Guys

What do you think of this:

-65w Ivy Bridge i7-3770S cpu
-Morex 3500 http://www.morex.com.tw/products/produc ... ?fd_id=118
-Thermalright HR-02 passive cpu cooler
-Mini-itx mb - still undecided on this one.
-8gb of ram
-64gb SSD - still undecided here
-fanless PS - I already have one of these viewtopic.php?f=5&t=55153
-Win 7 x64

Obviously I'll need to mod the top of the Morex like this:

http://www.fanlesstech.com/2012/04/mod-from-sweden.html

or just run it with no top on. I think it looks pretty cool with the big cooler hanging out of it!

Any thoughts on this idea and / or recs on a good mb?

Thanks!
Jim

I'll be a little cautious on a quad core cpu trying to run it fanless, i think you should be fine at idle, but at load.... i dont think we are quite there yet. I think you could get away with one fan setup, like let say a Lian Li Q11 + HR02 and just using the frontal 140mm fan and using a picoPSU (or the one you already own) for it to get powered.

On the Mobo, i would probably go with something simple like Intel Desktop Motherboard LGA1155 DDR3 1600 mini-ITX - BOXDH77DF.

The T3500 has an integrated fanless power supply, which explains its price. If you already have one, you could perhaps look for a cheaper case.

I also think this build is not a very good idea.
But if you underclock a lot, your CPU shouldn't get ridiculously hot. It's the temperatures of some components of the board which would worry me.
There's little point in picking an i7 for a fanless build. In fact there's little point in picking anything but the slowest i5 unless you're after a particular feature. It's crazy enough to run a quad without HD fanless. Intel's TDP rating are useless by the way. Rely on them at your own risk...

For what that's worth, some Intel boards are supposed to be able to withstand more heat than others (check the specs) but every spec I've looked at stated that forced airflow is necessary for adequate cooling. Make of that what you will.
If you use a cheap board at least you won't have lost much if it fails.

Guys, I appreciate the feedback. I guess using a fanless hd-plex enclosure with my i3-2125 made me yearn for yet another perfectly silent solution.

And, it probably makes sense to provide some context on this system. Basically, I'm looking to put together the ultimate MAME (and other emulator) machine. MAME does't need a lot of horesepower for a sig. % of games, but it certainly "values" cpu strength over gpu strength for the games that are tougher. Furthermore, with advances in crt-simulation shading (to get that old-school retro feel) like HLSL, there IS a need for some power.

Regarding the enclosure...I like how the drive(s) mount below the mb. The two usb ports on the front are perfect for gamepads and it overall has a nice footprint. Good point on the price being driven up by the inclusion of the ps. I'll see if the guys at MitxPC can sell it to me without one.

You know what I am now thinking...buy the HR-02 Macho, which includes a 140mm fan, that's reputed to be pretty quiet:

http://www.hardocp.com/article/2011/07/ ... er_review/

What do you guys think of that as an overall cooling solution? 140mm is pretty wide and covers a sig. portion of the mb so in addition to moving air across the CPU, the rest (or a good portion) of the mb will get some air movement too.

Thanks again,
Jim

When I wrote HD above I of course meant HT (hyperthreading).


Not likely.
But you can use the one you've got for another build or sell it.


It won't move much air without a fan.
What it will do is radiate heat towards the board... this is potentially very bad. The HDPLEX solution is much saner.
Maybe it'd work fine. But as far as I know what you want to do is totally unsupported. It's anyone's guess what might happen. Past experience with older boards is not encouraging but you might stumble on a more resiliant board.

When you say, "without a fan", are speaking incremental to the 140mm one attached to the cpu cooler? How will it radiate heat towards the board, especially with the cpu cooler directly exposed, outside of the enclosure?

Yeah, the hdplex solution is a good one..for sure.

-Jim

Maybe I'm not picturing it right.
I'm thinking about a slow fan outside of the case, with the case acting as a shield against the airflow. So the fan would be fairly loud (with nothing whatsoever to stop its noise) and only cool the board indirectly.
The way I'm picturing it, the lowest "rung" (how do you call it?) of the heatsink radiates toward the board. How much heat would depend on the fan speed of course.

Can't you fit a Kozuti or something in a T3500? That would seem to make more sense.

DH61DL
3770S
PicoPSU 90W
Scythe Kozuti
Streacom F1C
SSD

Nice! Can you comment on the noise level and temps of this combo?

Thanks,
Jim

I think I'm going to cannibalize my HDPLEX H5. I can use a micro-atx mb which would be nice from an options perspective.

Thanks again for the comments.

-Jim

Noise and heat is none, zero, zip. Even while playing Diablo 3 on highest settings I have to put my ear to the Kozuti to hear that it's spinning. The Heatsink is then warm to the touch but nothing more: My guess ~40-45 degrees celsius, so maybe the cores are around 50-55?!

The Ivy Bridge 22nm tech is really awesome. Suddenly my talk about how good the Atom chips are start to fade. Ivy Bridge is like a Atom when idle, but then if you need, it scales to be a little supercomputer of 65 watt!

Beware: the PicoPSU is squeezing the SSD in the picture, so I removed the SSD from the case. I don't mind the cables. But if you do, try to see if there is a motherboard that has better placement of power or a PicoPSU that pertrudes on the other side or of course use another case even though the Streacom is nice.

Awesome, thanks! Yeah, I completely agree with you on the Ivy Bridge.

-Jim

Can anyone confirm/deny this? I've got a T3500 with an Intel X25-V, an Optiarc AD-7703S and a D510MO, which I'm considering replacing with either an Ivy Bridge mainboard if and when they get thunderbolt ports (to be able to connect a graphics card using a MSI GUS II or a Bplus TH05, although I might get by with just HD4000) or an AMD Trinity.

I can't confirm it since I've never done it but if you have a T3500 you know there's more than enough clearance (as long as you don't want to put a tall fan on top anyway).
And here's a random picture: http://img192.imageshack.us/img192/2565/morex2.jpg

Of course it would be best to have a confirmation but I think the main thing you need to watch out for is not compatibility with the case but compatibility with the motherboard you choose (will the heatsink block access to one of the connectors?).

I can now confirm it fits in the T3500 by almost a cm. It also doesn't cover the PCIe slot on the GA-A75N-USB3. Not that it matters when using the T3500... Finding DIMMs that fit beneath it was a pain, though.

It's perfectly silent when doing ordinary desktop stuff, but the small fan is fairly noisy when booting or stressing the system.