Lessons from my HDPLEX H1.S V2 build

trickshot

Case Bender
Original poster
Dec 3, 2018
2
6
Hi everyone,

I’m new to the forum signed up to share my build and learnings as when I was researching I found a lot of good info from this forum.

Components:
Asrock ab350 mini itx
Ryzen 3 2200g
16gb ddr4 corsair 3000
samsung 970 evo 256gb
temp psu being used but waiting for my nano psu 160w

1. First learning, the orientation of installing the heatsink mount. Notice the 4 holes on the both sides? I got it wrong the first time as I was meant to install on these 4 holes. Also, the 2 mouting kits has a flatter surface and when you use the wrong non flat side, no matter how tight your screw, the mounting kits will still wiggle a bit. So pay attention on which side you use.





correct mounting position below
correct mounting position
some additional photos



2.
When screwing the back plate, the holes are not exactly aligned to the side panels. The bottom sides of the back plate appears to be too long, see red circles below. I had help from Larry of hdplex who’s extremely helpful. Had to loosen the screws on the top plate of the cpu heatsink, scres on the plate holding the heatpipe on the side panels and the srews in the bottom plate. This allowed for some flex/wiggle room to install the back plate first before tigthening all other screws.




Testing the temps:


Ran prime 95 for 10 mins and reached 88.5c, this is high from my point of view as I get 85c using stock cooler. I think HDPLEX could include longer heatpipes as an option when buying the case. 3 out of the 6 pipes are shorter ones and therefore the contact on the side panel is not as good compared to the longer pipes. From speaking to Larry this is to allow other buyers to install the pipes on one side only which makes sense but would have wanted the option to get longer version of the pipes as I used both sides in my built.

I have tested using normal intended usage which is watching 4k hdr videos and cpu temp never go up 40c and vrm 48c after an hour watching. Temp still high considering cpu usage is only 7-9% usage so I will try other options including undervolting. Any other suggestions would be welcome.
 
Last edited:

Tossy

Average Stuffer
May 3, 2018
84
56
What a coincidence. I just build my ryzen 2400g system in a hdplex H1 the last days and wanted to post a build log upcoming weekend.

What is your opinion about the mounting solution for the CPU-heatsink? I only had noctua coolers before and was a bit disappointed.

I see that you are waiting for the nano 160. Will you use a brick with it? Inside the case of outside?
 

trickshot

Case Bender
Original poster
Dec 3, 2018
2
6
What a coincidence. I just build my ryzen 2400g system in a hdplex H1 the last days and wanted to post a build log upcoming weekend.

What is your opinion about the mounting solution for the CPU-heatsink? I only had noctua coolers before and was a bit disappointed.

I see that you are waiting for the nano 160. Will you use a brick with it? Inside the case of outside?
What a coincidence. I just build my ryzen 2400g system in a hdplex H1 the last days and wanted to post a build log upcoming weekend.

What is your opinion about the mounting solution for the CPU-heatsink? I only had noctua coolers before and was a bit disappointed.

I see that you are waiting for the nano 160. Will you use a brick with it? Inside the case of outside?


CPU heatsink seems to be maxing out at 65w, but I won’t be using my ryzen 100% for extended period so it will suit my need. Wanting to undervolt mine without sacrificing the speed of the cpu/gpu but had no time yet to play atound. Yeah I’m still waiting for a nano psu and will temporarily use a brick. I’m waiting for the 200w combo (replacing 160w) from HDPlex which Larry indicated in the next month or so.
 

valve5425

Minimal Tinkerer
Jan 11, 2020
4
0
Like the OP I'm a newbie too, so Hi everyone!

Thought you might like a few observations on my experience building the Version 3. This is not a comprehensive build post, as you can find the installation guide on the HDPLEX site.

V3 is bigger than my old V1 from 2015, but appears to be the same size as the V2 shown above. (Can't actually find any V2 measurements!)



Whilst the finish on the copper heat block and pipes is OK , I did polish them to get rid of any oxidisation and maximise heat transfer.





There are still machining marks on the block, but better than out of the box.

I used the following hardware;

Gigabyte GA-F2A88XN-WIFI motherboard
AMD A10-7800 Radeon R7 APU
2 x 8 GB Radeon R9 Gamer RAM
Samsung Evo 500GB SSD
HDPLEX 200W DC-ATX with a 19 volt, 230 watt, HP Notebook AC adapter.

I had a few issues with the build. The HDPLEX 200W DC-ATX would not fit into the 24 pin female connector on the motherboard due to the proximity of the side panel.



Fortunately, there's an alternative fixing point at the back of the case, so I purchased a 30 cm female to male ATX extension cable and all was well. Maybe this cable is something that should be included with the HDPLEX 200W DC-ATX. Also note that your PCI-e slot is unusable on a mini-ITX board. I had to route the heat pipes over mine.



Finished!



Overall the quality of the HDPLEX case is good. It comes well packaged and includes a couple of Allen keys for the socket head screws. In addition you'll need a 5mm spanner/socket for the brass studs, (not copper studs as described in the installation guide!) and a 5.5mm spanner/socket for the M3 stud locking nuts. OK, you could bodge it with some pliers! A Phillips PH1 screwdriver is also required. After sales is good, with Larry responding quickly to emails.

This V3 case replaces a fan cooled case which I'd been using for a few years, together with a Zalman CNPS2X Low Profile CPU Cooler, as my desktop PC. I'd regularly encounter heat related shut downs, particularly when watching the UK BBC Iplayer, and it didn't like UHD films either! I'd reduced the TDP of the APU to 45 watts, disabled turbo boost and reduced the maximum processor state to 90%. which did help, but shutdowns still happened. Additionally, as the case sits behind my monitor, (I'm only 80 cms away) the noise from the fans, albeit fairly low level, was annoying.

My old HDPLEX V1 houses my music server and I've had no problems whatsoever with it over the last 4 years, so it seemed a no-brainer to upgrade to a second HDPLEX.

So far, so good. The APU's running in auto, (up to 65 watts) turbo boost's on and the processor's back up to 100%. No shutdowns, and I even managed to watch an hour and a half of the BBC Iplayer without issue. Monitoring on AMD Overdrive, I occasionally get as low as 14 degrees C thermal margin, but the case has the ability to get rid of the heat quickly, so it doesn't stay hot for long. Oh, and did I mention, I can't hear it. Result!
 

Tossy

Average Stuffer
May 3, 2018
84
56
Nice! My case is still running as HDPC. Silent as ever. At first glance I don't see any differences between my V2 and your V3. I tried some light gaming but the cooling isn't sufficient for long-lasting full load.
 

valve5425

Minimal Tinkerer
Jan 11, 2020
4
0
My understanding of thermal grease/paste is that it's purely to fill in any minor imperfections in the contact surfaces. It's thermal transfer property is usually less than that of copper and sometimes aluminium, so using more of it is counter productive.

When connecting the HDPLEX heat block to my AMD APU, I placed several small dots of paste on the block, pushed it onto the APU and used a twisting action to spread between the two surfaces. When that was done I was actually able to lift the MB, with RAM installed, just by pulling the block up. That was before the heat block was bolted to the MB! If there had been too much paste on, or not enough, it would have pulled away.

Greater tolerances between the heat pipes and heat block, and between heat pipes and side panels, meant more paste. Bigger gaps to fill!

The connection between heat block and APU is the first line of escape for the heat, so it's critical to get right.

@sancho, I can't find any transfer figures quoted for the heat chamber, but I know that each of the heat pipes supplied by HDPLEX should be capable of transferring at least 30 watts. That's 180 watts in total, but then you have case temperature to contend with, reduction of heat transfer due to thermal paste and heat from other components, which is probably why HDPLEX quote 65 watt TDP max for the CPU/APU.

The Streacom FC8 Alpha is not much different in size to the HDPLEX H1.V3, has less case heatsinking and uses only 4 heatpipes, yet it quotes a max TDP of 95 watts. I personally think that the HDPLEX is thermally under rated and I seem to remember someone successfully running a 95 watt TDP in the smaller V1 case.

This isn't an advert for HDPLEX, I just like their no frills, solid engineering!
 

valve5425

Minimal Tinkerer
Jan 11, 2020
4
0
Thanks for the links Sancho. This is the first time I've come across completely silent builds using two fans. I've experience of Noctua, Zalman and Papst, so it's nice to know things have progressed so much!!

115 watt cpu, all those drives and ram, and silent as well is pretty hard core. Any video of it running??
 

valve5425

Minimal Tinkerer
Jan 11, 2020
4
0
@sancho Appreciate the clarification on the TDP at 45 watts. I did think 115 watts was stretching it a bit. Wrong intel xeon 8/16 I was looking at.