Cooling system for computer hardware

Abstract

The present invention represents a significant advancement in the field of cooling systems for computer hardware. In one embodiment, a system for cooling a heat-generating electronic device is provided. The system is mountable to a first side of a circuit board. The system includes a first set of fins, a fan operable to force air through the first set of fins, and a first heat pipe to conduct heat from the heat-generating electronic device to the first set of fins. One advantage of the disclosed cooling system is that it more equally distributes heat across the fins and more equally distributes airflow across surfaces of the fins. Thus, the design increases the effective area of the fin surfaces used in for transferring heat from the heat-generating electronic device to the air, resulting in a more efficient cooling system.

Description

[0001] Cross References to Related Applications [0002] This application claims priority to US Provisional Application No. 60 / 645,997 (Attorney Docket No. NVDA P001569), filed January 21, 2005, the entire contents of which are incorporated by reference. technical field [0003] The present invention relates generally to cooling systems for computer hardware, and more specifically, to a two-way thermal solution for computer hardware. Background technique [0004] FIG. 1 is an isometric view of a prior art cooling system 100, such as used to cool heat-generating electronic devices, such as graphics processing units (GPUs), in computer systems. As shown, the cooling system 100 specifically includes a blower / fan 106 , a heat sink 109 and a base plate 111 . Typically, the cooling system 100 is thermally coupled to the GPU, eg, using a thermal adhesive or grease with thermal properties, so as to transfer heat generated by the GPU to the base plate 111 . Cooling system 100 may i...

AI Technical Summary

Problems solved by technology

[0008] One disadvantage of using the cooling system 100 is that the blower / fan 106 creates an unequal velocity profile through the fins 109, resulting in more air passing through the middle of each fin 109 than the upper and lower portions of each fin 109

This results in less heat being transferred to the air from the upper and lower portions of each fin, thereby reducing the overall efficiency of the cooling system 100.

[0009] Another disadvantage is that the size of the blower / fan specified within the cooling system 100 is such that the blower / fan must be operated at a relatively high speed to generate the necessary air flow over the heat transfer surface area of ​​the cooling system 100

Running at high speeds can generate a lot of unnecessary noise, which is annoying to users of the computing device 200

[0010] There is also a disadvantage, that is, the traditional cooling system using a blower / fan proves to be unable to meet the increasing heat dissipation demand, which comes from the rapid development of graphics card performance

Compounding the problem is the fact that as graphics cards get more powerful, the amount of space a cooling system can take up remains the same.

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