Next Gen ULTIMATE Desk PC Design

[ColinLTT]

Thin isn't just for laptops, but desktops too! Do you want that CLEAN desk look? Linus sure does – so we’re rebuilding the desk PC, but smaller this time!

 

 

What did we miss? Do you have any suggestions? - We're exploring some "alternative" wiring options as well as some other neat options that you'll find out about soon! 

 

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[BobVonBob]

I'm actually very interested to see how cooling performance is with indirect airflow through the radiators, I haven't seen that done before.

[Goku1814]

Don't companies make adapters that allow you to move the water connections to the side of a radiator instead of having on the top of the radiator if that makes sense? So it would be easier to hook up water pipes.

[ColinLTT]

9 minutes ago, Goku1814 said:

Don't companies make adapters that allow you to move the water connections to the side of a radiator instead of having on the top of the radiator if that makes sense? So it would be easier to hook up water pipes.

the problem here is finding options with side exits, and deepcool doesnt offer that in their thinner rads - the 40mm rads that DO have it would be nearly touching the glass, which isnt ideal. I'm sure there ARE options, but we went with vendors we have good relationships with as it made CAD that much easier for us. I'm pretty pumped to use positive pressure exhaust and i think it will work great for our use case - just need to be sure the back panel is well sealed up to force the air to go out the only exits, through the radiators. 

[Nystemy]

Looks a lot nicer than the older version to be fair.
Though, one can always make a list of improvements...

In terms of power supplies, I wouldn't go with "laptop" bricks, they aren't really that reliable for extended use to be fair.
Though, if one is forced to keep oneself inside of the 1U height, then hanging a normal ATX supply underneath the bench out in one of the back corners isn't really an "option". (Though, always a back up plan)

Though, would have been more fun to see the whole desk be a water block/distribution-plate/"radiator". With cable channels routed into it. A few copper cooling blocks where needed, and generally go at it with the "overkill" approach. After all, you do have a large CNC router, so machining a desk sized sheet of acrylic shouldn't be all that hard. Then one can use an equally desk sized piece of copper and mill some heat fins into it, making the whole underside of the desk into a large passive heat sink, with more thermal mass than one cares to poke a stick at. And given its size, it should do fine with dissipating the heat of both the GPU and CPU. Not to mention also likely being even thinner than 1U. _{Could also take the same approach, but make it in smaller segments... Custom machined cooling components are after all fun to make, not to mention far prettier to look at in the end.}

The simplest method I can think of is a five layer sandwich.
From bottom to top we would start with the large copper plate with heat sink fins and a water path for heat exchange.
Followed by two layers of acrylic, the first providing water channels between the copper layer and itself, and the second layer of acrylic providing a second set of water channels for routing water to the various components. Also with embedded pockets for various water blocks for the GPU, CPU, VRMs, etc.
And then a layer for the actual PC components, followed by a top layer of acrylic acting as a standoff for holding up the layer of tempered glass on top.

 

But nice to see another desk PC project in the works.

[Dutch_Master]

6 minutes ago, ColinLTT said:

the problem here is finding options with side exits, and deepcool doesnt offer that in their thinner rads - the 40mm rads that DO have it would be nearly touching the glass, which isnt ideal. I'm sure there ARE options, but we went with vendors we have good relationships with as it made CAD that much easier for us. I'm pretty pumped to use positive pressure exhaust and i think it will work great for our use case - just need to be sure the back panel is well sealed up to force the air to go out the only exits, through the radiators. 

So basically you're making an air-tight case that depends on internal distribution of air for cooling certain parts (VRMs, HDDs, etc). You may want to do a flow test to see how that goes before assembly. I guess it'll need some tweaking

[Egg-Roll]

STOP GIVING ME IDEAS

 

That said could you have just CNC out a small section of the desk for the tubing? What I mean by that is by CNCing the size of the radiator into the wood part of the desk, Or are you not using wood, but something thin? Since we have no idea.

 

Also if using wood you might be able to drill out channels for the wiring.

[itisyeetimetoday]

I'm a bit confused about where to get manufacture CAD models for use for CAD modeling of the desk. Did a Google search for the hard drives, and could only find community CAD models.

[ColinLTT]

13 minutes ago, itisyeetimetoday said:

I'm a bit confused about where to get manufacture CAD models for use for CAD modeling of the desk. Did a Google search for the hard drives, and could only find community CAD models.

Checkout Grabcad.com, Alphacool has their own model section , and we worked with EK directly for the block models (not shareable, unfortunately, as proprietary data within)

 

41 minutes ago, Dutch_Master said:

So basically you're making an air-tight case that depends on internal distribution of air for cooling certain parts (VRMs, HDDs, etc). You may want to do a flow test to see how that goes before assembly. I guess it'll need some tweaking

Essentially, yes. We may toss in some 40mm Noctua fans if we find that air flow is deficient - the FLIR thermal camera will come in extra handy for that part

[falki]

I am bit anxious, that the power converter will not have enough airflow for cooling. Wouldn't it be better to suck the air in the center and blow it out on both sides?

 

[ColinLTT]

2 minutes ago, falki said:

I am bit anxious, that the power converter will not have enough airflow for cooling. Wouldn't it be better to suck the air in the center and blow it out on both sides?

 

We can strategically open airflow paths across the PSU DC/DC bricks if we feel the need to - but that step down is actually pretty efficient, the heavy lifting is done outside of the desk at the AC/DC conversion.  

[zeusthemoose]

2 hours ago, ColinLTT said:

We're exploring some "alternative" wiring options

Have the cables themselves been decided? If so, are you doing custom length cable mod style or just standard cables?
I think it would be interesting if you made your own cables for it.

[piratemonkey]

How long will it take this time?

[B4Quattro]

Why do you need 2 pumps? In my current setup I have CPU, GPU, Chipset, m.2 SSD, and 2520mm radiator space and 1 D5 creates enought flow for all of it at 60% pump speed.

[Zando_]

1 minute ago, B4Quattro said:

Why do you need 2 pumps? In my current setup I have CPU, GPU, Chipset, m.2 SSD, and 2520mm radiator space and 1 D5 creates enought flow for all of it at 60% pump speed.

They're using DDC pumps, not D5s + it wouldn't surprise me if those small rads are more restrictive + this is an all out build, so why not two pumps? 

[bestbattle]

2 hours ago, ColinLTT said:

...

 

 

Linus said in the video that you are planning a positive pressure schematic.

 

I HOPE FROM THE DEEP OF MY HEART THAT YOU DON'T DO THAT!

 

Is absolutely stupid to try and force air through a rad only to have that air stay near the rad on the exhaust side. You should be repelling heat away. So in your application, negative pressure is the only solution. But you have to account for the holes in the video card and the mobo IO.

[B4Quattro]

3 minutes ago, Zando Bob said:

They're using DDC pumps, not D5s + it wouldn't surprise me if those small rads are more restrictive + this is an all out build, so why not two pumps? 

I thought one ddc should be sufficient, so why create another point of possible failure and noise? But in the terms of overkill, you're right.

[Exile19]

Might have a solution to your power woes...
Check out meanwell UHP series power supplies. This psu can go with a single hdplex dc-dc converter.

 

Basic config would go meanwell UHP 1000 ---> HDPlex ---> Motherboard/HDD

 

And for gpu just pull power straight off the 12v rails on the Meanwell UHP.

 

No power bricks required and I would love to see you do a custom paint job on the Meanwell case!

I built a super slim compact pc with this exact configuration.

[unijab]

6 minutes ago, Exile19 said:

Might have a solution to your power woes...
Check out meanwell UHP series power supplies. This psu can go with a single hdplex dc-dc converter.

But are they silent?

[AnonymousGuy]

Y'all are amateurs for not knowing about multiport radiators that would have let you run a normal radiator in that space.   http://www.xs-pc.com/radiators-ex-series/ex240-multiport-radiator

 

And use some quick disconnects so you can fill it up, detach, then reattach to the actual loop.  Wasting effort designing a reservoir to solve what is nonissue if you know what you're doing.  (and lets be honest anything Alex designs/builds is probably going to leak anyways)

[zeusthemoose]

4 minutes ago, AnonymousGuy said:

Y'all are amateurs for not knowing about multiport radiators that would have let you run a normal radiator in that space.   http://www.xs-pc.com/radiators-ex-series/ex240-multiport-radiator

2 hours ago, ColinLTT said:

I'm sure there ARE options, but we went with vendors we have good relationships with as it made CAD that much easier for us.

 

[AnonymousGuy]

1 minute ago, zeusthemoose said:

 

That's a half ass'd excuse for "I didn't think of that so we'll act like cad was *essential* for a primitive loop with a height clearance limit."

[unijab]

6 minutes ago, AnonymousGuy said:

Y'all are amateurs for not knowing about multiport radiators that would have let you run a normal radiator in that space.   http://www.xs-pc.com/radiators-ex-series/ex240-multiport-radiator

 

And use some quick disconnects so you can fill it up, detach, then reattach to the actual loop.  Wasting effort designing a reservoir to solve what is nonissue if you know what you're doing.  (and lets be honest anything Alex designs/builds is probably going to leak anyways)

How can you run a normal radiator in a 1u?

[AnonymousGuy]

2 minutes ago, unijab said:

How can you run a normal radiator in a 1u?

Use the port that comes out of the axial end of the radiator.  Even if you have to go a few mm thicker than 1U it's a smarter play than constraining yourself to using shitty 40mm radiators * 6 = $$$$

[B4Quattro]

I think that hoping the air whould move through a radiator instead of having fans to force it to move through is a bad idea, no mather what kind of radiator you use. And if the radiators have a gap between them like on the picture above, the air goes the path of least resistance that means not through the rads at all...