First Mini-PC With Solid-State Active Cooling System Launches

Chinese multinational Zotac has announced a mini-PC built around two solid-state active cooling chips called the AirJet Pro and AirJet Mini. They're designed by a company called Frore Systems. New Atlas reports: The AirJet tech is described as a self-contained active heat sink featuring membranes inside that vibrate at ultrasonic frequency, generating "a powerful flow of air" that's pushed through vents at the top of the unit. These "high-velocity pulsating jets" remove heat from the processor and push it out through an integrated spout. Back at Computex 2023 in May, Zotac's new Zbox mini-PC was announced as the first recipient of Frore's cooling technology, in the shape of two near-silent AirJet Minis. Now The Zbox PI430AJ has launched to "select regions." Zotac reckons that the active cooling modules can only be heard if the user places an ear against the Zbox's housing.

The processor of choice for this "world's first" device is an Intel Core i3-N300 octacore chip that can clock up to 3.8 GHz. This features integrated UHD graphics, and is supported by 8 GB of LPDDR5 RAM. The Windows flavor comes with 512 GB of SSD storage, while users who opt for the barebones version will need to install their own. The 114.8 x 76 x 23.8-mm (4.52 x 2.99 x 0.95-in) mini-PC sports two USB 3.2 Type-A ports plus one USB-C, HDMI and DisplayPort, Ethernet LAN and a combo headphone/microphone jack. Bluetooth 5.2 and Wi-Fi 6 are cooked in for wireless needs.

Maybe I'm missing something

[lsllll]

The pictures show a power port rated 5V. I doubt this unit takes anything over 5 amps from an adapter, giving it a theoretical limit of 25 watts of power converted to heat before dissipation. That can easily be done via passive cooling. Is it an advertisement on SD?

Re: Maybe I'm missing something

[rbet]

The core i3-N300 has a 7W TDP so I agree it could easily be passively cooled. I am still excited to see the airjet in a commercial product as this increases the likelihood we'll start to see other devices that utilize the airjet. I'm personally looking forward to the first m2 drive to come to market with an air jet as they are much smaller than any of the m2 coolers I've used in the past.

Re:

[jacks smirking reven]

Might also make sense being this is a new product that in the case of failures it's on a CPU that won't melt into smoke within 30 seconds.

Re:Maybe I'm missing something

[lsllll]

Confirmed. [zotac.com] The P/S is 5V 5A, so 25W max. The CPU is i3-N300 [intel.com], which uses only 7W. I doubt this thing will draw more than 15W altogether.

Re:

[AmiMoJo]

Wouldn't it be 25W of energy for moving air? TFA says that it moves air without moving parts (fans).

25W could move a lot of air, but will also itself produce more heat than the typical fans in a PC. So it would be very interesting to know the wattage.

Anyway, what I want is a system that doesn't move air, or rather doesn't move dust.

Re:

[OolimPhon]

I'd be more concerned what the constant vibration is doing to the solder joints on the motherboard. I bet the MTBF is terrible.

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[burtosis]

or rather doesn't move dust

Or hairs... Really the internet really must be made of tubes at some level because I’m easily able to obstruct it with cat hair.

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[Powercntrl]

According to Intel's specs [intel.com], the CPU they're using has a 7 watt TDP. So yeah, that's well within the realm of what can be passively cooled. This seems to be more of a "because we could" innovation rather than a "because it solves a real problem" one.

"Solid State"

[GameboyRMH]

I was kind of expecting it to use an ionic wind thruster, I'm not sure using high-tech short-stroke bellows instead of a fan should qualify as "solid state."

Re:"Solid State"

[Powercntrl]

I was kind of expecting it to use an ionic wind thruster, I'm not sure using high-tech short-stroke bellows instead of a fan should qualify as "solid state."

The other advantage of a fan that anyone who has ever worked on an old PC can tell you is, they're surprisingly resilient to dust. Sure, given enough time and lack of cleaning they will eventually get clogged up to the point they no longer move any air, but that takes awhile (or being operated in an excessively dusty environment).

From what I've seen of these AirJets, it appears that there's a tiny filter which would probably have to be replaced fairly regularly. As opposed to a traditional fan, where you can just take one of those computer duster cans and just blast it out.

Re:"Solid State"

[burtosis]

From what I've seen of these AirJets, it appears that there's a tiny filter which would probably have to be replaced fairly regularly. As opposed to a traditional fan, where you can just take one of those computer duster cans and just blast it out.

They just need a powerful accumulator they can charge up then suddenly reverse the flow violently to hack up the dust. This way a sick computer can actually cough up little hair balls back up onto the desk. Bonus points for somehow compressing them into neat little cubes like a wombat.

Re:

[stabiesoft]

Made me chuckle. A digital cat.

Re:

[K. S. Kyosuke]

A computer cat was the inevitable companion to the computer mouse. (And yes, I do remember Canon Cat, too.)

And...

[kackle]

This might not be the best place to drop this nugget, but I learned only several years ago, after repairing PCs for decades, I can usually repair failing fans with a drop of oil on its axle, underneath its sticker label.

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[TheEyes]

Ionic thrusters are not a great idea inside an atmosphere, as they generate an unhealthy amount of ozone very quickly. There's a reason you can't find true "bladeless" fans anymore.

Re:

[drinkypoo]

It absolutely should not. The two meanings of solid state are 1) transistors rather than tubes and 2) replacing moving parts with non-moving parts by using electronics. This doesn't really fit the first definition as tubes were never involved in moving air, and it definitely doesn't fit the second. There's nothing solid state about these devices except the control logic.