Desktop PPC Cooling ideas

fitzsteve

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Howdy Folks!

Been trying out various ways of keeping my PPC Cool in the Desktop Amiga, I love using this machine as its so cool having a PPC/BVision setup in an A1200 Desktop but I always worry about heat, obviously its running a lot hotter even than my OC'd Tower Setup!

BVison is fine, I mounted a nice Fan on it and its keeping nice and cool even with the case closed so I'm happy with that but the Power PC Heatsink becomes almost too hot to touch, I'd really like to bring it down to similar temps to my Tower Setup where you can quite happily touch it and not cry to mumma :D

I bought a HDD Cooler from the other bay (see attached) and fitted it in place of the trapdoor with the A1200 on bigger feet. To be honest its not a very tidy solution but its kind of working. The 060 which used to get pretty hot too is actually nice and cool now but its not doing much if anything for the PPC, thats still hot.

Any other suggestions for cooling or a slimline device I can use?

The other option is to replace the fan on the PPC, any suggestions there?

Cheers!

Steve.
 

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Hey there Steve,

I've not seen the 060 in the flesh. Is that the one where the chip is on the under side? i.e. so the heat is mostly going to go back up through the core of the chip anyway?

How about:

- Laptop cooler (fits under the footprint of your system).
- Adapted laptop fan(s).
- Very large but flat heat sink.
- Liquid cooling?
- Immersion into a tank of chip oil + gloves for typing. (external floppies compulsory! :LOL:)

Cheers,
Ed.
 
Hey Ed.D!

Both CPU's (PPC & 060) are on the bottom of the card, so are against the desk when installed.

I do wonder if a bigger fan inside will be better though, also Zetr0 suggested a laptop cooler so I'll have to look at those.

Cheers!

Steve.
 
remeber to push and pull your air flow or vicea versa which ever takes your fanci

did see someone on EAB use aluminium tape to conduct the heat from the chip to the outside

or place the whole lot in some non-conducting oil ok perhaps not that one then ...
 
Yep I think I need a fan inside extracting which I don't yet have. I've got a nice spare 8x8cm Fan out of an MicroATX PC Build, that might do the trick around by the vents :)

Thanks Mr Frog (y)

ps. Hoping Zetr0 can help fix the broken IDEFix express that MerlinKV sent me, so never know there could a nice project update soon!

With all the extra fans I'll need to take the power from somwhere other than the Floppy Connector. For the HDD Cooler I'm just plugging that straight into the ATX PSU via a Molex so might just fit a nice Molex connector to the back of the case and wire up the fans to that and plug them in when I need/want the extra cooling :)

Good idea?
 
I'm currently exploring this: -

amigabppc04.jpg


The guy who has done this said it works great, but its noisy as hell (The noise could be lowered with a PWM fan controller though). I'm not sure how it will work on a BGA PPC either. The cool thing about such fan is that its actually built into the Heatsink also and exhausts air off to the side.

Although I have now gone and fixed a 3mm heatsink to my 060 (which doesn't seem to lower the temps much) I want to try and take this off and put one on the 060.

The problem you have with your PPC steve is that you've got one fan blowing air from inside out, and another outside in, which isn't good. It needs to be one way or the other. A fan on the 060 is good as long as it blows air back out sideways away from the PPC, hence the use of a Laptop fan of some kind. But any fan blowing air onto the PPC heatsink with the original fan inside blowing in tho opposite direction ain't gonna work.

My PPC actually runs quite cool (55 Deg) with the case fans pushing air into the A1200 (when open the PPC hits 65 Deg), but my 060 is reaching 65 deg plus when on and idle for 30 mins regardless of fans as it has no contact with any. The least I will do is put a small fan on the 060 (or drop it down to 50MHz), I may be able to avoid the PPC fan mod and possibly the 060 fan if I raise my A1200 a few more mm though (its currently 3mm gap), i've ordered a few types of rubber feet to explore this (5mm and 8mm).

Its all quite tricky and i've been toying with all sorts of ideas. Once (if) I have a good one that actually works i'll post it in my Project thread :)
 
Thanks for the info mate, I'll have another look at your thread :)

Need an afternoon hardware pr0n fix anyway :D

Agree this HDD cooler will be coming off as its not helping though...

Might try some better heatsinks.

Steve.
 
Keith and I spent quite a while trying to come up with a low profile cooling system for a desktop PPC system.
We tried all sorts and one of my favourite ideas was heatpipes, essentially what cools laptops.
You can buy kits that you can shape yourself, but they aren't cheap.
We never really had the time to explore this option however, as we were focusing on a water cooling project which overshadowed everything.
I currently have some low profile HSF's on mine, one of which just I just mounted directly onto the existing heat sink, and is powered from a separate part of the loom, providing a little cooling redundancy.
 
As I said in the past...
"Opinions are like a**holes! Everybody has one..."

Hey... I also have one so here it is (lol):

First of all, every BPPC fan sounds like crap (= big noisy shiz). BPPC has an 25mm (probably 7mm thick) fan that is noisy. Any fan that goes bellow 40mm and is <20db is most of times expensive and goes more and more expensive as the size goes down to 30mm or 25mm. Ofc you must also check the thickness since most fans on 25mm are 10mm thick (I know cause I got an 25x25x10 for 20euro that has 15db).
There are certain 7mm ones but I haven't found easily for purchase (usually you can get in larger LOTS).
If you get an 25x25x10 you need to trim it's one side with a dremel or sandpaper carefully because the keyboard metal backplate will interfere with the fan and won't close the case (=bummer)
These info correspond ofc in the original heatsink of BPPC.

If you decide you need to change it (not a bad idea), then I'd advice a copper 40mm thin heatsink with a thin 40x40x10 noiseless fan (like Scythe ones) but again you'll need to rise a bit the Amiga and ofc, hack the trapdoor cover.

Phipscube's idea is not bad, but I never found a thin fan like the one on the picture that would be silent for my taste (mfilos's taste = <18db)

The noise thing is the one that holds me from putting my miggy together since I really don't like the idea of powering the little beast sounding like a big noisy PC.
Watercooling is really cool but I don't like the idea of having extra tubing outside the case (for towers though is just superb and truly orsome).

Laptop custom heatpipes are by far the best solution but as our friend r0jaws said... they aren't cheap and require a lot of time and effort to make fitting like a glove.

For now I decided to test an 25x25x10 15db fan to see how it goes, and if I like it, I will go the 2x same fans solution for PicoPSU and maybe one more spot under the DVD-RW area.
For BVision I have already 2x40x40x10 Scythe fans that are totally silent so np with that.
 
I've got an old Copper Heat tube connected to a long thin laptop heatsink that would be awesome if only the pipes could be bent a different way. I agree that Heat pipes would be the best, but yeah, they cost a fair bit.

My thoughts are to combine a fan like above photo with a PWM fan controller as the pulses from such a circuit cause the fan to become quieter whilst effectively push the same amount of air over the chip.

I've been experimenting with one today at work (with a 555 timer) for my case fans, and it does indeed work. Its not bringing the levels down to silent, but its better. And if need be the circuit can be adjusted with a potentiometer to lower the noise even further (Of course with less airflow but its still getting the full 12V in pulses so its not damaging it like lowering the voltages can do). I've ordered a thermistor to replace the potentiometer so I can potentially control the fan controller with the progressive build-up of heat from the Permedia. As she gets hot, the thermistor gets hotter and lowers its resistance then the fans turn up automatically, and gradually too :)

If that all pans out, i'll try and make a 5V circuit for two of those 6mm fans, or something like them on the PPC and 060. My concern is how to attach one to the BGA PPC safely :/

I really hate my Amiga sounding like a jet engine too, and that PPC fan HAS to go at some point, its awful! Its louder than my three case fans put together! (they are rated at 11dB each, but sound a fair bit louder in tandem)

Peltier coolers are another option for silent operation but thats quite a bit overkill in this situation :D Need a shed load of current for a start, and would still have a problem with a bag full of heat coming out that trapdoor.
 
Hey guys,

Thanks for the info. Will do some research on these cooling pipes and see what sort of $$$ we're talking about, after all we're running expensive cards here and I've just stuck a 99p fan on it :nuts:

Thanks agan! Will be watching you guys (the experts) closely (y)

Steve.
 
yo yo yo stevio m'dog,
i is yer hommie and i as gotcha covered blood,

check out me warez, see anyfink ya like?
 

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yo yo yo stevio m'dog,
i is yer hommie and i as gotcha covered blood,

check out me warez, see anyfink ya like?


Hey mate!

Sorry read this post on the mobile and forgot to reply when I got back on the PeeCee!

Thanks for the offer, I have fans its just working out where to put them for the best airflow.

Cheers!

Steve.
 
ahhh but there is a laptop cooling pipe in there m8:)


Yeah I spotted that, had a rummage through a bag at Zetr0's, I'm not sure how I'd get that in.

Zetr0 suggested we sit down with the Amiga and draw up a plan (really I just think he wants me to bring over the PPC again) and go from there :butcher

Next Curry night maybe, shame you couldn't be there Friday mate :(

Steve.
 
Hey guys,

Not the most glamerous of solutions but I have found a way to keep the BPPC/060 cool :)

Updates are in my project thread below:

https://www.amibay.com/showthread.php?p=148382#post148382

But essentially raising the A1200 (I used books for the test but will be fitting bigger feet and rasing by about 15-20mm

I Fitted a 10x10x0.8cm Fan diagonally on the trapdoor space, the fan is cooling the centre of the BPPC with its sides blowing on the PPC & 060 at the same time, its also causing a vacuum under the case the seems to pull the hot air away, this fan seems to blow both ways, I guess this creates the vacuum?

In any case it works even with the case closed and screws in place, not even the case plastics get warm. Only other fans are one on the BVision and the stock fan on the BPPC.

Sound wise, its about the same as an ATX PSU so if you're looking to quiet then this isn't the best solution.

Steve.
 
@Fitzsteve,

I'll post a picture of my cooling solution tonight just so you can see.

I'm only cooling an 030@40Mhz (it's a newer powercomputing one but it gets really hot!!).

The gist of it is I took 2 5volt 8cm fans and used a PC backplate (fanplate) and sunk them into my desk (Cut hole through and countersunk the edges) the plate and the fans lie flush in the desk and then I modified an old A600 PSU to power the fans, all I need to do is place the A1200 with the trapdoor off over the fans (I placed an A1200 bootom on the desk in the position that the A1200 would lie and then marked out the exact location to cut) and then board is kept Ice cold.

No need to mod either the card or the A1200 desktop case or anything.

btw, it's almost completely silent.
 
@Alcatan,

You know what, I was thinking the same! Fans mounted in the desk.

Would be great to see a picture of this setup (y)

Cheers!

Steve.
 
@ Altacan

Looking forward to the Pics. Making your table top blow cold air into the bottom of the A1200 sounds like a neat idea & you can still use the keyboard whilst resting your arms on the table top as normal. (y)
Raising the Amiga as Steve has done would lead to tired wrists & arms in a very short time for me.

@ Steve

Have you sat & used her for a decent session & felt this pain yet?

Kin
 
@ Steve

Have you sat & used her for a decent session & felt this pain yet?

Kin

Oops I misread that - no I wasn't using it I was running Demo's and stuff.

Intersting point indeed.

I'll have to come back to you on that.
 
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