The 50 liters cheese grater you mean?
Ah conceptually, ok then, thx!
Yeah, 3 fans forcing air across passive heat sinks in a shallow case. Sort of brilliant in its simplicity and seeming efficiency/efficacy.
-
Save 15% on ALL SFF Network merch, until Dec 31st! Use code SFF2024 at checkout. Click here!
Prototype CoolerCase ...a case that cools...
- Thread starter BaK
- Start date
Yeah, 3 fans forcing air across passive heat sinks in a shallow case. Sort of brilliant in its simplicity and seeming efficiency/efficacy.
MakerBeam has thread-forming screw kits. Works like a charm.Really nice, well done!
It looks like you know your thing about video capture.
First time I hear about trifurcation, didn't know C_Payne was also making such cards.
I see you drilled some holes into the Makerbeam frame, threaded as well I guess.
I will probably do that once I am set on a final version of the prototype, should make it look cleaner without so many brackets.
May I ask how you have secured the PSU?
And what did you use for the 3D printed panels, ABS or PLA?
The PSU is secured in two ways. The first way is with a printed bracket, which is held by the makerbeam frame; you can see two screws on the PSU holding the PSU to this bracket. The second way is from the bottom, which is just a hole cutout of the bottom printed sleeve, which is holding it in place with friction.
I printed it in PLA. Seems to be working fine.
Ok so in all my slowliness I even managed to move forward!
Have a look at the PSU installed into the frame, with my dead Z77 Asrock motherboard under it for fitment test:
I have then added my not working GTX760 also to see how it fit, along with my cheap PCIe riser, but noticed a little issue.
The back part of the DVI connector is squared on this graphics card (as well as on my working 760), not at an angle as how I had in my sketchup design.
So, for about 1mm,this rectangle DVI connector is going to interfere with the bottom of GPU heatsink (represented by the ruler):
Next I have finally unwrapped the core of the system, the heatsinks! Check how gorgeous they are:
GPU side:
While I have been able to get the GPU heatsinks at their correct dimensions, this was not possible with the CPU one.
So I had to cut it at a length of 170mm but this distance (small black dot) was not appropriate with the way the heatsink was going to be attached to the frame. I indeed need an heatsink 'teeth' to remain on its side, so I have cut it a bit bigger:
Of course, this little adjustment and my almost zero tolerance design have leaded to a new issue. The heatsink did not fit anymore into the frame:
So my only option was to move the bottom fixations a bit down, hopefully still leaving enough room for the cables going on the motheboard I/O.
This correction made me redo the motherboard standoffs as well as the GPU heatsink supports, which I made compatible with the squared DVI ports.
Two problems solved!
Both heatsinks are properly installed now:
Waiting for the PCIe riser to arrive, I hope having ordered the right one, long enough but not too long.
Still have to order the fans and find what to take for the side pannels.
But the next big step is preparing the copper block that will take place in between the GPU die and the GPU heatsink.
Have a look at the PSU installed into the frame, with my dead Z77 Asrock motherboard under it for fitment test:
I have then added my not working GTX760 also to see how it fit, along with my cheap PCIe riser, but noticed a little issue.
The back part of the DVI connector is squared on this graphics card (as well as on my working 760), not at an angle as how I had in my sketchup design.
So, for about 1mm,this rectangle DVI connector is going to interfere with the bottom of GPU heatsink (represented by the ruler):
Next I have finally unwrapped the core of the system, the heatsinks! Check how gorgeous they are:
GPU side:
While I have been able to get the GPU heatsinks at their correct dimensions, this was not possible with the CPU one.
So I had to cut it at a length of 170mm but this distance (small black dot) was not appropriate with the way the heatsink was going to be attached to the frame. I indeed need an heatsink 'teeth' to remain on its side, so I have cut it a bit bigger:
Of course, this little adjustment and my almost zero tolerance design have leaded to a new issue. The heatsink did not fit anymore into the frame:
So my only option was to move the bottom fixations a bit down, hopefully still leaving enough room for the cables going on the motheboard I/O.
This correction made me redo the motherboard standoffs as well as the GPU heatsink supports, which I made compatible with the squared DVI ports.
Two problems solved!
Both heatsinks are properly installed now:
Waiting for the PCIe riser to arrive, I hope having ordered the right one, long enough but not too long.
Still have to order the fans and find what to take for the side pannels.
But the next big step is preparing the copper block that will take place in between the GPU die and the GPU heatsink.
Thanks for all the love (11 likes!), the prototype is indeed sort of sexy irlYou had me from the full frontal fans pic. The rest is just lascivious.
Passive that cooler is good for 43w, per the manufacturer. Not sure what the rating is if it has airflow or not but 65w with some flow might just do it.This is a fantastic project
On a different note - I was looking at the alpine passive cooler for the AM4... 99x99x70. I need to use your calculator to see if that'll cover a ryzen 5 1600
O
Interesting. The calculator he quoted marked it as properly sized for ~160W with "some but quiet flow". I'd be curious to what extent and how directed it needs to be. Granted, I may have missed a possible assumption that a vapor chamber would be involved.
Thanx a lot!This is a fantastic project
On a different note - I was looking at the alpine passive cooler for the AM4... 99x99x70. I need to use your calculator to see if that'll cover a ryzen 5 1600
The calculator gives really rough estimations, as you noted especially because of the difficulty to quantify the airflow amount. Hopefully I will be in the right range.
Let us know how it goes with the Alpine cooler if you give it a try.
ADT R33UF-TU riser has arrived!
To check if it was working and if I took the right length made me install the working motherboard and GTX760 on the Makerbeam frame:
It works!
Length should be ok, however this riser is kind of stiff and it is currently pushing the GPU to the outside, that's why the GPU snags a bit on top. I will probably have to guide the riser to make it get a nice and smaller curve before it goes in between the two cards.
Prototype post updated.
Ok I couldn't resist!
With the hardware in place I had to quickly test the Streacom HT04!
I have just put some thermal paste that came with the HT04 on top of the CPU heatspreader, and nothing between the HT04 and the heatsink.
There is a tiny visible gap on the lower part of the HT04 where it doesn't touch properly the heatsink even though I tried to adjust the latter.
I will probably sort this out when doing the proper installation, but anyway both the thermal paste and the vapour chamber will take care of that.
I of course started the system to the BIOS and let it run for around an hour.
In this passiv mode the CPU temp went from 30°C to 55°C, and would have likely gone higher if I had let the computer run longer.
A quick test at the end with my laser gun showed me the HT04 pipes were at 48°C, which was nearly the same on the heatsink around the HT04. So the contact without thernal paste was not that bad actually.
The temps were much lower on the corners of the heatsink, from 30°C to 38°C, so I am hoping the vapour chamber will be of great help here in moving the heat.
Oddly enough, the top corners were around 30°C while the bottom ones were hotter at 38°C. I would have expected the opposite as the heat is supposed to go up.
Now back to that GPU copper block...
With the hardware in place I had to quickly test the Streacom HT04!
I have just put some thermal paste that came with the HT04 on top of the CPU heatspreader, and nothing between the HT04 and the heatsink.
There is a tiny visible gap on the lower part of the HT04 where it doesn't touch properly the heatsink even though I tried to adjust the latter.
I will probably sort this out when doing the proper installation, but anyway both the thermal paste and the vapour chamber will take care of that.
I of course started the system to the BIOS and let it run for around an hour.
In this passiv mode the CPU temp went from 30°C to 55°C, and would have likely gone higher if I had let the computer run longer.
A quick test at the end with my laser gun showed me the HT04 pipes were at 48°C, which was nearly the same on the heatsink around the HT04. So the contact without thernal paste was not that bad actually.
The temps were much lower on the corners of the heatsink, from 30°C to 38°C, so I am hoping the vapour chamber will be of great help here in moving the heat.
Oddly enough, the top corners were around 30°C while the bottom ones were hotter at 38°C. I would have expected the opposite as the heat is supposed to go up.
Now back to that GPU copper block...
As mentioned earlier and following Arctic cooling's Accelero design, my plan was to attach a copper block with a thickness of 13mm to the GPU die.
A distance of 13mm to the GPU PCB should indeed avoid any other GPU components to interfere with the copper block.
As I was only able to order a 10mm thick copper block, I had in mind to add the following vapour chamber to it:
With a dimension of 56x56x3mm, it would have been perfect to take place in between the GPU die and the copper block, adding the missing 3mm to the latter.
Unfortunately... out of stock for more than a year.
But anyway, from what I see I am lucky as the two GPUs I am going to put in the prototype seem to be compatible with a 10mm only copper block!
So I have come up with the following drawings, in order to add the right sizes of washers (white squares) to the holding bracket and keep me from crushing the die.
This GPU has got a Direct Power feature at its back (that ensures stable performance with 17% cooler PCB and a 56% less impedance).
That's why I have to add higher washers for the backplate to go over it.
VRM will be cooled by the original heatsink.
This 780Ti classified from EVGA is the watercooled version, so my first idea was to simply measure the waterblock to get the right height for the washers. My calipper got a 2.31mm value.
I nonetheless measured the GPU die height and this time I got 2.34mm to 2.43mm.
This is no a lot of a difference, but obviously the GPU block is pushing hard on the die on some places.
I will then make some tests to get the right washers height.
For this powerful card, I am planning to put a copper block on the VRM as well, with 1mm thermalpad on the PCB components, that will also get in contact with the main heatsink.
A distance of 13mm to the GPU PCB should indeed avoid any other GPU components to interfere with the copper block.
As I was only able to order a 10mm thick copper block, I had in mind to add the following vapour chamber to it:
With a dimension of 56x56x3mm, it would have been perfect to take place in between the GPU die and the copper block, adding the missing 3mm to the latter.
Unfortunately... out of stock for more than a year.
But anyway, from what I see I am lucky as the two GPUs I am going to put in the prototype seem to be compatible with a 10mm only copper block!
So I have come up with the following drawings, in order to add the right sizes of washers (white squares) to the holding bracket and keep me from crushing the die.
This GPU has got a Direct Power feature at its back (that ensures stable performance with 17% cooler PCB and a 56% less impedance).
That's why I have to add higher washers for the backplate to go over it.
VRM will be cooled by the original heatsink.
This 780Ti classified from EVGA is the watercooled version, so my first idea was to simply measure the waterblock to get the right height for the washers. My calipper got a 2.31mm value.
I nonetheless measured the GPU die height and this time I got 2.34mm to 2.43mm.
This is no a lot of a difference, but obviously the GPU block is pushing hard on the die on some places.
I will then make some tests to get the right washers height.
For this powerful card, I am planning to put a copper block on the VRM as well, with 1mm thermalpad on the PCB components, that will also get in contact with the main heatsink.
I was about to a big update until this $@#! tap broke into an hole of the GPU copper block!
I don't have another block at hand and as I already spent hours on this one, I better find a way to get this broken tap out of it!
Here are the options I found for doing it, unfortunately no way to grab the broken tap easily as it is not protruding outside the hole.
Mechanical
a) 3 claws broken tap extractor
b) Break the tap with a hard drill
c) Put freon (from an air can?) on the tap to break it when hitting it
d) Add penetrating oil to ease tap removing with a small plier
e) Heating the block to increase the hole diameter and ease tap removing with a small plier
Chemical (steel corrosion)
f) Add bleach on the tap to dissolve it
g) Same with hydrochloric acid
h) Alum powder (as seen here)
i) Vissin
j) Vinegar?
All the mechanical plans have low chance of success with such a small M3 tap.
I might try b) with a cobalt drill, and then d) and e).
Right now I am experimenting f) and I think I see some reaction on the tap surface. Should be faster with g) but I don't know how much the copper will be also affected by hydrochloric acid.
If needed I will also check for the Vissin product as it is produced here in Switzerland and I should get it quickly.
I don't have another block at hand and as I already spent hours on this one, I better find a way to get this broken tap out of it!
Here are the options I found for doing it, unfortunately no way to grab the broken tap easily as it is not protruding outside the hole.
Mechanical
a) 3 claws broken tap extractor
b) Break the tap with a hard drill
c) Put freon (from an air can?) on the tap to break it when hitting it
d) Add penetrating oil to ease tap removing with a small plier
e) Heating the block to increase the hole diameter and ease tap removing with a small plier
Chemical (steel corrosion)
f) Add bleach on the tap to dissolve it
g) Same with hydrochloric acid
h) Alum powder (as seen here)
i) Vissin
j) Vinegar?
All the mechanical plans have low chance of success with such a small M3 tap.
I might try b) with a cobalt drill, and then d) and e).
Right now I am experimenting f) and I think I see some reaction on the tap surface. Should be faster with g) but I don't know how much the copper will be also affected by hydrochloric acid.
If needed I will also check for the Vissin product as it is produced here in Switzerland and I should get it quickly.
Yes!
Took more than two weeks but the broken tap has finally been transformed into red powder dust by the bleach!
Both faces have been sanded down at 240. I might go higher, till mirror effect later.
But as that has been done before the holes tapping (my mistake), there are some black traces left on the corner treated with bleach, as well as some copper imperfections on the other side where it had been eaten a little by the bleach too.
Took more than two weeks but the broken tap has finally been transformed into red powder dust by the bleach!
Both faces have been sanded down at 240. I might go higher, till mirror effect later.
But as that has been done before the holes tapping (my mistake), there are some black traces left on the corner treated with bleach, as well as some copper imperfections on the other side where it had been eaten a little by the bleach too.
Awesome stuff, mate! I'm a huge fan of semipassive designs (working on my own right now!).
I'm looking forward to what you can do with this setup.
I'm looking forward to what you can do with this setup.
Thanks a lot! Don't forget to show us your solution when ready!Awesome stuff, mate! I'm a huge fan of semipassive designs (working on my own right now!).
I'm looking forward to what you can do with this setup.
Ok, so I had some time to bench the CPU part while waiting for the GPU copper block to cure...
But first, I wanted to check how good was the contacts of my setup with the help of surface pressure films from SENSOR PRODUCTS INC.
This is what I got when placing the pressure film in between the CPU IHS and the Streacom HT4 heatpipes:
The red areas show where there is a good contact pressure. Disappointing isn't it?
So I took another pressure film which is designed for lower pressure levels, thinking I would get a better result:
Nothing better, only more noise...
Let's see how it is in between the HT4 and the aluminium heatsink:
Not good either, only a few heatpipes seems to touch properly the heatsink.
Both results here with the two sides of the pressure films:
(HT4 films should be rotated 90° to be consistent with the CPU result)
I anyway went on with that, hoping the thermal paste will improve the situation.
Some Coollaboratory Liquid Copper thermal paste on the CPU IHS:
And a bit of EK Ectotherm on the side of the HT4 that is going to be applied against the aluminium heatsink:
All that in a computer case that is not just a frame anymore!
Plexi side panels have indeed been added, I took them seethrough so that I will be able to make some air circulation test later.
Will show you the temp results in the next post!
Of course! I'm going with a copper block + heat pipes + fin stack, likely going to be commissioned and built specifically for my case. I wanted to go extruded copper / aluminum, but it didn't fit my design goals / dimensions.
Also, be careful about the Plexiglass side panels. You want to ensure that they don't mess with the natural convection. I look forward to your thermal test results!
Any link to the place where you are ordering your cooler?
I'm interested as I first wanted to use heatsink with fins instead of aluminium cooler, but didn't succeed in finding a seller proposing the right dimensions.
I dont actually count on natural convection here, as this is not a passiv system, but on the fans airflow only.Also, be careful about the Plexiglass side panels. You want to ensure that they don't mess with the natural convection. I look forward to your thermal test results!
