Applied Thermal Engineering 23 (2003) 1137–1144

www.elsevier.com/locate/apthermeng

Heat pipe cooling technology for desktop PC CPU

a,*
Kwang-Soo Kim , Myong-Hee Won a, Jong-Wook Kim a, Byung-Joon Back b

a
APACK, Inc., 59-6, Hwaam-dong, Yusung-gu, Daejon 305-348, Republic of Korea
b
School of Mechanical Engineering, Chonbuk National University, 664-14, 1Ga, Duckjin-dong, Jeonju, Chonbuk 561-756,
Republic of Korea
Received 6 January 2003; accepted 30 January 2003

Abstract
As Pentium-IV, a high-performance PC CPU, emerges, CPUÕs thermal design power shows sharp in-
crease. Since conventional cooling method, aluminum extruded heat sink has disadvantages like poor
cooling performance, acoustic noise increase and weight rise, cooling module in the form of remote heat
exchanger using heat pipe is developed. Especially, using system fan exhausting heat inside to cool CPU
reduces acoustic noise with lowered quantities of fan and makes it possible to reduce manufacturing unit
price. This paper proposes cooling using heat pipe, recommends Pentium-IV CPU cooling module on
change of fan revolution speed, and looks for possibility of reducing acoustic noise.

2003 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.

Keywords: CPU; Heat pipe; Heat sink; Remote heat exchanger

1. Introduction

TodayÕs rapid IT development like internet requires PC performance capable of processing

more data more speedily. To meet this requirement, high-performance devices built in PC have
been developed. Especially, CPU shows competitive release of more speedy products and shift
toward being more compact and thinner. This leads to higher heat density and increased heat
dissipation, making CPU temperature rise and causing the shortened life, malfunction and failure
of CPU. Cooling of CPU has been taken seriously. Pentium-IV CPU and Athlon XP, released by
Intel and AMD respectively, has high heat dissipation, requiring excellent cooling performance.
For example, 2 GHz Pentium-IV processor made in 0.18 lm manufacturing process has thermal

*
Corresponding author. Tel.: +82-42-864-0815; fax: +82-42-864-0815/862-9815.
E-mail address: kskim@apak.net (K.-S. Kim).

1359-4311/03/$ - see front matter
2003 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/S1359-4311(03)00044-9
1138 K.-S. Kim et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 23 (2003) 1137–1144

design power (TDP) 75.8 W, requiring cooling performance 0.47 C/W (@40 C). 2 GHz Pentium-
IV processor made in 0.13 lm manufacturing process has a little lower TDP 52 W and requires
cooling performance 0.53 C/W (@40 C). However, cooling is still a serious problem. AMD
Athlon XP CPU has the same serious cooling problem [1].
With appearance of high-performance CPU requiring high cooling performance, cooling
methods have shown many changes. Conventional CPU cooling used normally extruded alumi-
num heat sink showing superiority in terms of unit price, weight and performance. As CPU heat
dissipation has been on the gradual incline and computer has shifted toward being compact, heat
sink has limited cooling performance in the insufficient space. Therefore application of heat super-
conductive heat pipe is considered seriously. Water cooler has been developed energetically to
cause no acoustic noise [2].
Heat sink with high performance to price is still preferred by PC makers and enjoys dominance,
but it uses fan with high revolution speed to solve the problem of limited cooling capacity, making
acoustic noise attract attention [3].
Therefore, this study proposes a cooling method capable of reducing acoustic noise and
meeting cooling performance requirements. To this end, we have developed cooler using heat
pipe. Also, thermal stability of cooler is tested, and accordingly, the cooler we developed and heat
sink is compared and analyzed.

2. Experimental method

Fig. 1 is a diagram of test device for evaluating heat pipe cooling module and heat sink. To
compare it with Pentium-IV CPU boxed cooler, we attached heater 35 · 35 mm2 ––a heat source––
simulated after Pentium-IV CPU to a inflammable die with insulation. Heat pipe cooling module
and heat sink were above heater, and thermal pad (Chomerics, T-715) was attached between
heater and cooling module in order to minimize thermal resistance occurring in surface contact.

Fig. 1. Schematic diagram of experimental apparatus.

 K.-S. Kim et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 23 (2003) 1137–1144 1139

Same spacing was placed between heat dissipation fin and cooling fan, and fan size is 70 · 70 · 15
mm3 . Simulated heater is a plate type heater made by winding 40 X thermic wire around an in-
sulator called mica. K-type thermocouple was used as a temperature sensor. To measure Tcase (case
temperature, Tc ), hole was made on the surface of heater and fixed by epoxy. To measure ambient
temperature, heater was placed in the space 50 mm away from fan.
Fig. 2 shows two heat pipe cooling modules and shape of heat sink. Normal heat pipe cooling
module is designed so that heat source may locate in the bottom and cooling fin stands in the
upper or horizontal dimension. However, Fig. 2(a) heat pipe cooling is designed whereby heat
source locates in the top and fin in the bottom. Also, cooling module used three heat pipes. Wick

Fig. 2. Three types of cooling modules: (a) RHE I (top heating mode), (b) RHE II (bottom heating mode) and (c) heat
sink (IntelÕs boxed cooler).
1140 K.-S. Kim et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 23 (2003) 1137–1144

structure is woven-wired wick (WWW), patented technology of APACK, Inc. Distilled water was
used as working fluid. Fig. 2(b) shows a shape of cooling module of ordinary heat pipe whereby
remote heat exchanger (RHE) is applied in case of impossibility to acquire space for heat dissi-
pation around heat source. Applied two heat pipes used WWW, and distilled water was used as
working fluid. Fig. 2(c) shows aluminum extruded heat sink used normally for cooling, which is a
cooler adopted for performance comparison with heat pipe cooling module (maker: INTEL
OEM) [4].
In the process of experiment, heaterÕs heating value was set to 75 W, and Tcase and Tambient of
each cooling module were measured under repeated change of cooling fan revolution speed.
Thermal resistance was got from measured temperature and heat dissipation. Based on these,
cooling performance of cooling modules was compared and analyzed. When comparing cooling
performance of cooling modules, average velocity of applied fans was compared according to fan
speed since different fans were applied to heat pipe cooling module and heat sink due to the
problem of fan mounting. Air velocity was averaged after being measured on 10 measurement
points 27 mm away from fan outlet.
Also, cooling performance based on the position of heat source of RHE I cooling module was
measured and compared.

3. Results and discussion

Fig. 3 shows averaged air velocity based on the speed of fans applied to the experiment of
cooling modules of heat pipe and heat sink. The figure displays that air velocity increase ratios
with speed change are almost similar. In the whole range, air velocity of fans applied to heat sink
is about 0.23 m/s higher than those applied to heat pipe, and the deflection of air velocity is not
high.

RHE I, RHE II
Heat Sink

5
Air velocity, V[m/s]

2
2100 2400 2700 3000
Fan speed, Ω [rpm]

Fig. 3. Comparison of air velocity of fans.

 K.-S. Kim et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 23 (2003) 1137–1144 1141

Fig. 4 shows cooling performance based on the change of rpm (revolution per minute) of top
heating type cooling module, i.e. RHE I with heat source above cooling fin. Difference of thermal
resistance among each sample was maximum 0.005 C/W, showing similar cooling performance
among samples. Also, the variation of thermal resistance under change of cooling fan speed was
maximum 0.06 C/W.
Fig. 5 shows thermal performance of bottom heating type heat pipe cooling module on the
basis of cooling fan speed. Five samples showed thermal resistance difference at maximum 0.005
C/W. Like top heating mode, the variation of thermal resistance based on the cooling fan speed
was about 0.05 C/W.

Fig. 4. Thermal performance of RHE I.

Fig. 5. Thermal performance of RHE II.

1142 K.-S. Kim et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 23 (2003) 1137–1144

Fig. 6 shows the thermal performance of heat sink cooling module based on the cooling fan
speed. Five samples showed thermal resistance difference at maximum 0.005 C/W. Unlike heat
pipe cooling module, heat sink cooling moduleÕs thermal resistance change vs. the cooling fan
speed was 1.3 C/W, which was high.
Fig. 7 shows a comparison of thermal performance between heat pipe cooling modules and heat
sink cooling module. Heat sinkÕs thermal resistance was 0.41 C/W, the lowest at 3080 rpm.
However, bottom heating type heat pipe showed thermal resistance, 0.475 C/W, the lowest at
2100 rpm and heat sink cooling module showed thermal resistance 0.536 C/W, the lowest thermal

Fig. 6. Thermal performance of heat sink.

Fig. 7. Performance comparison of cooling modules.

 K.-S. Kim et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 23 (2003) 1137–1144 1143

performance at the same speed. When revolution speed was below about 2950 rpm, heat pipe
cooling modules showed thermal performance superior to heat sink cooling modules. This means
that heat pipe cooling module can be applied as CPU cooler system having low acoustic noise and
excellent cooling performance.
This is because heat pipe cooling module obtained heat dissipation space enabling it to have
excellent cooling performance at low fan speed by applying RHE, compared with heat sink
showing limited cooling performance because of insufficient space. Bottom heating type heat pipe
showed thermal resistance about 0.05 C/W lower than top heating type heat pipe in the total
surface area [5].
Table 1 is the compared specifications of RHE I cooling module and heat sink cooling module.
Heat sink cooling module is about two times heavier than RHE I module, and the former has heat
dissipation area about 32% wider than the latter. Since RHE I cooling module is lighter than heat
sink cooling module, it does not cause bending of main board in installation to desktop PC or
disconnection in drop test. Since fin thickness is small and fin density is higher, RHE I gets wider
heat dissipation area, leading to higher cooling performance at low fan speed.
Fig. 8 shows cooling performance of RHE I cooling module under location of heat source.
Normally, heat sink is not influenced by gravity. However, installation direction of heat pipe
cooling module is exposed to influence of gravity.

Table 1
Specifications of RHE I and heat sink
RHE I Heat sink
Weight (g) 162 352
Size (mm) 80 · 28 · 80 90 · 25 · 68
Fin area (m2 ) 0.164 0.123

Fig. 8. Performance comparison of RHE I according to orientation.

1144 K.-S. Kim et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 23 (2003) 1137–1144

Cooling performance was compared when heat source locates above, below and on the same
level with cooling fin, respectively. Performance deflection is maximum 0.02 C/W, showing little
performance deflection according to orientation. This is because even though RHE I cooling
module is a top heating type cooler with heat source in the top and cooling fin in the bottom, it
applies WWW capable of overcoming gravity and overcomes operating limit according to heat
source location [6].

4. Conclusion

In this study, we developed top heating type heat pipe cooling module and bottom heating type
heat pipe cooling module both of which implements RHE via application of heat pipe to desktop
PC cooling system.

(1) Performance test showed that heat sink cooling module had most excellent thermal perfor-
mance at high fan speed, but that heat pipe cooling module had better thermal performance
than heat sink below 2950 rpm.
(2) Heat sink cooler module using high speed fan to meet cooling performance requirement has
problem of acoustic noise, but heat pipe cooling module shows excellent thermal performance
even at low speed, enabling it to be applied as a system of low acoustic noise and high per-
formance which can solve the problem of acoustic noise of conventional heat sink cooler.
(3) Top heating cooling module did not cause little performance variation based on installation
direction. This means WWW structure provides capillary force capable of surpassing gravity.

References

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Corporation, 1992.
[5] A. Faghi, Heat Pipe Science and Technology, Taylor & Francis, 1995.
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