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Stupid question from a non-hardware guy. If you wanted a completely silent computer, could you build one in a vacuum chamber and just suck all the air out?
by soVeryTired 8y ago
Stupid question from a non-hardware guy. If you wanted a completely silent computer, could you build one in a vacuum chamber and just suck all the air out?
- brlewis 8y agoThat approach would not be very different from surrounding it with sound insulation, and would involve the same challenges. Things that conduct heat out tend to conduct sound out too.
- beckler 8y agoYeah, but without air, the heat won't dissapate.
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- misterman101 8y agoYou'd still need to get heat out. You could water cool the machine, but you'd still have fans/radiator on the outside.
- iliis 8y agoYou could, but it would be thermally quite bad: The only way for parts to cool would be through radiation, which is way less effective than convection (be it forced by fans or passive, as in OP's design.)
- natosaichek 8y agoThe challenge is removing heat. Putting things in a vacuum chamber doesn't make them colder - vacuum is actually a pretty good insulator, so you'd need some mechanism to get the heat out of there with9out using air. If you go the other direction, some people have built computers they submerge in mineral oil or other similar media. That works pretty well for removing heat from components more effectively than air convection.
- Wildgoose 8y agoYou'd have problems with getting rid of the heat if your components were surrounded by vacuum - you'd only have radiation, no convection to carry away heat.
- ratboy666 8y agoNo. A vacuum doesn't transmit heat at all. The chips will get very hot. Liquids (generally) transfer heat better that air. You can completely immerse your computer in 3M Fluorinert. That will transfer the heat. Then, cooling fins to transfer the heat into the environment.