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

[iamdarkyoshi]

1 minute ago, Ryan_Vickers said:

That would probably still be fine, wouldn't it?

 

As for:

I can't imagine that would work very well... there's a reason we use thermal paste to fill up invisible cracks and dents, never mind just stuffing random metal into a hole

Its a CNC 1/2in wide slot, now that I look at it, it is more like 2/3 of the material deep. I am not filling a 1/2in wide gap with thermal shmoo. I am going to partially fill it with thermal shmoo and then compression fit some aluminum into it.

[iHardware Shelden]

Sounds time consuming, I want some pictures  

[iamdarkyoshi]

2 minutes ago, iHardware Shelden said:

Sounds time consuming, I want some pictures  

I will get some, but I need my 390x sold first before I start getting into the "real meat and bones" of this build. Sobuyitplzm8

[iHardware Shelden]

Just now, iamdarkyoshi said:

I will get some, but I need my 390x sold first before I start getting into the "real meat and bones" of this build. Sobuyitplzm8

Sounds good, I am enjoying the way this is going so far  

[vanished]

3 minutes ago, iamdarkyoshi said:

Its a CNC 1/2in wide slot, now that I look at it, it is more like 2/3 of the material deep. I am not filling a 1/2in wide gap with thermal shmoo. I am going to partially fill it with thermal shmoo and then compression fit some aluminum into it.

Yeah I wouldn't expect you to fill the gaps with thermal paste   I'm just saying that anything short of that might not work as well as we'd all like it to

[iamdarkyoshi]

1 minute ago, Ryan_Vickers said:

Yeah I wouldn't expect you to fill the gaps with thermal paste   I'm just saying that anything short of that might not work as well as we'd all like it to

It would be better than air... Maybe I should run copper pipe through it and run it out to an external radiator too. Nah, that would only happen if I decided to go with the dual 390 card and an AMD CPU

[Stefan1024]

2 hours ago, iamdarkyoshi said:

UPDATE: If all goes to plan, I will use an r9 nano instead of the 390x because 100W less power is always a good thing.

 

Well, looks like I have some selling to do! See signature for details. Thanks m8s

Take care: The power density of HBM is pretty nasty.

 

9 hours 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?

20 mm of aluminum should do the trick of heat distribution. Also, will you have a block of copper directly on the CPU / GPU like I did?

Attach the heat sinks with 4 screws per heat sink to the plate. Make threads into the plate and you are able to achive a high mounting preasure.

It's good when the contact surfaces are plane, but keep in minde that you only dissipiante a couple of watts per heat sink, so it doesn't have to be perfect.

[iamdarkyoshi]

14 minutes ago, Stefan1024 said:

Take care: The power density of HBM is pretty nasty.

 

20 mm of aluminum should do the trick of heat distribution. Also, will you have a block of copper directly on the CPU / GPU like I did?

Attach the heat sinks with 4 screws per heat sink to the plate. Make threads into the plate and you are able to achive a high mounting preasure.

It's good when the contact surfaces are plane, but keep in minde that you only dissipiante a couple of watts per heat sink, so it doesn't have to be perfect.

I am not sure yet on the block of copper. I do have some assorted copper slugs from some heatsinks I might use in a similar fashon to this waterblock http://www.bit-tech.net/news/2013/05/16/alphacool-working-on-cheaper-graphics-water/1

 

Instead of one large block, use many copper slugs of the right length and mount them all to the heatsink.

 

Edited February 9, 2016 by iamdarkyoshi
Phone had gone full retard

[Stefan1024]

9 hours ago, iamdarkyoshi said:

I am not sure yet on the block of copper. I do have some assorted copper slugs from some heatsinks I might use in a similar fashon to this waterblock http://www.bit-tech.net/news/2013/05/16/alphacool-working-on-cheaper-graphics-water/1

 

Instead of one large block, use many copper slugs of the right length and mount them all to the heatsink.

They look good to bridge the gab betwee the components and the heat sinks. But they hardly contribute to heat distribution.

[iamdarkyoshi]

1 minute ago, Stefan1024 said:

They look good to bridge the gab betwee the components and the heat sinks. But they hardly contribute to heat distribution.

Ya, that was the intention, to bridge the hot chips to the heatsink. I could make ones of different depths and this would essentially make the copper "block" that attaches the GPU to the heatslab

[Stefan1024]

1 minute ago, iamdarkyoshi said:

Ya, that was the intention, to bridge the hot chips to the heatsink. I could make ones of different depths and this would essentially make the copper "block" that attaches the GPU to the heatslab

If it's feasible use as many of this rods as possible to have a large contact area.

[iamdarkyoshi]

5 minutes ago, Stefan1024 said:

If it's feasible use as many of this rods as possible to have a large contact area.

Maybe I could find a scap piece of copper and find someone to solder the copper slugs to it as well....

[Stefan1024]

1 minute ago, iamdarkyoshi said:

Maybe I could find a scap piece of copper and find someone to solder the copper slugs to it as well....

Keep in minde to minimize the number of transitions in the heat distribution path. Soldering makes a very good transition but only if can solder the whole contact area and not only around the rod.

[iamdarkyoshi]

1 minute ago, Stefan1024 said:

Keep in minde to minimize the number of transitions in the heat distribution path. Soldering makes a very good transition but only if can solder the whole contact area and not only around the rod.

Yup. I would need someone with a proper torch to solder this, my camping gas is not going to cut it lol

[iamdarkyoshi]

After school today I am hopefully selling my spare gaming rig for 450$ and I have spare cash. I might be able to use this to buy the r9 nano before I sell the other parts. But it would leave like nothing for the rest of the build until I can get the friggin 390x sold.

[Stefan1024]

It migth be a good idea to get something like a GTX460 / 470 for super cheap to test the cooling concept first. You can OC it to match the heat output of the 390X (or throttle it for the nano).
When you frie the card it's ok, because then you haven't sent all your money.

[iamdarkyoshi]

4 minutes ago, Stefan1024 said:

It migth be a good idea to get something like a GTX460 / 470 for super cheap to test the cooling concept first. You can OC it to match the heat output of the 390X (or throttle it for the nano).
When you frie the card it's ok, because then you haven't sent all your money.

I wonder what I can push out of an 8800gts

[Stefan1024]

BIOS flash and terribe overvolt should do the trick ;)

[iamdarkyoshi]

1 minute ago, Stefan1024 said:

BIOS flash and terribe overvolt should do the trick

It should still have life left in it, it used to be liquid cooled

 

Funny to think that the TDP of the nano and 8800GTS is only about 40W apart and the nano kicks the ass off of the 8800GTS by a fair margain

[thekeemo]

Have you considered a gtx 690 as a r9 fury nano alternative...

anyway I think you can test it with the 8800 no problem

[iamdarkyoshi]

Well guys, after blowing up a heatpipe in my face trying to scavenge heatpipes, I have constructed this using parts from only a couple CPU coolers.

 

I plan on attaching a larger copper plate to the underside of this so I can cool the VRAM off of this cooler too, and I will make a dedicated cooler for the VRMs. I still have quite a few heatpipes. Everything is soldered so far, no thermal paste yet. I will clean the extra solder off of the ends of the heatpipes when I attach the copper plate to the bottom, if I can...

 

Anyway, the copper slug and heatpipes are all flat:

 

Here it is, flat on my desk:

 

I have some aluminum (Pictured is just a small scrap) I got from school I plan to mount these with. It just so happens that the heapipes line up perfectly.

This aluminum should do a great job taking the heat out of the heatpipes and into the main heatsink.

I think this should do a decent job spreading the heat, what do you think @Stefan1024? Ujellybro?

[iHardware Shelden]

Oh my that looks badass  This is going to be sick  

 

[0ld_Chicken]

that is beautiful!  (in a way)

did you end up finding a way to bend them?

[iamdarkyoshi]

2 minutes ago, 0ld_Chicken said:

that is beautiful!  (in a way)

did you end up finding a way to bend them?

Just left the heatpipes in the exact shape they were from the original coolers! I did no milling, cutting, or anything of the sort to make this. Just a crude camping-gas blowtorch and some solder

[0ld_Chicken]

9 minutes ago, iamdarkyoshi said:

Just left the heatpipes in the exact shape they were from the original coolers! I did no milling, cutting, or anything of the sort to make this. Just a crude camping-gas blowtorch and some solder

Even better!  nicely done