Date: December 15th, 2008
Article by: Joe Anderson (Hardware Reviewer)
Edited By:
Nathan Glentworth (Owner / Head Editor)
Product was submitted by: Vantec USA
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CORPORATE PROFILE
Founded in 1994, and located in Fremont, CA, Vantec is a leading brand of computer accessories that provides a complete line of Storage, Thermal, and Mobile solutions. We are devoted to every computer user from mainstream to enthusiast. Our goal is to provide a complete and affordable way for all your computing needs.
At Vantec, we strive to be innovative, and with our popular NexStar™ External Hard Drive Enclosure Series, Vantec is leading the scene of the Built-Your-Own-Drive. The bold colors and mirror finish on the NexStar™ 3, changed industry outlook and put back the WOW factor. Vantec set a new standard and personalized it. No longer does an external enclosure have to look boring. Passing the 1 million units milestone in 2007, Vantec continue to expand its successful NexStar™ series along with the EZ-Swap®, LapCool, Stealth, AeroFlow, Tornado and Iceberq lines.
We understand that technology is changing faster than ever, and in 2003, we established a R&D and Sales office in Taiwan. Through this expansion, we are constantly integrating innovative technology to our products. Now with a world wide distribution network, Vantec products can be seen across the globe.
PRODUCT INTRODUCTION
Vantec has been in the PC aftermarket for a very long time. Some of the accessories in my first home-built computer had the Vantec logo on them. They always had very attractive and innovative products that would keep your computer cool and look cool as well.
Recently, the new AeroFlow FX120 CPU cooler arrived at the Tweaknews labs and I'm excited to see how it looks and performs.
SMALL HEATPIPE TECHNOLOGY TUTORIAL
I am going to keep this as simple as possible to get the basic premise across to all of the Tweaknews readers. Please don't be insulted if this is too simple for your education level. I have to cater my writing to the least technical reader looking for information.
The basic idea behind heatpipe technology is really simple.
1.) With a tube containing a compressed fluid/gas, the fluid comes in contact with the heat source (the cpu core, in this case) which heats up the volatile fluid and turns it to a gas. The energy is absorbed in the gas production process and is ready for transportation.
2.) The heated gas now travels along the inner portion of the tube where it comes to the cooling portion of the heatsink in this example.
3.) The radiator, with or without a fan, will cool the liquid and transfer the energy (AKA heat) to the radiator to be dispersed to the surrounding air. With the heat removed, the vapor quickly condenses back to a fluid and runs along the inside surface of the pipe, back down to the bottom, where the process can be started all over again.
For another example, you can consider a boiling pot of water with a glass lid as a very very basic heatpipe. When the water boils, the water vapor comes in contact with the cooler glass pot lid which forces the vapor to condense back to water, where it dribbles back down the inside of the lid back into the pot.
It's basic, but it gets the point across.
