2 ms·

This could be future of personal computing, however I am afraid that prohibitive cost would kill this. I would expect markup of $100-$150 per module, unless it

This could be future of personal computing, however I am afraid that prohibitive cost would kill this. I would expect markup of $100-$150 per module, unless it is a very simple module that needs no cooling. I am also not sure about cooling system. Little isolated compartment with nearly no holes for cooling beefy GPU or CPU with overclocking sounds a bit farfetched. They mention that each individual module would have it's own water cooling system. I think it is madness, much more practical and economical to transfer heat to the central tower and have large radiator with quiet fans there. I built few custom rigs with water cooling, and whole point of water cooling is to transfer heat to the large radiator.

al2o3cr 13y ago
Hard to tell from the snazzy-but-vague renderings, but it looks like the intent is that every module has "in" and "out" bushings for water-cooling - the larger circles on either side of the electrical connections - with the large radiator in the bottom. Would make "hot-plugging" more like "wet-plugging", one suspects...
- TrainedMonkey 13y ago
  They specifically mentioned self contained. While there are quick connect/disconnect water cooling connectors [1] those do leak a bit of liquid each use. [1] http://www.xtremerigs.net/2013/07/02/2013-quick-disconnect-roundup/ http://www.xtremerigs.net/2013/07/02/2013-quick-disconnect-r...
  - gibybo 13y ago
    I don't think it's actually self contained in the sense that the pump, fans, and radiator are also duplicated in every module. The would be a terrible waste of resources and the modules don't look like they have any room for the radiator (which would need to be exposed to the outside air to work).
    - ATLobotomy 13y ago
      I could see a pump being included in each module. In a modular design such as this the flow rate through each waterblock would need to be guaranteed with many different possible restrictions. Additionally, if the pumps were run serially, it could add some redundancy to the cooling loop (especially benefitial since each unit's pump might not have the same MTBF)

al2o3cr 13y ago

Hard to tell from the snazzy-but-vague renderings, but it looks like the intent is that every module has "in" and "out" bushings for water-cooling - the larger circles on either side of the electrical connections - with the large radiator in the bottom. Would make "hot-plugging" more like "wet-plugging", one suspects...

TrainedMonkey 13y ago
They specifically mentioned self contained. While there are quick connect/disconnect water cooling connectors [1] those do leak a bit of liquid each use. [1] http://www.xtremerigs.net/2013/07/02/2013-quick-disconnect-roundup/ http://www.xtremerigs.net/2013/07/02/2013-quick-disconnect-r...
- gibybo 13y ago
  I don't think it's actually self contained in the sense that the pump, fans, and radiator are also duplicated in every module. The would be a terrible waste of resources and the modules don't look like they have any room for the radiator (which would need to be exposed to the outside air to work).
  - ATLobotomy 13y ago
    I could see a pump being included in each module. In a modular design such as this the flow rate through each waterblock would need to be guaranteed with many different possible restrictions. Additionally, if the pumps were run serially, it could add some redundancy to the cooling loop (especially benefitial since each unit's pump might not have the same MTBF)