Forced and natural convection liquid cooler for personal computer

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2017052576-A1
Application number	US-201615182355-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Jun 14, 2016
Priority date	Aug 21, 2015
Publication date	Feb 23, 2017
Grant date	—

Abstract

A small form factor computer chassis is disclosed. The computer chassis includes a solid bulkhead that separates the computer chassis cavity into two thermal chambers. According to certain embodiments, a radiator that is oriented along the XZ plane and is along a wall of computer chassis helps remove heat from a liquid coolant arriving form a cold plate associated with a CPU and/or a GPU.

First claim

We claim:

1 . A computer chassis comprising:
a chassis frame encompassing a chassis cavity, the computer chassis having a top chassis portion oriented in a first X-Y plane of the computer chassis, a bottom chassis portion oriented in a second X-Y plane of the computer chassis, a front chassis portion oriented in a first Y-Z plane of the computer chassis, and a back chassis portion oriented in a second Y-Z plane of the computer chassis; a right side outer panel oriented in a first X-Z plane of the computer chassis; a left side outer panel oriented in a second X-Z plane of the computer chassis; a central solid bulkhead in the chassis cavity, the central solid bulkhead occupying an entire cross sectional area of the chassis cavity and is oriented in a third X-Z plane of the computer chassis, where the third X-Z plane is located about midway in a Y direction of the computer chassis, wherein: the central solid bulkhead runs from the top chassis portion to the bottom chassis portion and from the front chassis portion to the back chassis portion; and the central solid bulkhead divides the chassis cavity into a first chassis cavity portion and a second chassis cavity portion, wherein the first chassis cavity portion forms a first thermal chamber of the computer chassis and the second chassis cavity portion forms a second thermal chamber of the computer chassis.

2 . The computer chassis of claim 1 , wherein the first chassis cavity portion is for housing a motherboard and a corresponding central processing unit associated with the motherboard.

3 . The computer chassis of claim 1 , wherein the second chassis cavity portion is for housing a graphics processing unit.

4 . The computer chassis of claim 1 , wherein the first chassis cavity portion is for housing a power supply unit.

5 . The computer chassis of claim 1 , wherein the first chassis cavity portion is for housing a first radiator unit.

6 . The computer chassis of claim 1 , wherein the second chassis cavity portion is for housing a second radiator unit.

7 . The computer chassis of claim 5 , wherein the first radiator unit is associated with a pump to circulate coolant liquid from a heat source in the computer chassis to the first radiator unit, wherein the coolant liquid removes heat from the heat source and the coolant liquid is cooled at the first radiator unit.

8 . The computer chassis of claim 6 , wherein the second radiator unit is associated with a pump to circulate coolant liquid from a heat source in the computer chassis to the second radiator unit, wherein the coolant liquid removes heat from the heat source and the coolant liquid is cooled at the second radiator unit.

9 . The computer chassis of claim 1 , further comprising at least one exhaust fan located at the top chassis portion, wherein the at least one exhaust fan pulls air out of the first and second thermal chambers of the computer chassis.

10 . The computer chassis of claim 1 , wherein the bottom chassis portion allows air from outside the computer chassis to flow into the computer chassis.

Assignees

• Corsair Memory Inc

Inventors

• Kinstle Iii Robert Michael
• Hooper Michael

Classifications

• G06F1/183

  Internal mounting support structures, e.g. for supporting printed circuit boards · CPC title

• G06F2200/201

  Cooling arrangements using cooling fluid · CPC title

• G06F1/20 Primary

  Cooling means · CPC title

• H05K7/20009

  using a gaseous coolant in electronic enclosures (in cabinets of standardized dimensions H05K7/20536; in server cabinets H05K7/20709; in vehicle electronic casings H05K7/20845; in power control electronics H05K7/2089; in displays H05K7/20954) · CPC title

• H05K7/20281

  Thermal management, e.g. liquid flow control · CPC title