Streacom FC8 Alpha HTPC build - fanless/silent

[wazzickle]

Wanted to build a silent (passively-cooled) HTPC. Total budget ~£700 not including peripherals, monitor, OS.

Originally looked at Silverstone ML0x range but found the the combination of mini-itx form factor, fairly small and robust, and passively-cooled.

At £120, it's not cheap, but build quality is high. The FPIO USB3.0 cable is very stiff and tries to flex out of its connector on the motherboard, but seems stable.

It comes supplied with 'medium' heat-pipes; while selecting components I called QuietPC (Streacoms' main suppliers in the UK) to see if they would fit my chosen motherboard (Asus Z170i) and was told they would, but they didn't - too long. I ordered the short heatpipes but they were too short and didn't clear the motherboard heatsink just north of the chipset.

So operation mod began. With pliers, I managed to change the shape of the original longer heatpipes so that they: a) cleared the heatsink, b) ended up being the right length between the socket and the radiator wall, which meant that c) I would need to rotate the flat bit on the ends such that they were flush with the radiator wall, given they were at new angles, d) all roughly had the same orientation with each other as they were supposed to (so that they could all fit with the cpu heatsink adaptor, and the radiator wall fittings), and e) vaguely had the same cylindrical shape as they originally had in order to transfer heat efficiently. I hadn't done anything regarding design or technology really for maybe 20 years so needless to say this was a 'faff'. A gigantic one. Took me maybe about five-six hours of patient, well-lit, well-magnified, precision plying.

I don't know the dimensions of other mini-ITX motherboards but I can't imagine Streacom did a huge amount of testing with different motherboards if this not particularly rare Asus motherboard required heatpipes that were in-between the short and medium length. Fairly frustrating but I persevered and it currently works well.









I would not want to repeat this - if you buy this case, make sure the chipset is in the right place on the motherboard for this case, otherwise you will have a lot of heartache.

If you can ensure this, the case works well. Heat is being dissipated fairly efficiently and under full load for an hour it's reaching 90C; idling it's at 30C.

[shimsim]

FYI your not supposed to be bending or pinching the heatpipes like that, its amazing they are working at all . Streacom do a heatpipe kit called the MH1 for that CPU location.

[wazzickle]

I'm sure you're well-intentioned but unfortunately you're wrong on both fronts. The MH1 heatpipes were the short ones I ordered that I RMAed; according to Streacoms' website - http://www.streacom.com/support/system-build-guide/ - on the 'general info' tab, it says 'Heatpipes are hollow to allow the working fluid to move, so whilst they can be bent and shaped, any sharp bends will cause the hollow center to be blocked causing poor performance.' Whether or not these are 'sharp bends' is open to discussion but it does work. It also says in another section that you can do without one of the pipes and the system will still function, so it's possible one of them is releasing fluid, not sure how I'd test for it.

[Biscuit]

Thanks for the report dude, this is a case I have often looked at but veered away from as I expected to experience the kind of compatibility problems you have demonstrated. Glad its working for you in the end though!

[shimsim]

I'm sure you're well-intentioned but unfortunately you're wrong on both fronts. The MH1 heatpipes were the short ones I ordered that I RMAed; according to Streacoms' website - - on the 'general info' tab, it says 'Heatpipes are hollow to allow the working fluid to move, so whilst they can be bent and shaped, any sharp bends will cause the hollow center to be blocked causing poor performance.' Whether or not these are 'sharp bends' is open to discussion but it does work. It also says in another section that you can do without one of the pipes and the system will still function, so it's possible one of them is releasing fluid, not sure how I'd test for it.

Wrong is a little harsh The MH1 is definitely designed for that CPU location, but I just noticed why you could not use them, that motherboard has a heatsink to the right of the CPU which blocks the heatpipes, hence you needing to bend the heatpipes. So actually its more about poor motherboard choice
Anyway, reason I mentioned it was because 90c is a bit on the high side, so I just suspected that those bends have significantly reduced the performance of the heatpipes. A better way to have done it would have been to use the HT4 and SH2 heatpipes, its not officially mentioned, but if you have an Alpha version (which you do), it is compatible and would have solved the issue of that motherboard heatsink blocking the heatpipes.

[wazzickle]

Wrong is a little harsh The MH1 is definitely designed for that CPU location, but I just noticed why you could not use them, that motherboard has a heatsink to the right of the CPU which blocks the heatpipes, hence you needing to bend the heatpipes. So actually its more about poor motherboard choice
Anyway, reason I mentioned it was because 90c is a bit on the high side, so I just suspected that those bends have significantly reduced the performance of the heatpipes. A better way to have done it would have been to use the HT4 and SH2 heatpipes, its not officially mentioned, but if you have an Alpha version (which you do), it is compatible and would have solved the issue of that motherboard heatsink blocking the heatpipes.

Even if it weren't for that heatsink neither of the heatpipes (the one supplied with the case nor the ones I bought) would have been the right length, either too long or too short.

Do you work for streacom or quietpc?

[Pob255]

I think he might be referring to the way you've bent them, Because they do look very pinched at your new bends.
Yes heat pipes are called that because they are hollow sealed pipes, with a small amount of liquid and some form of wick inside, heat from the cpu boils the liquid inside turning it into vapour, which travels along the pipe away from the heat where it re-condenses, releasing the heatand then being drawn back to the hot end via capillary action via the "wick"
The wick can take several forms, from a simple bit of string put inside the pipe, a copper wire mesh tube along the inside walls of the pipe, simple rifled grooves or a thick bonded powder coating.

[wazzickle]

Knowing what I know now I wouldn't do the same build again but having said that it idles at 30 and playing back 1080p it gets to about 50 so I'm fairly happy with it as it stands.

[Pob255]

Well from the sound of it you've not ruptured the heat pipes, which is the big risk when bending them, however you've probably reduced their efficiency by pinching them.
But as this is an HTPC you're not going to be putting it under heavy loads for extended periods or overclocking so you should be ok.

You might of been better off cutting down or removing the heat sink on the motherboard that was blocking the shorter heat pipe set, but what's done is done.
It still might be an option to look at later if you get issues with heat esp in the summer when it gets hot. (also are those temps with the case open or closed?

All told this is one to remember, when using specialist cooling solutions non-standard pcb layout is something to be wary of, esp on high end components (where non-standard layouts are more common) granted this more commonly occurs with graphics cards and aftermarket coolers and will often require some some personal intervention.
And I do salute you for trying to find a way around your issues, as I said bending heat pipes is a tricky thing to do and you can easily totally right them off by rupturing them if your not careful.

EDIT: that motherboard heatsink is on the power regulation MOFETS they should be fine without a heatsink as long as you're not overclocking.

[wazzickle]

I tried detaching that heatsink, but I would still have been left with the problem of the pipes being either too long or too short. This chipset placement requires a custom-length, in-between the short and medium, heatpipe length, regardless of that heatsink. In order to make the longer ones fit anyway, I had to bend them.

[Bonebreaker777]

Great work, DIY rulez!