Jump to content

nycesquire

Member
  • Posts

    46
  • Joined

  • Last visited

Reputation Activity

  1. Like
    nycesquire got a reaction from Elerek in Antimemetic: Scratch-built, Fully Passive, GTX 1080, SFF   
    The GPU side is complete now, and performing famously. Let's talk CPU/Mobo/Ram, power supply and SSDs.  I've made a motherboard tray out of black acrylic. Here we are cutting it to size:
     

     
     
    And cutting a notch for it to slide cleanly into the aluminum extrusion
     

     
    Drilling each motherboard and SSD standoff
     

     
    Here we are all laid out
     

     
    Here, you can see how the tray slides cleanly into the extrusions that hold the case together.  Also, you can see the placement of the PSU above where the SSDs will sit
     

     
    The CPU, an 88 Watt part (4690k) is connected to the heat sink with six heat pipes, all with only minor bending:
     

     
    It looks almost organic, doesn't it?  Note the reflections that look like kinks. It's not really kinked much at all actually. Just bright lights.
     
    Here we are all sealed up
     

     
    and on the desk plugged in and running (a sketchup model of itself!)
     

     
    Not bad for zero fans! It's under 80 degrees with your usual (non Prime95 voltage voodoo) stress testing and runs under 60 degrees in Heaven and in games.  Thoughts? Feedback?
     
    ...For those who want to know about totally unrealistic, "never happen in the real world" scenarios, here we are under Prime95's ridiculous stress test in a very warm (25c) room.
     

     
  2. Like
    nycesquire got a reaction from iFreilicht in Antimemetic: Scratch-built, Fully Passive, GTX 1080, SFF   
    The GPU side is complete now, and performing famously. Let's talk CPU/Mobo/Ram, power supply and SSDs.  I've made a motherboard tray out of black acrylic. Here we are cutting it to size:
     

     
     
    And cutting a notch for it to slide cleanly into the aluminum extrusion
     

     
    Drilling each motherboard and SSD standoff
     

     
    Here we are all laid out
     

     
    Here, you can see how the tray slides cleanly into the extrusions that hold the case together.  Also, you can see the placement of the PSU above where the SSDs will sit
     

     
    The CPU, an 88 Watt part (4690k) is connected to the heat sink with six heat pipes, all with only minor bending:
     

     
    It looks almost organic, doesn't it?  Note the reflections that look like kinks. It's not really kinked much at all actually. Just bright lights.
     
    Here we are all sealed up
     

     
    and on the desk plugged in and running (a sketchup model of itself!)
     

     
    Not bad for zero fans! It's under 80 degrees with your usual (non Prime95 voltage voodoo) stress testing and runs under 60 degrees in Heaven and in games.  Thoughts? Feedback?
     
    ...For those who want to know about totally unrealistic, "never happen in the real world" scenarios, here we are under Prime95's ridiculous stress test in a very warm (25c) room.
     

     
  3. Like
    nycesquire got a reaction from Elerek in Antimemetic: Scratch-built, Fully Passive, GTX 1080, SFF   
    Enough with the design. Let's talk engineering.  This is how I am cooling the GPU, which is an EVGA 1080 Super Clocked. First, I start with the HDPlex H5 GPU heatsink system.  Shout out to the folks at    for hooking me up with a few at a discount.  They advertise the device as only being able to dissipate 95 watts.  In truth, the block and eight heat pipes can dissipate significantly more than that.  Much, much, much more than that. They are just hooking it up to the modest heat sinks on the side of their H5 Chassis, which limit the cooling capability.  I don't have that problem. I'm drilling into 300mm beast. Behold:
     

     

     
    For the evaporator end (the end mounted to the GPU) I use two of the base H5 units back to back, sandwiching eight of my own 6mm heat pipes within.
     

     

     
    For the condenser end (the end mounted to the heat sink), I use the full h5 unit with the base and fins. Grease them up nicely:
     
     

     
    et voila, the complete GPU core cooling system:
     

     
    It raises the card off the heat sink enough to leave vertical room for the power connector, PCIE extender, board components, etc.
     
    Add a big block of aluminum to connect the VRM to the heat sink:
     

     

     

     
    Drill the necessary holes to securely attach said big block of aluminum to the heat sink (rube-goldberg-esque drill press setup incoming):
     

     
    Add some standoffs for ensuring good mounting pressure:
     

     
    And you have (what might be?) the world's first passive cooling for the Nvidia GTX 1080:
     

     
    No fans, no water, no pumps, nada.
     
    Here's a vertical shot:
     

     
    and here we are testing on the frankenbench (sorry for potato quality):
     

     
    Speaking of testing... RESULTS ARE GOOD. In my ambient room temp of 24 degrees C, here's temps after browsing in chrome for an hour or so:
     

     
    And of course, the temps that matter - after an hour or so of Heaven:
     

     
    1911 is the boost clock I was getting with stock cooling, so there's no loss due to the cooling solution.  You might note, though, that it is thermal throttling (pink bars).  Indeed, all GTX 1080s will keep clocking up until they either throttle due to max voltage or max thermals. So, I may not have lost any performance, but my headroom for overclocking is probably diminished considerably, unless I'm willing to push past 84 degrees.  Right now, I'm happy with it.  I have some ideas to revamp the cooling solution, in which case I may subject it to the 1080ti when it's released. Guess we'll wait and see
     
    Next up, the CPU cooling solution!  Until then, what do you think?  As always, I welcome your feedback.
     
     
  4. Like
    nycesquire got a reaction from TheCamba in Antimemetic: Scratch-built, Fully Passive, GTX 1080, SFF   
    Enough with the design. Let's talk engineering.  This is how I am cooling the GPU, which is an EVGA 1080 Super Clocked. First, I start with the HDPlex H5 GPU heatsink system.  Shout out to the folks at    for hooking me up with a few at a discount.  They advertise the device as only being able to dissipate 95 watts.  In truth, the block and eight heat pipes can dissipate significantly more than that.  Much, much, much more than that. They are just hooking it up to the modest heat sinks on the side of their H5 Chassis, which limit the cooling capability.  I don't have that problem. I'm drilling into 300mm beast. Behold:
     

     

     
    For the evaporator end (the end mounted to the GPU) I use two of the base H5 units back to back, sandwiching eight of my own 6mm heat pipes within.
     

     

     
    For the condenser end (the end mounted to the heat sink), I use the full h5 unit with the base and fins. Grease them up nicely:
     
     

     
    et voila, the complete GPU core cooling system:
     

     
    It raises the card off the heat sink enough to leave vertical room for the power connector, PCIE extender, board components, etc.
     
    Add a big block of aluminum to connect the VRM to the heat sink:
     

     

     

     
    Drill the necessary holes to securely attach said big block of aluminum to the heat sink (rube-goldberg-esque drill press setup incoming):
     

     
    Add some standoffs for ensuring good mounting pressure:
     

     
    And you have (what might be?) the world's first passive cooling for the Nvidia GTX 1080:
     

     
    No fans, no water, no pumps, nada.
     
    Here's a vertical shot:
     

     
    and here we are testing on the frankenbench (sorry for potato quality):
     

     
    Speaking of testing... RESULTS ARE GOOD. In my ambient room temp of 24 degrees C, here's temps after browsing in chrome for an hour or so:
     

     
    And of course, the temps that matter - after an hour or so of Heaven:
     

     
    1911 is the boost clock I was getting with stock cooling, so there's no loss due to the cooling solution.  You might note, though, that it is thermal throttling (pink bars).  Indeed, all GTX 1080s will keep clocking up until they either throttle due to max voltage or max thermals. So, I may not have lost any performance, but my headroom for overclocking is probably diminished considerably, unless I'm willing to push past 84 degrees.  Right now, I'm happy with it.  I have some ideas to revamp the cooling solution, in which case I may subject it to the 1080ti when it's released. Guess we'll wait and see
     
    Next up, the CPU cooling solution!  Until then, what do you think?  As always, I welcome your feedback.
     
     
  5. Agree
    nycesquire got a reaction from KrZaj in Antimemetic: Scratch-built, Fully Passive, GTX 1080, SFF   
    Enough with the design. Let's talk engineering.  This is how I am cooling the GPU, which is an EVGA 1080 Super Clocked. First, I start with the HDPlex H5 GPU heatsink system.  Shout out to the folks at    for hooking me up with a few at a discount.  They advertise the device as only being able to dissipate 95 watts.  In truth, the block and eight heat pipes can dissipate significantly more than that.  Much, much, much more than that. They are just hooking it up to the modest heat sinks on the side of their H5 Chassis, which limit the cooling capability.  I don't have that problem. I'm drilling into 300mm beast. Behold:
     

     

     
    For the evaporator end (the end mounted to the GPU) I use two of the base H5 units back to back, sandwiching eight of my own 6mm heat pipes within.
     

     

     
    For the condenser end (the end mounted to the heat sink), I use the full h5 unit with the base and fins. Grease them up nicely:
     
     

     
    et voila, the complete GPU core cooling system:
     

     
    It raises the card off the heat sink enough to leave vertical room for the power connector, PCIE extender, board components, etc.
     
    Add a big block of aluminum to connect the VRM to the heat sink:
     

     

     

     
    Drill the necessary holes to securely attach said big block of aluminum to the heat sink (rube-goldberg-esque drill press setup incoming):
     

     
    Add some standoffs for ensuring good mounting pressure:
     

     
    And you have (what might be?) the world's first passive cooling for the Nvidia GTX 1080:
     

     
    No fans, no water, no pumps, nada.
     
    Here's a vertical shot:
     

     
    and here we are testing on the frankenbench (sorry for potato quality):
     

     
    Speaking of testing... RESULTS ARE GOOD. In my ambient room temp of 24 degrees C, here's temps after browsing in chrome for an hour or so:
     

     
    And of course, the temps that matter - after an hour or so of Heaven:
     

     
    1911 is the boost clock I was getting with stock cooling, so there's no loss due to the cooling solution.  You might note, though, that it is thermal throttling (pink bars).  Indeed, all GTX 1080s will keep clocking up until they either throttle due to max voltage or max thermals. So, I may not have lost any performance, but my headroom for overclocking is probably diminished considerably, unless I'm willing to push past 84 degrees.  Right now, I'm happy with it.  I have some ideas to revamp the cooling solution, in which case I may subject it to the 1080ti when it's released. Guess we'll wait and see
     
    Next up, the CPU cooling solution!  Until then, what do you think?  As always, I welcome your feedback.
     
     
  6. Like
    nycesquire got a reaction from Phorlorn in Antimemetic: Scratch-built, Fully Passive, GTX 1080, SFF   
    Let’s start at the bottom: Antimemetic rests on four 20-gauge copper pyramids.  They need to leave space between them for the user’s choice of cable routing, so I chose 123mm square posts.  Here they are, straight out of the box.



    Important to protect them with a little masking tape prior to work.



    The pyramids themselves are hollow: designed not to bear much weight, but to decoratively cap fence posts.  As such, they’ll need some kind of filler before I’ll trust them to bear Antimemetic’s weight. I chose Bondo because, well, it’s perfect for the job. It is medium-weight and will probably adhere to the copper. If not, no sweat; plenty of ways to join the two. Worst case scenario, we get a perfectly snug-fitting form for the Bondo. Here we are applying the first layer.



    It’s important to apply Bondo in layers if you plan to go 3d like this. Otherwise, you risk the outside drying before the inside, creating an egg situation – hard shell on the outside, wet yolk inside.  We’re going for a solid core so that won’t do.  I’ll let this dry for a bit, and then start applying the layers.  Next update should provide solid, filled, feet.
    What do you think?
  7. Like
    nycesquire got a reaction from kelvinhall05 in Antimemetic: Scratch-built, Fully Passive, GTX 1080, SFF   
    Antimemetic is a scratch-built, fully-fanless, 0-Decibel, passively cooled gaming PC enclosure lovingly hand-crafted by me here in a small New York City apartment. 
    I'll document the construction process here.  As I note below, this is a long-term, community effort by which I have learned much from others who have experimented with passively-cooled, high-powered enclosures in the past.  So, in many ways, this build stands on the shoulders of giants Please do let me know your thoughts, suggestions, etc.
     
    Antimemetic is also:
     
    Heat-piped, not water-cooled.  Heat pipes require no maintenance, can’t gunk up, and won’t leak on your components.  Water is better at moving heat long distances (i.e., far away from your components), but that just means a large enclosure. That’s fun and can look very cool, but is no more effective than heat pipes for short runs.
     
    Heat-sunk. Radiators are quite effective for fans that create air pressure, but large heat sinks can use convection (and radiation too) to dissipate heat.  The enclosure does not “incorporate” heat sinks. It *consists* of them.
     
    Silent. Zero fans.  Full stop.
     
    Efficient. It can happily cool over 700 watts (175 per side) in a reasonably cool room. That means Xeons if that’s your pleasure, and SLI if you fancy (and if you’re willing to give up one door for the space!).
     
    Minimally-machined.  I am working out of a small NYC apartment, so as much as I’d like to do it myself, there is very little milling that I can realistically do. Instead, I employ off-the-shelf components, often for things they were not meant to do :-)
     
    A perfect cube. Its dimensions are 370mm x 370mm x 370mm.






     
    Solid. It is made of aluminum heat sinks, aluminum extrusions, copper feet and steel fasteners. No plastic, glass or acrylic act as structural components.
     
    Omnidirectional and tidy. Cables are routed cleanly through the bottom, so, while closed, there is no front, no left, no right and no back to the enclosure.
     
    Comfortable to build in.  It is not a tiny case.  In exchange, you net plenty of room inside to poke around.
     
    Versatile.  Unlike many scratch builds that are custom built for only one set of components, this case can accommodate ATX, MATX, ITX, SLI GPUs well over 300mm, eight SSDs, PSUs over 220mm long. …Why? Because planning.
     
    Gull-winged. Two sides open using high-end (and very expensive!) Japanese gull-wing hinges.
     
    Motorized. The gull wing doors are mounted to a linear actuator that opens at the press of a button.
     

     
    Unique. This is the only Antimemetic that I will ever build. My sense is that my future enclosures will be more compact, but less versatile. This is the original.
     
    Beautiful.  No cheesy windows, no blingy lights. Just black aluminum and pure copper.  Okay, maybe some tasteful lighting on the internals.
     
    Original. I sketched out the design and then went to learn implementation from others. Stefan and his passive setups have been tremendously instructive in this regard.  I am indebted to him for his assistance.  I could state now, for the record, that I created Antimemetic before seeing his excellent pseudo-cube enclosure, but you probably wouldn’t believe me.  Instead, I’ll just say that I think Antimemetic is prettier ;-)
     
    Sponsored. Heat Sink USA was kind enough to provide four gorgeous heat sinks for this build.  Some say “functionality is the new marketing,” and I agree.  At heatsinkusa.com you can customize the length of your heat sinks, selecting from various profiles, and buy right from the website with prices displayed.  No asking for “quotes” and waiting days for a response.  Cut to size and shipped quick.  They’ll even provide CAD drawings to work with.  Tough to beat that.

     
    Let’s see how it turns out  ;-)
  8. Like
    nycesquire got a reaction from Lucaz97 in Antimemetic: Scratch-built, Fully Passive, GTX 1080, SFF   
    Admit it, you thought I had given up, didn't you?  Here's the story: I got busy with work, time passed. I started building the GPU cooling solution (which is complete - as demonstrated by the screenshot above) then three things happened:
     
    1) I started getting into the SFF forums and well... I decided that Antimemetic was just too damn big.  So much wasted space on the inside!  I am not an SLI guy, so why bother with four heat sinks anyway?  Where am I going to find the space for the gull wings in my tiny apartment?
    2) I realized that copper wouldn't match my new office decor.  
     
    Most importantly:
     
    3) I decided I wanted to keep it, not sell it, and I still wanted to automate it.
     
    So I completely redesigned the thing! No copper. No hinges.  Instead, low key stealth:
     

     
     

     
     

     
    From the top:

     
     
    And from the bottom:

     
     
    Here we are without one of the heat sinks:

     
     
    And without the other:

     
     
    Here's a sense of size:

     
     
    With a case this tiny, it'll actually be quite difficult to maneuver around inside.  It is only 100mm from the inside of one heat sink to the inside of the other. Indeed, the entire width of the case, heat sinks included is less than 165mm...
     
    SO HOW ABOUT WE AUTOMATE IT
     

     
     
     

     
     
    The automation separates the heat sinks by a total of 200 mm for a total of 300mm of space inside to work.  It is driven by a single large linear actuator. You can see the two rods that will push the heat sinks out.  They ride on a set of drawer slides:
     

     
    Let's be honest with each other though: These heat sinks are monstrously heavy. There's no guarantee that the slides will support the weight without sagging or otherwise falling apart.  If, in the sad face case, the automation is unsuccessful, It'll be a dark day, but I will settle for this alternative:
     

     
     
    An even tinier, but much simpler and sturdier case.
     
    Next up, an in-depth description of the cooling solution (with pictars).  I'd love your feedback!
  9. Like
    nycesquire got a reaction from Nicnac in Antimemetic: Scratch-built, Fully Passive, GTX 1080, SFF   
    Admit it, you thought I had given up, didn't you?  Here's the story: I got busy with work, time passed. I started building the GPU cooling solution (which is complete - as demonstrated by the screenshot above) then three things happened:
     
    1) I started getting into the SFF forums and well... I decided that Antimemetic was just too damn big.  So much wasted space on the inside!  I am not an SLI guy, so why bother with four heat sinks anyway?  Where am I going to find the space for the gull wings in my tiny apartment?
    2) I realized that copper wouldn't match my new office decor.  
     
    Most importantly:
     
    3) I decided I wanted to keep it, not sell it, and I still wanted to automate it.
     
    So I completely redesigned the thing! No copper. No hinges.  Instead, low key stealth:
     

     
     

     
     

     
    From the top:

     
     
    And from the bottom:

     
     
    Here we are without one of the heat sinks:

     
     
    And without the other:

     
     
    Here's a sense of size:

     
     
    With a case this tiny, it'll actually be quite difficult to maneuver around inside.  It is only 100mm from the inside of one heat sink to the inside of the other. Indeed, the entire width of the case, heat sinks included is less than 165mm...
     
    SO HOW ABOUT WE AUTOMATE IT
     

     
     
     

     
     
    The automation separates the heat sinks by a total of 200 mm for a total of 300mm of space inside to work.  It is driven by a single large linear actuator. You can see the two rods that will push the heat sinks out.  They ride on a set of drawer slides:
     

     
    Let's be honest with each other though: These heat sinks are monstrously heavy. There's no guarantee that the slides will support the weight without sagging or otherwise falling apart.  If, in the sad face case, the automation is unsuccessful, It'll be a dark day, but I will settle for this alternative:
     

     
     
    An even tinier, but much simpler and sturdier case.
     
    Next up, an in-depth description of the cooling solution (with pictars).  I'd love your feedback!
  10. Like
    nycesquire got a reaction from KrZaj in Antimemetic: Scratch-built, Fully Passive, GTX 1080, SFF   
    Admit it, you thought I had given up, didn't you?  Here's the story: I got busy with work, time passed. I started building the GPU cooling solution (which is complete - as demonstrated by the screenshot above) then three things happened:
     
    1) I started getting into the SFF forums and well... I decided that Antimemetic was just too damn big.  So much wasted space on the inside!  I am not an SLI guy, so why bother with four heat sinks anyway?  Where am I going to find the space for the gull wings in my tiny apartment?
    2) I realized that copper wouldn't match my new office decor.  
     
    Most importantly:
     
    3) I decided I wanted to keep it, not sell it, and I still wanted to automate it.
     
    So I completely redesigned the thing! No copper. No hinges.  Instead, low key stealth:
     

     
     

     
     

     
    From the top:

     
     
    And from the bottom:

     
     
    Here we are without one of the heat sinks:

     
     
    And without the other:

     
     
    Here's a sense of size:

     
     
    With a case this tiny, it'll actually be quite difficult to maneuver around inside.  It is only 100mm from the inside of one heat sink to the inside of the other. Indeed, the entire width of the case, heat sinks included is less than 165mm...
     
    SO HOW ABOUT WE AUTOMATE IT
     

     
     
     

     
     
    The automation separates the heat sinks by a total of 200 mm for a total of 300mm of space inside to work.  It is driven by a single large linear actuator. You can see the two rods that will push the heat sinks out.  They ride on a set of drawer slides:
     

     
    Let's be honest with each other though: These heat sinks are monstrously heavy. There's no guarantee that the slides will support the weight without sagging or otherwise falling apart.  If, in the sad face case, the automation is unsuccessful, It'll be a dark day, but I will settle for this alternative:
     

     
     
    An even tinier, but much simpler and sturdier case.
     
    Next up, an in-depth description of the cooling solution (with pictars).  I'd love your feedback!
  11. Like
    nycesquire got a reaction from Stefan1024 in Antimemetic: Scratch-built, Fully Passive, GTX 1080, SFF   
    Admit it, you thought I had given up, didn't you?  Here's the story: I got busy with work, time passed. I started building the GPU cooling solution (which is complete - as demonstrated by the screenshot above) then three things happened:
     
    1) I started getting into the SFF forums and well... I decided that Antimemetic was just too damn big.  So much wasted space on the inside!  I am not an SLI guy, so why bother with four heat sinks anyway?  Where am I going to find the space for the gull wings in my tiny apartment?
    2) I realized that copper wouldn't match my new office decor.  
     
    Most importantly:
     
    3) I decided I wanted to keep it, not sell it, and I still wanted to automate it.
     
    So I completely redesigned the thing! No copper. No hinges.  Instead, low key stealth:
     

     
     

     
     

     
    From the top:

     
     
    And from the bottom:

     
     
    Here we are without one of the heat sinks:

     
     
    And without the other:

     
     
    Here's a sense of size:

     
     
    With a case this tiny, it'll actually be quite difficult to maneuver around inside.  It is only 100mm from the inside of one heat sink to the inside of the other. Indeed, the entire width of the case, heat sinks included is less than 165mm...
     
    SO HOW ABOUT WE AUTOMATE IT
     

     
     
     

     
     
    The automation separates the heat sinks by a total of 200 mm for a total of 300mm of space inside to work.  It is driven by a single large linear actuator. You can see the two rods that will push the heat sinks out.  They ride on a set of drawer slides:
     

     
    Let's be honest with each other though: These heat sinks are monstrously heavy. There's no guarantee that the slides will support the weight without sagging or otherwise falling apart.  If, in the sad face case, the automation is unsuccessful, It'll be a dark day, but I will settle for this alternative:
     

     
     
    An even tinier, but much simpler and sturdier case.
     
    Next up, an in-depth description of the cooling solution (with pictars).  I'd love your feedback!
  12. Like
    nycesquire got a reaction from EMENCII in Antimemetic: Scratch-built, Fully Passive, GTX 1080, SFF   
    Admit it, you thought I had given up, didn't you?  Here's the story: I got busy with work, time passed. I started building the GPU cooling solution (which is complete - as demonstrated by the screenshot above) then three things happened:
     
    1) I started getting into the SFF forums and well... I decided that Antimemetic was just too damn big.  So much wasted space on the inside!  I am not an SLI guy, so why bother with four heat sinks anyway?  Where am I going to find the space for the gull wings in my tiny apartment?
    2) I realized that copper wouldn't match my new office decor.  
     
    Most importantly:
     
    3) I decided I wanted to keep it, not sell it, and I still wanted to automate it.
     
    So I completely redesigned the thing! No copper. No hinges.  Instead, low key stealth:
     

     
     

     
     

     
    From the top:

     
     
    And from the bottom:

     
     
    Here we are without one of the heat sinks:

     
     
    And without the other:

     
     
    Here's a sense of size:

     
     
    With a case this tiny, it'll actually be quite difficult to maneuver around inside.  It is only 100mm from the inside of one heat sink to the inside of the other. Indeed, the entire width of the case, heat sinks included is less than 165mm...
     
    SO HOW ABOUT WE AUTOMATE IT
     

     
     
     

     
     
    The automation separates the heat sinks by a total of 200 mm for a total of 300mm of space inside to work.  It is driven by a single large linear actuator. You can see the two rods that will push the heat sinks out.  They ride on a set of drawer slides:
     

     
    Let's be honest with each other though: These heat sinks are monstrously heavy. There's no guarantee that the slides will support the weight without sagging or otherwise falling apart.  If, in the sad face case, the automation is unsuccessful, It'll be a dark day, but I will settle for this alternative:
     

     
     
    An even tinier, but much simpler and sturdier case.
     
    Next up, an in-depth description of the cooling solution (with pictars).  I'd love your feedback!
  13. Like
    nycesquire got a reaction from mikeeginger in Antimemetic: Scratch-built, Fully Passive, GTX 1080, SFF   
    Admit it, you thought I had given up, didn't you?  Here's the story: I got busy with work, time passed. I started building the GPU cooling solution (which is complete - as demonstrated by the screenshot above) then three things happened:
     
    1) I started getting into the SFF forums and well... I decided that Antimemetic was just too damn big.  So much wasted space on the inside!  I am not an SLI guy, so why bother with four heat sinks anyway?  Where am I going to find the space for the gull wings in my tiny apartment?
    2) I realized that copper wouldn't match my new office decor.  
     
    Most importantly:
     
    3) I decided I wanted to keep it, not sell it, and I still wanted to automate it.
     
    So I completely redesigned the thing! No copper. No hinges.  Instead, low key stealth:
     

     
     

     
     

     
    From the top:

     
     
    And from the bottom:

     
     
    Here we are without one of the heat sinks:

     
     
    And without the other:

     
     
    Here's a sense of size:

     
     
    With a case this tiny, it'll actually be quite difficult to maneuver around inside.  It is only 100mm from the inside of one heat sink to the inside of the other. Indeed, the entire width of the case, heat sinks included is less than 165mm...
     
    SO HOW ABOUT WE AUTOMATE IT
     

     
     
     

     
     
    The automation separates the heat sinks by a total of 200 mm for a total of 300mm of space inside to work.  It is driven by a single large linear actuator. You can see the two rods that will push the heat sinks out.  They ride on a set of drawer slides:
     

     
    Let's be honest with each other though: These heat sinks are monstrously heavy. There's no guarantee that the slides will support the weight without sagging or otherwise falling apart.  If, in the sad face case, the automation is unsuccessful, It'll be a dark day, but I will settle for this alternative:
     

     
     
    An even tinier, but much simpler and sturdier case.
     
    Next up, an in-depth description of the cooling solution (with pictars).  I'd love your feedback!
  14. Like
    nycesquire got a reaction from Frankie in Antimemetic: Scratch-built, Fully Passive, GTX 1080, SFF   
    I'd like to solicit some feedback on the cooling solution.  Can you suggest a better arrangement than the following? Imagine that all of the copper blocks are connected by heat pipes like the two central channels at the top (the chassis is laying on its side with the top facing the camera):



    here we are simulating an installed card, looking in from the side:



    And the other side:



    And the top again:


     
    Paging @Stefan1024: What do you think?
  15. Like
    nycesquire got a reaction from Stefan1024 in Antimemetic: Scratch-built, Fully Passive, GTX 1080, SFF   
    GPU Cooling solution is done.  
     

     
    Details on the way..
  16. Like
    nycesquire got a reaction from Nicnac in Antimemetic: Scratch-built, Fully Passive, GTX 1080, SFF   
    GPU Cooling solution is done.  
     

     
    Details on the way..
  17. Like
    nycesquire reacted to Stefan1024 in [Finished] The number cruncher: Triple Xeon passive mineral oil cooling [Update 12: Final pictures and summary]   
    I finished the build today!
     
    I have no time for a proper blog entry by now but here you have a sneak peak:
     


  18. Like
    nycesquire got a reaction from v-raze in Antimemetic: Scratch-built, Fully Passive, GTX 1080, SFF   
    I'd like to solicit some feedback on the cooling solution.  Can you suggest a better arrangement than the following? Imagine that all of the copper blocks are connected by heat pipes like the two central channels at the top (the chassis is laying on its side with the top facing the camera):



    here we are simulating an installed card, looking in from the side:



    And the other side:



    And the top again:


     
    Paging @Stefan1024: What do you think?
  19. Like
    nycesquire got a reaction from mikeeginger in Antimemetic: Scratch-built, Fully Passive, GTX 1080, SFF   
    I'd like to solicit some feedback on the cooling solution.  Can you suggest a better arrangement than the following? Imagine that all of the copper blocks are connected by heat pipes like the two central channels at the top (the chassis is laying on its side with the top facing the camera):



    here we are simulating an installed card, looking in from the side:



    And the other side:



    And the top again:


     
    Paging @Stefan1024: What do you think?
  20. Like
    nycesquire got a reaction from Charles Root esq. in Antimemetic: Scratch-built, Fully Passive, GTX 1080, SFF   
    Antimemetic is a scratch-built, fully-fanless, 0-Decibel, passively cooled gaming PC enclosure lovingly hand-crafted by me here in a small New York City apartment. 
    I'll document the construction process here.  As I note below, this is a long-term, community effort by which I have learned much from others who have experimented with passively-cooled, high-powered enclosures in the past.  So, in many ways, this build stands on the shoulders of giants Please do let me know your thoughts, suggestions, etc.
     
    Antimemetic is also:
     
    Heat-piped, not water-cooled.  Heat pipes require no maintenance, can’t gunk up, and won’t leak on your components.  Water is better at moving heat long distances (i.e., far away from your components), but that just means a large enclosure. That’s fun and can look very cool, but is no more effective than heat pipes for short runs.
     
    Heat-sunk. Radiators are quite effective for fans that create air pressure, but large heat sinks can use convection (and radiation too) to dissipate heat.  The enclosure does not “incorporate” heat sinks. It *consists* of them.
     
    Silent. Zero fans.  Full stop.
     
    Efficient. It can happily cool over 700 watts (175 per side) in a reasonably cool room. That means Xeons if that’s your pleasure, and SLI if you fancy (and if you’re willing to give up one door for the space!).
     
    Minimally-machined.  I am working out of a small NYC apartment, so as much as I’d like to do it myself, there is very little milling that I can realistically do. Instead, I employ off-the-shelf components, often for things they were not meant to do :-)
     
    A perfect cube. Its dimensions are 370mm x 370mm x 370mm.






     
    Solid. It is made of aluminum heat sinks, aluminum extrusions, copper feet and steel fasteners. No plastic, glass or acrylic act as structural components.
     
    Omnidirectional and tidy. Cables are routed cleanly through the bottom, so, while closed, there is no front, no left, no right and no back to the enclosure.
     
    Comfortable to build in.  It is not a tiny case.  In exchange, you net plenty of room inside to poke around.
     
    Versatile.  Unlike many scratch builds that are custom built for only one set of components, this case can accommodate ATX, MATX, ITX, SLI GPUs well over 300mm, eight SSDs, PSUs over 220mm long. …Why? Because planning.
     
    Gull-winged. Two sides open using high-end (and very expensive!) Japanese gull-wing hinges.
     
    Motorized. The gull wing doors are mounted to a linear actuator that opens at the press of a button.
     

     
    Unique. This is the only Antimemetic that I will ever build. My sense is that my future enclosures will be more compact, but less versatile. This is the original.
     
    Beautiful.  No cheesy windows, no blingy lights. Just black aluminum and pure copper.  Okay, maybe some tasteful lighting on the internals.
     
    Original. I sketched out the design and then went to learn implementation from others. Stefan and his passive setups have been tremendously instructive in this regard.  I am indebted to him for his assistance.  I could state now, for the record, that I created Antimemetic before seeing his excellent pseudo-cube enclosure, but you probably wouldn’t believe me.  Instead, I’ll just say that I think Antimemetic is prettier ;-)
     
    Sponsored. Heat Sink USA was kind enough to provide four gorgeous heat sinks for this build.  Some say “functionality is the new marketing,” and I agree.  At heatsinkusa.com you can customize the length of your heat sinks, selecting from various profiles, and buy right from the website with prices displayed.  No asking for “quotes” and waiting days for a response.  Cut to size and shipped quick.  They’ll even provide CAD drawings to work with.  Tough to beat that.

     
    Let’s see how it turns out  ;-)
  21. Like
    nycesquire got a reaction from Charles Root esq. in Antimemetic: Scratch-built, Fully Passive, GTX 1080, SFF   
    I'd like to solicit some feedback on the cooling solution.  Can you suggest a better arrangement than the following? Imagine that all of the copper blocks are connected by heat pipes like the two central channels at the top (the chassis is laying on its side with the top facing the camera):



    here we are simulating an installed card, looking in from the side:



    And the other side:



    And the top again:


     
    Paging @Stefan1024: What do you think?
  22. Like
    nycesquire got a reaction from v-raze in Antimemetic: Scratch-built, Fully Passive, GTX 1080, SFF   
    After many moons lacking posts, the folks over at OCN got a little riled up and threatened to send a team of storm troopers to China and force them to ship my heat pipes. 
     
    It worked:
     

     
     
    Updates coming...
     
  23. Like
    nycesquire got a reaction from Tobleh in Antimemetic: Scratch-built, Fully Passive, GTX 1080, SFF   
    After many moons lacking posts, the folks over at OCN got a little riled up and threatened to send a team of storm troopers to China and force them to ship my heat pipes. 
     
    It worked:
     

     
     
    Updates coming...
     
  24. Like
    nycesquire got a reaction from Stefan1024 in Antimemetic: Scratch-built, Fully Passive, GTX 1080, SFF   
    After many moons lacking posts, the folks over at OCN got a little riled up and threatened to send a team of storm troopers to China and force them to ship my heat pipes. 
     
    It worked:
     

     
     
    Updates coming...
     
  25. Funny
    nycesquire got a reaction from colinreay in Antimemetic: Scratch-built, Fully Passive, GTX 1080, SFF   
    After many moons lacking posts, the folks over at OCN got a little riled up and threatened to send a team of storm troopers to China and force them to ship my heat pipes. 
     
    It worked:
     

     
     
    Updates coming...
     
×