HTPC case design evalutation

[Crashman]

You can see it Here

Or if you just want some pictures, check out these:

Basically this is a 3-year old design that I passed around but didn't find anyone interested in, so I made a webpage for it.

 

[mpjesse]

I really like the way the case flips out like that. Easy access to everything. The asthetic design is nice as well. Looks like a receiver. Large volume control is always nice. I'm not sure what all the ports or buttons are in the front but I'm sure they're useful.

The only potential problems are I can see are:

1. the top of the case (outside). It has radiating fins that would not allow anything to be neatly stacked on top. Granted HTPC's are supposed to be all in one, but to date no one has made a HTPC that can pump out 600watts of power to speakers. In other words, people would probably like to stack something on top of it like a receiver or cable box.

2. No place for a case fan in the back. I'm not a HTPC expert, but don't most of them have case fans in the back?

I'm sure your design could be easily modified to fix all this though.

-mpjesse

 

[Crashman]

Of course! I didn't add any rear vents because, with the lid cooling the CPU and GPU (by the company's own flexible-tube heatpipe design) I wanted all the air to move through the front and out the PSU. This design would be ideal for a PSU with 120mm fan, the mounting holes are alligned for facing the fan upwards where it pulls air down into it. This is all about low noise and adequate cooling, remove the CPU and GPU heat from the inside and you don't need as much fan.

Both upper drives clear all cards. That means you can put a 7800GTX in the top slot and still have it clear the left-side DVD device.

I thought it might be interesting to suggest the company include four small feet to sit between the fins for stacking things above the case.

The buttons are for adding a device to duplicate remote fuctions. The front panel extrusion is designed to hold screws, for putting a PCB behind the buttons. Since I didnt' design the actual electronics to support that function, I can only make suggestions as to which remote control functions they should replicate.

 

[mpjesse]

How well would heatpipes work though? Heatpipes are great at transfering heat... but they're only as good as the final heatsink solution you're connecting them to. Wouldn't you have to have a lot of heatpipes (in excess of 12) for this design to work? Have you tested such a design? I'm curious if anyone makes a HTPC case that does that...

I thought of the small feet idea as well. That would work nicely.

-mpjesse

 

[Crashman]

I think you'd need around three of the typical sized heatpipe for the CPU and two for the GPU. Zalman has a tower case that uses solid heatpipes and the side panel.

The surface area of that lid is freaking enormous, I'd think you should be able to cool an overclock Pentium-D with the thing. As for cooling both the CPU and GPU, well, probably an A64 and a 7800GTX...or perhaps a lower speed X2 and 7800GT at most.

Given typical passive cards, it should cool an X2 3800+ and an X1600XT. That's about as far as most people go with HTPC.

Note that the fins are low density, less surface area but better air movement.

 

[mpjesse]

My concern is the heat not being spread efficiently enough across the aluminum panels. My fear is all the heat will stay only in the spot where the heatpipe ends.

I'm probably wrong though.

-mpjesse

 

[Crashman]

er, Aluminium is a fairly good heat conductor...

 

[mpjesse]

Yeah. But what I'm trying to say is... look at the current design of heatpipe heatsinks. Especially tower heatsinks. They have like up to 6 heatpipes for a relatively small, compact area of aluminum fins.

Exactly how would the heatpipes be situated? Would you have them go directly from the cooling block to the case? Or would there be a hybrid design? (like a large heatsink on the CPU and then more heatpipes going to the case)

Do you have a link to that Zalman case? I'm curious to see it.

-mpjesse

 

[Crashman]

Sure, it looks like they're using four heatpipes for the CPU:
http://www.zalman.co.kr/eng/product/view.asp?idx=64&code=

 

[mpjesse]

Ahhhh... I see. Very cool. I wonder if anyone has reviewed this case...

-mpjesse