We've seen an Atom that was completely passively cooled and despite the fact that the machine was stable during the testing, the CPU / Northbridge / Southbridge passive heatsink tends to get rather hot.

The reason is simple - Atom at 1.6GHz dissipates 4W, but Intel’s ancient 945GC chipset dissipates double, or 8W. This propels it to rather warm temperatures, but J & W's system with a completely passive cooler that we’ve seen in action works stable at all times.

This passive heatsink covers all three major chips, CPU, Northbridge and Southbridge, and it gets extremely hot, but it doesn’t reach critical temperatures and runs stable. If you put even the slowest fan on top of it you will end up with a super cool machine and we believe that this is the way to go.

With Atom’s dissipation and a new chipset, Intel has a chance for small and passive system.