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The last time we checked in with the folks at
Asetek, back
in July of 2000,
we were working with the Pentium III at
its highest core clock speed of 933MHz at the time.
The world of Personal Computing has changed dramatically
since then and so has the Vapochill, Asetek's Vapor Phase
Cooling System for Pentium 3/4 and Socket A Athlon platforms.
Back then, we were impressed with the capabilities of the
unit but were set back a bit by its somewhat complicated and
cumbersome setup and assembly process. Regardless, once the
product was properly setup, it delivered on its promise of
allowing the end user to take their CPU to new found heights
in clock speeds and performance, unachievable by any other
reasonable cooling method. It seemed, at the time, that
the Vapochill served as a niche' product for the
enthusiast, that just had to have the fastest machine
on the planet, regardless of cost and in some cases
practicality.
Since then, the Vapochill has
matured significantly and what was once thought of an
extreme high end product, is now being targeted much more
toward the mainstream and even the corporate sector.
There is no doubt that the maturation of techniques in
cooling and case modification, has opened wider, new found
emphasis on style and performance above and beyond the
standard "gun metal gray" PC box of days gone by. With
a new, slick looking chassis and a lower cost of ownership,
we're taking a HotHardware.Com look at the new and improved
Vapochill, to see what sort of tricks we can pull off with a
2.8GHz Pentium 4. Sound like fun? Let's get
started then, shall we?
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How
The Vapochill Works |
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Modern Vapor Phase
Cooling For The PC |
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Case
Feature Set
Main board types supported ATX / extended ATX
Full length graphics adapters supported
Slots for 7 extension cards
3 x 5 1/4' drive bays (external)
1 x 3 1/2' drive bay (external)
5 x 3 1/2' drive bays (internal)
ATX connector shield
Mounting options for fan cooling of HDD, 120 mm fan
Mounting options for fan cooling of case, 3 x 60 mm
fans
Dimensions (DxWxH)
Weight: 11.8 kg / 26.0 lbs
Visuals
Larger Mid-Size ATX Case
Case cover coated with black or white powder paint
(granular surface)
ChillControl LED Readout For Temperatures and Clock
Speed
Standard and Optional Equipment
Designer front bezel
Power and reset switches
Blue LEDs for power and HDD indication
120 mm fan (optional)
Power supply (optional)
Thumb Screws For Power Supply and Case Side Panels
ChillControl Protection Circuit w/ LED Display
ChillControl Software For End User Performance Setup
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The Vapor Phase exchange process of cooling,
is fairly straight forward and simple to understand, at
least from this application perspective. The CPU Kit,
which contains the evaporator, has a round cold plate which
makes contact with the heat slug on the processor. The
evaporator returns the warm R134a refrigerant gas to the
compressor, where it is pressurized inside to the
point where it produces condensation of the refrigerant.
Then the condenser unit lowers the temperature of the
coolant and returns it to a fully liquid state for passage
back down the capillary tube to the evaporator to keep the
cooling process going. In short, this is the exact same process
that your average household refrigerator uses. The end
result is that the cold plate in our "Standard Edition" unit,
while under no load, maintains an idle temp of about -20°C,
while the system is running a Windows session with a heavily overclocked Pentium 4 processor.
The actual Pentium 4 on chip thermal diode
at this point, registers around 1°C or 33°F, again without
load. We'll get into more detail on all this later but
it's pretty safe to say that beyond using liquid nitrogen (a
highly volatile and impractical process) to cool your CPU,
Vapor Phase Refrigeration delivers thermal performance like
no other method of cooling for the PC. We'll take a
good inside the new Vapochill, next.
The Design And Setup
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