Jetway Mini-top passive cooling conversion advice

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decapitor
Posts: 4
Joined: Tue Nov 09, 2010 2:46 pm

Jetway Mini-top passive cooling conversion advice

Post by decapitor » Tue Nov 09, 2010 3:01 pm

Hi all,

I bought a Jetway Mini-top barebones nettop with an intel atom D525 ion2 combo inside. Please see here:
http://www.guru3d.com/article/jetway-minitop-review/5
for some internal pictures for reference. The fan is too loud for me, so I want to go completely passive cooling. I have a cool-running SSD installed already. I don't care about aesthetics at all here, so here is my plan:
take the top cover off and discard it. The copper heatpipe that runs from the atom processor to the northbridge to the ion gpu is all connected and ends with about 3 inches worth of copper that is flush with the top of the case. I tentatively plan to buy a thin sheet of copper that is the same size as the top cover was and weld it to the part of the copper heatpipe that is flush with the top surface of the case. I have already removed the heatpipe and cleaned the thermal paste off and would do all welding outside the case. I would also cut some holes in the top copper sheet so that I would be able to line up and screw in the small copper plates to the cpu and gpu after slowly lowering the whole system down into place. I would also add a non-conductive rubber buffer along any edges of the case that could pose problems (there really shouldn't be any, it's mostly plastic)

My question for everyone here is whether they think that this copper cover would provide adequate passive cooling for this rig. The copper sheet would be 7.3x8", and I could get it in various thicknesses. I am guessing the answer is yes, based on the passive cooling systems of other D525+ion2 motherboards available:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... -_-Product

The nice thing about this plan is that if I find that the temperatures are getting too high, I can either reinstall the small fan or keep welding additional copper heatsinks to the top of the case.

I do have a fair amount of rig-building experience, so I don't need advice regarding applying thermal grease etc., I would just like some thoughts on whether people think this will be adequate passive cooling for this particular cpu/gpu combo.

Thanks!

iddylil
Posts: 2
Joined: Mon Jan 17, 2011 10:52 am

Re: Jetway Mini-top passive cooling conversion advice

Post by iddylil » Mon Jan 17, 2011 10:56 am

Hey There,
Any luck with this? I have been wanting to convert my Mini-top to a passive unit and wanted to see if you had any further info on what worked and what didn't? Any info is appreciated.
Thanks

decapitor
Posts: 4
Joined: Tue Nov 09, 2010 2:46 pm

Re: Jetway Mini-top passive cooling conversion advice

Post by decapitor » Mon Jan 17, 2011 5:09 pm

I've had this project on hold for a while because my initial attempts didn't go well. I'll have more details hopefully by next week as I am currently waiting for a buddy of mine to help me with some welding. So far I've tried the following: 1. removed the fan and aluminum heatsink at the end of the copper pipe (with pliers+sandpaper)
2. drilled small holes through the end of the copper pipe where the fan used to be and used bolts to bolt on a copper plate to the top. I used arctic silver 5 paste in between. It was somewhat surprising to me that this did not work well at all. I would boot into the BIOS to monitor temps and they would just keep going up and the copper plate would not change temperature at all. I would power down the machine when temps got above 80C. So I unbolted the plate and tried turning the machine on without the plate. What I found was that the copper pipe got very hot near both the CPU and GPU, but towards the end of the pipe it no longer got hot like it used to. I am not sure if by drilling holes in the pipe I somehow messed with its thermal conductivity properties, but the pipe definitely does not get as hot as it used to. (I did a baseline test by monitoring how hot it got with the fan and heatsink still attached and the heat seemed to conduct quite well all the way to the end of the pipe.) This week or next i am going to have a friend solder the pipe directly to the plate. Hopefully this will melt some metal and help restore the thermal conductivity of the copper pipe. If that doesn't work I may have to contact Jetway and see if they will send me a new heatsink/fan, which would be very sad indeed. By the way, I've drilled some holes in the copper plate so that I can screw the pipe/plate back on to the motherboard; I'm not doing any soldering while the copper pipe is still attached to the cpu/gpu. I am also cleaning and reapplying arctic silver 5 after each attempt. I'll check back in with the results later this week or next. If anyone has any tips before I start soldering things let me know I'd be happy to hear them. Thanks.

iddylil
Posts: 2
Joined: Mon Jan 17, 2011 10:52 am

Re: Jetway Mini-top passive cooling conversion advice

Post by iddylil » Tue Jan 18, 2011 12:16 pm

thanks for the update . . . I'm not sure, but i think you may have ruined your heatsink. Heat pipes use an internal coolant to transfer heat by means of an evaporation/condensation cycle. If you drilled through the pipe and noticed that it was hollow or that a liquid/vapor was inside, you have probably compromised it. I hope not. Maybe you can apply large passive heatsinks to each chip with a thermal epoxy?? Good luck and let me know of any new developments.

FYI
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heat_pipe

mark314
Friend of SPCR
Posts: 82
Joined: Tue Aug 14, 2007 8:02 am

Re: Jetway Mini-top passive cooling conversion advice

Post by mark314 » Sun Feb 06, 2011 1:15 pm

Bad news first: you killed your heat pipe. Like iddylil said, the pipe is sealed with water vapor under pressure inside. When you drilled a hole in the pipe, the pressure released, the fluid escaped, and you were left with a copper tube.

The good news: You can try again. http://www.enertron-inc.com/heatpipe.asp?clearance=1

A 6mm x 140mm pipe, round, copper, mesh wick structure will run you $15 USD, plus shipping from taiwan. Better to buy a few sizes, and measure to fit. Stick to 5mm minimum (can dissipate 15W). Better still, match the length and radius of the pipe you currently have.

Hope that gives your project a second wind...

Mark

fumino
Posts: 298
Joined: Thu Aug 05, 2010 4:38 pm
Location: ontario

Re: Jetway Mini-top passive cooling conversion advice

Post by fumino » Sun Feb 06, 2011 10:09 pm

decapitor wrote:I want to go completely passive cooling... I don't care about aesthetics at all...
with those two statements taken out of context, lets get started on a new plan:
  • start with a big chipset heatsink like a xigmatek porter, or a thermalright hr-05. two of them actually.
    grab some good thermal paste too. i like ic diamond. as5 is crap.
    zip tie those babys down using the screw holes from the stock cooling solution.
    bask in glorious silence.
it wont win any beauty contests, but i wouldnt bet against its effectiveness.

btw, ive seen people zip tie bigger heatsinks down before, so dont be worried.

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