Coolit shows some concepts off

COOLIT HAD SOME new parts at CES, but the real interesting things were the concept PCs. Ever seen a machine with active noise cancellation?

There were a few new devices on show, none of which are hugely photogenic. The first is a new TIM, Thermal Interface Material, the scientific name for the goop that goes between the heatsink and CPU. Coolit is now in that business, and they also sell their green coolant in 1 litre bottles. Sadly, they would not let me taste it on the show floor, but it looks more lime flavored than Mountain Dew.

Domino ALC

The most important thing they launched at the show was the Domino ALC, a closed-loop water cooler with an LED readout. The Domino is basically a Pure with a lot of knowledge learned from that project put into cost reduction. It comes with Intel and AMD brackets, and retails for under $80, not a bad deal at all. We are testing a Domino now, and will report back.

The real star of the show for the guys from Calgary were the concept PCs they had on hand. Like concept cars, they probably won't make production, but the ideas most definitely will. There were four really standout items to provoke thought.

Quietzone active noise cancellation concept PC

Quietzone LC is the name of the first one, and it looks like a shuttle box designed by a first-year metalshop student. The interesting part isn't the looks, but what they have inside, active noise cancellation. Coolit worked with Silentium to actively quiet a PC, basically generate anti-noise to counter the PC's sounds. You theoretically get almost dead silence, this could go far if done right.

X.O., not the laptop

The next one, called the X.O. looks like... well, not much. It is however an X58-based i7 with two HD4870s and a full RAID array. The idea is to show what can be done with full-out water cooling engineered in from the start. You get a hugely powerful machine in a small space without a win-tunnel fan screaming in your face. It is hard not to see how this will be more common as sizes shrink while power density increases.

Coolit test controller board

If you are looking for a single-board rack controller for you watercooling rig, Coolit has one for you. The board above, somewhere between a prototype and an OEM testing tool, will monitor 15 temperature zones, run eight fans, two pumps, a speaker and LCD. If you need more, buy two. That said, you can't buy it yet.

Quad CPU blade

Last up, we have a closed-loop, water-cooled blade. There are four CPUs hidden on this board and, from the look of it, you can put 10 blades in 7U, but I might be mistaken on that count.

The idea is that you can jack density up to the moon in a data center with the right cooling.

Good luck powering it, but it can be done. µ