March, 2001      Diablo Blue      Page 11

Computer cooling: what does that mean to you? For most its just a couple of fans and a mini heat sink, that's it. But to the nerds in the crowd, power users, and over-clockers [over clocking is when you operate a computer at a higher speed than it was designed for], it is becoming a serious problem. When you promote the accelerated performance of the movements of electrons, excess heat is a byproduct. With the newer high performing computers this problem must be solved, or you soon fry your mother board and/or other adapter boards.
One of the solutions is to use bigger CPU [central processing unit] fans, and their cooling heat sinks. However, on some mother boards this does not work because the bigger fan and/or heat sink will not fit because of protruding capacitors etc. ASUS [the motherboard manufacture], have designed a huge heat sink and fan on their new motherboard for Intel's Pentium 4 CPU that's rated at 1,500 MHz. It's so heavy that they have resorted to a steel plate that is sandwiched with a rubber sheet to the motherboard, so the heat sink has a firm foundation.
There is a whole catalog of options that can be taken. Some manufacturers have even resorted to water cooling, a bit like an automobile engine. Another more exotic solution is the use of the Peltier effect. Peltier cooling works a little like a household refrigerator. It's made of layers of ceramic-type materials. When a electrical current is passed through the result will be hot on one side and the opposite side will be quite cold. The heat then is removed with a fan and a heat sink. This set up can lead to some fancy duct work. Also you have to have a separate power source because this setup takes a lot of juice.
The heat problem is not exclusive to the CPUs. Because hard drives have been jacked up to 10,000 RPM, heat has to be dissipated by various fan arrangements. Your upgrade video card, also comes under heat design scrutiny, and higher performing models have their own fan and/or heat sink.
The irony of this is that a lot of over-clockers spend more for cooling, than the cost of computer parts that are designed for the newer technologies. But theirs' is all ego and bragging rights: "I did it".

Lat month's winner was Harold Lubbock. Of his 90 entries, he got a final score of 81. Harold will be able to pick up his prize, a copy of "Age of Empires," at this month's meeting. Honorable mention goes to John Burnitt with a score of 74.
Join us this month for the next game. When you come to the monthly meeting, See Peggy, Stan, (or whoever is at the table when you enter) and get your puzzle. Be sure you turn it in before the first speaker (yes, those who come early get more time to work on it), and one member will get a prize. Good luck!

Up until now I've been a supporter of Dell Computer but recently they've had an advertising campaign which gives them a bad name.
About once a week they've been running a ¾ page advertisement in the Contra Costa Times titled "Save up to $300". Being that I am sort of interested in upgrading my Laptop I was interested in their Dell Inspiron 3800 for $999. To find out more information I immediately went to their web site and entered the E-Value code given only to have a notice on the screen that the E-value code was either out of date or no longer available. Mind you, this was done the morning that the advertisement appeared in the local paper.   
After calling Dell's 800 number, with the usual wait in queue, I was told that you had to be a business to get that price and that the advertisement had run in the "Business" section of the paper. Apparently Dell is under the illusion that only business people read the "Business" section of the Contra Costa Times. 

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