Forget your watercooled gaming rig: Intel is experimenting with cooling which fully immerses a computer’s electronics in liquid to increase efficiency. Intel has been working with SGI and 3M to develop systems that allow them to immerse entire supercomputers in liquid to reduce energy.
Their first experiments use a fluid developed by 3M called Novec: a dielectric liquid, which means it doesn’t conduct electricity, allowing electronics to continue to operate as usual when submerged.
It’s a simple idea, which is based on the physics that mean a liquid conducts heat away from objects faster than air. Intel claims that its experiments suggest that fully immersing supercomputers could slash energy bills by as much as 90 per cent, but there are challenges to overcome.
Most notably that means redesigning motherboards and other hardware to work most effectively under Novec. Currently, of course, they’re designed to be efficiently cooled by air, and they’ll be need to be arranged differently to operate most effectively surrounded by liquid.