The
MAGMAcolosseum...may it be helpful for anyone interested
Thanks to Macrom for the first passive cooling solution on a NEMO.
This feedback references a
Fractal Design Define R3 case.
First off...as you can see on the pictures, this thing is huge.
That comes with pros and cons.
Lets start with the disadvantages.
1) You can't reach the two top fans anymore without some fiddling.
The shielding plates are thin enough to still be installed and deinstalled,
but Fans in sizes of 120mm and 140mm are not (the only two sizes one can use
without creating an "air loop" around the fans), as you won't able to place the
space in the ceiling from either side.
The way to do it is to (ab)use one of the front 5,25" bays to reach a fan
through and install it by pushing it gently over the MAGMAcolosseum.
The Fans, given a "normal" height of 2.5cm max, will touch the
MAGMAcolosseum slightly but will not bend it in any direction, thus not
performing any more force to the mainboard and they also won't be limited in
it's airflow (the wings can freely rotate).
You should think about installing or removing those fans before you place and
secure the MAGMAcolosseum.
HINT:
Spare them, that thing does the cooling well enough to drop those fans.
2) It says in the installation manual to only use original ram modules, those
that hasn't been tampered with in any kind, no heatspreaders or other funny
stuff. The reason for this is that the height of those changed modules will
prevent the heatsink from actually making contact with the CPU at all.
ATTENTION:
If you are installing the MAGMAcolosseum without having the mainboard lying
flat in front of you, you won't be able to check if there is actually contact!
This is due to the cramped space once the heatsink is in place)
Scary Side-Story:
I installed the MAGMAcolosseum with Heatspreader RAMs (didn't read the manual
close enough) and missed that the heatsink didn't touch the CPU (there was at
least 1mm of air above the CPU).
The CPU still didn't go above 70°C in the CFE Idle Test.
(Awesome Design by P.A. Semi - Repect!)
3) Due to the sheer size of the MAGMAcolosseum you won't be able to use the
first PCI-E slot.
According to the X1000 manual the seond slot only uses 8 of the 16 lanes.
Despite the tests with GPU hogging games and programs (lol) i wasn't able to
encounter any slowdowns or drawbacks.
Even the direct comparision with a similar card as mine and the 2D Benchmark
Test didn't show any differences.
Purists and those you seek raw power might be put off by this fact.
An inquiry to the developer of the graphics card driver (Hans de Ruiter) got me
the following answer:
"It would halve the RAM <=>VRAM bandwidth. That will affect how fast data
is transferred to/from VRAM, so it will affect video playback and CPU
rendering. Whether it's noticeable in anything but benchmarks remains to
be seen.
It might also slow down submission of commands to the GPU, but that's
already limited because we're not using GART/DMA, so I doubt that this
will be noticeable."
(Thanks to Hans de Ruiter for his time)
4) After the installation it is not possible to replace or add any RAM modules
due to missing space between RAM modules and heatpipes.
Now for the advantages.
1) The installation is, like it was with it's little brother MAGMAcooler,
extremely well explained and very easy to do and should be able to be performed
by anyone.
The modifications done are well thought through and matches the needs of the
Nemo board perfectly. Furthermore are the used materials of a great quality.
(Metal, not some cheap plastic)
2) Due to the massive and superb manufacturing (by NoFan of South Korea) you
only need one fan which should be placed somewhere high up and in the back of
the case to support the natural convection of the MAGMAcolosseum.
HINT:
In conjunction with a passively cooled graphics card there is nothing stopping
you building a "nearly" completely passively cooled Amiga.
3) The possible fan in the side door can still be easily installed, as the
MAGMAcolosseum ends a little bit above it.
HINT:
Spare it
4) The cooling performance is awesome and it's passive.
Comparision figures:
(The first value corresponds to the measurement of the MAGMAcolosseum with only
*one* 120mm fan installed at the backside. The other two values were measured
with *five(!)* fans. (Reason? It got two hot for my taste!)
(2x 140mm Top, 120mm Backside, 140mm Side Door, 120mm on the CPU with a
size adaptor)
The whole setup is in a room with a temperature of approximately 21°C.
(The first braces hold the values measured with the MAGMAcooler)
(The second braces hold the values measured with the original heatsink/fan)
CFE (Idle):
Local: 29°C (31°C) (30°C)
Remote1:35°C (44°C) (46°C)
Remote2: 33°C (41°C) (43°C)
Remote3: 31°C (39°C) (41°C)
Gain:
MAGMAcollosseum --> Original heatsink/fan: ~23%
MAGMAcollosseum --> MAGMAcooler: ~20%
Workbench (Idle):
Case: 33°C (33°C) (34°C)
CPU: 35°C (41°C) (45°C)
Core1: 39°C (46°C) (50°C)
Core2: 37°C (43°C) (47°C)
Gain:
MAGMAcollosseum --> Original heatsink/fan: ~22%
MAGMAcollosseum --> MAGMAcooler: ~14%
Workbench (100% CPU Usage):
Case: 34°C (34°C) (35°C)
CPU: 36°C (43°C) (47°C)
Core1: 41°C (49°C) (54°C)
Core2: 39°C (46°C) (50°C)
Gain:
MAGMAcollosseum --> Original heatsink/fan: ~23%
MAGMAcollosseum --> MAGMAcooler: ~16%
The MAGMAcooler already adds a lot to the cooling, but it's still beaten by
the superior MAGMAcolosseum. And it's passive!
Additionally to the fact that case fans are more or less obsolete with this
solution and that it adds a whole deal to the lower noise gain, it's just a
feast for the eyes if you are a modder.
The Conclusion:
Thumbs way up
for a clear recommendation to buy!