Scratch Build – In Progress Passive NUC "Bum Muffin" -There, I named it. May 15-final pics on page 4

I've wanted to do a passive version of the Intel NUC module since I received it in the recent BitTech contest. the tiny fan that came stock was dead silent, but the heat blasting off of it told me an upgrade was needed. One healthy ball of dust could play hell with it.
Let's face it; passive systems are NEAT.
I have a set of monster server heatsinks that can be used here. First I needed to make make a plate to attach to one of those sinks...
EDIT:Sinks came from a Dell Precision 620 with dual Pent3 Xeons.

-The main reason this has taken a long time to get finished was that I burned up another motor controller. You can see all kinds of madness occurred while trying to cut the plate. That one path where the bit tried to go to California made it painfully obvious. This pic is after the cutting was completed properly, so some of the real horrors were deleted. That bottom edge still shows off some of the stupid, though.

-So a big heat sink wasn't enough for the last motor controller? FINE! I watercooled this time.

-I left a little too much of the heatsink mounting offsets. The mad motor controller lopped off a bit of the posts, but not enough for the chips to touch metal.

-Here's an initial test fit. You can see that most of the cutting was to clear electronic bits on the board.

-You have to mount the new plate to the NUC, then bolt the sink to the plate.

-1st problem: I don't have a HDMI monitor, or a compatible connector. So I took it to a friend's to see if they had a cup of HDMI monitor I could borrow.

-By some miracle, it booted and seemed to work even without TIM between the plates. I can start a log and build the enclosure part now.
Here I'm cutting the edge of the plate even. You can see the countersunk holes for the NUC mount. I dug around in my jar of laptop evicera to find some tiny but long metric screws.

 

Passively cooling the NUC with a large chunk of metal really seems to be the best solution :thumbs:

I definately need to get myself a NUC someday to replace my old Atom330-based HTPC, but I'm spending my money currently elsewhere.

 

I second jrs77 on this. NUC should be passively cooled. Wish I had access to a CNC, but $$$ are missing .

Great job so far Cheaps, as always

 

same as early comments, I completely agree passive cooling NUC is the way to go. It's such an awesome little unit especially with things like this.

Excited to see progress mate!

 

Funnily enough I was just thinking of this recently for a HTPC. NUC mobo slapped to the hugest-ass polished copper & brass heatsink you've ever seen. Must hit SketchUp. Then must talk to Skyrip again... --No! NO, must finish Ada first!

So many mods, so little time...

 

It helps a lot that the chips on my model are the same height.(Edit: they are NOT!)
@Guille- You could probably finesse a stock chipset cooler on it somehow.

 

NUC-L-DRAG-R.

Now thats the naming sorted.

Back to work,chop chop.

 

Rejected! Puns should be more painful.

 

I reject your rejection. And substitute my own.

I love the fact that your mill is as wayward as you.

 

we need more updates cheaps What a great start. The mill going to California was so funny, as soon as i saw it i started laughing. Has happened to me a few times too and it's always when it's almost done

 

Cheaps, great idea. I am looking foward to see it finished.

 

Passive NUC awesomeness.

 

Thanks.
@Ace -Pray it isn't heat-related.
@B-Neg -I don't love that fact, It's expensive.



-I owe you guys a pic of my classy WC upgrade. It better not overheat this time!

-I cut some parts. The plan is to make this rig as small as I can get it. I'm already wondering if it's too short to fit internal connectors.

-An I/O plate. I forgot to add a hole for the wifi dongle. -Easy fix.

-The faceplate. This will be similar to the first NUC, since it's made of layers of clear and black.

-I have a switch from every computer I've dismantled/recycled, so I have a TON of options. I found this little do-hikey tactile majiggey near the top of the box.

-Oof! I shouldn't use my bed as a table for this kind of stuff.

-OK, Here's what I have planned to make this a little more interesting: This is a baseplate from a, (working until I chopped,) Quantum Bigfoot hard drive. I plan to use this for the access panel.

-There's a few things on the inside that need to be shaved back first, and I haven't put much thought into the actual fastening yet...

Has the name "passive aggressive" been used yet? -Should make it impossible to find through gooble. -Passib aggressib?

 

Interesting work so far, I want to do a NUC project soon too! Nice work!

But... Oh noes! You chopped a WORKING Quantum Bigfoot...?!? You had a working Bigfoot????? we are talking about the 5,25" model right? All the Bigfoots I had "back in the day" broke within 6 months of install, having lots of bad sectors...

 

I had 2 working bigfoots, (bigfeet?)
I didn't feel that having an extra 2 or 3 gigs at the price of a loud "skreee" was worth it.

 

The pliers and all the pieces reminded me of cookie monster eating chippies coming along nicely!

 

Passive cooling

As i'm about to do the same with my thunderbolt nuc, is there a difference in height between the chipset and the CPU?

 

Funny you should mention it... I was just popping in to say that I noticed the cpu chip is a tiny bit lower than the gpu chip. We had the first day of decent light here, and I noticed. There was actually a perfect square of solidified paste on the CPU chip that leveled it out. My half-blind *ss couldn't see it.
Anyway, the CPU chip is about .005" lower. Gotta dig out the 'ol spark plug gap set and figure out the difference.

 

Wow Quantum Bigfoots ! I used to love those things. Used to swap dead controller boards on them

Liking this build too

 

New build and the chips are flying right off.

LAME-NUC