time to upgrade my 10 years old tower with a silent box I always wanted and... TADA!
Not all of the original Hush heat pipes were usable for my new Haswell Mobo, so the big story here is... THERMASOL flat heat pipes, which are relatively easier to install. With care, I was able to hand-bend the thickest Thermasol.
Key Fanless Components:
The proper enclosure of course. The Hush ATX box, helpfully, has pre-drilled holes on the backside of the heat sinks to mount things.
Thermasol flat heat pipes. U.S. vendor Newark.com, 6 weeks turn-around, be patience. If you have friends in the U.K., faster, http://ukfarnell.com. About usd$20 apiece.
LGA 1150 (i5) bracket from Cool Master. cmstore.usa.com. "V6 GT Accessory Kit" about $7. This bracket kit is very versatile and can accommodate several CPU socket types. For the simpler chipset, I got my own home-made bracket. The BRACKETS of course are there to hold down the heat piles against the chips.
Picking the wrong motherboard can make your heat pipes installation more difficult. Components around the CPU, chipset, VRM may impede heat pipes mounting. The Asrock Z87 (Haswell) Fatal1ty I picked has excellent clearance for attaching the flat heat pipe to the CPU, fair clearance for the chipset, and bad obstruction for the VRM, reason am leaving the VRM stock heat sink for now.
Anatomy of SSD mounting: Re-using the Hush aluminum shelf that was designed to hold an HD, cut it down to size. Removed SSD from its housing, flipped it upside down so the chips come into direct contact with the shelf, added thermal pads, screw everything down.
Tips for buying Thermasols: The heat pipes come flat like big pieces of spearmint gum and it's up to the user to bend them to fit. I see two paths: Buy the thickest pipe (maximum heat transfer capacity) that will fit assuming the bends will be simple, like mine, OR for more complicated bends, buy the thinnest (easier to bend) but can still accommodates the maximum heat output from your chips. Check the Thermasol Specs.
Lastly since this box is used as an HTPC and general purpose PC, there is NEVER gonna be a fan here. 100% Silent as I need it to be.
