Okay, most of you have probably seen this site before, but it's been updates recently so I thought I'd start a thread to discuss some of the techniques used:
http://www.geocities.jp/numano3/index.html
In particular, I think the two best tricks in use with his latest PC are the massive top mounted heatsink for his CPU and the HD enclosure filled with putty!
Who would have guessed putty would work so well... the silent power supply is interesting too, if only because it's so well constructed.
MoJo
Japanese silent PC site
Moderators: NeilBlanchard, Ralf Hutter, sthayashi, Lawrence Lee
I have been examining the site in some detail. I also spent three weeks in Japan in April, so here are my conclusions.
Firstly, it's possible the house that this system is in is air conditioned. Most houses seem to have air-con in Japan. The summers get really hot and humid. If not, expect ambiant temperatures of around 35C.
The heatsinks probably came from a shop in Akihabara, or "Electric Town". You can get all sorts of amazing stuff there, and it's all very cheap. If I hadn't been only 500g under my weight limit I would have brought back some massive heatsinks myself. Ones like those he is using were on sale for about seven pounds each.
Bendind the heatpipes seems to have been done with what looks like some kind of tape roller, like you might get selotape on. That particular ones reminds me of those used for PTFE tape in DIY stores.
What really surprises me is that the Radeon card runs okay with just the Zalman cooler. With no fans, you would expect it to need bigger (and probably external) heatsinks. One thought I had was that you could sort of reverse the heatpipe for the cooler and bend it out to a 90 degree L shape, then mount the other sink (or even better, a bigger one) on the back of the case. I have one of those myself and the instructions say to leave an empty and open slot below it anyway.
One final thing that comes to mind. The use of putty seems to be a brilliant idea, as it is apparently keeping the drive reasonably cool as well. My guess is that the putty must be absorbing and transferring the heat into the metal of the case, in which case it's probably quieter and cooler than suspension. One idea I had was to use heatpipes touching the drive and being partially exposed on the outside of the putty enclosure, attached to a heatsink. It's possible that the putty would absorb the vibrations enough to prevent them reaching the heatsink significantly.
MoJo
Firstly, it's possible the house that this system is in is air conditioned. Most houses seem to have air-con in Japan. The summers get really hot and humid. If not, expect ambiant temperatures of around 35C.
The heatsinks probably came from a shop in Akihabara, or "Electric Town". You can get all sorts of amazing stuff there, and it's all very cheap. If I hadn't been only 500g under my weight limit I would have brought back some massive heatsinks myself. Ones like those he is using were on sale for about seven pounds each.
Bendind the heatpipes seems to have been done with what looks like some kind of tape roller, like you might get selotape on. That particular ones reminds me of those used for PTFE tape in DIY stores.
What really surprises me is that the Radeon card runs okay with just the Zalman cooler. With no fans, you would expect it to need bigger (and probably external) heatsinks. One thought I had was that you could sort of reverse the heatpipe for the cooler and bend it out to a 90 degree L shape, then mount the other sink (or even better, a bigger one) on the back of the case. I have one of those myself and the instructions say to leave an empty and open slot below it anyway.
One final thing that comes to mind. The use of putty seems to be a brilliant idea, as it is apparently keeping the drive reasonably cool as well. My guess is that the putty must be absorbing and transferring the heat into the metal of the case, in which case it's probably quieter and cooler than suspension. One idea I had was to use heatpipes touching the drive and being partially exposed on the outside of the putty enclosure, attached to a heatsink. It's possible that the putty would absorb the vibrations enough to prevent them reaching the heatsink significantly.
MoJo