Little Heavy.

I hadn't realized you were using existing heatpipes to cool your stuff (i don't know why i lived in fairytale land on this one), I thought you were making your heatpipes. and that being the case the next img upload will seem sorta silly but whatevs.

I had seen you said that maybe you'd upgrade to an i5 to play a game or two and thought, you could buy a low profile card and do this. there is a 5570 that'd fit mostly well...not that it's a gaming card but if my son can play COD games on a 4350 then a 5570 would be better.
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and then i thought it'd probably spread the heat better if the pipes ran the length of the HS
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AGAIN. I somehow thought you made your own heat pipes, so these are all fairytale thoughts unless you can get some longer pipes. I think that your growing heat issue would be canceled out if the pipes ran a longer length on the side heat sinks. Longer dissipation of heat and such
 
Finally got around to starting the rear panel.

not shown but i cut the size by using double sided tape to attach the aluminum to wood, and then sandwiched it between 2 pieces, and used this "non ferrous metals" blade. i couldn't even feel or hear any difference between just cutting wood, and it left a really nice cut.

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then cut the 2 long sides of the hole as much as i could with the same blade.

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Then finished the hole with a jigsaw.

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at least the long sides were nice and straight, and i filed the side cuts to fit.

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and checking the fit...nice its perfect!

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The vent holes and cutout for possible video card will have to wait till i have CNC again, there is no way i am drilling that many holes manually, and one is bound to slip or be crooked.

xjmtx I was sure i replied to your post earlier today, but anyways, that would work a lot better, but i might have to move the new pipes a bit depending on where the GPU chip is, it would be thermally connected to the heatsink with a copper block.

Also i ordered some of that fancy MDPC-X cable sleeve and heatshrink to cover the cables, there are not many, but it will help keep them neater.

That particular piece of aluminum was taken from the bottom of a fostex TMD-1000 mixer which was an absolute piece of crap, couldn't sell it for a burrito.
I tend to save any possibly useful bits of sheet aluminum, thats why i take old gear apart before i chuck it out! old server cases etc, it saves me waiting for online metals or whatever, even if there is the odd hole here or there.
 
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xjmtx said:
OHHHHHH SHIT. i went looking around and found a blog from make magazine about making your own heatpipes.
HEAT PIPES
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I saw that, "As you can see, the pipe has a long way to go to get close to the performance of the sink alone" its not going to be better than even a re-bent "real" heat pipe, from my testing you pour hot water on one end and the other end heats up immediately, im going to find avaliable ones rather than making my own
 
Heatpipes aren't simply pieces of copper pipe; they have an internal wick structure which returns the working fluid to the evaporator end through capillary action. The volume of working fluid (usually water) and internal pressure are also carefully tuned for specific applications. I wouldn't expect trying to make your own to be easy or simple.
 
Necere said:
Heatpipes aren't simply pieces of copper pipe; they have an internal wick structure which returns the working fluid to the evaporator end through capillary action. The volume of working fluid (usually water) and internal pressure are also carefully tuned for specific applications. I wouldn't expect trying to make your own to be easy or simple.
Click to expand...

yep, thats why i try and use ones i know work and re-bend them rather than try to make them my self.
 
DeFex said:
yep, thats why i try and use ones i know work and re-bend them rather than try to make them my self.
Click to expand...

Tis the easier route, the case is going to be epic when its done, the craftmanship is still very good and it will be very awesome when its done.
 
i don't expect it to be easy either, HOWEVER, this guy has gone and done a lot of the hardwork in figuring this much of the equation out. Silentmods has an article about getting the pipes out of other coolers, but it's this page in particular that is interesting to me. The wick is made from a copper braid or the like. This page is also quite old, and says Chinese vendors aren't to quick to sell just the pipes, however I do like the idea of being able to have a surplus of these pipes on a whims notice. I'll be contacting some Chinese vendors on Monday I suppose. If it's not a terrible surcharge I may just order a bunch. Are there any particular sizes (diameter) or length you'd be looking for, as I'll need to know this in order to ask.
 
xjmtx said:
i don't expect it to be easy either, HOWEVER, this guy has gone and done a lot of the hardwork in figuring this much of the equation out. Silentmods has an article about getting the pipes out of other coolers, but it's this page in particular that is interesting to me. The wick is made from a copper braid or the like. This page is also quite old, and says Chinese vendors aren't to quick to sell just the pipes, however I do like the idea of being able to have a surplus of these pipes on a whims notice. I'll be contacting some Chinese vendors on Monday I suppose. If it's not a terrible surcharge I may just order a bunch. Are there any particular sizes (diameter) or length you'd be looking for, as I'll need to know this in order to ask.
Click to expand...


The ones i have are 175 mm, 200 would be ideal, and they are 5mm, but 6mm would be better, they can carry about 33%more heat,

If you cant get any maybe ill get some of those hfx ones.
 
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i've might have thought of a better implementation of the heat pipes than the way you have them oriented now. I think the heat pipes could be better fit if you turn the block 90° and then have them attach to the side panels.

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The pipes will have to be long, but I figured you could travel the rear pipes over the ram
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front pipes would actually travel over the black heat sink between the cpu power and the usb/fan headers
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incase you aren't a fan of making yourself some ram heat plates
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Top view to give you a frame of reference on how they'd fit
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(added a better picture)
 
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Very cool, i think the front ones might have to go all the way to the front panel to clear a video card. Also, no ramsink, it barely gets warm, and the cpu would be heating up the ram.

The distance between the sides is 7 1/4", you have it a bit wide there.
 
there aren't many full clear pictures of the new board in the case, so i had to do some assuming. But overall, I think you could do something like this and it be arranged a bit better. The ram sinks I figured were goofy, but they helped form a frame of reference for where a proper amount of room would need to be in order to get ram in and out. All in all, happy to help if I can.
 
Without a doubt my favorite htpc build I've ever seen. Cool stuff man. Cool stuff.
 
Thanks for the nice comments!

I have built the lexan top and everything fits together nicely, I didnt take any pics because my CF reader is borked.

I have ordered some new heatpipes which will be configured similar to xjmtx's suggestion and a nice "real" pipe bender, and they have not arrived yet. I also got some nice MDPC-X sleeving, but need the tool to remove the pins, which is waiting in my next digikey order to pas $200 for free shipping :)(dont normally work on PC case stuff but music electronics, so i do tend to buy quite a bit of suff there)
 
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