Why do passive / heat pipe cases fail?

P1x3L

Weaksauce
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There have been many sneak peaks at passive cooking cases with great cooling performance (mostly using heat pipes) over the last decade or so. Most of them have been discontinued, failed, or who knows? Calyos is the best I've heard about recently - and now seems they're winding down, or at least not fulfilling their kickstarter promises so far.
Why do these not work? Is this just over-engineering for a problem not as significant? My main interest is low noise computing.
 
Why do these not work? Is this just over-engineering for a problem not as significant? My main interest is low noise computing.
Pretty much. Cost is high and you can have a quiet computer with a custom water loop, a large radiator, and a few low speed fans. That solution is near silent when using headphones.

Modern aftermarket CPU heatsinks with 120 and 140mm fans are also quiet. I think the main noise people tend to hear come from GPU blower fans.
 
Pretty much. Cost is high and you can have a quiet computer with a custom water loop, a large radiator, and a few low speed fans. That solution is near silent when using headphones.

Modern aftermarket CPU heatsinks with 120 and 140mm fans are also quiet. I think the main noise people tend to hear come from GPU blower fans.
Yep. I've got a very heavily watercooled machine and the coil whine off my GPU is the loudest thing about it.
 
There have been many sneak peaks at passive cooking cases with great cooling performance (mostly using heat pipes) over the last decade or so. Most of them have been discontinued, failed, or who knows? Calyos is the best I've heard about recently - and now seems they're winding down, or at least not fulfilling their kickstarter promises so far.
Why do these not work? Is this just over-engineering for a problem not as significant? My main interest is low noise computing.
I think mostly because their cost is extreme, combined with mediocre cooling ability. That and a fan cooled system setup properly is almost silent anyway. All of my systems are air cooled and even when encoding with CPU at 90-100% I have to get my ears less than a meter away to just barely hear the fans. With that high a CPU load sytem can't be used for anything else, nto even surfing the web so I'm not settng at computer desk anyway.
 
Yep. I've got a very heavily watercooled machine and the coil whine off my GPU is the loudest thing about it.

So you can water cool for a bit less than the cost of the case, but water cooling is in addition to the nice case... Plus these don't have a pump that can fail and are dust free... So I don't think "price" explains it. I was thinking that perhaps it increased the failure of chipsets or SSDs due to having zero airflow - and no one talking about the real reason they don't succeed. Linus showed the cooling ability is great from Calyos.

It just seems that more would have to be wrong with them than price. We have water-cooled ram! 0_0
 
So you can water cool for a bit less than the cost of the case, but water cooling is in addition to the nice case... Plus these don't have a pump that can fail and are dust free... So I don't think "price" explains it. I was thinking that perhaps it increased the failure of chipsets or SSDs due to having zero airflow - and no one talking about the real reason they don't succeed. Linus showed the cooling ability is great from Calyos.

It just seems that more would have to be wrong with them than price. We have water-cooled ram! 0_0
I still think price explains it, even if it's not rational. Maybe not price exactly, but sticker shock. I'll pay well in excess of $300 for a case and water loop, but I won't even look at a case that costs more than $300, regardless of what it can do. I know that doesn't make sense but I feel like I can't be alone in this.
 
I would love to see a water cooled case with built in plumbing and fins. I feel like this would be cheaper than proper heat pipes. Even if ek wanted to do something to pair with their aluminum offerings. Idk.
 
I wouldn't want a water cooled case with built in plumbing and fins unless that plumbing and fins can be changed out if/when needed.

A big part of the problem with passive cooling cases with their own heatpipe and fins is compatablity with different motherboards and GPUs. One case can not accommodate the variety of components builders use.
 
I wouldn't want a water cooled case with built in plumbing and fins unless that plumbing and fins can be changed out if/when needed.

A big part of the problem with passive cooling cases with their own heatpipe and fins is compatablity with different motherboards and GPUs. One case can not accommodate the variety of components builders use.
With water, all you’d need is a copper square of pipe with g1/4 fittings welded to the aluminum case/frame. Expand that to a cube or whatever. Fully universal and just added heat dispersion to whatever you already have in it. The pipes would be hidden inside the frame and nothing obtrusive or distracting.

I’d just see it being used for itx, htpc, or whatever small designs that are meant to be compact and low noise.

Pipe dream though. I know it’s silly. Just the op reminded me of the idea albeit not exactly what they were talking about.
 
Too niche and expensive. My dream build is a custom CNC HEDT with 500w heatpipes for gpu and cpu. They're 30mm heat pipes lmao.
I'd design a heat exchanger inside with a fan to keep mobo crap and pcbs cooled but zero dust to clean.

Oh yeah it'll weigh around 30kg or more.

Niche of a niche, that is why they don't succeed.
 
With water, all you’d need is a copper square of pipe with g1/4 fittings welded to the aluminum case/frame. Expand that to a cube or whatever. Fully universal and just added heat dispersion to whatever you already have in it. The pipes would be hidden inside the frame and nothing obtrusive or distracting.

I’d just see it being used for itx, htpc, or whatever small designs that are meant to be compact and low noise.

Pipe dream though. I know it’s silly. Just the op reminded me of the idea albeit not exactly what they were talking about.
Actually 2 copper and aluminum or maybe plastic waterblcoks; 1 for CPU and 1 for GPU. CPU placement on mobo is not standardized and while PCie slot placement is which are x16, etc is not so lines from case to waterblocks would not be universal. And it would be very hard to have good circulation without a pump and then it wouldn't be completely passive.

Too niche and expensive. My dream build is a custom CNC HEDT with 500w heatpipes for gpu and cpu. They're 30mm heat pipes lmao.
I'd design a heat exchanger inside with a fan to keep mobo crap and pcbs cooled but zero dust to clean.

Oh yeah it'll weigh around 30kg or more.

Niche of a niche, that is why they don't succeed.
I agree definitely niche of a nicvhe kind of deal. Many, many years ago I worked with Thermalright on their heatpipe cooled case designs. While the project was a lot of fun it wasn't really practical so never went into production.

Biggest problem is as above, CPU socket placement is not standardized and while PCIe socket placement is standardized, which are x16 is noot. GPU could use it's own mount like vertical mounts are used. That would standardize GPU placement somewhat.
 
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Actually 2 copper and aluminum or maybe plastic waterblcoks; 1 for CPU and 1 for GPU. CPU placement on mobo is not standardized and while PCie slot placement is which are x16, etc is not so lines from case to waterblocks would not be universal. And it would be very hard to have good circulation without a pump and then it wouldn't be completely passive.


I agree definitely niche of a nicvhe kind of deal. Many, many years ago I worked with Thermalright on their heatpipe cooled case designs. While the project was a lot of fun it wasn't really practical so never went into production.

Biggest problem is as above, CPU socket placement is not standardized and while PCIe socket placement is standardized, which are x16 is noot. GPU could use it's own mount like vertical mounts are used. That would standardize GPU placement somewhat.
Very interesting thank you! Yeah I would also use a vertical mount gpu it's the only way.

There could be a way to a use a heatpipe with various socket mounts which dumps heat into large diameter, flexible water pipes, leading to a thermal gradient in the water.. No pump, Like old stationary engines had evaporative cooling this way for 12kW or more... So a PC should be easier but I wonder if it's going to idle a little too hot.

Bit like that cooling tower design.. Thermalright or take did that?
 
Very interesting thank you! Yeah I would also use a vertical mount gpu it's the only way.

There could be a way to a use a heatpipe with various socket mounts which dumps heat into large diameter, flexible water pipes, leading to a thermal gradient in the water.. No pump, Like old stationary engines had evaporative cooling this way for 12kW or more... So a PC should be easier but I wonder if it's going to idle a little too hot.

Bit like that cooling tower design.. Thermalright or take did that?
Probably wouldn't disipate heat from CPU's small area fast enough. Might work if it was a loop that used the heat to generate circulation like Captherm Systems' MP1120 they showed at CES 2014 and MP1240 they showed at CES 2015? I talked with them too during devopment, but it was too expensive to be practical. Here is link to 4 minute vid about it:

You mean the tower case Thermaltake modeled off of Mathieu Heredia’s entry in Thermaltake Casemod Invitational 2015 Season 2 competition?
 
Very few people need silent (as opposed to very quiet) computers, and very few people have the noise isolated environment where you could tell the difference. And, even if you posit the environment, the need, and the money, it may turn out to be simpler to position the computer remotely and only have the human interface bits close at hand.

As mentioned, you can get very quiet today, especially if your GPU requirements aren't too high. I have a build that is just barely audible with my ear next to it, in the middle of the night when there's no outside noise and no other fans are running anywhere in the house. It wouldn't be worth the money needed to take it from there to "silent".
 
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