Copper afro lets computer run silently and without the aid of electric fans

While you might not exactly be aware of it at the moment, your computer is making noise. For most, it’s a gentle hum. As time goes by, and its components grow older, this hum can get louder. And if the computer is working extra hard, with older parts, then it could very well sound like a blow dryer.

The sound being referenced here is the computer’s fan, which is designed to dissipate heat within the device. The noise the fan creates is something the general user has become so accustom to, it’s often tuned out.

The problem with the fan, though, is that it can take up a decent amount of room in the computer. It also requires a good deal of power. That’s what makes the approach you see below so amazing. It’s basically a nest of copper foam that sits atop a compact desktop PC, and has proven so effective at getting rid of heat build-up from within the computer that no fans are required whatsoever.

The solution, if you will, was designed by a German company called “Silent Power”, which claims it to be the smallest high-end PC in the world (6.2 inches wide, 4 inches deep, 2.75 inches tall, and just 3.3 pounds in weight). While to the average Joe it might look like an oversized Brillo pad, the copper mesh actually provides a considerable amount of surface area to rid the computer of heat from its CPU and GPU.

What’s more, according to Silent Power, the copper foam is actually 500 times better at its job than a traditional heatsink using fans, and the exterior surface temperature never rises above 122ºF during normal use.

Silent Power is now taking pre-orders in hopes of raising enough funds to put its PC into production. The lowest-spec model is priced at $935 and comes with an Intel quad-core i7-4785T 2.2-GHz processor, 8GB or RAM, and a 500-GB hard drive. $1,030 will get you the 26-GB RAM, 500-GB HDD model, while $1,550 will allow you to secure your very own 16-GB RAM, 1,000-GB SSD version. 

Should the company secure the funds it needs, Silent Power anticipates going into production come the spring of 2015.

Story via gizmag