Custom cooling DIY-style

[Guest]

Hi everyone.

Today I've set up my custom cooling solution for my HPH box which now runs much cooler than before.

Here are my steps, together with images taken during the time of the whole procedure.

1. Searching through ****, I found one big 120mm near-silent cooler which almost perfectly fits the box size.



I've put four screws on each side of the cooler to serve as a stand, because the box will be on top of it, and the cooler will suck hot air above it and push it down and away from the box. I even cut tiny sponge pieces for every screw, so the cooler vibrations don't spread over the wooden table the cooler sits on.



Ofcourse, the cooler is powered via USB, so it can be easily connected to the box itself or an usb hub. I prefer the latter, because I have a hub with switches for every usb port, so I can turn the cooler on and off simply by turning the switch.



2. Next, I removed bottom "cover" of my box (@Tina: I guess my warranty is over now LOL), and then positioned it on top of the cooler.



Again, additionaly, I've put four sponge pieces in between to space out the cooler and the box a few more millimeters, and at the same time I prevented "slipperyness" when plastic box goes over the plastic cooler. I didn't want to glue them together, just in case I want to take everything apart.



3. And this is how it looks like in the end.



Not a piece of art, but gets the job done. And it sits behind my TV anyway.

For the "idling" time and low-powered tasks (music straming, internet browsing, watching movies, etc), the box is below cool levels, compared to even hot situations before. And that's inside my room with temperature of 20-25°C. During summer, when the temperatures will be 10-15°C more, this setup will come even more handy.

I still didn't test the setup with high-demaning games, but I certainly will, as the box is my main "gaming-rig" Next, I'm planning to flash some overclocked kernels (cpu/ram/gpu), and see how my setup copes with it.

So, what do you guys think? Would you improve something? I'll appreciate your suggestions.

And btw, has anyone figured out which temp file does CpuTemp Xposed module reads, so I can measure it?

[no_spam_for_me]

... one more "Lunar Lander"

[Guest]

V2 will feature Pathfinder

[RISCy Dude]

Hi everyone.

Today I've set up my custom cooling solution for my HPH box which now runs much cooler than before.

Here are my steps, together with images taken during the time of the whole procedure.

1. Searching through ****, I found one big 120mm near-silent cooler which almost perfectly fits the box size.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]10461[/ATTACH]

I've put four screws on each side of the cooler to serve as a stand, because the box will be on top of it, and the cooler will suck hot air above it and push it down and away from the box. I even cut tiny sponge pieces for every screw, so the cooler vibrations don't spread over the wooden table the cooler sits on.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]10466[/ATTACH]

Ofcourse, the cooler is powered via USB, so it can be easily connected to the box itself or an usb hub. I prefer the latter, because I have a hub with switches for every usb port, so I can turn the cooler on and off simply by turning the switch.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]10462[/ATTACH]

2. Next, I removed bottom "cover" of my box (@Tina: I guess my warranty is over now LOL), and then positioned it on top of the cooler.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]10463[/ATTACH]

Again, additionaly, I've put four sponge pieces in between to space out the cooler and the box a few more millimeters, and at the same time I prevented "slipperyness" when plastic box goes over the plastic cooler. I didn't want to glue them together, just in case I want to take everything apart.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]10465[/ATTACH]

3. And this is how it looks like in the end.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]10464[/ATTACH]

Not a piece of art, but gets the job done. And it sits behind my TV anyway.

For the "idling" time and low-powered tasks (music straming, internet browsing, watching movies, etc), the box is below cool levels, compared to even hot situations before. And that's inside my room with temperature of 20-25°C. During summer, when the temperatures will be 10-15°C more, this setup will come even more handy.

I still didn't test the setup with high-demaning games, but I certainly will, as the box is my main "gaming-rig" Next, I'm planning to flash some overclocked kernels (cpu/ram/gpu), and see how my setup copes with it.

So, what do you guys think? Would you improve something? I'll appreciate your suggestions.

And btw, has anyone figured out which temp file does CpuTemp Xposed module reads, so I can measure it?

Hello, So far, it looks like you and I are the only ones crazy enough to choose a 120mm fan for our RK3288 cooling needs. I figured as long as I was adding a fan, why not go nuts. As they say, "In for a penny in for a pound". Besides, these 120mm move a lot of air on the quiet. Temp reduction was almost dramatic. Your HPH and my UT3 are nearly twins(inside). Mine looks goofy, but I'm a "function before form" type. See my "over-mod" here.
Looking forward to your results.
Have fun.

[Guest]

Hey, your UT3 cooling mod looks good too And as long as hot air is sucked out from the case, the temps should be quite low compared to stock ones. HPH has completely passive cooling, so I was prepared to do something about it even more. Crazy or not, I don't know, but it's not nearly as heavy as my desktop mods I've done in the past. In this case, one must only remove the cover, and everything else is done outside the box.

Yesterday, I did several 3DMark/Antutu/GfxBench runs over the period of about half an hour, and the box simply can't warm up lol The top box cover feels to the touch almost like when it's shut down completely. But when I switch off the fan, it warms up within minutes even when doing nothing (just sitting on the home screen).

Anyway, you gave me one more idea. I will try to add a fan speed control to make the fan even more silent (it is a 5V 800RPM 15dB and 28 CFM air volume). Additionaly, I will drill four tiny holes on edges of top cover, so that fresh air can be sucked into the box and air will circulate more easily.

I hope I will find some time today to do that, together with temps measuring. Did you try to overclock your UT3? If there are modded kernels out there for your model. I'm very interested in how my cooling system would react. I did see somewhere before people trying to push cpu to 2.2Ghz, but the temps were out of the safety zone lol...

[Electroman]

12 volt fan hooked up with a 5 volt usb cable? Does it run a little... slow?

[Guest]

Yes, it runs slow as intended It does enough air flow even @5V.
I wanted to slow it even more @3V, but I'll leave it as it is now.
Drilling the top cover is also out of the game. I want to keep the box original.

Anyway, I did some more testing with AnTuTu stability test (much heavier than the standard regular test), which gave me some shocking news! I also installed Cpu Temp Xposed module beforehand, to measure the temps reported by the system itself. With the bottom cover off, the temperature reached 96C! That's freakin HOT! I don't even want to imagine what is going inside when the cover is on. Ofcourse, that's not anyone's daily usage, at least not for a long time, but anyway, for me, is very disturbing if data is correct. I also got the same temps in one or two other apps, so I guess the temps are right. Idling without the fan goes around 50C, and now when I'm typing this, streaming internet radio, and seeding some torrents, the temperature is around 65C, again a bit too much for me.

Now the juicy part. When everything cooled down, I ran another test with my fan turned on. The temperature never went above 62C, but most of the time it was jumping around 55C. That's 40C difference! Not a small change at all. Idling goes around 36C, which is acceptable. I admit, I don't know how much rk3288 can take, but cooler temperature certainly gives longer life to all of the components inside the box.

So afterall, I'm not regretting a single second of my effort in doing all what was neccessary in this procedure. I also plan to flash some custom kernels and see how the box behaves overclocked. Until then, keep your hot chips safe!

[Gilgamesh]

it would have helped alot if this box came with some holes at the bottom.

[Guest]

For all those people not ready for modding time, at least position the box on its side, or make a stand for it, so the bottom is not in direct contact with the surface it sits on. That way the heat from below the box will have a better chance going away. But it is also not very hard to take the bottom cover off, and position the box upside down, so the heat can go up and away from the box. Either way, your box will breathe easier. It won't be pretty to look at, but you will prolong its life for sure. If looks really matters, put it out of your sight, like behind your tv etc.

[Guest]

I'm attaching pictures of my new v2 custom cooling solution, now even with custom case solution!
Before it was the Lunar Lander, and now I'm presenting you the - khmm - Hamburger! tadaaa! lol

This time I completely removed the board from the original case and put it inside a box from... whatever it was before lol - but it perfectly fits the board dimensions. It's not on the pictures, but the bottom part of the case case has ventilation holes and it's about half an inch lifted above the surface it sits on, so the air circulates inside whole case. I've also cut the plastic on sides of the box, so all peripherals can be connected as before.

On top of the case is the fan from v1 as it is still doing a good job. Between the case and the fan I've put thick rubber/foam to reduce vibrations from the fan. On top of the fan I mounted a speaker grill lol, to add some finish to esthetics and also to reduce amount of dust that would fall into the case.

The fan is an out-take fan, which again as v1 sucks out the hot air and push it outside and away from the box. From all what I've tried so far, this seems to be the most effective solution. When overclocked, the temperature never goes above 64°C, but most of the time it's between 55-60°C under load. When switching back to idle mode, it needs only like 30 seconds or so to drop at 35°C.

Hope you like it!

Next - water cooling!

[trebor]

Paint the speaker grill Red.
Cheers

[Guest]

Paint the speaker grill Red.

There's no need for panic, so I'll save the button for later

[[email protected]]

Hi everyone.

Today I've set up my custom cooling solution for my HPH box which now runs much cooler than before.

Here are my steps, together with images taken during the time of the whole procedure.

1. Searching through ****, I found one big 120mm near-silent cooler which almost perfectly fits the box size.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]10461[/ATTACH]

I've put four screws on each side of the cooler to serve as a stand, because the box will be on top of it, and the cooler will suck hot air above it and push it down and away from the box. I even cut tiny sponge pieces for every screw, so the cooler vibrations don't spread over the wooden table the cooler sits on.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]10466[/ATTACH]

Ofcourse, the cooler is powered via USB, so it can be easily connected to the box itself or an usb hub. I prefer the latter, because I have a hub with switches for every usb port, so I can turn the cooler on and off simply by turning the switch.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]10462[/ATTACH]

2. Next, I removed bottom "cover" of my box (@Tina: I guess my warranty is over now LOL), and then positioned it on top of the cooler.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]10463[/ATTACH]

Again, additionaly, I've put four sponge pieces in between to space out the cooler and the box a few more millimeters, and at the same time I prevented "slipperyness" when plastic box goes over the plastic cooler. I didn't want to glue them together, just in case I want to take everything apart.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]10465[/ATTACH]

3. And this is how it looks like in the end.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]10464[/ATTACH]

Not a piece of art, but gets the job done. And it sits behind my TV anyway.

For the "idling" time and low-powered tasks (music straming, internet browsing, watching movies, etc), the box is below cool levels, compared to even hot situations before. And that's inside my room with temperature of 20-25°C. During summer, when the temperatures will be 10-15°C more, this setup will come even more handy.

I still didn't test the setup with high-demaning games, but I certainly will, as the box is my main "gaming-rig" Next, I'm planning to flash some overclocked kernels (cpu/ram/gpu), and see how my setup copes with it.

So, what do you guys think? Would you improve something? I'll appreciate your suggestions.

And btw, has anyone figured out which temp file does CpuTemp Xposed module reads, so I can measure it?

Hello Burs,

Indeed you give me a great solution.... and a good idea, thanks so much to you
I do same as you did also i removed the down cover same as you did
I install 12cm fan unit cooling but with 12volt power , my HPH TV BOX seems after running the fan cold and perfect

see the photo below




My greeting & respect
Hani