I'm not useless!
But I do contribute, my job is important yo.

I'm curious on cost and weight myself. Anyone want a totally pimp watercooling loop with a plastic waterblock and a plastic radiator for $100 instead of $500?

Just because it's a cheap material, polyethylene, doesn't mean it will be cheap to produce. The process of lining up the molecular bonds can be extremely expensive at any scale. The same process has hindered carbon nano tubes from playing a more active role in consumer products.

How cheap is Polyethylene?Over Copper? grapes to watermelon comparison...Should be beneficial to hobbyist and the avg consumer

well who knows... Intel IS showing its interest... chances are they might try to monopolize it and modify it into costing an arm and a leg... well, just an opinion...

I remember a while back reading an article about a platic engine block for a car. This stuff was engineered for strength and now we can engineer plastic to disipate heat. Sounds like plastic is the material of the future.