Ask Slashdot: Passively Cooled Hardware For Game Emulation? 229
akutz writes "I recently sold a 2011 Mac mini on Craigslist because after using it to rip my Blu-ray collection, I tried to use it as an emulation station connected to my TV. However, emulators like Dolphin, BSNES, etc. would cause the Mac mini's fans to spin up like turbine engines — much too loud for my liking. I ask, therefore: What hardware would you recommend for building a passively cooled mini-system that will serve as a media center's emulation station?"
short answer: you don't, go for slow, silent fans (Score:5, Informative)
i've ried to go fully fanless, with very low-power CPUs (atom, E-350) and no graphics card. The T climbs quickly. OTOH, a low-power CPU (i3 2100T with the included 600 RPM fan, a PSU with a quiet FAN and an 80+ gold rating, and probably no graphics card, will make no audible noise, less than the hard disk. silentpcreview.com has lists and reviews of components.
Go to silentpcreview.com (Score:5, Informative)
http://www.silentpcreview.com/ [silentpcreview.com]
Or a complete solution from Zotac for330 USD:
http://techreport.com/articles.x/21556 [techreport.com]
Re:short answer: you don't, go for slow, silent fa (Score:5, Informative)
Right; the next jump from "the Mac Mini fans are too loud" doesn't have to be fanless, which is particularly troublesome in an emulator situation where the CPU will always be running. The key to low noise fans is to get big ones that move air even at lower speeds, which right now means 120mm. Using fans that are too small, in order to make the case really tiny, is what the Mac Mini does wrong for this application. A case like the Sugo SG05-B [newegg.com] will give you those in a reasonable form factor. It won't be tiny, but there's a fundamental trade-off here: you can either make your fans cool well, be small, or be quiet--never all three at once. I have done here on past emulator boxes is to use a case with a larger fan like that, combined with one of the Zotac Mini ITX boards using an Intel Atom processor.
submerge in mineral oil (Score:4, Informative)
Simple solution:
Buy several large 4 liter cans of shop grade mineral oil (It doesnt have the "perfume" normally found in baby oil, which is also mineral oil), and a small aquarium. Put some shiny black light aquarium rocks in the bottom.
Put the systemboard, including the heatsink and fan, directly into the aquarium. (I would suggest something in a tiny form factor, like a mini ITX, since you can use a beefy wall wart to power it, rather than a full blown PSU.)
Route cables up and out the top through a repurposed aquarium filter tube. Where the charcoal filter would be in the tank filter, use wireties to control the cabling. You can put a cable switch box in there to serve as the port end connect point, so your normal AV and HID cables arent hanging out of the "water".
Populate the tank with those mechanical bobbing fish, and some bubbler toys.
Fill the tank with the mineral oil, drop in some aquarium bubbler stones for dramatic effect, and place a blacklight in the aquarium tank light of the cover.
VOILA. Something that wont sound like a jet engine, has heavy thermal mass to dissipate the heat of the system, has a continual supply of lubricant for the ball-bearing CPU fan, and makes an interesting accent to the room all in one go.
The fish arent real, and the mineral oil doesnt evaporate, so you never have to clean the tank, assuming you keep ambient dust out.
Re:That is the best idea (Score:4, Informative)
However if you insist on fanless, the answer is to go large, not small. A tiny system like a mini has to have fans since there isn't much room for heat sinks.
Tell that to the massive heat sink on the ASUS E35M1-I [newegg.com] motherboard.
With that and a quiet laptop hard drive and fanless power supply, it's finally truly possible to build a completely silent (from 3 feet or so) small form-factor machine that doesn't perform like 5-year-old hardware.
Re:submerge in mineral oil (Score:4, Informative)
Mineral oil works.
But one should be aware of the effects of condensation. Any water which condenses in the system (and it will, especially if you're pumping non-dry atmospheric air through it for show) will settle to a layer at the bottom, and may eventually become ruinous to any electronics it finds.
Not that this is likely to be a big deal straight away, but it could eventually become one. Keeping the board(s) elevated a bit, with a little drain valve under the layer of rocks should fix that up neatly enough. A few drops of a water-based dye that isn't solvent in oil (food coloring?) to better visually differentiate the layers might be fun, too.
Such home modification generally stipulates the use of an aquarium made from either acrylic or non-tempered glass, but both are easy to find (10gal and smaller are generally non-tempered, as a rule).
Later on down the road (probably years from now), just drain off the water. There's no need to try to get it all out since that won't happen anyway. Then, for maximum material efficiency, just boil the results to get rid of the water and put it any leftover oil back in the tank. :)