Aircos as CPU coolers exist?

[technossomy]

Has anyone ever heard of airconditioners that go inside the box? Are such airconditioners even designed to cool processors only as opposed to the whole system?

[bigtomrodney]

Are you talking about liquid cooling?

A quick google shows me this. If you're into cooling I've become a bit obsessive with it myself. My case has plenty of big fans running at slow speed and a huge CPU cooler. I don't think much of liquid cooling though, it's so messy with the external reservoirs and heatsinks. I'd live with that except you still need fans for your motherboard and the ambient temperature.

[technossomy]

Actually I was talking about the possibility of putting an actual mini-airco in the case, perhaps even one designed specifically for CPUs only. Mini-aircos the size of cell phones are impossible to find though.

Outrageously impractical at present, but theoretically possible is the Stirling engine, which works on the principle of great temperature differentials in small areas. This Stirling engine would be connected to a cooling device. The hotter a component, the more power a Stirling engine can develop and the greater its cooling capacity. So the component by becoming hotter invokes its own cooling.

Also here I have not been able to find any examples.

[technossomy]

Too quick with the fingers:
Stirling Engine Cools Computer : TreeHugger

In this same article, the valid point is made that CPUs are becoming cooler, the modern versions rarely exceeding 40C at full tilt.