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serpretetsky
2[H]4U
- Joined
- Dec 24, 2008
- Messages
- 2,180
so I've been obsessed with passive cooling for a while now (i keep researching builds for completely passive setups). Anyways, while i am obssessed with the idea, I don't feel like it would be that satisfying to just start dropping 600$ on a computer i dont actually need.
Recently, i recieved a beat up hp dv9334us laptop from a friend. Beat up as in the ac adapter had to be held for it to power the laptop, and the screen hinges were completely screwed up, I was originally planned to remove the laptop screen and just use the laptop as an ultra portable desktop that still required a separate video screen. But again... i dont actually need a computer for anything. So i just sort of left it.
Twice now my brothers would come over and complain that they couldn't show my parents their photos on a nice big screen or some cool movies on the tv they had downloaded. "That's it!!" I thought to myself.
"this is the perfect excuse to turn this:
"into this!"
..........
.........
so that's what i did
I ripped apart the laptop and first thing thing was first, took off the heatpipe and fan solutions and went straight to hsc electronics to buy some new heatsinks. Now , i knew that whatever i bought i would have to somehow mount to these propriety connections, but i wasn't really sure what i was looking for. The only thing i was really concerned with was that the heatsinks fins HAD to be alligned vertically so that hot air could easily rise through them. In retrospect i should have also looked for heatsinks with fins that are better spaced across (it didn't occur to me that spacing is much more critical in passive setups than with forced air induction). Furthermore, after seeing how tiny the little heatsinks were on the stock setup, I wasn't worried too much with the actual performance of the heatsinks (yeah... i know they're passive but... i mean... common..... well, as you can tell by the temps farther down, i'm not a very bright guy)
I had 3 main chips i had to cool, as well as some minor power transistors by the cpu which i wasn't as worried about. The cpu had a good 3 hole mounting system, so i decided for the cpu heatsink i would just drill whatever holes i needed to in the heatsink and mount it with long bolts and regular thermal paste.
The northbridge and gpu didn't have such easy setups or didn't have enough room for me to get heatsinks that would accomodate the mounting systems, so i choose to use
arctic alumina epoxy. I decided i didn't want to risk it with arctic silver epoxy in case I got some on some electronics and i wouldnt be able to just wipe if off.
The cpu and gpu heatsinks were some generic aluminum peices i found at local electronics store, the northbridge heatsink was taken from and nforce 2 ultra 400 northbridge.
Everything mounted nicely.
After testing the temperatures i wasnt TOO happy, but after a 24 hour 1080p wmv video test in the 98 degress Fahrenheit weather, and some more high def youtube test and hulu tests i decided it would be ok. Typical temps:
temps (C) : .......... idle ............... load (1080p wmv playing)
cpu ...................... 40 ............... 87
gpu ...................... 55 ............... 65
north ..................... 60 ............... 93
Temperatures are from the hardware monitor from the folks who make cpu-z
As you can see, the temps aren't exactly what i want them to be, and honestly, the computer FAILS prime95, but i decided i didn't care to much about that, and hopefully it doesn't decrease the life the of unit too dramatically. (mostly i'm worried about the nvidia gpu contacts cracking from thermal stress... i've heard this is an issue with the nvidia 7 series mobile chips...)
After deciding that this would still work, I soldered a new tip onto the ac adapter and started thinking of a simple design for a case.
Originally, i was honestly going to getto rig something, but for some reason it became better and better looking.
I cut out a sheet from an old atx case to use as the motherboard tray and drilled holes for the mobo. For the actual case I just used a sheet of plywood i found on our property and cut it into the two sides of the case and used a single board for the top, front, and rear sides. A bunch of screwing, sanding, more sanding, several trips to home depot, and some wood oil-based floor finish and i had the case. The front looked pretty ugly though so i went to friedman's and purchased a perforated aluminum sheet which i cut, bent and painted to make the front grill.
It still looks a little getto, but i like it.
Anyways, it didn't completely satisfy my hunger for a computer with NO moviing parts. I'm still using the mechanical hard drive that came from the laptop
.
Anyways, plays 1080p wmv, 1080p h.264 mkv's, all the youtube and hulu i need. What do you guys think?
Hopefully next passive build i get the guts to actually spend money and properly cool an undervoltages and underclocked 45watt cpu with a ninja scythe mini and get an ssd in there too.
Oh... yeah... almost forgot. Yes, it's pretty quiet. But you can still hear some high frequency noices from the electronics. Plus you can hear the hdd a little too, as quiet as it is.
Recently, i recieved a beat up hp dv9334us laptop from a friend. Beat up as in the ac adapter had to be held for it to power the laptop, and the screen hinges were completely screwed up, I was originally planned to remove the laptop screen and just use the laptop as an ultra portable desktop that still required a separate video screen. But again... i dont actually need a computer for anything. So i just sort of left it.
Twice now my brothers would come over and complain that they couldn't show my parents their photos on a nice big screen or some cool movies on the tv they had downloaded. "That's it!!" I thought to myself.
"this is the perfect excuse to turn this:
"into this!"
..........
.........
so that's what i did
I ripped apart the laptop and first thing thing was first, took off the heatpipe and fan solutions and went straight to hsc electronics to buy some new heatsinks. Now , i knew that whatever i bought i would have to somehow mount to these propriety connections, but i wasn't really sure what i was looking for. The only thing i was really concerned with was that the heatsinks fins HAD to be alligned vertically so that hot air could easily rise through them. In retrospect i should have also looked for heatsinks with fins that are better spaced across (it didn't occur to me that spacing is much more critical in passive setups than with forced air induction). Furthermore, after seeing how tiny the little heatsinks were on the stock setup, I wasn't worried too much with the actual performance of the heatsinks (yeah... i know they're passive but... i mean... common..... well, as you can tell by the temps farther down, i'm not a very bright guy)
I had 3 main chips i had to cool, as well as some minor power transistors by the cpu which i wasn't as worried about. The cpu had a good 3 hole mounting system, so i decided for the cpu heatsink i would just drill whatever holes i needed to in the heatsink and mount it with long bolts and regular thermal paste.
The northbridge and gpu didn't have such easy setups or didn't have enough room for me to get heatsinks that would accomodate the mounting systems, so i choose to use
arctic alumina epoxy. I decided i didn't want to risk it with arctic silver epoxy in case I got some on some electronics and i wouldnt be able to just wipe if off.
The cpu and gpu heatsinks were some generic aluminum peices i found at local electronics store, the northbridge heatsink was taken from and nforce 2 ultra 400 northbridge.
Everything mounted nicely.
After testing the temperatures i wasnt TOO happy, but after a 24 hour 1080p wmv video test in the 98 degress Fahrenheit weather, and some more high def youtube test and hulu tests i decided it would be ok. Typical temps:
temps (C) : .......... idle ............... load (1080p wmv playing)
cpu ...................... 40 ............... 87
gpu ...................... 55 ............... 65
north ..................... 60 ............... 93
Temperatures are from the hardware monitor from the folks who make cpu-z
As you can see, the temps aren't exactly what i want them to be, and honestly, the computer FAILS prime95, but i decided i didn't care to much about that, and hopefully it doesn't decrease the life the of unit too dramatically. (mostly i'm worried about the nvidia gpu contacts cracking from thermal stress... i've heard this is an issue with the nvidia 7 series mobile chips...)
After deciding that this would still work, I soldered a new tip onto the ac adapter and started thinking of a simple design for a case.
Originally, i was honestly going to getto rig something, but for some reason it became better and better looking.
I cut out a sheet from an old atx case to use as the motherboard tray and drilled holes for the mobo. For the actual case I just used a sheet of plywood i found on our property and cut it into the two sides of the case and used a single board for the top, front, and rear sides. A bunch of screwing, sanding, more sanding, several trips to home depot, and some wood oil-based floor finish and i had the case. The front looked pretty ugly though so i went to friedman's and purchased a perforated aluminum sheet which i cut, bent and painted to make the front grill.
It still looks a little getto, but i like it.
Anyways, it didn't completely satisfy my hunger for a computer with NO moviing parts. I'm still using the mechanical hard drive that came from the laptop
.Anyways, plays 1080p wmv, 1080p h.264 mkv's, all the youtube and hulu i need. What do you guys think?
Hopefully next passive build i get the guts to actually spend money and properly cool an undervoltages and underclocked 45watt cpu with a ninja scythe mini and get an ssd in there too.
Oh... yeah... almost forgot. Yes, it's pretty quiet. But you can still hear some high frequency noices from the electronics. Plus you can hear the hdd a little too, as quiet as it is.