- FINISHED- Full passive powerful workstation / gaming rig... who said it can't be done?

[0ld_Chicken]

THX

Stay tuned for my new, even more powerful build. It is under construction rigth now....

So awesome! Can't wait man

[Stefan1024]

So awesome! Can't wait man

You don't have to

http://linustechtips...ooler-for-sure/

[YT2002]

Part 2: Drilling, soldering, screwing…

 

The next part was getting all electrical parts as well as the metal sheets, the heat pipes and the copper blocks.

 

For the CPU I used four self-bent 6mm heat pipes. To be honest it is a pain in the ass to do it properly. As a result I managed to get four custom bent 8mm heat pipes for the GPU. The HPs are then sandwiched between two copper blocks which makes the contact to the CPU / GPU and the heat sink. For the CPU I also used a Prolimatech Megahalems to get the precision mounting hardware, because I don’t have access to a milling machine. And mismatching mechanical parts put a lot of stress to the PCB.

 

Well the whole metal work was one of the main reasons for this DIY project. I can’t sit three years in school without doing something with my hands from time to time. ^^

 

For the motherboard tray I simply cut an old case apart. Also a consequence of a missing milling machine. It is not very well looking but it does the job good enough.

 

A few more words about the cooling. The thermal conductivity from the core to the heat sink is extremely important. There are so many transitions: CPU -> IHS -> Copper block -> HP -> Copper block -> aluminium heat sink

When you reach 0.05 K/W per transition (what is already a very good value) already the half of the overall 0.5 K/W is used.

 

While this can be calculated somehow, other values can only be estimated. Does anybody know how much heat in watt is produced by the VRM of the graphic card? Or the coils, VRAM….

 

My first attempt was to use the fanciest heat sink that fits in two PCI slots:

 

Stock VRM heat sink (black) vs. new one

 

You guessed it: It’s not sufficient! I got once the chance to borrow a thermal image camera. And with ~100°C I don’t feel comfortable. Even thought for a short period the temperatures are fine, the electrolyte capacitors next to it can only handle around 80°C.

 

Here are some more thermal images:

 

 

 

 

 

 

In the next part I show how to lower the VRM / coil temperature and add some AIDA64 results.

Do you know where you can get that heatsink? And will it work with MSI mobos?

[Stefan1024]

Do you know where you can get that heatsink? And will it work with MSI mobos?

It is an MST-81 from EnzoTech: http://www.enzotechnology.com/mst_81.htm

Not sure if they are produced anymore, but here is the official supprot list: http://www.enzotechnology.com/support/mosfet_support.pdf

But you have all the mechanical data and you can measure if it will fit.

 

I ordered it form Germany: http://thermalforce.de/de/product/heatsink/index.php?uid=1d367a7ad8004d9efa2073b5d3c300b9&ref=, look for k0k04

[Cesche86]

I bought the machine from Stefan over Ricardo.

Its cool having such a unique device below my desk now. It is so silent that I can hear now my screen humming. Time for a new one.

So thank you very much for your work and the delivery Stefan. Wish you all the best with your next project!