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Geek Culture / Innovative (posibly DIY) CPU/GPU cooling ideas that take up little space (needs to be as flat as possible)

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PAGAN_old
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Location: Capital of the Evil Empire
Posted: 16th Oct 2011 20:26
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So I am working on this project right now and i am trying tho think of a way to downsize the cooling for my i7quadcore and the GTX295. For starters, i got the flattest cpu cooler for the i7 i could find but i am interested in further downsizing it.

Before i start going into details, i want to mention that watercooling is not an option for me as the waterblocks for these things are big and bulky and i need something small.

A long time ago i heard that there were these nanoplate thingies that keep one side of the CPU very cold (its the side thats attached to the CPU) and the side of the plate away from the CPU gets all the heat.

Does anyone know what i am talking about here, i need some info on these things and if is it possible to find these.

Assuming the above is either insanley expensive or some failed prototype (the first time i heard of these was in 2005-2006). I might wanna try to go into a DIY area to attempt manufacturing my own cooling solution.

If anyone here is familiar with heat physics or efficient heat conductivity You can give me some ideas on what materials to use (copper is proboly the best but if i wanna take it a step further i might try Silver. I heard its a much better heat conductant.

The main thing i need to accomplish here is it needs to be as flat as i can make it. But unfourtunatley Space is also an issue.

I dont really want to go into the DIY area of this if i dont have to. I am actually more interested in those cooling plates i heard of.

so if anyone has any ideas, Please Share!

P.S.

Dont ask me what i am building its a top secret (i tend to jinks myself with bad luck whenever i tell outsiders about my projects and usually right after i tell them, the project goes to hell or something breaks and i am generally very supersticios about technology, Dont laugh but i really believe technology has a soul and I also worship technology as a personal diety. I have an idol statue in my closet made out of an old i386 computer who i worship and frequentley give sacrifices)


dont hate people who rip you off,cheat and get away with it, learn from them
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charger bandit
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Posted: 16th Oct 2011 21:16
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I'm with you on experimenting with old and unused hardware. For a small cooler,I guess you should go for a design simmilar to laptops. A copper pad for the cpu that has a heatpipe on it that leads to a very small heatspreader,maybe adding a tiny fan there(4x4cm).


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XanthorXIII
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Posted: 16th Oct 2011 21:57
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You would need to look into Thermoelectric pads.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thermoelectric_effect
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PAGAN_old
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Posted: 16th Oct 2011 22:32
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Ok i checked out thermoelectric pads and its apossible solution for me but Its pretty tricky. Since i dont want extar bulk, I am interested if there is a way to power these pads straight from a computer PSU. My worry is that these pads eat a lot of power and a 700W PSU with a quadcore i7, and a GTX 295 might strain it. Let alone 3 of these pads (1 for the CPU and 2 more for the dual cpu GTX295). so a 700W PSU wont cut it as these plates eat 100-200W each. I will also need more fans to efficiently blow the hot air out and it seemes that this will become needlesly complicated. So i guess i will need to look for a simpler solution. I guess i could play around with heatpipes and coper radiators.

Well looks like for now the simplest thing is to just stick with my low format cpu heatsink. i guess ill do that unless a better idea is found


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sprite
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Posted: 16th Oct 2011 23:57 Edited at: 16th Oct 2011 23:59
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I remember a chip fat cooled PC. It was years ago and could be messy fun.

http://www.voodish.co.uk/articles/cool-your-computer-with-vegetable-oil/

I'll add something later on.
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mm0zct
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Posted: 17th Oct 2011 02:34 Edited at: 17th Oct 2011 02:35
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How thin have you got so far? and how are you flattening the graphics cards in the first place? pci-e extension ribbon cable?

Sorry to make a conventional suggestion but water cooling loops are the easiest way to go low profile. I think the things you are mentioning in the post are peltier coolers but you might not have to go that far, and you still need to dissipate the head from the hot side anyway.

The Scythe Shuriken Big http://www.quietpc.com/gb-en-gbp/products/cpucoolers/shuriken-big is as far as I know the lowest profile fansink available, in case you missed it in your research. (I have one of these on my PhenomII 6-core mini itx build)

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PAGAN_old
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Posted: 17th Oct 2011 04:32
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i got about 4cm thin so far. Yes i am using a ribbon cable, the graphics cars is also 4cm thick so it matches.

I considered watercooling but to me it seems like the pump block would take up too much room and drain too much power from my PSU. Also is it loud? i never dealt with water cooling before.

I wont get it lowe than 4 cm for sure, but i thought if i could free up some space with applying less roomy cooling, the ventelation would be much better

The oils cooling sounds very facinating. But i think i am better off experimenting with oil on some older hardware.


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MrValentine
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Posted: 17th Oct 2011 04:55
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Quote: "I have an idol statue in my closet made out of an old i386 computer who i worship and frequentley give sacrifices)"


And there is me thinking PAGAN was a name you picked out of something like Thief 2 or something...

try a server cooling fan... for 1U/2U racks they have fans too.

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PAGAN_old
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Posted: 17th Oct 2011 05:09
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yeah good idea Supermicro makes stuff like that. i still havent got my hands on that, It proboly wont be much thinner than my current one but i think it might save a few millimeters and thats already something.


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noobnerd
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Posted: 18th Oct 2011 22:27
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Buy a brick of dry ice,put it on your CPU and change it when it is starting to get depleted.

What i would do
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The Wilderbeast
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Posted: 18th Oct 2011 23:35
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I was actually looking at SM's range of fans today, you can find them in the accessories section on their website. Their AMD range is pretty shoddy, but they have plenty of Intel heatsinks.

http://www.supermicro.com/support/resources/Thermal/#FAN?CFID=11150143&CFTOKEN=73759151&jsessionid=84307eda661179b927a5406830376c5d5b72


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