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back to article Asus waves farewell to (laptop) fans

Asus may launch a laptop able to cool its technical innards without a fan, if the firm’s latest concept is anything to go by. Can't see the video? Download Flash Player from Adobe.com Peter Clark, a Senior Designer at Asus, today demoed a prototype notebook to Register Hardware that he said could “potentially” run without …

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  1. VespertineStar
    Flame

    Problems?

    Oh I can see so many things wrong with this there's too many to list but Ill name a couple.

    Instead of putting mainstream laptop parts in it I reckon they will be cut down versions; that's not important in a netbook but if it's marketed as a "laptop" I can't see it taking off.

    Things can and will get spilled/stuck underneath the hinge. One good knock to that keyboard and it will probably break :(

    I'm not saying it wouldn't take off but I can't see it happening with the current implementation.

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  2. b166er

    Vespertine Start

    I reckon you're just hankering for the Panasonic Toughbook version :)

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  3. adnim

    Thermodynamics

    Hot air rises... So a hot keyboard? I guess they would realise that rising hot air will suck cooler air in from the base... I do hope there are holes in the bottom. Er no I don't, I will never own one so I don't care.

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  4. Anonymous Coward
    Alert

    Thermal Holes

    Thermal holes are different from "vents" how?

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  5. Ball boy Silver badge
    Paris Hilton

    @A/C 'Thermal holes'

    Speaking as a man who's 'invested' in plenty of wonderful-sounding tech. over the years, this is easy to explain:

    Vents is a term that's simple to understand and thus has no place in modern hardware designs. Thermal holes, on the other hand, sound like someone's really designed them....like, you know, they really, totally must need something that's just more radical than anything else: 'Hey, homie! You seen the thermal holes on this mutha? It's the one for me'.

    Believe me, this approach works. Especially with technology, doubly so when the audience is mainly men.

    Paris, if only for an audience

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  6. sT0rNG b4R3 duRiD
    Thumb Down

    eeeew...

    looks ugly as sin.

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  7. Eddie Johnson
    Flame

    Typical of "Modern Technology"

    Take an existing concept like convection.

    Slap a trendy new name on it like "thermal holes" or better yet a ridiculous acronym like ICE (Integrated Cooling Environment).

    Hire patent and trademark lawyers.

    Profit!

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  8. Anonymous Coward
    Coffee/keyboard

    more drink disasters

    oh great..with all those holes a spilled drink just gets even worse. thanks but no thanks

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  9. Bounty

    nah

    I'm waiting for the hinged heatpipe, then the whole top behind the screen can be a heatsink.

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  10. Sly

    @Thermal Holes

    round instead of slats maybe? Technicality yes, but it's good marketing hype I'm sure.

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  11. Anonymous Coward
    Heart

    That looks so cool

    I would buy one tomorrow. It makes my MacBook look really really old. And unlike the Mac I would definitely prefer one of those in white.

    As for horsepower, who cares? I get all the performance I need out of my Eee. Mind you, I mostly use it to ssh into the real computers in the office. :-)

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  12. Ian Michael Gumby
    FAIL

    Where's my Grid computer?

    Yeah, I'm dating myself here...

    The grid laptop system developed back in circa '83-84 time frame didn't have a fan.

    So going fan-less is been possible for the past uhm 25 years or so.

    Nothing new here except that if you're drinking coffee and using the laptop, you're going to be in for one hell of a surprise when your cat spills your cup of coffee on your keyboard!

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  13. Jon 27
    Jobs Horns

    @Ian Michael Gumby

    486's 386's P1 (w/o mmx) were able to run fanless... So I agree that it was possible. But this is a modern processor we are talking about. Many more hertz's and celsius's in these badboys.

    Jobs, because the flaming devil must be in my apple laptop, its burning my legs.

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  14. James Minney

    Vents / air-moving?

    If they want to get the air to move, shouldn't they make the back of the screen into a chimney-effect environment? Suck hot air up from the bottom by convection?

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  15. mightyrajh

    Spilled coffee on any notebook lately

    Sure those holes will let coffee in. So will the gap around the keyboard and speakers on your current notebook.. I haven't seen any consumer equipment that likes a bath. If these guys can use convection to cool a modern CPU (CPUs in 83-84 didn't even have heat sinks) with less power and no noise I'll buy one.

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  16. Stuart 2
    Happy

    Speed holes

    Reminds me of the episode of the simpsons where a car salesman tries to sell a car to Homer that has "speed holes"

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  17. Andy 70

    hmmm

    wouldn't look out of place on the set of battle star galactica.

    the 70's version. athena ftw :)

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  18. pedrodude
    FAIL

    Apart from all of the previously mentioned flaws...

    ... that creaking squeaking sound it makes when opening or closing the hinge is simply ridiculous! Hardly fits with the futuristing image they're trying to give it.

    Bloody inadequate engineering...

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