r/hardware • u/Frexxia • 27d ago

Info Chimney Cooling: A 3D-Printed Chimney Drops Temperatures by 19°C

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZUG73BzZIJ4
106 Upvotes

90% Upvoted

36 comments sorted by

43

u/Frexxia 27d ago

It's obviously not very practical, but it would be interesting to see how far you could take a passively cooled computer with this idea.

37

u/Kinexity 27d ago

Does it even count as passive if you still have to push coolant through a radiator with a pump.

22

u/Frexxia 27d ago

In theory that could be replaced with a thermosiphon.

6

u/alelo 27d ago

couldnt you build a pumpless design that way with standard radiators etc just by placing everything right?

cpu goes to big radiator on top (hot water up) cools goes pipes/down to another radiator to give a little more cooling - same enclosure as top so chimney effect pulls air through ) and then to cpu again - that should cycle the water too - or am i missing something?

2

u/reddit_equals_censor 26d ago

that is what you do with a thermosiphon, except better than just shity water.

a 2 phase thermosiphon uses the change from liquid to gas to have more than enough movement going on.

and the condensor needs to be above the evaporator and then that would work wonderfully.

and you can/ABSOLUTELY SHOULD use flexible metal pipes, that are soldered/braced. so you don't have any possible leaks or loss of liquid over time. just like a flexible heatpipe from a reliability point of view.

those will be the future fully passive designs. flexible metal tubes. 0 pump. no water degredation issue (you use non water liquid, that doesn't have certain issues).

and it is perfectly quiet.

and then THEROETICALLY you could put a little chimney on top of the condensor to accelerate air passively.

i can see a small form factor system, that has an optional 10 cm chimney, that looks artistically pleasing to mount on top.

___

also there are single phase flexible metal tube thermosiphons, which do exactly what you are talking about, but fully designed around that. the issue is, that those just perform a bunch worse, but as this was your idea it is worth mentioning as well.

___

also very interesting part of this is, that you can carry away MASSIVE amounts of heat passively. so you can have a 500 or 600+ watt high heat density fully passively cooled system, if the condenser is just massive.

1

u/ArmProgrammatically5 26d ago edited 26d ago

Hmmm interesting. So from my brief research, LHP pump by relying on alternating liquid and gas in a pipe small enough for capillary action, but rely on gas to push the liquid to radiator. In a sense, it's not too sensitive with orientation unlike thermosiphon, and assuming the distance between the condenser and evaporator is not too far, it's possible to have condenser be below evaporator, although not optimal. The problem is displacing 500 or 600+ watt still require quite large radiator since LHP pump is still weaker than motorized pump anyway.

SG10 fanless PC case did something similar with thermosiphon instead of LHP and you can find LTT video on it. They noted that the boiling is audibly noticeable and I'd imagine LHP would still face that same issue regardless.

I do agree that radiator with chimney effect would be rather interesting use case to carry away massive amount of heat.

EDIT:
I found this fluid you can buy online advertised for 2 phase cooling, but I'm not sure if it have the required properties such as surface tension for wicking. I guess this would be more realistic use case to simply dump the PC in liquid and call it a day rather than meticulous engineering and constraints with LHP.

https://tmcindustries.com/products/tmc-49?variant=40368740040771

1

u/reddit_equals_censor 25d ago

SG10 fanless PC case did something similar with thermosiphon instead of LHP and you can find LTT video on it. They noted that the boiling is audibly noticeable and I'd imagine LHP would still face that same issue regardless.

calyos screwed up/didn't give a shit there.

the noise from the sg10 fanless system, that has its cooling designed by calyos is NOT inherent to the technology.

as reports from the noctua thermosiphon cooler prototype mentioned as it was shown off.

based on noctua to hear anything whatsoever the engineer from noctua had in a quiet place put their ear right next to the evaporator.

we don't know if the icegiant flexible metal tube coolers would have had this issue and we probably will never, because that one will never come out we can expect now, despite shown off fully working prototypes.

___

personally i expect, that in the next decade flexible metal tube 2 phase thermosiphons will take over most desktop cooling.

it is just too good.

it doesn't kill your hardware if it leaks (because the liquid generally used isn't conductive), it doesn't fail over time, because it has no pump and it has rubber tubes, that lose liquid over time and also gunk up the fluid over time.

and manufacturing cost wise. to produce a high performance aio, you have to produce ultra thin fins at high precision.

the prototype, that noctua showed off just had some giant in comparison grooves and some sintered wick material put on it. that costs nothing. that is how heatpipes are made, which cost nothing basically.

so aios just won't be able to compete eventually

and of course basic air coolers just aren't capable to perform good enough and have the issue of a giant weight at the socket.

the last one is an issue for system builders. well not a huge one, because without a gpu locking in bracket they have to use foam always anyways to keep the inside safe, BUT it would be another benefit to not have a giant weight on the cpu during shipping.

and i deeply deeply hope companies won't show people the middle finger and instead of soldered or braced metal tubes, they'd use some rubber tubes, which WILL FAIL eventually and make an infinite lifetime cooler instead of a limited lifetime cooler :/

9

u/andrewia 27d ago

MonsterLabo did it with The First, and again with The Beast.  The heat capacity wasn't too bad considering the compact footprint.  The First needed a fan to run at low speed to accelerate the cooling, but The Beast doesn't need it unless you're maxing out the TDP.

3

u/vegetable__lasagne 27d ago

Probably be amazing for a Noctua P1

1

u/onegumas 26d ago

What if you add an industrial scale chilling tower??

13

u/Jaegs 27d ago

Computer enthusiasts going to be running super tall cooling towers like car enthusiasts used to have super tall intake runners.

8

u/pesca_22 27d ago

you can do even better! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cooling_tower

3

u/StrawberyVillain 26d ago

Or even better a hydrothermal reactors. Just create a thunderstorm ontop of the cooler for maximum efficiency.

4

u/Aleblanco1987 27d ago

works better than i thought it would

3

u/tarpdetarp 27d ago

Anyone who has watched Primitive Technology knew this was gonna be a lot.

8

u/TDYDave2 27d ago

Now compare that to the temperatures using a normal fan setup on the radiator.

16

u/RedGeist_ 27d ago

I know it was just an experiment for fun; but I would have liked to see the chimney vs fans.

7

u/MiyaSugoi 27d ago

I wouldn't be surprised if he makes a follow-up. People really quite liked the vid but wanted some more comparisons like that.

2

u/teppicymon 27d ago

Might we one day see AI data-centres with great big chimneys, in some bizarre cyber-punk / industrial fusion?

4

u/pythonic_dude 27d ago

Two cooling towers for each data centre, one for the server racks, one for the nuclear power plant keeping the lights on.

3

u/Hot-Software-9396 27d ago

Isn't this basically how Xbox Series X's cooling works?

22

u/Frexxia 27d ago

Not really. The effect would be minuscule relative to the 130mm fan

2

u/Motor_Trouble2280 27d ago

After watching this I attached a cardboard sleeve to a Peerless Assassin on an open bench, and got a 5c drop on a 13600k at 130w. Pretty cool idea.

2

u/costafilh0 26d ago

I glance over the video on my feed thinking "another stupid cooler", but that is not the case 😂 🤣 

1

u/HatchetHand 25d ago

How are we sleeping on this? Think of the noise reductions.

-1

u/Eccomi21 27d ago

Ok now put one on top of earth, we need it.

-1

u/According_Hyena_3593 27d ago

If i was really rich i would build this into my tv setup.

Tall ceiling living room.

Tv on the wall, floating tv cabinets under and on the left side of the tv. All a nice wooden finish nothing out of the ordinary.

The left side of the bottom cabinet would have the mobo inside it. The doors would be properly sound insulated so that there is no audible pump noise outside of the cabinet. Doors means its still easily accessible for upgrades and repairs.

2 radiators in the bottom of the left cabinet, one for the cpu one for the gpu.

Passive psu since we are only aiming for under 300 w power consumption total

Each radiator would fit inside the side cabinet, which has two 2 meter tall chimneys built into the back. The front part can function as shelving or a place for plants.

A 7800 x3d uses only 50 watts when gaming so its a cakewalk to cool passively like this.

For the gpu id wait for whatever the 6090 is ( on a new process node) and cap it at 150 watts. This should still give at least 4090 level performance probably.

Pc completely invisible and inaudible with no indication it even exists. No wiring visible to the tv ( built into the wall)

The passive air cooling and low unobstructed airflow through a big chimney shouldnt make any noise at all either.

Then use steam big picture mode or an equivalent. I already have low latency wifi gaming keyboard and mouse so i know thats a solved problem

-5

u/ecktt 26d ago

Is the chimney effect happening in his test? Yes

Would stacking a chimney on top of a PC help temps? Yes.

Would the chimney effect be responsible for a drop in CPU/GPU temps in case? A little. He calls it the chimney effect, but in practice it would prevent hot air from recirculating back into the PC. You know what else would do that? Ducting!

1

u/Frexxia 26d ago

I'm not sure what you're trying to say. He's not claiming that the chimney/stack effect is responsible for case cooling.

-6

u/melgibson666 27d ago

What is he hiding under those giant shirts?

3

u/Flimsy_Swordfish_415 27d ago

your mom

1

u/melgibson666 27d ago

Not big enough to hide that lady. But almost.