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Heat sink style case idea.

D

dcds1

Gawd
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Sep 12, 2006
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I am trying to find out if anyone here has ever worked with cases that are used as coolers for the gpu or cpu? I have been toying around with an idea for about the last week and now I am trying to get some feedback from someone that may have tried this already.

The case I am thinking of starting out with is this case.
http://www.mini-box.com/VoomPC-Enclosure?sc=8&category=1700

My idea is to end up making the case another 1.5 inches taller by creating a heatsink to go on the bottom. What I would end up doing is flipping the motherboard upside down and using the new created bottom as a heat sink for the cpu. Then use the top as a heat sink for the gpu. With pcie ribbon cable extender I could have the gpu and the motherboard back to back to each other.

I have opened up my ST45SF power supply and it looks like I could mod the guts to work in the space that the VoomPC power supply sits. It will all depend on how much space would be between the motherboard and the case because a little bit of the power supply would have to fit between the two.

My biggest question though is would a heatsink case be able to keep a gpu and cpu cooled? The gpu in question would be a FuryX that I would mod the bios to slow it down and hopefully get the same power and speed usage as the Nano. I would use my HTPC as the donor for the motherboard and cpu.
 
About 10 years ago Zalman made a case like that, the TNN 500A, and it was around $1000. Judging by the size of the heatsinks on that one, I'd say no, a small case like the one you posted with those measly heat sinks wouldn't be able to keep cool any decent GPU or CPU.
 
This would be a lot easier with water as a heat transfer medium between the cpu/gpu cores and the case exterior (and by case exterior I mean you cut out a section of case exterior and mount a big radiator).
 
Kueller said:
This would be a lot easier with water as a heat transfer medium between the cpu/gpu cores and the case exterior (and by case exterior I mean you cut out a section of case exterior and mount a big radiator).
Click to expand...

That's a neat idea, definitely would need something capable of dissipating a lot of heat fast as the side panel if you want it to work, though. I'm thinking thin copper on aluminum or just straight aluminum that a large waterblock straps onto. Should be able to handle the heat pretty well as long as it has some fins on the outside--most side panels are pretty large already, much larger than a standard radiator, so their thermal mass is pretty good. Just need more surface area for transferring heat to the air.
 
The problem with just flipping the motherboard and using the case as a heatsink is you get the components that stand above the socket getting in the way--in particular, the rear panel i/o ports and the capacitors on the board. If you instead use standard watercooling components, you don't have to worry about that, and you get a (depending on the size of the case) large surface area to use as a heatsink, with all the heat being dissipated outside of the case. With a smaller case, and modern components, I'm not sure it could remove enough heat from both a CPU and GPU to prevent overheating.

I was thinking, after seeing this thread, maybe get one of these, make a template, fold the edges and create the tabs that are on the stock panel of my case, drill a few holes and mount a waterblock to it. If that works out, might consider folding in some fins and pressure-welding them for added surface area, though that makes mounting the panel more difficult since you can't fold two of the edges anymore--at least, not easily.
 
Sounds like it could work--have that as the front with the motherboard vertical, bottom facing the radiator, and a fan on the other side pulling air out? Then, you could have the tubes and all the I/O routed through the top of the case toward the back, where you have the pump/res, and then the loop comes back toward the CPU/GPU and then rad. Should be enough space for an ITX gpu if you wanted it in that config...not sure where you'd put the HDDs and PSU, would need to see it first. Finally, you could have a slim intake fan at the bottom/back of the case if you needed it.
 
85f34468.jpg


http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1475452&highlight=aluminum+heavy+cnc
 
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