Nice thing it is. I like the absurd heatsink!

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)

Greets, Sander

No forced airflow (no fans) -- therefore, minimal dust buildup even with all the openings.

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.

I like it too. Nice work. The gel packs are a great idea.

I really like the copper spacer on the CPU, it's like an IHS on steroids! Also amazing 10C drop with the gel packs; maybe to give the case that "finished" look, a coat of light varnish or woodstain?

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

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?

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!

Thanks very much, for all the kind things you've said about my project

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.

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.

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

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

Love it.

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

Cool, man, especially the part about drive silencing with homemade 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?

pretty cool I guess but kinda lame that the optical drive is white kinda sticks he should make a wood bezel.

BillTodd
A rare case when a PC looks great, cools great and sounds great at the same time. Thumbs up!

Thanks




If only my woodworking skills were up to it

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

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 http://www.silentpcreview.com/forums/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.

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.

That looks slightly ridiculous... but it's great! Interesting enough for an update of your original article with photos perhaps? email me!

Wow... that's a big freakin' heatsink!

Big? It has its own gravity field fer cry'n out loud!

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

If that thing doesn't qualify I would love to see what you do consider ridiculous.


Where did you find that thing anyway?

it looks a lot like a tennis ball machine