Ekterm
.
So I really like modifying cooling systems and I am convinced enough that this is possible to go full steam ahead and build it!
I honestly have a LOT of other stuff going on though so I may not finish it for a couple years even, just wanted to get a discussion going and maybe solve some issues so that other people can try it too.
The benifits, naturally, are that without a fan it would be slimmer and have slightly less power consumption.
I realize this is right on the edge of being able to be cooled passively, but here is my thermal design:
- De-lid the chips
- Backplate for the chips to increase mounting pressure
- Replace 1.8v LDO with a switching power supply
- good quality thermal compound
- Back of the portable machined out of aluminum/copper (might need to integrate heatpipes) and ridged for more surface area
- Tablet/Switch design for maximum size of the back
This would give it the entire surface area of the exposed back to act as a heatsink, on the size I'm planning that might be like 30 square inches. The board itself uses around 6W, plus a couple for the screen and regulators, and this should be about the amount of heat this is able to dissipate, I would do some more calculations once I get closer. One issue I thought of is the adverse effects the temperature would have on the batteries, maybe a way to protect them...
For reference, the Intel Core i7-7Y75 has a max TDP of 7W (although typical of 4.5 watts cubed, whatever that means, source:cpubenchmark.net), and looking up some laptops that have it, you can get an idea of the type of cooling system those need, although they do have the ability to throttle.
This is an Acer Swift 7 with the aforementioned i7:
Another example is the Acer Switch 7 Black Edition, it houses the i7-8550U (max TDP of 25W) AND an Nvidia MX150 (either 25W or 10W apparently, source:notebookcheck.net), so thats a combined maximum passive heat dissipation of at least 35 Watts!!! It utilizes a big loop heatpipe on the back, and has a larger area than the Wii portable would.
I honestly have a LOT of other stuff going on though so I may not finish it for a couple years even, just wanted to get a discussion going and maybe solve some issues so that other people can try it too.
The benifits, naturally, are that without a fan it would be slimmer and have slightly less power consumption.
I realize this is right on the edge of being able to be cooled passively, but here is my thermal design:
- De-lid the chips
- Backplate for the chips to increase mounting pressure
- Replace 1.8v LDO with a switching power supply
- good quality thermal compound
- Back of the portable machined out of aluminum/copper (might need to integrate heatpipes) and ridged for more surface area
- Tablet/Switch design for maximum size of the back
This would give it the entire surface area of the exposed back to act as a heatsink, on the size I'm planning that might be like 30 square inches. The board itself uses around 6W, plus a couple for the screen and regulators, and this should be about the amount of heat this is able to dissipate, I would do some more calculations once I get closer. One issue I thought of is the adverse effects the temperature would have on the batteries, maybe a way to protect them...
For reference, the Intel Core i7-7Y75 has a max TDP of 7W (although typical of 4.5 watts cubed, whatever that means, source:cpubenchmark.net), and looking up some laptops that have it, you can get an idea of the type of cooling system those need, although they do have the ability to throttle.
This is an Acer Swift 7 with the aforementioned i7:
Another example is the Acer Switch 7 Black Edition, it houses the i7-8550U (max TDP of 25W) AND an Nvidia MX150 (either 25W or 10W apparently, source:notebookcheck.net), so thats a combined maximum passive heat dissipation of at least 35 Watts!!! It utilizes a big loop heatpipe on the back, and has a larger area than the Wii portable would.
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