Fanless HTPC with P4 2,8 Ghz

[DeGon]

Hi all,
Some weeks ago i finished my fanless HTPC Project with MP.
Some works still have to be done, but most Problems are solved.

The parts I used:

Case: Monacor RC-113/SW (19" heat sink rack cabinet)
Mainboard: P4-ITX (mini-itx form factor), onboard Audio, onboard Graphic, S-video out
CPU: P4 2,8 Ghz Northwood Socket 478
Power Supply: Fanless Engelking U1
HD: Samsung Spinpoint 160GB
RAM: 1Gb DDR 266
DVD/CD: slim Sony DVD/CD Combo drive with burner
Cooling: 2 Phaseplane Heatpipes
TV Card: Pinnacle PCTV PRO
Remote: ATI Remote Wonder Plus (RW3)
Additional: a dual Riser Card, a Bulgin switch, some copper, aluminium, a front- and a backplate
OS: Windows XP Pro (tried with Suse Linux and MythTV first, but had great problems to include the Remote Control)

Cooling is made with two Phaseplane heatpipes, sitting between copperplates on the CPU and transporting the heat on the heat sinks. This cooling solution seems to work very fine. A test running the CPU for more than 2 hours on 100% showed max. 53° Celsius on the onboard CPU sensor. This temperature was reached after 1 hour of the test and didn't rise during the next hour. Room temperature during test was 21°-22° Celsius.

And here are some pix of this creation:





with a normal DVD box on it to compare size




a glimpse inside, power supply cooled at left heatsink, CPU on the right




the cooling solution, made of copper, phaseplanes and aluminium



Note: TV Card was not installed when pix where made.

Media Portal runs fine on it, but there is still some configuration work to be done, especially configuring the TV tuner, bringing the CD/DVD to shut up when no CD/DVD is running (unfortunately the CD/DVD beginns turning also when not reading a DVD), configuring the Remote Control to the end.

Well, thats it. It really works, but was a lot of work too. Any feedback is highly appreciated. Regards, DeGon

[hakuna]

Originally Posted by DeGon

Additional: a dual Riser Card, a Bulgin switch, some copper, aluminium, a front- and a backplate

Cooling is made with two Phaseplane heatpipes, sitting between copperplates on the CPU and transporting the heat on the heat sinks.


the cooling solution, made of copper, phaseplanes and aluminium

Nice one! I'm wondering what things you bought in a computer store, especially the thing to hold the cable from CPU to the heatsink?
I am thinking about a socket 939 and a huge (15*20*7 cm3) heatsink I can get from work for free, mount the lot in an old P3 IBM desktop with the cover taken off. The box stands hidden in a tv rack with semitransparent doors so the looks doesn't matter.

/Niclas

[DeGon]

Actually the bracket holding down the copper part on the CPU is from a shop. Its a simple watercooling bracket. And also the Phaseplanes (heatpipes) can be found in german computer shops.

Link to the manufacturer of the Phaseplanes with specifications
Phaseplane

Unfortunately they normally sell them to enterprises and not to private users. But some german fanless cooling enthusiasts managed it to get some thousand of the and they are sold in variuos online shops in germany.

Here some Links to them:
frozen-silicon.de

go-cooling.de

Unfortunately there seem to be just the short phaseplanes (20cm) around, but there are longer ones too, I just don't know where to get them.

The copper plates in which the Phaseplanes are laid are made on a CNC machine. And this is what they look like:



The Phaseplanes are bendable. So I put the hot end between these copper plates and the colder end between that aluminium block mounted to the heatsink.

I think its possible to do that for a 939 Socket, but you would need to make these copper plates yourself to have them in the right size. Another problem could be the electronic parts on the mainboard. They could be too close to the CPU retention module. So if you really want to try this Phaseplanes system, think about it very good how to fit everything in before going shopping for the parts.

[Reies]

looks like a huge amp