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Filed under: Misc. Gadgets

It’s been a tick since anyone ’round these parts has taken Peltier cooling seriously, but sure enough, North Carolina-based Nextreme Thermal Solutions is giving us reason to spark that conversation up once more. Its Ultra-High Packing Fraction (UPF) OptoCooler module utilizes “thin-film thermal bump technology at its core,” essentially enabling it to be “integrated directly into electronic and optoelectronic packaging to deliver more than 45°C of cooling.” Initially, the outfit hopes to have its product embedded within LED packages to “control temperatures and maintain proper operating conditions,” and while we’d certainly be more awestruck if these were headed straight for microprocessors of some sort, we’ve all ideas Nextreme’s already working on that endeavor.

[Via Slashdot]

 

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Source: Darren Murph

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Filed under: Misc. Gadgets

A team of researchers at Purdue University look to be doing their best to put conventional computer cooling techniques to shame, to that end developing a prototype system that uses an “ionic wind” to keep chips cool, something they say could eventually allow for much more powerful computers. According to the BBC, the system employs an ionic engine that produces positively charged particles when a voltage is applied to it. Those particles are then naturally drawn to a negatively charged wire, resulting in a constant air movement over the chips. That, the researchers say, increases the cooling rate from a conventional fan by up to 250%. They’re apparently far from satisfied with the system just yet though, and they’re now working to make it a hundred times smaller than its current size — a feat all the more daunting considering that it already measures just a few millimeters.

[Thanks, Xander and Del Monte]

 

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

Source: Donald Melanson

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Filed under: Transportation

Trust us, Texas isn’t the only place on the verge of melting right now, but this solution to solving one’s automotive AC problems is the perfect marriage of tawdry and frugal. As you can clearly see in the photo above, a University of Houston graduate student opted to retrofit a home air-conditioner into his vehicle rather than coughing up $1,200 to have it repaired the right way, and while we’ve no idea how much he spent on the unit itself, the wiring, or the additional gas thanks to the added drag, we have a sneaking suspicion that this mod was about more than dollars and cents. Click on through for a few more photos, but please refrain from trying this on your own ride, cool?

[Via Wired]Continue reading Grad student bolts air-conditioner onto car to beat Texas heat

 

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

Source: Darren Murph

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Filed under: Gaming, Peripherals

For anyone who has neglected their introverted tendencies lately and stepped foot outside, you’d realize that much of the US is unbearably warm, and while we haven’t seen any outbreaks of overheating Wiis, this here fan is aiming to ensure it stays that way. Of course, it won’t go down as the first of its kind, but this USB-powered wind pusher provides two extra USB ports for the ones it covers, should match your Wii in color fairly well, and is reportedly ultra quiet when squashing heat. No word just yet on pricing or availability, but if you’ve got a wonderful invention known as “air conditioning,” you needn’t worry anyway.

 

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

Source: Darren Murph

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Filed under: Gaming

Leave it to Ben Heck — warranty thrasher and modder extraordinaire — to point out an incredibly simple (and warranty-friendly) method of checking out your Xbox 360’s heatsink. Put simply, you invert your console, snap a photo (or three for good measure) through the mesh, and compare your image with the above picture in order to determine if your box is rockin’ the beefed up heatsink we’ve been hearing about. Go on, give it a go yourself, and make sure you report back with details of your findings (and photos for extra street cred).

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

 

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

Source: Darren Murph

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