[citation][nom]hellwig[/nom]Thermo-dynamics was never my thing, but how do they get the compression back into liquid state to be efficient? You refridgerator works on much the same premise as this device, take a cooling agent, allow it to expand, taking in energy from the air inside your fridge, then expell that heat through a radiator on the back. The only problem is, your fridge needs a powered compressor to get the coolant back into a liquid phase.In theory, if your CPU ran hot enough, this thing would just shut-down, right?[/citation]
The reason your fridge needs a compressor is because it is cooling to below-ambient. The method would work with no compressor required at all to keep something above ambient, but just provide a high heat flow rate out of the system. That appears to be what was done here.