[Build Log] Passively Cooled 400W/300W TDP System Under 100$

[iamdarkyoshi]

1 hour ago, Maybach123 said:

how big of a plate are we talking. 

About the size of an mATX motherboard

[Stefan1024]

4 hours ago, iamdarkyoshi said:

So of course, the person who inspired me to POSSIBLY do this is @Stefan1024 and his insane dual GPU passive PC, and of course, that crazy guy is making another one, but with Xeon CPUs and OIL.

Instant follow

 

Actually I thougth about doing this approach way back for my first build. But we don't have such an awesome store here and with >25$ per CPU heat sink it's no feasible.
When you heat up the heat pipes over 150-200°C they will burst and get destroid. Therefor you need very specialized equipment for welding. However welding is not required as you only dissipiate ~20-40 watts per CPU cooler. Just srew them firmly down onto the plate and use thermal paste.

 

For the heat sink itself, get the once with the most distance between the finns (>2 mm would be perfect). Dispite having less surface area than the close stacked once, they have better perfromance in oassive cooling. Also overbuil the cooling solution rigth from the start. You will need the headromm for impurities, thrust me.

[iamdarkyoshi]

23 minutes ago, Stefan1024 said:

Instant follow

 

Actually I thougth about doing this approach way back for my first build. But we don't have such an awesome store here and with >25$ per CPU heat sink it's no feasible.
When you heat up the heat pipes over 150-200°C they will burst and get destroid. Therefor you need very specialized equipment for welding. However welding is not required as you only dissipiate ~20-40 watts per CPU cooler. Just srew them firmly down onto the plate and use thermal paste.

 

For the heat sink itself, get the once with the most distance between the finns (>2 mm would be perfect). Dispite having less surface area than the close stacked once, they have better perfromance in oassive cooling. Also overbuil the cooling solution rigth from the start. You will need the headromm for impurities, thrust me.

If all else fails I can always put a clear case around it and put some super... low noise....... fans................. on the bottom... Even though it wouldnt be passive, it would cool DAMN well. I have had passive GPU with a 50 degree difference in load temps by adding a silent 60mm fan to them. I kid you not. It certainly sounds like a fun project, I will be sure to include 3D printed things in it too

[Stefan1024]

Transfering the heat from the CPU / GPU to the thick plate is the most critical part of the project.

If the plate overheats it's easy to find a work around and improve it.

[iamdarkyoshi]

3 minutes ago, Stefan1024 said:

Transfering the heat from the CPU / GPU to the thick plate is the most critical part of the project.

If the plate overheats it's easy to find a work around and improve it.

Agreed. I do have several tower heatsinks I could remove the fins to and splay the heat pipes outwards. This would probably take care of the CPU. The GPU I will have to get real creative...

 

Anyways, for the main heatsinks, a bunch of the heatsinks like the V shsped one at the front of the bin would look BADASS. I would need to do a little machining though...

 

The "tiled heatsink" idea came to me from my little LED worklight made of northbridge heatsinks

[Stefan1024]

24 minutes ago, iamdarkyoshi said:

Agreed. I do have several tower heatsinks I could remove the fins to and splay the heat pipes outwards. This would probably take care of the CPU. The GPU I will have to get real creative...

 

Anyways, for the main heatsinks, a bunch of the heatsinks like the V shsped one at the front of the bin would look BADASS. I would need to do a little machining though...

It would indeed be super awesome. Also the bucket full of heat sinks is impressive.

My GPU is fine with a 5mm copper plate and a 15mm aluminium plate for heat distribution.

[thekeemo]

13 hours ago, Stefan1024 said:

It would indeed be super awesome. Also the bucket full of heat sinks is impressive.

My GPU is fine with a 5mm copper plate and a 15mm aluminium plate for heat distribution.

He has a wall of them

that is only one box..

[iamdarkyoshi]

1 minute ago, thekeemo said:

He has a wall of them

that is only one box..

I consolidated everything I could find down to one box. Lid does not fit though

[iamdarkyoshi]

Well guys, here are the heatsinks I have to work with. There are four different flavors, one of them has very dense fins (didnt take an image of this one), not good for this task. I think I will just buy the entire bin of heatsinks and use each type for each panel. I did not know the damn things were UNOPENED IN THE BOXES! 1$ a piece!!!

 

@Stefan1024the heatsink man

 

 

This one is probably the best:

 

Followed by this one:

 

And then this one:

 

I am going to have a lot of leftover brand new fans.

[thekeemo]

3 minutes ago, iamdarkyoshi said:

Well guys, here are the heatsinks I have to work with. There are four different flavors, one of them has very dense fins (didnt take an image of this one), not good for this task. I think I will just buy the entire bin of heatsinks and use each type for each panel. I did not know the damn things were UNOPENED IN THE BOXES! 1$ a piece!!!

 

@Stefan1024the heatsink man

 

This one is probably the best:

 

Followed by this one:

 

And then this one:

I am going to have a lot of leftover brand new fans.

how much did they cost you? I may want to do something similar with my 690

[iamdarkyoshi]

Just now, thekeemo said:

how much did they cost you? I may want to do something similar with my 690

Havent purchased them yet, went down there after school to take a look. 1$ per heatsink

[thekeemo]

Just now, iamdarkyoshi said:

Havent purchased them yet, went down there after school to take a look. 1$ per heatsink

how big is one of them?

[iamdarkyoshi]

Just now, thekeemo said:

how big is one of them?

They seem to have 80mm, 60mm, and 40mm fans on them. Didnt have my calipers with me.

[thekeemo]

Just now, iamdarkyoshi said:

They seem to have 80mm, 60mm, and 40mm fans on them. Didnt have my calipers with me.

rough math says $30 tops to setup my system to be passive..

planning a trip to calgary?

[iamdarkyoshi]

1 minute ago, thekeemo said:

rough math says $30 tops to setup my system to be passive..

planning a trip to calgary?

No

 

If anything, I will be taking a "vacation" to SD to see my friends...

[thekeemo]

Just now, iamdarkyoshi said:

No

 

If anything, I will be taking a "vacation" to SD to see my friends...

distance from calgary?

[iamdarkyoshi]

Just now, thekeemo said:

distance from calgary?

Too far

[Stefan1024]

2 hours ago, iamdarkyoshi said:

Well guys, here are the heatsinks I have to work with. There are four different flavors, one of them has very dense fins (didnt take an image of this one), not good for this task. I think I will just buy the entire bin of heatsinks and use each type for each panel. I did not know the damn things were UNOPENED IN THE BOXES! 1$ a piece!!!

 

@Stefan1024the heatsink man

1$ for unopend boxes..... Don't make me jealous

 

Also the one in the last picture looks perfect. You can pack them cloe to each other and the finns are wide apart. Use the once with the highest finns where the most heat will be expected.

[iamdarkyoshi]

11 hours ago, Stefan1024 said:

1$ for unopend boxes..... Don't make me jealous

 

Also the one in the last picture looks perfect. You can pack them cloe to each other and the finns are wide apart. Use the once with the highest finns where the most heat will be expected.

I am going to go buy his entire bin soon!

[iamdarkyoshi]

With a little help from @Iamdarkbowser we now have a friggin pile of fans, a bunch of heatsinks, a box of thermal paste, and a box of mounting hardware.

Now to find some metal plates.

[Stefan1024]

Yes, that's exactly how it has to look like!

[iHardware Shelden]

With all the fans create a wind tunnel or a case out of them, heck make a drone or something super ghetto for another project

[iamdarkyoshi]

13 minutes ago, iHardware Shelden said:

With all the fans create a wind tunnel or a case out of them, heck make a drone or something super ghetto for another project

Or sell them for more than I bought the heatsinks for

[iamdarkyoshi]

So after school today I am going to go pick up the aluminum plates from craigslist. I will be getting more than two 400mm/400mm/20mm plates. I plan on taking the fins off of one of these tower coolers:

And spreading them out like a squid, then mounting them to the back of one of the plates. Any suggestions @Stefan1024 on how these should attach to the main plate? Machine grooves somehow and use lots of thermal shmoo?

[iHardware Shelden]

20 minutes ago, iamdarkyoshi said:

So after school today I am going to go pick up the aluminum plates from craigslist. I will be getting more than two 400mm/400mm/20mm plates. I plan on taking the fins off of one of these tower coolers:

 

And spreading them out like a squid, then mounting them to the back of one of the plates. Any suggestions @Stefan1024 on how these should attach to the main plate? Machine grooves somehow and use lots of thermal shmoo?

A shit ton of thermal adhesive and hot glue