Apple Moves To Patent Liquid-Cooled Notebooks

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(Credit: Peconi/Flickr)

Apple has filed two patents bringing liquid-cooling to increasingly powerful (and hot) laptop computers. Once the domain of massive number-crunchers, liquid-cooled notebooks foresee a day when quad-core processors and better video overwhelms current fan-driven cooling.

In its U.S. Patent Office applications, the Cupertino, Calif.-based Apple outlined an active and passive liquid-cooling process.

The active liquid-cooling process involves bathing circuits, the heat relieved via fins. A more inexpensive passive liquid-cooling procedure would include a heat sink located behind the laptop’s display. Moving the heat away from the computer’s body could solve the dilemma of an overheated lap.


Although Apple is first to patent liquid-cooling for laptops, the method has been used in the past by other computer makers to dissipate the nearly 100 watts of heat produced by laptops.

In 2007, HP unveiled a line of Voodoo laptops which used water instead of fans to cool the gaming machines. Hitachi and Toshiba have also investigated water-cooled portables.

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10 responses to “Apple Moves To Patent Liquid-Cooled Notebooks”

  1. dh says:

    As some may remember, Apple had used a liquid cooling system in their tower computers a couple of years ago. Resembled the cooling system of a car’s engine and worked pretty well, as I recall. Used a radiator and fan arrangement , as I remember.

  2. DR Thompson says:

    They must have seen our site; http://www.powersystemscooling.com, we’ve already got the patents on this process, have products and are selling system and are filing an objection to this. A day late and a couple of Kw short Apple.

  3. MiniaturePneumaticValves says:

    Hey,nice post.Apple has raised the bar in design, and maybe they can raise the bar it notebooks running cool as well. If they are capable of doing that, then I myself may break down and jump on to a Mac.

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