What controls the band gap? Supplying energy to excite atoms and cause electrons to jump to the next shell, opening up holes that increases electrical conduction. What defines the amount of energy in an atom? Heat. What is the measurement for bulk heat density? Temperature. So, as temperature goes down, the heat content goes down, and energy state goes down. The semiconductor becomes an insulator. As temperature goes up, heat content goes up, energy state goes up, and you're now a conductor. Hence, semiconductors are fundamentally thermally controlled electric (thermoelectric) devices.
If your chip's temperature brings the energy level above its band gap, your semiconductor will simply not function, and this temperature is well below your semiconductors functional mechanical limits. If your chip's temperature means the energy level is well below the band gap, your semiconductor will need to run at a high core voltage and consume a large amount of power to bring the energy level (and temperature) of the gates up such that they will conduct and switch.
The problem is that transistors are thermoelectric devices. You switch them on and off by heating them up to change their conductivity. Silicon chips can withstand temperatures well beyond the point at which the plastic packages they are mounted to break down, but that temperature is also well beyond their switching point, making them useless as a computational device.
If you could produce a semiconductor that was useful at 3000F, then that would be its normal operating temperature, and you would need to feed it a high enough core voltage to allow it to heat itself up to that temperature to switch.
Water cooling is far superior because water has a very high thermal capacity, so it stays cool over a much longer period than a metal heat sink.
Are you suggesting that heatsinks work by absorbing and storing the waste heat generated by the CPU?
In fact, heatpipes being a form of phase change cooling, are much more efficient than pumped water at short and medium ranges. The only issue with heatpipes is that the average hobbyiest can't make them themselves, and they require static routing.
There's no problem with convecting your heat near the thing you actually want to cool, so long as you can get enough airflow there.
The main point of enthusiasm is that liquid cooling is easier to do than phase change cooling with hobbyist
There are several advantages. One key one is that coolant pipes are longer and much, much, much more flexible than heatpipe pipes. This means you can easily place the large radiator on the edge of the case, with the fan blowing outwards. This has substantial advantages than the heatpipe coolers which recircuate air withing the case and rely on other fans to cycle fresh air.
That really sounds like a flaw in your case than the radiators contained within it. Back when we had blow-down heatsinks instead of tower ones, cases would come with side vents and shrouds to provide cool air directly to the fans. If you open up a server case, chances are it will have a shroud that covers both CPUs and all your memory, ducting air directly from several of the mid-plane fans. You can get cases that move the power supply to the bottom, so the CPU is directly in the top rear corner of the case, next to exhaust fans. You can get cases that rotate the board sideways so that everything vents upwards, taking advantage of convection to prevent recirculation outside the case.
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