2008-04-02 23:48:55 -

www.asetek.com - Today Asetek announced the availability of its liquid cooling system for the new nVidia GeForce 9800GTX and GeForce 9800GX2 graphics cards. Asetek is the first liquid cooling solution developed to exceed the stringent thermal performance, low noise and daunting reliability requirements demanded by Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs).

The graphics GPU power budget is constantly

increasing as enthusiasts and professional workstation end-users exhibit an insatiable desire for higher frame rates and resolution. Thermal management of the graphics card is an ever increasing challenge with every new generation of Graphics Processing Unit (GPU), often at the sacrifice of acceptable fan noise. The factor limiting the maximum GPU frequency of operation is often the thermal limitations of the graphic card. This inability to provide the GPU and board devices with sufficient thermal margins limits the board's ability to be overclocked and often the fan noise becomes objectionable as air cooled systems strain in an attempt to remove the generated heat.

Asetek's cooling solution eliminates these barriers utilizing hybrid cooling technology whereby the GPU is cooled by a liquid cold plate while the memory and power sub-systems are cooled by forced air convection.

-- Performance - The maximum performance and ability to overclock the graphic card is dependent upon the thermal design providing low device temperatures. Asetek's thermal solution reduces the GPU temperature by over 25 degrees C compared to solely air cooled designs providing excellent margins for higher clock speeds and improved graphic performance.

-- Noise - Annoying noise which has been increasing in recent years is virtually eliminated. Even in hot ambient conditions, the noise level of the card will never exceed 22dBA, about the level of a quiet whisper, where the typical air cooling solutions are approaching 50dB(A), about the level of a load conversation or many street corners.

-- System Thermal Management - The traditional air coolers exhaust significant amount of heat from the graphics cards into the chassis heating up other components and increasing the overall noise level. With Asetek's liquid cooling the heat from the graphics card is exhausted outside of the system chassis allowing other components on the motherboard to operate cooler and with higher reliability System fans have less work to do and are able to run slower reducing system noise still further.

"As computer power budgets increase and chassis configurations get smaller, managing the system thermal problem is becoming much more severe," said Gary Baum, Asetek's Sr. VP of Marketing. "Low noise is the new requirement for consumer PCs and workstations and liquid cooling can achieve both optimal thermal performance and the desired low system noise," Baum continued.

Asetek's liquid cooling solutions are OEM ready. Each new design undergoes rigorous reliability and environmental testing. Shock, vibration and thermal stress testing assuring 50,000 hour operational lifetime with no end-user maintenance required. This high reliability, no maintenance system is ideal for large volume OEMs.

About Asetek

Founded in 2000, Asetek is the world leading system thermal and acoustic management solution provider. Specialized designs incorporating liquid-cooling, vapor phase or vapor chamber technologies are utilized in providing OEM design solutions. These solutions are designed for applications where end-users demand exceptional performance, low noise and maximum reliability. Asetek's strong brand name products such as VapoChill(R) and WaterChill(TM) are often the favorite choice of enthusiast grade cooling solutions having obtained more than 200 international press awards in the past decade.

Asetek is headquartered in Denmark with offices in San Jose, California and Asia. Asetek works actively with leading-edge companies within the industry to ensure cost effective thermal performance, low acoustic noise and system reliability is achieved. For more information, please visit www.asetek.com.

Asetek USA, Inc.
Gary Baum, 512-431-3868
gbaum@asetek.com
www.asetek.com