[mythtv-users] Interesting cooling approach

[Robin Hill]

On Fri Feb 29, 2008 at 05:00:31PM -0500, Josh White wrote:

> On Fri, Feb 29, 2008 at 4:43 PM, Larry Sanderson <larry.sanderson at gmail.com>
> wrote:
> 
> > On Friday 29 February 2008 03:36:41 pm Michael T. Dean wrote:
> > > I--a user who burned out 3 heat pipes on a laptop--will stay away
> > > from /any/ design that uses a heat pipe.  (Especially since my Myth
> > > box is asked to do a /lot/ more work than my laptop ever was.)
> > >
> > > Mike
> >
> > Burned out a heat-pipe?  I had no idea that was a common problem.  Did
> > the pipe just burst, or did it spring a leak?  Do you know if this is a
> > problem with a lot of designs?
> >
> > I ask, because a lot of the high-end CPU coolers today employ a
> > heat-pipe design, and I've never heard of one failing.
> >
> What would they leak?  Unless it's liquid cooled, my understanding was that
> a heat pipe was simply a copper pipe, and that heat simply transfered
> through the copper to the heat sink.  Is that assumption wrong?
> 
Yup - see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heat_pipe - the heat pipe relies
on a fluid changing state between a liquid and a vapour.  The vapour
moves away from the heated end, and the liquid flows back toward it (via
either gravity or capillary action).  The phase changes then take place
at either end, capturing and releasing the heat.

Oh, and please don't top post.

Cheers,
        Robin
-- 
     ___        
    ( ' }     |       Robin Hill        <myth at robinhill.me.uk>  |
   / / )      | Little Jim says ....                            |
  // !!       |      "He fallen in de water !!"                 |
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