Cool tech: a solid-state fan for laptops

Seems like a good tech for future. Wanna know what framework community think about this.

2 Likes

I just saw the video, and it looks pretty cool, but as others are mentioning, the math doesn’t add up. I’d like to see FW include this as an optional upgrade in the future though.

What would be awesome if frame.work could intergrate an AirJet® Mini from Frore Systems.
These were just demoed at CES as a solid state cooling solution.

1 Like

So this looks like it could be an interesting option as an upgrade. Especially since the Framework has a larger fan and cooling system already installed. Supposedly it doesn’t use much energy and is pretty quiet.

https://www.froresystems.com/

1 Like

Hey there!

Indeed it is interesting, it has already been suggested before though.

Feel free to partake in that discussion!

Please use the search function the next time.

5 Likes

PC World just published a video where Gordon was given a lab tour at Frore systems. They feature some demos and comparisons in it too. It is from data-driven evidence, but it is actually pretty exciting tech!

3 Likes

Hello, Framework Community members.

At the previous CES 2023, the world’s first solid state cooling chip, AirJet, developed by Fore Systems, was introduced.
According to their documentations, AirJet® Mini generates 1750 Pascals of back pressure, ensuring air flow into and out from product enclosures. integrated into a compute platform with processor die temperature of 85C, AirJet® Mini removes a net 4.25 Watts of heat at a silent 21 dBA noise level, while When integrated into a compute platform with processor die temperature of 85C, AirJet® Mini removes a net 4.25 Watts of heat at a silent 21 dBA noise level, while consuming 1 Watt of power.

I think this product is a perfect fit for Framework Laptop, whose thinness, upgradability, repairability, etc are its main selling points. The current model uses a heat sink, but AirJet requires a viper chamber, so it doesn’t look easy to install, but you might want to consider it.
What do you guys think?

Thanks. I look forward to seeing more of the Framework in the future!

https://www.froresystems.com/

2 Likes

Hello @mtaku3 and welcome on the forums!

Have you tried our search yet? It has been suggested several times before.

Hi @Anachron !
Thanks to notifying about that. I found the discussion. I did search for “solid state cooling”, but not for “AirJet”.

1 Like

Really? That surprises me, because even with that search term I can find the [discussion](Search results for 'solid\' - Framework Community state\ cooling).

That. It’s true. I may have misunderstood something.
Thanks again.

1 Like

It doesn’t have enough wattage, I don’t really see the value over just a better engineered fan

1 Like

Hey everyone, just putting this cooling system I saw a while ago in the map: https://www.froresystems.com/

It’s called AirJet, and moves air in your laptop in a completely different (and much more efficient) way.

I think they haven’t began production yet, or at least they don’t have a shop on the page. But it seems like a great partner to make the Framework laptop even better.

Any thoughts?

3 Likes

@RicardoPerez the wattage on those airjets is way too low to be usable, and they consume significantly more power than regular fans

1 Like

If their datasheet is to be belived, they are doing better than fans on a volume for volume basis, unfortunately from a little bit of crude cad fiddling I did we could not fill the volume of the existing fans very efficiently.

You are definitely right about the power though, at about 1w per 4w of net cooling that is a lot more than a fan. Then there is the question what those puppies cost, personally I kinda want one just to play around with it but I’d imagine they’d be quite expensive.

3 Likes

Just as an FYI since I know there were people excited about this tech, but here’s the first product from Computex using the AirJet, a Zotac Zbox PI430AJ mini PC w/ a 7W i3-N300 (8 x Alder Lake E cores). It’s scheduled for Q4 2023. PCWorld video: The Future Of Mini PCs Thanks To AirJet: Zotac Zbox PI430AJ - YouTube

The device has two AirJet Minis, which should be able of handling 10.5W of heat removal. What’s interesting is the demo is that they have a side-by-side comparison w/ the fan on vs off. With the Airjet, system power is 21.6W, the CPU is maxed at 7W, and the AirJets use 2.4W of power vs with it off, where the system is at 10.8-11.0W and the CPU at 2.2-2.4W with a Prime95 + Furmark stress test. Clocks weren’t published, but it’s pretty interesting. It also looks like you can hear moving air up to about 10cm away.

5 Likes

Frore Systems is a company that’s trying to replace fans with “cooling chips” to improve both cooling and performances of your hardware. But what if in the future the framework 16 external mutilpurpose module (gpu etc…) was using this new kind of cooling solution ?

5 Likes

This would be awesome - I’ve thought of this as well.

4 Likes

According to Frore site the most wattage they can handle in a laptop at the moment is 20W sustained but I think framework 13 cooling solution already handles 28W sustained. The framework 16 will probably need to handle a bit more wattage on the higher end chips.

They were originally designed to cool SSDs and I think they could probably be retrofitted for that. Maybe if the laptop has hot spots too they could be installed for that too. Each airjet is only a couple mm deep and handles about 7W load.

4 Likes

@Andrew_Desmond Actually you can just use multiple of these to achieve the target cooling capacity. Additionally, they said that they’ll be able to achieve a lot of improvements to these coolers over time (similar scaling as CPUs), but that’s not relevant for the 16 yet.

4 Likes