Comdex 2002 - New Meaning To The 'Cold Show'

While browsing the HSF OEM manufacturers, we stumbled across Ascent. Ascent made went through particular lengths to show us their new design on all of their CPU coolers which employs four holes at the bottom of the HSF for cooling. The idea is that the copper insert still makes contact with the core of the processor, but more cool air is allowed to circulate throughout the unit. If this sort of technology proves efficient and useful, we will most likely see it in new HSF combos in the future.

A second interesting HSF company we saw on the floor was Speeze/Spire. Spire, which is also known as The Fanner Group, had several interesting products in their booth which they were very proud to announce were all manufactured by themselves. As you probably know, the majority of case, cooling and power supply companies outsource and rebrand other products as theirs. The long run disadvantage of such practice usually leads to high costs and not always the best quality. Spire was very pleased to show off their new K8 HSF, but could not disclose any specifications on the product.

Even more interesting was the peltier cooler Spire had on display. Whereas ThermalTake/ActiveCool have decided to use a large PCI card to control their partier's temperature, Spire is working on a small chipset right on the heat sink. While still an early prototype, they were happy to let us take a picture as seen below.

Spire also had some new cold cathode tubes and fans which can be seen below. These cathode tubed fans really look like they can give the often dim LED fans a good run for their money.