The mini EPW: Eco Power Workstation

[qwerkus]

Hello,

After the completion of the Chieftec bt-04b PC, I was looking for a new challenge while building a workstation for my wife. This time, the goals where slightly different:

-small
-energy efficient
-cheap
-beautiful + quiet
-fast

Since there was no need for a fast gfx on that computer, I decided to move to the next level of sff, and build a really small machine, under 3L. Furthermore, since I got a really cheap g3258 during the design phase, I added a 6th goal:

-OC-friendly

There I finally got a my challenge. How to cramp a good cooler and a strong psu within 3L ? The solution came while googling around and seeing this case. Since winter is over here, and I live in an overall cool region, why not use a cooler actually conveying the heat OUTSIDE the case ? That way one could enjoy a warm breeze when sitting countless hours in front of the machine, while keeping the latter cool.

All I needed was a heatsink tall enough to sit outside the box. Certainly Prolimatech offered good option, especially since most of their heatsink bodies sit >40mm over the cpu, but Zalman just came with the more original design: the cnps max is beautiful. As the heatsink would be the main part given this comp it's own touch, I figured the rounded double loop would be nice. Also, since this cooler has been around for some times now, getting a cheap one on ebay is no problem.

Thus a plan emerged, and the part-gathering started. As time passed, more would be required, but for clarity purposes, I'm just going to list all of it once:

Main Parts:
-CPU: intel g3258 aniv. ed.: 30€ ebay
-Cpu-cooler: Zalman CNPS 9600 Max: 20€ ebay
-Thermal Paste: arctic mx-2: 3€ NEW
-Mainboard: Asrock z97m-itx/ac: 80€ also ebay
-Ram: corsair vengeance low voltage white pc1600 cl9: around 60€, came in a deal with the cpu
-SSD: crucial mx100, 256Gb: 90€ NEW
-hdd: WD blue 7500LPCX slim: 46€ NEW
-case: realan e-mini q6i (including dc board and usb 3.0 iügrade): around 60€ including shipping from china NEW
-PSU: X1-atx dc 180W dc-board + Leicke 12V 120W AC Adapter: 45€ NEW
-Wlan card: Qualcomm AR9264 + 2x external Antennas: 10€ NEW

-Keyboard: logitech k750 solar wiresless keyboard: 30€ ebay
-Mouse: Logitech m705 wireless mouse: 22€ ebay
-Mousepad: 2€ ebay

Building parts:
-4 rubber feet 9mm 2,5€ NEW
-1x sata data cable short (15cm) 2€
-1x sata Y power adapter 1,5€
-1x copper block, 40x40x10mm 8€
-1x aluminium heatsink 0,5€
-1x thermal adhesive sheet 100x100mm 3€
-1x thermal pad 100x40x2,5mm 4,5€
-Various screws 5€
-Various tools 90€

Total: around 615€. Note that most of the tools are reusable for future projects! Without it: 525€.

Now without further cliffhanger, here is the result:

 

[qwerkus]

The very first problem was to actually get the case. The e-q6i seemed unvailable here in Europe, so I had to directly contact realan/e-mini in China to get the case. On a sidenote, their sales departement turned out very cooperative, and even send me a spare top cover! Thanks again Dennis. Shipment took just under a week, and the whole thing is very well packed.

The case itself is of very simple design: 3 parts. One more or less square body and 2 plates, one on the top and one on the bottom. For more details your can check out the manufacturer's page The aluminium brush finish is very nice, but the power button is really cheap.

As the case itself is quite thin (just 56mm), there was no way to cramp 2x 2,5" hdd inside. Besides: it wouldn't have been advisable, since the overheating risk is just too high. Fortunately, 2,5" disks are so thin noadays, that fastening them underneath any case is no problem at all; all you need is about 9mm height, which I got thanks to 4x rubber feet. Moreoever, based on the Chieftec experience, these feet are just amazing vibration absorbers. Of course, this would require extensive modding.

Since this project required precise drilling, and there was no 3D drawing available from the case manufacturer, I first drew a plan of the 2 plates with blender, and pinted out the result. (should anyone be interested, I can upload the svg). Here you can see the lower plate prepared for drilling:

Job done. On a sidenote, drilling anodised aluminium really sucks. The anodised layer melts, and creates a crater hard to remove.

First surprise: the WD blue comes with only 2 horizontal holes.

Yet mounting seems no problem. Very sturdy, thanks to the 2,5mm aluminium.

Here seens from the bottom. Rubber feet in place and hdd+ssd mounted.

Sata Y-cable modding. Soldering cables is pain... I work on the balcony for better ventilation.

Cables finally through. The Data+power holes turned out too small by about 0.5mm. Had to slowly grind it away.

Bottom view.

Mounting the case body back inside, as the balcony was getting really chilly.

Mainboard placed.

Cables plugged.

The USB 3.0 Plug had to be modded, since it stoud out by about 45mm, and I only have 40mm height. Furtunately, this is no big deal.

USB 3.0 plugged, and DC Board + Power cable fastened.

Sadly I don't have pictures from the top plate drilling process. Long story short: you need a lot of patience, and good tools. I used a 83mm holesaw like this one:

.

Steel is good enough to cut aluminium, you don't need a bi-metal one. The main problem would be my drilling setup (machine + stand), which turned out wobly. So I had to drill, fasten the machine again, drill, fasten... etc.

Top Plate test.

Seems to fit.

At this point, the system was ready for testing. As closing the box was anticipated as rather difficult, I had no plans to doing it twice. So I mounted cpu + cooler, plugged everything in, and let it roll for a week or so. This way, I figured out 5 things:

1. The dc-board from e-mini shipped with the case is crappy. Although it's advertise for 120W, it has only 4amps on the 12V rail. How I figured this out ? Well, anything past 4Ghz would lead to random shutdowns. I check the whole documentation again until I discovered here the 4A limit. Quite strange knowing that the AC Adapter already provides 12V up to 10A. Anyway, I had to get a new dc-board, and went with the X1-ATX. Rated for 180W, with a direct-input 12V rail - it should fit my needs. Here the 2 boards side to side. Note the better finish on the X1 Atx, and the solid capacitors.

2. The Zalman goes too deep into the case. In order to close the box, a 10mm spacer between the cpu and the heatsink would be needed. I figured solid copper would do it. 2 Layers of thermal paste would also require better quality. Since I was running out of it anyway, I ordered some extra arctic MX-2. Very nice paste indeed...

3. The Zalman is amazing. 4Ghz for hours, and never past 40°C on air. Of course, the setup helps a lot conveying all that unwanted heat outside. Moreover, it turns out the cpu cooler can easily keep the entire box cool. The only problem I had with temperature where MOSFET transistors: the Asrock z97m-itx didn't come with a mosfet heatsink, and the parts got really hot. So I ordered a cheap aluminium heatsink on ebay to cope with the problem. Came as one 37*37mm piece, from which I cut out 2 mosfet heatsink (37*10mm and 13*9mm) Here you can see the 2 heatsinks on the test rig, around the CPU. Btw Asrock: this configuration, in which the mosfets are divided isn't very helpful.

4. The case itself is a great heat dissipator. 3mm aluminium on the body and 2,5mm on the top - all brushed. One big heatsink. I figured some of this can be used, especially considering the flipped dc-board design. All I needed was a thick non-conductive thermal pad to bridge the gap between the dc-board and the top plate to have a decent PSU cooler...

5. The realtek WLAN card coming with the motherboard didn't work. Probably a hardware error. Although Asrock send me a replacement one, I'd rather get a new Qualcomm card. The AR9264 is 6$ on ebay, and works miracles under Linux.

After some anoying wating time, until all parts arrived, I could finally mount everything together. Here you can see the new dc-board, mosfet heatsinks, the copper spacer and the new wlan card. Notice how cable management is much easier with the new dc plate, and how the 4pin cable barely reaches it's header.

Pads and thermal paste applied. Although you can spot a noctua tube, it's empty! I used the arctic mx-2 thermal paste. Much easier to apply than the noctua, and not as liquid as the mx-3.

Zalman base mounted underneath the topplate. Removing one leg was enough to get the heatsink through the 83mm hole.

Than I tried to fasten the top plate, and it just wouldn't work out. The 4 holes were just too close to the heatsink to be able to use the allen wrench. How frustrating.
Back to the drilling machine. Drill, grind, polish... and so on. Until finally finally the enlarged holes would be ready. As you can see, thermal paste is still in place.

And YES: it closes! Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures from the actual fastening operation. Just imagine a long allen wrench, a flash light and a lot of patience...

I sincerely hope this will encourage some more custom builds. Hopefully and update will follow with oc results - once I figured out the new asrock bios interface and all its fancy options. So far, the only problem I ran into is strong interference on the mic/line out lines of the front panel - probably because all psu cables are squeeze in there. Yet on a case of this size, using the io panel audio is not really a problem, even for headphones.

 

[MertArm]

Nice build! I'm excited to see how it turns out.

Edit: dat heatsink placement

 

[WiSK]

It's nice. I admire your patience getting the heatsink installed.

It reminds a bit of 70s V8 automobiles with the supercharger mounted outside the front bonnet

 

[rawrr]

rip zalman...

Anyway, nice mod, its really clean! The unusual heatsink looks very cool displayed like that.

 

[Stevo_]

Damn fine effort getting that HSF on, I was ready to kill after mounting a 9900Max on my original P8z77-I deluxe/Node304 build, and that was outside the box! Had to get a replacement allen wrench. The bare HSF look almost gives a throwback exposed tube look.

 

[qwerkus]

Thank you for your replies. I has indeed a retro flair. To mount the heatsink, I used a rounded long allen wrench like this (lower) one:

.

The main problem would be to correctly target the bolt looking through the pcb. I figured a slightly magnetised wrench thanks to a strong ferromagnet helps a lot

 

[akromatic]

wow amazing build.

made me itching to do the same for my 7850k

 

[qwerkus]

made me itching to do the same for my 7850k

That was actually my original plan, since the amd gpu is so much better. Keep me posted, should you do so; I can sent you the svgs, if you like.