Cooling down SamEp

Hello, I am thinking of adding some cooling components in my SamEp440. I don't have any particular problem, I am doing it for the fun and to see how much I can bring down the heat in my case (40 degrees Celsius right now). I am using a Thermaltake M40 and I am about to add 3 8.00mm fans in the next couple of days + 5.25'' bay interface to manipulate all of them.

Moreover, I am thinking of adding the following:

1) THERMALTAKE CL-R0029 RAM ORB COOLER ( http://www.thermaltakeusa.com/Product.aspx?C=1306&ID=1810 )

Question: Will this work with the current RAM of the SamEp? (which isn't soldered on board btw). If not, which RAM cooler should I buy?

2) I will be buying ATI Radeon 9250 graphic card from here http://www.acube-systems.biz/index.php?page=hardware&pid=6 .

Question: Will tis VGA passive Cooler work with http://www.zalman.co.kr/eng/product/Product_Read.asp?idx=137 ? It seems that it is installable to any gfx bearing holes. However, I am not sure. Also, how do I uninstall the on board passive cooling from the gfx?

3) From this picture http://www.efunzine.com/efnz.php?a=po ... 0a0c2fd51f989ddd83fbc0505 you have a clear view of the SamEp.

Question: In which chips is it safe to add the following copper components http://www.sidewindercomputers.com/enmofocomohe.html or/and this http://www.thermaltake.com/product_in ... 001331&name=EHC+250&ovid=

4) In this picture http://www.vesalia.de/e_sam440ep.htm you can see the Sam with the on board gfx/cpu passive coolers. How these can be unistalled and what is the best alternative buying better/more expensive passive coolers?

@Cool_amigaN

Quote:
I strongly suggest you to not remove the passive cooling from the onboard gfx chip.
By it's nature, with the 4 gfx ram chips on the top of the gfx chip, it's a fragile components from a mechanical point.

If you need to cool down the Sam, a fan blowing air on both cpu and gfx heat sinks is enough.

@m3x

Hello, thanks for answering!

I was referring to the onboard passive cooling of the Radeon 9250 128MB PCI and not the onboard M9 64MB. If I do not unistall it, I cannot install the zalman passive cooling.

Still, I will take your advice and not touch the on board passive cooling of the M9. How about to the cpu one? Can I install an alternative? If yes, which?

Anyway, seems you are familiar with the Sam, can you please spend 5 mins from your time, checking the links with the components I am reviewing?

Thanks in advance!

@Cool_amigaN

Quote:

eh, eh .... about! He is " ACube" and IIRC the one who designed it

@Framiga

"He" has also gone to a lot of trouble calculating and designing the heat sink that is fitted to the Sam.

My Sam is mounted in a plastic instrument case that gets pretty warm inside on a hot day. I'm using a 40 mm fan mounted in the rear panel to blow a little air into the box. I say "a little" because it's a 12V fan running from 5V, I can't hear it unless I listen around the back.

Why not get yourself an old Pentium PC? Then you can go to town on making cooling systems for it. The Sam really doesn't need to be interfered with.

Quote:

My Sam440ep is completely FANLESS. The Heatsinks become very hot but it?s not enough to burn my hand, so i guess its under 60 degree Celsius.

I did not face any Problems even on very hot days.

@tonyw

Quote:

are you drunk or what?

@fingus Quote:
Although my Sam's main stability problems turned out to be badly seated RAM, I still think I got some instability after a few hours due to it overheating in it's *tiny* case. Therefore I now have a fan running at all times....

Also I rather see CPU+GPU temperatures around 40 degrees than ~60 degrees and because of that, a silent fan cooling those heat sinks is nice to have.

http://amigaworld.net/modules/myalbum/photo.php?lid=601

SAM is not good for beer heating, btw.

People, please try to be on topic. If someone has the appropriate knowledge please answer my questions.

@Cool_amigaN

You can coold down the case only by increasing the airflow through the case. Nothing else has any effect. (Law of physics)

I think you should simply leave passively cooled CPU, M9, RAM and PCI radeon just like they are.

If one wants to cool the components better, one could build tunnels inside the case to direct the air flow.

+ remember that every fan also consumes electricity and transforms the energy to heat. So the system will generate more heat after one ads a cooler, so better have only one fan on the air flow exit and one on the intake..

I have an Antec Aria case and the PSU just stopped working. The PSU had the only fan in the case, but since it's non-standard it's not easily replaceable. Instead I have ordered a picopsu and plan to remove the original power supply, which opens up the back/top of the case quite a bit.

Considering that it's not an ultra-cramped case, should it not be enough with the built-in passive cooling, a fair amount of space and a PSU that is external?

I do have a fan that can fit in one of the PCI port slots on the back, but if I can avoid active cooling I'd much rather do that, since there are no moving mechanical parts besides the DVD drive.

I use a Thermaltake case, so no problems with cooling.