A Suggestion on Fan Noise That OQO Might Be Able To Implement Post Production

[Guest]

[Dave P]

Like others I am troubled by preliminary reports regarding fan noise in the 02+. May I suggest/request a software solution from OQO.

There are many fan controller programs out there but none which seems compatible with the OQO. If it is possible with the fan and motherboard, could OQO develop a program such as SpeedFan which accesses (and displays) the CPU temprature and allows a finer control over the fan speed than is possible with the current control program?

A major problem with the current control is that it doesn't have a way to specify that the fan should run at lower temperatures and at lower speeds. The lowest speed that the current control uses is too high for a meeting room and the control interface is far too simplistic. I would like an "advanced" section (or separate program) where I could specify a fan scheme (i.e. several instances of "between X and Y degrees run fan at Z RPM").

[adamg]

Forwarded to product dev folks.

[ecsk2]

Thank you for this, as if something (serious) could be done about the fan noise I think I can work around the battery time things, that's more or less the same "for all" these pocketable devices anyhow!

PLEASE OQO give me a FANLESS (or next into) 2+ and I'll be on the OQO bandwagon again

[2disbetter]

Just out of curiosity are there any fanless UMPCs out there?

2d

[jo2k]

PLEASE OQO give me a FANLESS (or next into) 2+ and I'll be on the OQO bandwagon again

I am sure OQO wants to be rid of the fan as much as we do...if they could, they would. On the one hand we're crying for performance that could never be good enough, and on the other hand, we want it to be cool and quiet.

Hence, I do applaud for Dave's constructive effort and Adam's attitude.

[j0]

Another idea is the ability to set the highest fan level.  If the temperature is going higher, it can throttle down the CPU.  That way, I can set the fan at a maximum tolerable noise level so I don't have to worry about the noise coming up all of the sudden.

[Dave P]

Two words for the 03: Peltier cooling.

[Stuart]

Two words for the 03: Peltier cooling

And how would you keep the hot side from just heating the whole device up?

With the heat that is generated and the poor cooling characteristics of the case (screen on one surface, battery on the other), there's no easy way to dissapate the heat.  A heat pipe to colling fins for handles (hand warmers) is more likely to work.

[Dave P]

Two words for the 03: Peltier cooling

And how would you keep the hot side from just heating the whole device up?

With the heat that is generated and the poor cooling characteristics of the case (screen on one surface, battery on the other), there's no easy way to dissapate the heat.  A heat pipe to colling fins for handles (hand warmers) is more likely to work.

I'd run the heat into the battery case and cut fins in the back of it. It probably wouldn't work well. But, then again, Sony is using the 1.33GHz in their new Vaio because it can run fanless. Maybe there won't be that much heat that needs dissipating.

I like the heat pipe idea. I wonder if you could put them on swivels so that you could move them out of the way?

[vadsoom]

Two words for the 03: Peltier cooling.

Great idea, but how would they port the "hot side." I've though about this and can't think of a way to vent away the heat on the outside and condensation on the inside....

[Bungee]

I've messed around a little with Peltier Cooling and must say that they results have been disappointing.
The peltier elements doesn't only transport but will also add heat to the elements in the cooling process, making it very inefficient overall. You'd also need to pull quite a bit of current which will inevitably affect battery life. Then, there's also the issue of dealing with the resulting condensation...

[ecsk2]

Just out of curiosity are there any fanless UMPCs out there?

2d

Well it's hard to say anymore what is an UMPC and what is a MID, OQO is marketing the OQO 2+ as a MID now..anyhow my Aigo is running XP and it has an Atom processor but no fan, same applies for the UMID MID (which has 1.33Ghz as top model):
http://www.oqotalk.com/index.php/topic,3238.0.html

No fan in it either, otherwise the idea of fanless wouldn't even cross my mind!

[ecsk2]

PLEASE OQO give me a FANLESS (or next into) 2+ and I'll be on the OQO bandwagon again

I am sure OQO wants to be rid of the fan as much as we do...if they could, they would. On the one hand we're crying for performance that could never be good enough, and on the other hand, we want it to be cool and quiet.

Hence, I do applaud for Dave's constructive effort and Adam's attitude.

I tend to agree to a certain degree, however I also feel that there are a number of things on the 2+ that are as they are because it's developed from the non Atom based 02, which would be differently if it had been developed from scratch, so maybe on the 03?

Agree on Adam & Dave!

[ecsk2]

Two words for the 03: Peltier cooling

And how would you keep the hot side from just heating the whole device up?

With the heat that is generated and the poor cooling characteristics of the case (screen on one surface, battery on the other), there's no easy way to dissapate the heat.  A heat pipe to colling fins for handles (hand warmers) is more likely to work.

I'd run the heat into the battery case and cut fins in the back of it. It probably wouldn't work well. But, then again, Sony is using the 1.33GHz in their new Vaio because it can run fanless. Maybe there won't be that much heat that needs dissipating.

I like the heat pipe idea. I wonder if you could put them on swivels so that you could move them out of the way?

From looking around at the Atom based devices you do get the impression that 1.33 is the split anything up to that you can find fanless but above not it seems. However I wouldn't compare the Sony on this subject just because more space/area always changes the possibilities totally, I tend to look at devices only that are truly pocketable just like the OQO. Actually ironically the EEEs which run SSDs and lower processor speeds generally speaking all have fans, so.