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Bill's Recycled, Fanless, Silent Woodbox P3

Posted: Thu Oct 26, 2006 7:16 am
by MikeC

Posted: Thu Oct 26, 2006 8:13 am
by s_xero
Nice thing it is. I like the absurd heatsink! :lol:

I don't like the looks though. I'm not a fan of perforated metal. Although it's by far the best looking wooden case I've seen, it quite doesn't match the closed (read: dustfree) look of the P180.

Still good engineering here, congratulations!!

(I'm an engineer myself) 8)

Greets, Sander

Posted: Thu Oct 26, 2006 8:19 am
by MikeC
s_xero wrote:Nice thing it is. I like the absurd heatsink! :lol:

I don't like the looks though. I'm not a fan of perforated metal. Although it's by far the best looking wooden case I've seen, it quite doesn't match the closed (read: dustfree) look of the P180.

Still good engineering here, congratulations!!

(I'm an engineer myself) 8)
No forced airflow (no fans) -- therefore, minimal dust buildup even with all the openings.

Posted: Thu Oct 26, 2006 8:45 am
by derekva
s_xero wrote:Nice thing it is. I like the absurd heatsink! :lol:

I don't like the looks though. I'm not a fan of perforated metal. Although it's by far the best looking wooden case I've seen, it quite doesn't match the closed (read: dustfree) look of the P180.

Still good engineering here, congratulations!!

(I'm an engineer myself) 8)

Greets, Sander
I'll dissent. I think it looks great. I'm a fan of the 'Euro Retro Modern' look that this is inspired by, so that's probably why this case appeals to me.

Posted: Thu Oct 26, 2006 9:03 am
by autoboy
I like it too. Nice work. The gel packs are a great idea.

Posted: Thu Oct 26, 2006 9:32 am
by jaganath
I really like the copper spacer on the CPU, it's like an IHS on steroids! :lol: Also amazing 10C drop with the gel packs; maybe to give the case that "finished" look, a coat of light varnish or woodstain?

Posted: Thu Oct 26, 2006 10:40 pm
by Cerberus
Is that a Coppermine or Tualatin PIII? I would so crush the processor die on a Coppermine if I tried to set up a heatsink like that :shock:

Posted: Thu Oct 26, 2006 11:27 pm
by frostedflakes
Neat stuff. Never been a big fan of wooden cases, but that's not to say your doesn't look well-done, it's just not my bag. Amazing how much the metal box cut down on noise, I had an old slot 1 P2-350 that would've been perfect for basic tasks (internet/word), CPU was passive and the two 80mm fans were near silent, but the darn 6GB HDD was whiny as heck. Wish I would've though to try a die cast box before I got rid of it.

Had heard of people using gel packs in HDD enclosures, but I think you may be the first to make home-made gel packs. Unfortunate about the leak, but it sounds like double-bagging it should prevent this? And silica gel just to be safe?

Posted: Fri Oct 27, 2006 2:02 am
by BlueAvatar
I like the idea of the outside box while keeping the basic structure of the old metal case. The raw wood and metal look on this is sweet, very slick, I like!

Posted: Fri Oct 27, 2006 2:54 am
by BillTodd
Thanks very much, for all the kind things you've said about my project :)

Posted: Fri Oct 27, 2006 2:59 am
by BillTodd
MikeC wrote:
s_xero wrote:Nice thing it is. I like the absurd heatsink! :lol:

I don't like the looks though. I'm not a fan of perforated metal. Although it's by far the best looking wooden case I've seen, it quite doesn't match the closed (read: dustfree) look of the P180.

Still good engineering here, congratulations!!

(I'm an engineer myself) 8)
No forced airflow (no fans) -- therefore, minimal dust buildup even with all the openings.
You're quite right Mike.

Despite the fact that it spends its life in a dusty bedroom, I was surprised how little dust had accumulated in the 19 months since it was last taken apart (I opened it up to take some more pictures). Unlike my desktop machine, it doesn't sit there 'hoovering' the carpet.

Posted: Fri Oct 27, 2006 3:04 am
by BillTodd
jaganath wrote:I really like the copper spacer on the CPU, it's like an IHS on steroids! :lol: Also amazing 10C drop with the gel packs; maybe to give the case that "finished" look, a coat of light varnish or woodstain?
The wood has a wax finish (a sort of furniture polish) which gives it a smooth soft feel - It doesn't really show on the photos.

Posted: Fri Oct 27, 2006 3:15 am
by BillTodd
Cerberus wrote:Is that a Coppermine or Tualatin PIII? I would so crush the processor die on a Coppermine if I tried to set up a heatsink like that :shock:
Coppermine/Tualatin - I don't honestly know, it does (if I recall correctly) have an unprotected die - no heat spreader.

The copper block is clipped to the processor by light springs (less pressure than a typical P4/athlon clip)

What may not be clear, is that the heat sink is supported at the top by two screws that are adjusted so that the heat-sink just sits on the copper block, there is very little extra pressure on the CPU.

At the chassis end of the screws there are a couple of springs and nuts (you can just see the nuts in the photo) that push the heat-sink away from the CPU, to help prevent the mass of the heat-sink damaging the CPU (at least that's the theory :))

There is a little bracket on the bottom of the heat sink to stop it lifting off the block when the PC is moved

Posted: Fri Oct 27, 2006 3:22 am
by BillTodd
frostedflakes wrote:Neat stuff. Never been a big fan of wooden cases, but that's not to say your doesn't look well-done, it's just not my bag. Amazing how much the metal box cut down on noise, I had an old slot 1 P2-350 that would've been perfect for basic tasks (internet/word), CPU was passive and the two 80mm fans were near silent, but the darn 6GB HDD was whiny as heck. Wish I would've though to try a die cast box before I got rid of it.

Had heard of people using gel packs in HDD enclosures, but I think you may be the first to make home-made gel packs. Unfortunate about the leak, but it sounds like double-bagging it should prevent this? And silica gel just to be safe?
Putting the whining old IBM HDD in a box made the thing so much quieter, that I just had to solve the heat problem.

I've put the machine back together now, I double bagged the small gel pack, but have yet to get some silica gel :oops:

Posted: Fri Oct 27, 2006 6:30 am
by Erssa
Love it.

I wonder how many users of gel pack homebrew enclosures will find some corrosion in the long run...

Posted: Fri Oct 27, 2006 8:59 am
by disphenoidal
Cool, man, especially the part about drive silencing with homemade :shock: gel-packs. While it is unfortunate that there was some corrosion, at least it appears that the hard-drive wasn't damaged. Not sure what the best remedy is, wouldn't double bagging hurt heat conduction by introducing an air space between the drive and the gel-pack?

Posted: Sat Oct 28, 2006 11:50 am
by RasmusseN
pretty cool I guess but kinda lame that the optical drive is white kinda sticks he should make a wood bezel.

Posted: Mon Oct 30, 2006 1:44 am
by EndoSteel
BillTodd
A rare case when a PC looks great, cools great and sounds great at the same time. Thumbs up!

Posted: Fri Nov 03, 2006 7:50 am
by BillTodd
Endosteel wrote:A rare case when a PC looks great, cools great and sounds great at the same time. Thumbs up!
Thanks
:D
RasmusseN wrote:pretty cool I guess but kinda lame that the optical drive is white kinda sticks he should make a wood bezel.
If only my woodworking skills were up to it :)

(fortunately the pictures don't show how badly the CDROM fits its orifice :lol: )

A quick update.

Posted: Tue Mar 13, 2007 2:32 pm
by BillTodd
A quick update:
I opened the HDD enclosure to replace the Seagate drive with a 120GB Western Digital drive. Although there were no leaks this time, the small home-made gel-pack had evolved a new life form (non intelligent - kept calling me ‘The creator’), so I decided to abandon the home-brew packs and use a small medical gel-pack I’d bought a while ago. (see viewtopic.php?t=35770&highlight=)

I had to puncture the pack and drain about half of the contents to make the pack fit with the new HDD. I sealed the hole with some aluminium duct sealing tape. It seems pretty secure, I’ve added a couple of silica gel moisture absorbing packs to ensure things stay dry this time.

P3 becomes a P4

Posted: Wed Mar 05, 2008 3:24 pm
by BillTodd
Hi All,

Just thought you like to know I've just about completed an update to the Old SilentPC. I've changed the motherboard, CPU and power supply, HDD and heat-sinks

The machine is now a 2.53GHz Pentium4 (SL682) running in a Gigabyte GA8-SIML motherboard with 512MB ram and a 80GB Segate drive.

The higher powered CPU required a new PSU and an almost ridiculously large heat-sink to cool the 60 watt CPU.

It works, it's very quiet and it's happy to run at full load without fans.

Image

Posted: Wed Mar 05, 2008 3:54 pm
by MikeC
That looks slightly ridiculous... but it's great! Interesting enough for an update of your original article with photos perhaps? email me!

Posted: Wed Mar 05, 2008 5:17 pm
by Nick Geraedts
Wow... that's a big freakin' heatsink! :shock:

Posted: Wed Mar 05, 2008 8:52 pm
by xan_user
Big? It has its own gravity field fer cry'n out loud!

Nice work, can't wait to see the updated article....

Re: P3 becomes a P4

Posted: Wed Mar 05, 2008 9:55 pm
by Rusty075
BillTodd wrote:...and an almost ridiculously large heat-sink...
If that thing doesn't qualify I would love to see what you do consider ridiculous. :wink:


Where did you find that thing anyway?

Posted: Thu Mar 06, 2008 1:09 am
by omgitslong
it looks a lot like a tennis ball machine :P