Hey there fellow tech-enthusiasts
I recently got a good deal on a Thin-Mini-ITX System compromised of:
ECS H61H2-TI with an Pentium G2030,
a 32gb Sunbow M1 SSD (mSATA) and an Intel 2x2 WLAN mini-PCIe Card.
While Thermals look good on the processor side, as I cant find a way to dump the specified TDP of this Pentium into the environment, however I use it.
However I noticed that due to the lack of Airflow (completely passive closed of case), that the H61 Chipset, the SSD and the mini-PCIe Card slowly but surely reach very high temperatures (~80Ā°C; ~75Ā°C; ?Ā°C respectively).
As this System is intended to serve my Parents for a while I wanted to ask you guys how you think these Temperatures impact the lifespan of the PC and whether I should follow through with my Plan of modding the case with 2 slim 50/60mm Fans.
Thanks in advance for your opinions and have a nice day
Does the board allow you to adjust the voltage? My G1850 Celeron runs fine at stock speeds with the voltage lowered down to the minimum my board allows (0.9V) and drastically reduced my power consumption. At full tilt the entire system draws nearly 15 watts less than the advertised TDP. Iāve never run the system with stock volts except the first time I powered the system to change the settings, so I have no idea how much of a temperature change it made.
The specs on that case say a 35W or less CPU, and that is a 55W CPU. You can get it to run under 35W with undervolting, or you need a T-series processor.
Hey and thanks for the fast answer,
the Peak power draw of the CPU is about 16W in IntelBurnTest while the iGPU takes about 8w (peak) when overclocked (+0,1v) [EDIT: bios allows adjusting iGPU voltage Offset from 0-255 in 1/255v stepsā¦^^]
Unfortunately the ECS H61H2 TI does not allow me to undervolt the CPU, iGPU, Chipset (nothing for short )
However that only results in about ~60Ā°C peak for the CPU under combined load, what im concerned about is the mSATA SSD, the Chipset and the VRMs as they are enclosed in the Case with no possibilty for even ambient airflow.
Since I tend to keep all my components below 65Ā°C and with strong undervolts the Temperatures just seem a bit high to me and as Iām gifting this System away I want it to be reliable.
I have no idea how you measured the wattage, and I really donāt know if they include the CPU VRMās in the CPU TDP calculation (Iād imagine they might), but it says it is a 55W CPU and the specs on the computer case page says 35W TDP max. If you canāt adjust the voltage then I canāt think of anything else to lower the temps besides hacking in some fans or changing out the CPU.
The VRMās funnel electrons to properly feed the CPU, and lowering the power requirements of the CPU will cut the temperatures that the VRMās reach. Iād imagine that is the main reason they have a 35W limit, because there is no way to evacuate the heat from VRMās that are trying to feed a more powerful system. There will be temperature creep like you experienced.
Also, from my limited experience with trying to make a system draw as much wattage as possible for comparing systems, none of the standard benchmarks Iāve used seem to push the CPU and GPU simultaneously to their limit. I found the game 0 A.D. pushes harder, at least according to my Kill-A-Watt meter.
Just to clear up confusion the CPU Temp is not the Problem,
what Iām worried about is the mSATA SSD, Chipset and mini-PCIe Wireless Adapter that produce about as much heat (H61 Chipset H61 Chipset alone has a 6.1w TDP) as the Processor and are ātrappedā in the right compartment of the case which has nowhere to dissipate heat and is thus hovering at about 75-80Ā°C when left in idle.
I doubt the SSD and wifi create a ton of heat, although I couldnāt say what specific amount of energy they are emitting in the case. My laptop has built in wifi, and an SSD that replaced the HDD and a 10 watt processor, and the only part that feels warm is the 10 watt CPU (SoC with integrated chipset).
The specs state not to use a CPU over 35W, and Iād imagine the chipset probably uses more energy when running at faster speeds using a higher wattage processor. Same with the VRMās. The elephant in the room is the CPU that runs 20W above the maximum spec. The CPU might have a cooler attached to it to pipe the heat out, but the chipset and VRMās do not. Also, it isnāt in a vacuum, so some amount of heat energy from the CPU will invariably will be emitted inside the case via convection and radiation.
Try running the system off of a USB stick with the SSD removed. Try removing the wifi module and temporarily using a USB dongle or ethernet. If the system still overheats then it isnāt the SSD or wifi. Iām betting it still overheats.
The board is even rated for a 77w CPUs and there have been reviews of the case that used 65w CPUs without issue, however I would be very interested in any links that show how using T-Suffix Processors lowers Chipset power output. (Since I always assumed it does the same thing and runs off 100MHz Bus Clock)
I spent some more hours with it and the thing that always pulls the Temperature up is the Chipset, mSATA only helps it a bit since its very near. (Seen using both hardware probes and HwINFO).
Iāve solved it for now by using Mainboard-Standoffs to raise the top-plate by about ~6mm which creates a gap big enough for a bit of convection;
I think Iāll buy a cheap 50x50x10mm fan and toss it on the Chipset as a final solution.
EDIT AFTER SOME MONTHS: Solved by using the Mainboard-Standoffs in combination with a Scythe Slip Stream Slim 120mm Fan (Cool and quiet now)
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