PSU Mod idea (Phantom 350w)

RoaDKiLL617 · Post by **RoaDKiLL617** » Sat Aug 20, 2005 2:55 pm

OK, I got this system some months ago, and it's working pretty well for now:

AOpen i855 mobo
Pentium M 735 @ 1.33GHz 1v w/ Thermalright SB2 on top
Samsung 80GB 2.5"
Antec Phantom 350W
Radeon 9600 128mb (not pro or anything)
Inwin V523T microATX (great case for $50 btw)

Basically that's what makes the noise. The only fan I have is a 92mm Papst at 5v.

Everything works fine, except that I'm worried about the Phantom... it gets pretty hot at full load, so I thought about a "simple" mod but it requires your help xD

I'm planning to transport the heat from the PSU to the outside of the case. I could put a fan, or even make a hole on top of the PSU to let the air out, but I thought of using good old HEATPIPES!

So this is how it would go, sort of like a thermalright SI-97 (a solid base and a heatsink connected by heatpipes), but connecting the top of the PSU from the inside, with a heatsink placed on top of the case, on the outside. A large black heatsink placed on top of the case would look pretty nice too, kind of 12x12x3 cm.

How do you see this, would it lower temps at all? The difficult part is getting the heatpipes. Something like ZM-80D's heatpipes would work.

The goal of all this is getting rid of the PSU's heat, because the rest of the system works fine fanless.

Tell me what you think :/ Thanks all

cotdt · Post by **cotdt** » Sat Aug 20, 2005 4:05 pm

that's a very good idea. go for heatpipes! take the challenge!

heatpipes are pretty easy to obtain. there are many online places to order them. you can also take them from zalman components like you said.

go for it! you might need to do some of your own drilling though.

Devonavar · Post by **Devonavar** » Sun Aug 21, 2005 2:09 pm

Sounds like a good idea, but keep in mind that heatpipes only transfer heat, they don't dissipate it very well. You'll need a heatsink with widely spaced fins and a fairly large surface area to go on the heatpipes. Also, are you planning to run the heatpipes through the power supply? Make sure you don't short-circuit anything. It's probably safest to attach the heatpipes to the external casing of the Phantom.

mathias · Post by **mathias** » Sun Aug 21, 2005 2:50 pm

Devonavar wrote:Sounds like a good idea, but keep in mind that heatpipes only transfer heat, they don't dissipate it very well. You'll need a heatsink with widely spaced fins and a fairly large surface area to go on the heatpipes.

What about the heatpipe that is used with the scythe silentbox? I don't think that uses a heatsink. It would probably work well with a phantom, with a heatsink or without.

Devonavar · Post by **Devonavar** » Sun Aug 21, 2005 2:57 pm

The Silent Box uses a wide "heatlane", not a conventional heatpipe. It is coupled to the external casing of the heatbox, which increases the surface area for heat dissipation. Even so, it's not especially effective, and I doubt it would handle the 30W+ of heat generated inside a Phantom. Keep in mind that HDDs use about 6-9W, much less than a power supply.

mathias · Post by **mathias** » Sun Aug 21, 2005 3:09 pm

Devonavar wrote:The Silent Box uses a wide "heatlane", not a conventional heatpipe.

What's the difference, besides that it's a very big heatpipe? I don't think a small flat heatpipe would work much better than a typical one.

Devonavar wrote:It is coupled to the external casing of the heatbox, which increases the surface area for heat dissipation. Even so, it's not especially effective, and I doubt it would handle the 30W+ of heat generated inside a Phantom.

Yeah, but could even a heatpipe with a heatsink be trusted to cool a phantom adequately on its own? Are the parts of the phantom's casing that it would be possible/conveniant to attach a heatpipe to attached to internals that generate a vast majority of the heat?

RoaDKiLL617 · Post by **RoaDKiLL617** » Sun Aug 21, 2005 4:11 pm

Running the heatpipes through the PSU would be too risky I believe, so I thought of sticking them to the outside (still don't know how) and use thermal paste to fill in the possible gaps (any ideas for this?). For the outside I thought about a big heatsink, like the ones in Logitech's higher-end subwoofers for example, around 30x15x5cm, that covered most of the top cover.

If I could get access to flexible pipes, I could even stick a huge heatsink to the side of the case and make my own version of the Zalman fanless case, heh, but that's dreaming.

If anyone could tell me where to get heatpipes, I would greatly appreciate it.

Thanks for the input

Elixer · Post by **Elixer** » Sun Aug 21, 2005 4:21 pm

With such a low power system, why not just try externally mounting the power supply? This way it will stay more cool in the air outside your case.

Devonavar · Post by **Devonavar** » Sun Aug 21, 2005 4:39 pm

mathias wrote:
Devonavar wrote:The Silent Box uses a wide "heatlane", not a conventional heatpipe.
What's the difference, besides that it's a very big heatpipe? I don't think a small flat heatpipe would work much better than a typical one.

The heatlane has much more surface area to begin with.

mathias wrote:
Devonavar wrote:It is coupled to the external casing of the heatbox, which increases the surface area for heat dissipation. Even so, it's not especially effective, and I doubt it would handle the 30W+ of heat generated inside a Phantom.
Yeah, but could even a heatpipe with a heatsink be trusted to cool a phantom adequately on its own? Are the parts of the phantom's casing that it would be possible/conveniant to attach a heatpipe to attached to internals that generate a vast majority of the heat?

Wedge a heatpipe and some thermal interface material between the warmest fins and it's sure to do something. How much I can't say, but I'm sure RoadKill will tell us when he does his mod.

RoaDKiLL617 · Post by **RoaDKiLL617** » Sun Aug 21, 2005 5:47 pm

Elixer wrote:With such a low power system, why not just try externally mounting the power supply? This way it will stay more cool in the air outside your case.

Thought about it... but I'd like everything to be clean with no external cables or anything.

Anyways wouldn't it be better or more efficient to put a huge heatsink on top of the Phantom, with the fins going out of the case, instead of dealing with heatpipes?

BrianE · Post by **BrianE** » Mon Aug 22, 2005 12:25 am

An interesting idea, and I'll be curious to see if it works well or not, but I'm wondering how effective it will be in real life.

The problem I'm seeing is there are too many interfaces between the original heat source and the last heatsink at the end. There's the internal heatsinks attached to the heat source (transistors/regulators/etc I think?), then the heatsinks are attached to the outer casing.... then that gets attached to the heatpipes.... then the heatpipes have to attach to another heatsink or cooling fins. I can see two places at least where you'd be dependant on thermal paste/grease to thermally couple parts. It could be an inefficient path for heat energy to follow....

It'd be harder to do I suppose, but I think running the heatpipes inside might be better. Kind of like making a better performing Tt fanless PSU I guess.

ultraboy · Post by **ultraboy** » Mon Aug 22, 2005 2:57 am

Just a thought here..how about finding a way to raise the Phantom in its place so that the top of PSU touch the top of case. This way you can have the whole metal case works as big heatsink without too much complication dealing with heatpipe and such. Thermal paste can be applied as needed.

Just my 2 cents.

frosty · Post by **frosty** » Mon Aug 22, 2005 7:02 am

Consider running a 5v fan over the heatpipes also

RoaDKiLL617 · Post by **RoaDKiLL617** » Mon Aug 22, 2005 7:30 am

frosty wrote:Consider running a 5v fan over the heatpipes also

No way! my goal here is getting rid of the only fan left in the system to make it totally fanless

I found a large aluminum 4.6"x12" extruded heatsink for $50... maybe too expensive for what it does :/