Amiga X5k CPU Cooler

OK, nothing to worry about then It's amazing how low geennaam's X5000 CPU temperature is.

I have two fans blowing hot air out of the case but none to blow cool air into the case.

@smf

Quote:

I had the same problem, the built-in fan was ok at the beginning but got louder and louder over time, so I decided to use the Noctua NF-A4x10 FLX, Quiet Premium Fan, 3-Pin (40x10mm, Brown) my system is now very quiet and I'm happy with it.

CPU temp shows me 64 degrees, but I suspect the software is not measuring this accurately. I also checked it again after intensive use of my hardware (2 hours of operation) the CPU cooler was just lukewarm.

As far as I know, the x5000 also uses a 40x10 fan standard configuration.

Here you can see a picture of the new fan I have installed:

X5000 is a 60mm fan. You can get (or 3D print) an 80 -> 60 baffle / adapter but it does impact cooling and can make more noise because of the air hitting the baffle.

I don't really know why my temps sit around 64C when Geennam's are so much lower as I use the same model of case as him (I took his recommendation). Maybe I don't have my case fans up so high? I think you can change the speed of them? But realistically 64 isn't going to be an issue on a CPU that is good up into the 90's. My CPU may sit at 64C the bulk of the time but I've never really seen it do much more than that. If we ever get multi-core then maybe the topic of temps might come up again. That's assuming the idle core is currently in some low power state. I don't know how these things work. Don't really need to know either. Will have to see the latest update come AmiWest but unless much progress has been made then I'm doubtful a stable multi-core will ever see the light of day at this point. But that's a different topic.

I might need to revisit this. I know the weather is hot at the moment, but my case fans are on max, there's cold air blowing out the top (it's a bottom to top, chimney effect case) and yet my system is sitting there idle at 70C.

That's getting a bit high for literally doing nothing more than a few startup items like the dock, etc.

That heatsink is just too small

Longtime ago I asked here what the spacing for the cooler mounting holes were, as Marcus used to sell PC heatsinks for the X5000.

Someone in good faith anwsered that the spacings were 60x60mm, but in hindsight I might have been given spacings for the fan mount and not the heatsink.

If the X5000 cooler mount might use standard PC spacings after all then it could open a world of off the shelf coolers for the X5000 to properly lower the temps and noise level.

@Helloworld

If you mean these screws, then they are 63mm between screws, vertically and horizontally. Obviously diagonally will be more.

There's also more to it than just the size. You'd need a backplate for pretty much all modern coolers due to the flex they would add to the PCB. That backplate needs to clear all the SMT components on the back. That can probably be achieved with some non-conductive spacers. And then there's that weight and how it would affect the PCB and the CPU. Is the CPU socketed for example or is it BGA soldered? I don't know the answer to that as I've never had this heat sink off.

I don't think there's anything "off-the-shelf" that will work that's likely to be quieter. I think these CPUs are more accustomed to rack mount kit where noise doesn't matter, though I am guessing there.




[EDIT] I just went and measured a few random motherboards and coolers. They're all in the region of 73-85mm screw spacing for the mounts so way off. Which ties up with what I remember from when I got my X5K board.

Does anyone know the person that used to make them? Would they perhaps be willing to release the design to the community? Why did they stop? Did they just not want to do it any more or were people having problems? I have a couple of friends with the know-how and the kit to do something like that. Of course convincing them that they want to spend the time doing it when they already have their own things they want to do is another matter, but you can only ask.

@MartinW

Hmm, too bad, I was hoping that it was just a intel socket square spacing like LGA775.
The closest I think is socket 370 spacings (60x65mm)

Marcus Bräuker ran an Amiga store called Marcus Computer, he quit in 2016 due to a lack of time.

He used to sell a beefier heatsink, called the MagmaCooler, which allowed for a larger fan and significantly reduced temp.

Not sure what the MagmaCooler was based on but you can see on this archived store page, he also sold the "MagmaColluseum", which seems to be a Nofan CR-95,so he probably made custom mounting kits.

Not sure where to contact him anymore, he wanted to make more coolers in 2020 but didn't get any interest here.


Tower-style heatsinks are definitely the norm nowadays and requires a backplate,
but low profile/non-tower ones often instead have brackets installed on the cooler itself and screws from the back of the mobo into the bracket (e.g. Alphenföhn Black Ridge on AM4).

Making new brackets with threaded inserts probably isn't trivial,
you could drill holes in sheetmetal for a bracket and thread a long screw through the bracket to the back of the mobo
and tighten in down with nuts & metal+isolating washers or something sketchy like that.

Edit, so many, many typos on this phone..

I may try contacting a few companies when I’m back from holiday. I’m about to be using my 5000 a lot more with a bit of luck and the increased noise and temps lately are very annoying and really badly timed. If I hadn’t spent so much on the 5000 I’d be very tempted to build a super quiet 1222 instead.

I contacted "QuietPC" yesterday to ask about custom cooler solutions. Not surprisingly the reply was that they didn't know of anyone who produced anything that wasn't standard AMD or Intel fitting. I'll continue to explore options though.

In the meantime, has anyone removed the standard heatsink? I'm curious if it has thermal paste or a thermal adhesive pad? If it's paste I'm very tempted to remove it and redo the paste with some artic silver or something, see if I can't get my 70C a bit lower.

@MartinW

I found my old heatsink, it's a thermad pad sitting there.




I replaced the heatsink with something i found in my junkbox with old parts and made some plastic holders for it, but if i ever redo it i'll just pick another one that is larger and drill/thread it with the correct spacing.

@smf

Thanks for that picture! It saves me taking it off just to have a look. Honestly, that looks bad on so many levels I'm really not surprised it's getting so hot.