Log 6L Vintage Radio FULL SLEEPER build featuring the GE Superadio II 7-2885 F

FreshGnar

SFF Lingo Aficionado
Original poster
Sep 23, 2020
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Got the itch to start a fresh new build so I'm back again with ANOTHER vintage radio sleeper. This time around the goal is to keep the build a full sleeper, completely incognito (or as close to it as possible).

This will also be the first build thread that I've created at the beginning of a project so anyone reading this will be following along as opposed to seeing the final product followed by the process. So, lets just jump straight in!

I have done a bit of research and part acquisition already but I still have alot to figure out.

THE RADIO

For this build I will using a GE Superadio II 7-2885 F to house the build. I found this unit on ebay in not working/for parts condition and it seems to be a pretty common unit so I figured I'd take a crack at it. Original dimensions found on Radiomuseum were around the ballpark I usually look for so I gave it a shot.








After taking some of my own dimensions, this thing is for sure going to be TIGHT, but I'm a glutton for punishment I suppose and I enjoy a nice challenge so we'll see how it goes. I've got some interesting ideas for this build which I'm excited to share but I figured I'd get this first post out there.

I'll end this first post with a brief hardware teaser list. Some of the hardware are things I already have in storage from past builds and others I still need to obtain. Also this list is definitely subject to change once I dive in and see how much work I have cut out for me.

CPU - Ryzen 7 2700 (have)
Mobo - Aorus B450i Pro Wifi (have)
GPU - GTX 1080 mini (need)
PSU - 400w Flex ATX psu (have)
Storage - 500gb Samsung 970 Evo M.2 Nvme (have)

Stay tuned for more 🎵 😉
 

FreshGnar

SFF Lingo Aficionado
Original poster
Sep 23, 2020
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Time for an update, but first a bit of backstory as to why I'm attempting this build:

I've really been wanting a system lately that is small enough to take anywhere. I work at a computer all day as a piping designer and sometimes game a little during my lunch break. It's pretty frowned upon to use company laptops for gaming so I've been wanting a build small enough to take with me and setup at my desk. I also want something less fragile and more low-maintenance than my main rig to take with me on the occasional trip.

Sleeper PCs have always been a passion of mine so even though I had considered something like an S4M, I just couldn't settle for anything else. This build hopefully will fulfill all my current needs and be a fun learning experience in the process.

On to the good stuff:

In my previous post I included a list of the potential hardware and still needed a GPU for this build.
I got a nice package in the mail last week :)






I ended up finding this Zotac 1080 Mini on Ebay for just 200 US bones. A nice sign that prices of older, used cards are coming back down to earth.
I currently have a 1050 ti and 1060 3gb in storage that would both potentially work for this build, but I wanted something a little more capable. Since I have heard great things about this card, I decided to give it a shot.

Upon further inspection I could kind of see why it was priced so cheap:






This card is definitely showing its age, but the seller claimed it to be in working condition.

Next was to see if this deal was too good to be true, so I popped it in my spare build to run some tests.
FYI - this spare build currently houses the CPU, mobo, and nvme I'll be using for this build so its a great indicator of the benchmark scores I can expect from the completed build.



IT WORKS!!
(I don't have access to the screenshots of the benchmarks at the time I'm updating this so this will be a placeholder for the time being.)

My plan is to use this 1080 deshrouded, and judging by the state of the exterior, I assumed it was in desperate need of new paste/pads.
So I disassembled the card to confirm that I couldn't have been more right:






(While researching this card, I came across this awesome review done by Drew Duncan. It includes everything from measurements, to disassembly instructions, to benchmarks. Definitely worth a look if you're considering this old, but still capable gpu for your SFF build!)

I currently have some new 1.5mm Gelid pads on the way to replace this extremely tired pads.

That just about does it for this update. Hopefully next update I'll have a general plan of attack ready to share for converting this radio into a pc. Thanks for reading!
 

Valantar

Shrink Ray Wielder
Jan 20, 2018
2,201
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This looks awesome, looking forward to seeing how it progresses. Btw, any particular reason for the 1080 mini rather than someting more modern but equally compact like an RX 6600 or RTX 3060?

Btw, the looks of that GPU makes me suspect that that GPU has been in a mining setup with an AC unit blowing directly into it. You don't get that level of tarnish on a GPU even as old as that one unless it's in a frighteningly humid environment. I would give the PCB and heatsink both a thorough cleaning with isopropyl alcohol and white vinegar if I were you. The vinegar should be able to take most of the tarnish off the copper too, and using both should ensure there's no corrosion on the board. I would scrub the board with IPA and a toothbrush or similar, then apply some vinegar to any visible corrosion and let it sit for a bit, then rinse it off with more IPA. The heatsink can just soak in a tub of vinegar for a few hours.
 
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FreshGnar

SFF Lingo Aficionado
Original poster
Sep 23, 2020
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This looks awesome, looking forward to seeing how it progresses. Btw, any particular reason for the 1080 mini rather than someting more modern but equally compact like an RX 6600 or RTX 3060?

Btw, the looks of that GPU makes me suspect that that GPU has been in a mining setup with an AC unit blowing directly into it. You don't get that level of tarnish on a GPU even as old as that one unless it's in a frighteningly humid environment. I would give the PCB and heatsink both a thorough cleaning with isopropyl alcohol and white vinegar if I were you. The vinegar should be able to take most of the tarnish off the copper too, and using both should ensure there's no corrosion on the board. I would scrub the board with IPA and a toothbrush or similar, then apply some vinegar to any visible corrosion and let it sit for a bit, then rinse it off with more IPA. The heatsink can just soak in a tub of vinegar for a few hours.

Thanks, I mainly chose the 1080 mini for its performance per dollar in the current market. I don't need to take advantage of ray tracing for this build and I sort of just have a soft spot for these pascal cards. Also the review done on the Zotac 1080 mini is so thorough, I figured there would be less guess work with this card. I'm sure there is plenty of detailed information out there on the newer sff cards but once I saw the deal on the 1080, that pretty much sealed it for me.

Also thank you for the tips on cleaning. Even before purchasing I figured this was probably a mining card. I already cleaned the PCB up with some iso alcy but i did not think of vinegar for the heatsink, which seems to be the part in the worst shape, so I will definitely try that. Cheers!
 

FreshGnar

SFF Lingo Aficionado
Original poster
Sep 23, 2020
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212
Time for another update. I finally had some time to open the radio up and assess the design, as it will determine how I incorporate all of my design ideas.

As soon as I flipped this thing over to examine the back panel there was an immediate, glaring issue. Unlike older radios I've used in the past, this particular model does not feature and "inner shell" with a flip up back panel. This radio separates directly in half via screws accessed from the backside.

So first I carefully removed each knob as to not scuff up the surface (made more difficult by the fact they had probably never been removed before):



Then I undid the screws and snipped some wires to separate the two halves:





Next, I stripped out everything leaving only the front and back pieces:


Then figured out my worst case depth dimensions for usable internal space:

front half: (~42mm)


rear half: (~38mm)


At this point it was time to brainstorm some ideas for housing all the internals.

After much pondering, gnashing of teeth, and an existential crisis, I came up with this concept:


to translate my chicken scratch: the idea is to use a "gasket style" tray sandwiched between both halves of the radio to mount all the internals to. Pretty straightforward.....theoretically.... but given the depth constraints of the inner volume, were going to have to keep things on a very strict diet.



BUILD IDEAS LIST:

So moving forward with this design concept, here are the ideas/features I hope to incorporate:


  • Audio system
    • working tweeter speaker - keep the location and function of the smaller front speaker
    • keep working front panel dials for volume base and treble (custom wired amp board with potentiometers)
    • keep working 3.5mm audio jack
  • Seamlessly integrate 120mm fan in place of larger front speaker for deshrouded GPU
  • "gasket style" tray for internal hardware
  • LED strip to illuminate tuning gauge
  • Use original radio antenna for wifi
  • Use original power switch
  • Tuning dial as fan controller via potentiometer
  • Seamless hatch via spring-hinge to conceal mobo & gpu I/O
I'm currently in the process of working on a proof of concept for the gasket style tray, so when that is done I will hopefully be able to provide another detailed update.

The main reason for keeping these ideas in the dark thus far is that I wanted to be able to dissect this radio and gain more knowledge of how this it is designed, so I can find out how many of my ideas would even be remotely possible. Now with that done I can hopefully make some noticable progress. Thanks for reading.
 

FreshGnar

SFF Lingo Aficionado
Original poster
Sep 23, 2020
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Update time again!
I was able to take a dremel to the inside of the radio and remove enough of the inner bits for a test fit of the components and cut out a "proof of concept" inner tray using a sheet of acrylic:



Looking at the perspective below, I'm confident that everything will be able to fit in the X and Y axes. However the Z axis is what worries me:

Here were my thoughts at this point:
[~38mm (see earlier photo with caliper) will barely be enough to fit a cooler-less b450i motherboard.
I would like to add standoffs from the inner tray, that will be another ~3-5mm.
I'm confident that I can get the GPU + 120mm slim fan to fit on the other side of the tray so lets assume some wiggle room there (maybe ~3-5mm, shortening the radio standoffs one one side and adding spacers on the other)]



Since I figured the easier side to fit would be the GPU side, so I test fit that first:
(im still waiting to install the thermal pads on the 1080 for the final assembly so for now I just added some fresh paste to remount the heatsink for test fit purposes)


Looks like the GPU assembly fits with a few mm to spare!
Also, while we're looking at the gpu, here is my idea to make it a bit more incognito:




Next, I looked at fitting things on the motherboard side:
(for test fitting purposes, I'm using another bricked b450i board I've been saving (hoarding) for just this occasion)

With no standoffs the VRM heatsink pressing against the inner wall of the back panel:



Once I added the preferred length standoffs and ditched the VRM heatsink, the audio and wifi I/O still fouled and created a gap:




So, I decided to fully donate this bricked B450i to the cause by desoldering the audio I/O and removing the wifi card:




After all that, I finally get a motherboard that fits with the RJ-45 ethernet port sitting tighter than a gnat's ass against the inner wall:




Now that leaves a glaring issue: CPU cooling...
Even the shortest low-pro cpu cooler will be too tall, and the main goal for this build is to keep everything enclosed.

After scouring the interwebs for a cooler that might work and coming up empty. I came up with an idea involving the Thermalright AXP-90 X36.
Since this cooler's heatsink fins run "north-south" as opposed to "east-west" like the NH-L9a, I began to dive into this concept:

Installing a 12v blower style fan like this on the pcie side of the heatsink.
The two immediate issues I see this having are:
  • The heatpipes of the AXP-90 X36 would restrict the airflow preventing the fan from properly cooling the entire heatsink
  • The shallow height of the blower fan restricting access to the PCIE slot for a riser cable.
Here is a quick 3D concept:

In theory, this would take advantage of the existing vent locations on the backside of the radio.

While researching this idea I also came across this dell cooler. It is rated for 90W with the upgraded copper heatsink and I believe the mounting plate is large enough to drill and tap to an AM4 mounting pattern. With it I would probably run into the same issue as the AXP-90 though of it interfering with the PCIE lane.

I'd love to know anyone else's thoughts on these ideas.
Thanks for reading!
 

Valantar

Shrink Ray Wielder
Jan 20, 2018
2,201
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I don't think the heatpipes would obstruct airflow so much as to really cause problems. But if they do, something like a Dynatron A37 might be worth trying!
 

FreshGnar

SFF Lingo Aficionado
Original poster
Sep 23, 2020
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I don't think the heatpipes would obstruct airflow so much as to really cause problems. But if they do, something like a Dynatron A37 might be worth trying!
That A37 is a great idea. I ordered an AXP-90 to test more thoroughly but if it falls through I'll definitely be looking into that, thanks.
 
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FreshGnar

SFF Lingo Aficionado
Original poster
Sep 23, 2020
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Time for a quick but important update.

I haven't been able to work as much as I'd like on the build lately as I've been mostly laying on the couch sick for the last 4 days (sinus infection).

However, yesterday I did finally feel up to installing the AXP-90 X36 which finally arrived, and taking it for a quick test run.






Everything laid out on the workbench. (using a 1050ti here as a placeholder for the 1080 just to get a boot and run some cinebench):


First impressions of this cooler are good and the build quality seems very nice. The rear mounting plate might actually be a bit too robust though. I'm afraid it will interfere with the riser passing through the back within the space the standoffs will allow:

I've got some ideas to deal with this issue later.

For now here were my initial testing results:

63C max during Cinebench with no overclock on the 2700.

A very promising start. The 2700 is only a 65w cpu and this build, being intended for gaming, will not see many cpu heavy workloads.

On to my blower fan idea...

With things laid out on the workbench I was able to see that the riser cable is definitely going to get in the way:


This gave me another idea...

Since the AXP-90 cooler works so well, I'm wondering if I can get away with modifying a couple of noctua 4x20 fans into blower style fans and mounting them on top of the nvme heatsink, directing the flow at the axp-90 fin array:


Here is a more detailed model of the design in AutoCAD:



The idea is to modify the Noctua 4x20 fans by removing a quadrant of the fan shroud and utilizing some thin aluminum sheet to create some ducting. I haven't quite figured out how to mount all of this to the heatsink and/or motherboard since this cooler utilizes retaining clips but my hope is that these fans are capable of cooling the 2700 enough for what I need this system to do and be very low profile.

Hopefully I start feeling better soon and can get back to working on this more.
Thanks for reading.
 

FreshGnar

SFF Lingo Aficionado
Original poster
Sep 23, 2020
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Got some NF-A4x20s in the mail yesterday so I got to work on my low profile cpu cooler concept:


I was going to attack these with the dremel but they ended up being soft enough to just cut with some snips and finish the edges with a file.
These left and right handed tin snips ended up being the perfect tools for the job:


Next it was time to take my idea from CAD and turn it into "CAD";)






And here it is in place on the heatsink:



It sits a little too high but I can remedy this by shaving the nvme heatsink down or just taking it off entirely (nvme cooling has never been an issue with this motherboard):



Anyways, on to some temps:

yikes...even with the fans running full tilt, the cpu still hit 87c...kind of a swing and a miss :(. I'd really like to get the temp down to the high 70s to low 80s when running cinebench. Even though I wont be stressing the cpu that often, 87 is just too high. I do believe that I'm close with this design though since idle temps were comfortable. I think another 40mm fan or two exhausting air away from the heatsink might be just enough to help. Hopefully there is some room inside the case to work something out. Back to the drawing board!
 

aromachi

Cable-Tie Ninja
Dec 18, 2019
150
137
Sadly those little 40s can only push 5.5cfm. Really can't do much with that. Cool idea though.. pun intended 😁
Instead of gimping your cooling setup, maybe you should consider printing a plastic spacer to put between the two halves of the radio. I mean, you only need, what, 15mm? Done right, you could widen the radio slightly and it would be very hard to tell it had been modified.
 
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FreshGnar

SFF Lingo Aficionado
Original poster
Sep 23, 2020
90
212
Sadly those little 40s can only push 5.5cfm. Really can't do much with that. Cool idea though.. pun intended 😁
Instead of gimping your cooling setup, maybe you should consider printing a plastic spacer to put between the two halves of the radio. I mean, you only need, what, 15mm? Done right, you could widen the radio slightly and it would be very hard to tell it had been modified.
Possibly.
 
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robbee

King of Cable Management
n3rdware
Bronze Supporter
Sep 24, 2016
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How much cpu cooler clearance is there? There is the ID Cooling IS-30 at just 30mm tall. On paper, it looks good, but I've seen some not-so-positive reports. You got a fair bit of margin temperature wise though, so perhaps it's worth a try?
 

Valantar

Shrink Ray Wielder
Jan 20, 2018
2,201
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Got some NF-A4x20s in the mail yesterday so I got to work on my low profile cpu cooler concept:


I was going to attack these with the dremel but they ended up being soft enough to just cut with some snips and finish the edges with a file.
These left and right handed tin snips ended up being the perfect tools for the job:


Next it was time to take my idea from CAD and turn it into "CAD";)






And here it is in place on the heatsink:



It sits a little too high but I can remedy this by shaving the nvme heatsink down or just taking it off entirely (nvme cooling has never been an issue with this motherboard):



Anyways, on to some temps:

yikes...even with the fans running full tilt, the cpu still hit 87c...kind of a swing and a miss :(. I'd really like to get the temp down to the high 70s to low 80s when running cinebench. Even though I wont be stressing the cpu that often, 87 is just too high. I do believe that I'm close with this design though since idle temps were comfortable. I think another 40mm fan or two exhausting air away from the heatsink might be just enough to help. Hopefully there is some room inside the case to work something out. Back to the drawing board!
Not really surprised by these results sadly. Not only are the Noctua fan blades likely designed explicitly to avoid pushing air out to the sides (creating a lot of turbulence in your new openings), but the design of your current ducting pretty much ensures that all air leaving them will just dissipate out to the sides without ever passing a heatsink fin. Remember, moving air takes the path of least resistance towards evening out pressure; if you want it to go a particular way, you need to block off all other paths or brute-force it.

In short: for this to have any chance of working, you need to encase the cooler pretty much entirely in cardboard except for the two sides where air is to go in and out.Cardboard underneath, cardboard down both sides, cardboard on top. And close it all off with tape or something similar. Seal all openings around heatpipes and other protrusions with tape, blue-tac, whatever. Without that, the vast majority of your airflow will never pass anywhere near a meaningful amount of heatsink area.



Another suggestion: put a bank of exhaust fans in the battery cover opening, with ducting for them to pull air through the heatsink while operating in a more conventional orientation. A bit of a shame that you've already butchered two fans, but you could try sticking them back together temporarily for a test of this?
 
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FreshGnar

SFF Lingo Aficionado
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Sep 23, 2020
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Lots to get into with this update. (pic heavy post incoming)

First I'll start off with the more boring one.

My RAM was also going to be too tall to work for this build so I was able to deshroud it using just a heat gun and some tweezers, and it comes in just under my max allowable height:





Now, on to the more exciting stuff. Like @Valantar mentioned above, I decided that adding a couple of exhaust fans to my low profile cpu cooler design would be the easiest thing to try first before attempting to redesign. Also like he mentioned the shroud will have to be improved anyway if I'm going to continue with this design but for now I just wanted to test some exhaust fans to see if it made any improvement at all.

Here is my quick and simple addition:


Using the same cpu stress testing as before, I was able to drop it down to 79c max. An 8c improvement, not bad for just adding two fans.

But still a bit high for what I was hoping to achieve...

Here's were things get interesting...

So back when I was researching options for low profile cpu coolers I ordered this dell cpu cooler on the off chance there might be a way to mod it for my application, and it finally arrived today:






With a much more capable 10k rpm blower fan, and a heatsink rated for 90W, this option seemed fairly promising. The problem would be getting it to fit the AM4 mounting pattern:


That's when I got the idea to use a mount from a spare EK cpu block I had in storage to fit over the heatsink and sandwich it against the cpu


I measured the width of the heatsink and sure enough it was just small enough to fit inside the bracket with a little modification:



After cutting both pieces to fit each other, I ended up with this:


(the bracket looks rough, but I decided to wait until I could prove this solution would work to repaint it)

First I gave it a test fit on my spare motherboard using a stock AM4 backplate:


And here it is with the blower fan and shroud combo attached:


Best part was, the blower fan and shroud could still mount using the original side clips:


One of the screws that secures the shroud was in the way of the pcie slot, so I simply cut it off since it was not crucial to the integrity of the shroud:



With that final touch it was ready to go on the board for the build:

(as a note, I used flat head cap screws to secure it so they would not protrude and prevent installing the fan shroud)

Finally it was time to test it out!



Using the same stress testing method, I did 4 different cinebench runs at different fixed RPMs using an NA-FC1 fan controller.
I took noise into account during these runs as well since I don't want this thing being unbearably loud. I did test the fan at full speed, and at 10k rpm it sounds like a Harrier jet idling on a runway. 🤣

Ambient sound in my garage was about 44 dBA. Here were my results:

First run: 4000rpm (~2dB above ambient), 82c max.
Second run: 6000rpm (~10dB above ambient), 70c max.
Third run: 5500rpm (~6dB above ambient), 70c max.
Fourth run: 10000rpm (so f***ing loud), 60c max.

The clear winner here was 5500rpm. The sound was still bearable and it cooled just as well as 6000rpm:


After playing around with a custom fan profile. I finally got one that I liked with the fan being almost inaudible at idle, then slowly ramping up and hitting 5500rpm when the cpu hit about 65 degrees.

I think its safe to say that this is the solution I'll be going with moving forward. I was hoping all the work modding the heatsink would be worth it since it was the only way to be able to test it properly. As a bonus, this solution is incredibly low profile, coming in at 30.5mm tall from the surface of the motherboard (~25 mm tall from the cpu)





I'm honestly super happy with how this mod turned out. It may not be perfect, but its perfect for this build.

My plan for intake and exhaust will be to cut out the vent slots that are already on the back panel (which as you can might be able to tell from the photo I have already drilled) and cut a long slit near the bottom in the shadow of the lip of the battery cover to keep it concealed:


The next step will be to finish painting the modded EK bracket so I can finally check CPU cooling off the list.
Then my plan is to move on to the other side and mount the GPU and replace the temp acrylic tray with an aluminum one so I can finally get the two halves mated together.
I have been having a blast with this project so far and has been an incredible learning experience and I hope others are enjoying it as well. Thanks for reading.
 

msystems

King of Cable Management
Apr 28, 2017
804
1,405
Whoa, that's a really nice mod. How many watts did it dissipate at the 5500 rpm level you settled on? Your screen says 59w max? Seems to be a solid result for only being 30mm.
 

Bakaban

SFF Lingo Aficionado
Nov 13, 2020
122
111
Heck, why aren't there more low profile cooling solutions like that available. I'd be interested!
 

Damascus

Master of Cramming
Feb 27, 2018
553
395
Really impressed with your solution to the cpu cooler, but have you seen the IS-30K? Might be a quieter alternative, although it's 30mm as opposed to your very slick 25