For those of you who are familiar with Stirling Cycle engines, then skip this. Otherwise, go to http://travel.howstuffworks.com/stirling-engine.htm if you want to know how one works.

 

Why aren't stirling engines used as heatsincs/fans in computers? They don't require any electric power, and they consume heat on their own. It seems like it'd be much more power and heat efficient than the systems being used now...

Without knowing anything about them or even reading the article, my guess is money.

 

Going to read it now.

After reading, it's obvious that this would be usefull if you wanted to do some work from the heat of your processor, but most of us don't really need to.

 

Your goal is to remove the heat coming from the processor. A sterling engine probably is not as efficient at this task as your normal heatsink and fan.

Yes, but you could replace an electric fan with a stirling fan and still use the heatsinc. I would think that that would be much more efficient and not use electrical power.

If you tried cooling the heatsink with power generated from a stirling engine, in turn getting power from the hot processor, then wouldn't the cooling stop the stirling engine from functioning?

If you tried cooling the heatsink with power generated from a stirling engine, in turn getting power from the hot processor, then wouldn't the cooling stop the stirling engine from functioning?

 

Can you say that again, in more than one sentence? I didn't understand what you meant. Sorry!