Help Please! Mini-ITX Build (pics)

psiu · Post by **psiu** » Tue Jul 14, 2009 5:50 am

Did you try remounting the Minja, sounds like it must not have been making good contact? What did the thermal goop look like when you took it off?

The Minja comes with a fan doesn't it? Does the motherboard have any fan control in BIOS?

BillyBuerger · Post by **BillyBuerger** » Tue Jul 14, 2009 5:52 am

As I was reading this, I was a little concerned about your description of cutting off the top of the minja heat pipes. I looked back at one of your pictures and you can see the hollow ends of the heat pipes... That doesn't look good. If you cut them off to the point where the hollow insides are showing, the fluid/gas that they use inside the heat pipes would have escaped rendering the heat pipes useless. Hence why your minja is unable to remove any heat from your CPU.

enigma54 · Post by **enigma54** » Tue Jul 14, 2009 6:18 am

psiu wrote:Did you try remounting the Minja, sounds like it must not have been making good contact? What did the thermal goop look like when you took it off?

The Minja comes with a fan doesn't it? Does the motherboard have any fan control in BIOS?

The thermal goop spread from the center and instead of spreading uniformly from the center, it's smeared to one side. This is undoubtedly the result of me having to hook one side of the latch to the retention bracket first and then having to press down very hard to get the 2nd latch clipped on. These latches are a pain in the a$$ to mount. My case is a little small to add the Scythe fan but I'll try it anyways since I have the case open at this point.

I just re-read SPCR's Minja review and there is a part in the review that touches on the orientation of the auxiliary fins above the heatsink. I get the feeling that I may have attached the retention bracket in the wrong orientation so that my 92mm fan is not blowing through these auxiliary fins. Not sure if this would have that adverse of an impact on airflow and temperatures though:

"Notice the "auxilary fins" just above the base of the heatsink in the various photos. The heatsink is not symmetrical so it is possible to place the fan in the "wrong" position with the fan blowing against the side of these fins instead of through them (as pictured below). This may have some minor impact on CPU cooling, and perhaps in the cooling of other nearby components on the motherboard."

http://www.silentpcreview.com/article754-page2.html

RoGuE · Post by **RoGuE** » Tue Jul 14, 2009 6:26 am

enigma54 wrote: [...]The Core temperature is ~15-20C. [...]

False...unless you hooked up your air conditioner as the intake fan.

Did you mean 15-20C +idle temp? Avg room temp is around 20-23C. Computer is always warmer than room..if it wasn't you would be defying laws of heat xfer.

BillyBuerger · Post by **BillyBuerger** » Tue Jul 14, 2009 6:40 am

That explains your temperatures being worse with the Minja than with the stock cooler.

RoGuE · Post by **RoGuE** » Tue Jul 14, 2009 6:45 am

OMG good catch billy

you CAN NOT EVER NEVER EVER cut a heat pipe open for space issues!!!! The chip will evaporate the working fluid, which instead of condensing will keep on going right up and out of the cooler..effectively ruining your cooler.

enigma54 · Post by **enigma54** » Tue Jul 14, 2009 6:50 am

Is there actually fluid or gas inside these pipes? When I dremeled the tops of the pipes, I can confirm there was definitely no fluids dribbling out of them. Gas, on the other hand, I wouldn't be able to tell.

RoGuE · Post by **RoGuE** » Tue Jul 14, 2009 6:56 am

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heat_pipe

cutting those ruined your cooler..

/sigh live ya learn i guess.

psiu · Post by **psiu** » Tue Jul 14, 2009 7:42 am

RIP Minja. Guess you should try to get the stock cooler running slower or order a new Minja or smaller heatsink.

edit: mental note, beware of bargain Minja on ebay from Toronto for awhile

enigma54 · Post by **enigma54** » Tue Jul 14, 2009 8:30 am

Arrgh! OK, back to the drawing board again! I guess I was a little too aggressive in shaving down those heat pipes

Thanks for catching it guys - you guys have already bailed me out twice

On the fans, the two 60mm Papst fans only have 4-pin molex connectors, so I have no choice but to connect them to the power supply. If I buy a molex to 3-pin adaptor, this should allow me to plug them into the motherboard fan headers instead right? Will I then be able to control the speed of the fans if I want to quiet down the system? I guess this is dependent on the BIOS? Will Speedfan be able to control this?

enigma54 · Post by **enigma54** » Mon Jul 27, 2009 8:20 pm

Just as an update - I finally finished building this rig on the weekend. I've posted a description and some photos in the General Gallery: viewtopic.php?p=474898#474898

Thanks again for all your help!

Help Please! Mini-ITX Build (pics)

Re: Hot Temperatures!

Update - rig completed finally!