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Further Details Regarding Leaked Pro Mac

There is another reason to use a big sink, especially with a variable speed fan and lots of vents... silence. The big heat sink and variable speed fan combined with a seperate fan for the optical drives could be a good combination to make a tower silent most of the time. Think about it, the fan would only have to come on when the temperature reaches a certain point. Smooth quiet operation.
 
C'mon the only reason a Mac would need that kind of cooling and a 7lb heatsink is for dual 3GHz Pentium 4s.

I can definitely say is that the placement of the holes and the speaker look odd in the Spymac photos.

Now all that thing really needs to look fast are fins - hey it worked in the 50's on cars.
 
the oversized heatsink

An argument has been made that the oversized heat sink is overkill, even for quad processors.

The argument has to do with specific heat, aluminium's conductivity, and the geometry of the heat sink in the photos. Personally, I haven't seen the heat sink up close; can one do so in those photos? I have read, however, that it is has an awful lot of depth and little in the way of flanges for increased surface area for heat transfer.

All that said, I'm not looking to discuss this any further given that I don't have a close up of the heat sink. I want to look at this in another way.

What if the heat sink in the photos exists to serve a different purpose? Every prototype unit that goes out to NDA's folks undoubtedly has anti-tampering mechanisms, could be something as siimple as special tape.

Well, stuff happens in shipment and handling of these boxes. So, there are likely to be situations where these anti-tampering mechanisms yield false positives that indicate that someone has opened a box that should not be opened.

On the other hand, some Apple partners may be allowed to open their prototype units. If Apple wishes to prevent the partners from getting a good look at the motherboard, and there's the possibility of or the expectation that partners will open the box, then Apple would want some means to hide the motherboard in that event. So, maybe, just maybe, an oversized heat sink covering most if not all of the motherboard would discourage a large percentage of those partners that might or would open their prototype units from seeing the motherboard. That is, many partners may not be so bold as to remove the heat sink to get a good look at the motherboard. Note, I don't know for sure that the heat sink does in fact totally or nearly obstruct viewing of the motherboard; this is an assumption.

Well, there you are. Maybe this oversized heat sink is yet another means by which Apple endeavors to keep its motherboard, including its components, a secret from its partners. If so, then all of our excited discussion about Apple moving forward with some high performance, power sucking, and heat gushing super processors may all be for not. Could the heat sink be meaningless?
 
7 lb. Heat Sink Possible? ..... YES!

Is a 7 lb. Heat Sink Possible?

Based on estimations from the PDF file showing the general layout of the Powermac's internal components it is entirely possible that a 7 lb. heat sink could be in the next computer. Based on my calculations, using the density of aluminum, a 7 lb. block of aluminum should be about 4inches x 6inches x6inches (give or take an inch in each direction). We will just have to wait and see.....:)
 
Originally posted by solvs
...They want to move into the Pro realm, give us Pro hardware. Who cares if you have a 1.2 GHz CPU, if it's surrounded by ATA/133 (which really is better than ATA/66), 120 GB+ Hard Drives, PC2700 DDR, 166 FSB (x2), 2 CD Drives, USB 2, built-in Bluetooth, etc. It matters now. You can do it. How many of us use GB Ethernet, or used USB or FW when they first came out? You can't use modern day specs!?!...
Click to expand...

While ATA/100 or even 133 would be a welcome improvement. It really only plays a pert in burst transfers. Most of the stuff that Apple is gearing for requires sustained throughput. Many drives available today can achieve this, and come nowhere near taxing the ATA/66 bus. USB 2, is kind of pointless, other than there are periferals out there that use it. Firewire has equivalent bandwidth, and is overall a more flexible architecture. Bluetooth would be nice, but the stuff around that uses ut is un polished. Besides it would do better for it to ship built in on Laptops first. just make it an option in the BTO, use an internal USB port and an antenna. Apple can't fool with the FSB speed because the 7455 doesn't support >133MHz, and it also doesn't support DDR SDRAM. Meaning that the best Apple can do is do DDR as the XServer does it. This works well for a served which is IO constrained in many cases, and the DMA access to ethernet, etc. However, if your processor is the item needing access to the memory and it will only talk at 133 MHz and only on one side of the clock, adding faster memory won't do you any good. I can tell you now that the G4's are often data starved. I can easily write a program the runs faster on a 700 MHz iBook, than on a 800 MHz PowerBook G4, because of the iBook's 512k L2 cache on the PPC750FX. If Moto won't give them CPU's that can handled >133 FSB and DDR Apple needs to max out the size of the L3 cache, currently 2 MB, and uses the fastest DDR ram they can find. Moto only certifies the L3 at 250 MHz on the MPC7455, but it may work faster, say 333 MHz, which gives a DDR speed of 666, 2/3 of the 1GHz Processor clock.
 
Re: 7 lb. Heat Sink Possible? ..... YES!

Originally posted by Fizix
Is a 7 lb. Heat Sink Possible?

Based on estimations from the PDF file showing the general layout of the Powermac's internal components it is entirely possible that a 7 lb. heat sink could be in the next computer. Based on my calculations, using the density of aluminum, a 7 lb. block of aluminum should be about 4inches x 6inches x6inches (give or take an inch in each direction). We will just have to wait and see.....:)
Click to expand...


Ah yes grasshopper, but you are measuring a solid aluminum block, not a heatsink. A heatsink will be milled out with fins and valleys. An actual heatsink is probably about 1/2 aluminum and 1/2 airspace between the fins. That would double your measurements for the overall size. More like 8" x 12" x 12" (If your measurements are correct, I don't feel like doing the math). Now 8x12x12 is a MASSIVE friggin heatsink, and I doubt it will do any good being that big. There becomes a point on computer heatsinks where more aluminum doesn't have any effect, as it doesn't get heated up since it is so far away from CPU. The tempature difference is microscopic, unless you run a processor at a MUCH higher tempature....150 degrees for instance. Bottom line is if a processor get's hot enough to need 7 lbs of aluminum to cool it, you've got bigger issues to worry about than dissapating heat (a melted MOBO for instance).
 
Re: Re: 7 lb. Heat Sink Possible? ..... YES!

Originally posted by Peyote



Ah yes grasshopper, but you are measuring a solid aluminum block, not a heatsink. A heatsink will be milled out with fins and valleys. An actual heatsink is probably about 1/2 aluminum and 1/2 airspace between the fins. That would double your measurements for the overall size. More like 8" x 12" x 12" (If your measurements are correct, I don't feel like doing the math). Now 8x12x12 is a MASSIVE friggin heatsink, and I doubt it will do any good being that big. There becomes a point on computer heatsinks where more aluminum doesn't have any effect, as it doesn't get heated up since it is so far away from CPU. The tempature difference is microscopic, unless you run a processor at a MUCH higher tempature....150 degrees for instance. Bottom line is if a processor get's hot enough to need 7 lbs of aluminum to cool it, you've got bigger issues to worry about than dissapating heat (a melted MOBO for instance).
Click to expand...

My calculations already included the heat sink of 50% aluminum and 50% airspace. A solid 7lb cube of aluminium would be be about 4.2 inches x 4.2 inches x 4.2 inches. Assuming a (50% Al/50% air) heat sink the dimensions grow to only 5.2 inches x 5.2 inches x 5.2 inches. This is possible, but you are correct that it is still HUGE. I guess in the final analysis we will have to wait until the Powermac arrives to determine if the heatsink is that large and what it's supposed to be cooling.

:)
 
does water transfer heat better than aluminum? what IF there was some kind of aluminum outer core, with a water inner core?

seriously, that could explain an actual heat sink's weight, though small enough to really fit within a CPU shell.

maybe the warm water moves up the fins, to disperse heat where the fans would be located, while the cooler water (which is heaver) falls back downward (only for vertically mounted boards)

this might give us taller, more slender heat sinks....any thought?
the only problem is, it seems that water could not transfer heat fast enough, and vica versa, but maybe it will act as some kind of thermal barrier, keeping the temp relatively warm, and not letting it get too hot, while the rest of the heat sink design uses the aluminum fins to get rid of most of the heat...
 
I doubt there is any water involved. No company is going to make a computer that is only fast when it's water cooled. A couple have tried, but failed.


Maybe the heatsink has a copper core or something
 
Date on Motherboard Zoomed in.

The motherboard is printed with "2001" on it. Any thoughts?

Matt
 

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Re: Date on Motherboard Zoomed in.

Originally posted by matthewreid
The motherboard is printed with "2001" on it. Any thoughts?

Matt
Click to expand...
Yes, my thought is: prototype daughtercards have older copyright dates (as they are not released to the public)... The daughtercard in question was originally designed/produced in 2001, thus it has a 2001 © stamp. Once the new d-card design is in production, expect a 2002 © stamp.

P.S. Brown/red Apple circuit board = prototype (unless it's a MacII series or earlier :p)
 
Originally posted by Peyote
Maybe the heatsink has a copper core or something
Click to expand...
OML!! Did *someone else* just say COPPER!? Whut up guys!? Why do you have the concept of "Aluminum Heat Sink" lodged up your asses?
 
copper is better

Originally posted by gropo
OML!! Did *someone else* just say COPPER!? Whut up guys!? Why do you have the concept of "Aluminum Heat Sink" lodged up your asses?
Click to expand...

You know, copper is a VERY good heat conductor, that is way so many professional grade cooking pans and skillets are made with rounded copper bottoms, they transfer the heat from the source to the food much more efficiently than iron, alumninum or stainless ever could.

Hmmmmmmm...this is interesting :)
 
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