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[steddyman]

I mentioned this in another thread and it could be a dumb idea, but what the heck. In for a penny in for a pound as my dad used to say  

The problem with my box definately seems related to the GPU overheating. This is for the following reasons:

1. It only has a small heat sink.
2. The CPU has a large heat sink, so will be cooling much better.
3. The rear fan speeds are controlled by a CPU sensor rather than a GPU sensor.
4. There is a fan connector at the front of the board that has not been installed.
5. We can't fit a fan on the GPU or a taller heatsink because the DVD-ROM is in the way.
6. This seems like MS miscalculated the DVD-ROM drive space or maybe even changed from a laptop drive to a PC drive to save costs late in the day.

Given all the above, why couldn't we use the DVD-ROM drive as a passive heatsink?

Rather than using a piece of card to duct the GPU heat externally, use a thin piece of tin or some other metal that conducts heat. Attach thermal pads to the top of the heat sink so it makes contact with the metal casing of the DVD-ROM drive,

Wouldn't this work? I doubt the extra heat would be enough to cause the DVD-ROM drive to fail.

Steddyman

[RBJTech]

Unless you actively cool the DVD case (and inside it) then it will just heat up to the point where the DVD drive itself will malfunction - without moving air (ie fan assisted) to get rid of the conducted heat it's no good.

The ONLY way we can get better cooling on the GPU with the room restrictions is to move the heat to somewhere less restricted - ie via a heatpipe or two (or watercooling..)

I've thought about this myself - all we need is a heatpipe incorporated into the existing GPU heatsink, then piped out to the back of the console.  The rad would sit behind the GPU Fan - job done.  

However, on the hunting I've done, I cannot find anything suitable..  (IMG:style_emoticons/default/grr.gif)

I see this as a large market for Talismoon, Nyko or such people - but so far nothing ... (IMG:style_emoticons/default/sad.gif)

[MiahX007]

If the DVD drive casing was aluminum you might have a case for this, then add some heatsinks to the side of it maybe. But as it stands this does not seem plausible.

[steddyman]

Thats a shame.  I'm not sure that I agree that the heat needs to be piped somewhere though.

I have a home built MCE PC which is built around a Lascala LC16 case.

I don't have any fans in this system at all!!  It is completely silent.

It has a 1.86Ghz Core 2 Duo running at 2.6Ghz with a large passive heatsink.

It has a 300W Nightjar PSU which is completely passively cooled.

It also has a Gigabyte Geforce 7600 with Silent Pipes and is passively cooled.

The system gets quite warm at times but it doesn't malfunction.  

It like in your statement about touching the memory chips and them feeling cool.  If you can get enough mass for the heat to sink into (pun intended), it will cool it down.

[steddyman]

Another more radical option would be to buy a HD-DVD drive, then move the internal drive into the external enclosure.  I would then install the spare HD-DVD drive into my MCE PC.

This thread talks about putting the HD-DVD internal, but as a consequence has to put the old DVD drive external:

http://forums.xbox-scene.com/index.php?showtopic=581631

If you only moved the internal drive into the HD-DVD case, you could put a large heatsink and fan on the GPU without problem.

Steddyman

[RBJTech]

QUOTE(steddyman @ Mar 16 2007, 06:37 PM)

Another more radical option would be to buy a HD-DVD drive, then move the internal drive into the external enclosure.  I would then install the spare HD-DVD drive into my MCE PC.

This thread talks about putting the HD-DVD internal, but as a consequence has to put the old DVD drive external:

http://forums.xbox-scene.com/index.php?showtopic=581631

If you only moved the internal drive into the HD-DVD case, you could put a large heatsink and fan on the GPU without problem.

Steddyman

This could be done with two CPU coolers (which I currently have..) Hmm, thought about this myself.  I extended the thought when I saw the thread about the 'large' Xbox360 with the stacked drives.  Rather than do it this way, I would have the drives side by side on the lower bit, leaving you room for two CPU heatsinks on the top bit = perfect solution ...

Don't have the time to play at the moment though - there is so much other stuff I want to get done (unfinished WIP's, fans speed vs cooling analysis etc)..