The Zen of Air Cooling

If you are building your own heatsinks, or having them built, one thing to remember is that there is a hard limit to the amount of heat a heatsink that uses heat pipes can dissipate.

It is somewhere between 30w and 35w per heat pipe run between the heat end and the cool end. Yours is using double ended heat pipes, so 12*30=360 is safe, 420 max. The limit has to do with the viscosity of the liquid in the heat pipes as it travels along the wick. Fatter heat pipes (with more volume and diameter), can move a bit more. Beyond that is water cooling.

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Jeezus hope thatā€™s a tax deduction given it is used for work from home :smiley:

I figured this is the last generation of cpus before air cooling wonā€™t work anymore. To make an air cooled dual 9684x was quite a challenge, and to make it work better than other systems was even more work.

I like the quiet and cool running, with a wolf in sheepā€™s guise approach. However, so many steps had to be takenā€¦.

Iā€™ve spent an A to Z approach on this and Iā€™m aware that this is my last 100: % air cooled build, the next build will prolly be a hybrid

Iā€™ve built water cooled and some full immersion builds in the past but Iā€™ve always liked the elegance of just air cooled.

For now, this one works really well, quiet, no throttling, no issues

Beyond the cooling, Iā€™ve had to overcome BIOS Iissues (went through 3 betas, to get the 9684x sorted)

I do have one other work in progress on this board: I may heat pipe / revise heatsink for the gigabit lan chipā€¦ it runs way hot (60-69C) from the factory with an ineffective cheesy aluminum coin of a heatsink. The issue is clarance ā€¦. Work in progress

Iā€™ll post pics after I get that completed

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@JayVenturi, welcome to the forum. Iā€™m envious of your skills! My bad luck with hardware means I probably wonā€™t achieve anything close to what youā€™ve done. Still, you havenā€™t discouraged me from trying something similar to the system you showcased. Iā€™m planning to go with a first-generation EPYC since itā€™s the most affordable option. If I end up needing help to complete the build, at least I wonā€™t have spent too much.

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On gen 1 you can go either asrock, Supermicro, or gigabyte. Iā€™ve researched the motherboards and your best bet youā€™ll be an MZ72-HB0 Revision 4

Let me know if I can help answer any questions. T

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So the gigabit lan chip with the aluminium flimsey heatsink was getting between 65-88C when BOTH Lan connections where on and 60-69C with on Lan connection

the original looked like this and the next thread will show how a copper dremmeled replacement was made and oxidized black

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Final product was solid copper, shaved fins, reduced temps 22C on average.

Chip-side copper is polished copper, the other visible side is black, porous pitted to increase surface area.
Pitting was done using wheel brake cleaner (HCL) and vinigar to arrest the process, followed by the brass/copper black oxidizer

original thin aluminium

replacement in pure copper, more fins and increased surface area:

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Just looked up that GPU model. Did any more than the 20 given away ever exist? Youā€™ve got like 20% of the world supply in that box otherwise?

:smiley:

There is only one in my possession, the 4 in that case are the regular titan v 12 go , I bought those

The CEO ed he signed, was given

He didnā€™t sign all 20 at the gathering

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Items of interest in the F30 Bios:

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On a less serious note, here is a fun side of this project

Chernobylite Game

using 1 GPU everything set to ultra including ray tracing and NO DLSS

and now 2 GPU (no SLI, no nvlink, using mGPU, DX12) max visuals, all set to ultra including ray tracing, and NO DLSS

enjoy

I have the same case but I found it to be so handy that I use it for a test bench now! :grin:

@Shadowbane Big fan of ThermalTake here. One thing you may have noticed about that case is that those boys certainly donā€™t scrimp on hardware. You get a whole lot for the money.

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Iā€™ve been a fan for years ā€“ ever since they first came out, particularly the P1 and P3

The P1 has become impossible to find now

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My main is the ThermalTake Level 10 GT. I like the hot swap bays that come with that unit and the fact that it is so roomy inside. I recently purchased a Thermaltake Versa H21 Mid Tower for a special project. Iā€™m so glad that they still make cases with front bays as they are getting increasingly difficult to find.

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say in Jayz2centsā€™ voice

my Epenis is so large I can slap elon musk into alpha centauri

Okay my joke asside :joy::joy:

Air cooling has some components to it that can vary depending on what you want to achieve. Primarily do you or do you not care about dust chooses one of the first design parameters foe you. Positive or Negative Case Pressure. Maximum performance is yielded by negative case pressure but it attracts a ton of dust. Positive case pressure runs up against tbe caveat that you arent exhausting as fast as you possibly can BUT you will be pushing air out of the unfiltered cracks and air will be turbulent so dust shouldnt settle.

Since for me thats a givenā€¦ Go positive air pressure easily.

My primary design parameter is noise. I loathe it. So I will prioritize bigger sizeā€¦ Higher static pressure (radiators) or higher cfm (case fans that arent up against cages)ā€¦ And more of the fansā€¦ Instead of a few high power fans.

This also makes case decision critical for me