Regular readers of 3DNews have probably heard about the Russian company Terkon-KTT. For example, last year we published a report from the ISC 2017 exhibition, at which representatives of the Ekaterinburg company showed a number of devices based on loop heat pipes (LHP), capable of cooling almost any computing system: from tablets and all-in-one computers to aircraft onboard computers and space technology. Naturally, the 3DNews laboratory was interested in the developments of the domestic manufacturer. As a result, a system unit called “Glava” came to us for testing - a computer without fans, the processor cooling of which is based on LHP technology.

Case Calyos NSG S0

This case has two independent cooling circuits based on the phase change effect. Evaporators are designed so that coolant circulation is ensured by capillary effect. They are supplemented with expansion tanks. Using heat pipes, this part of the circuit is connected to the evaporators high pressure for the processor and graphics core. The manufacturer claims that in completely passive mode this system capable of dissipating up to 475 W of thermal energy without problems. The Terkon device, which will be discussed later, works on a similar principle.

The refrigerant in loop heat pipes is in two states: liquid and gaseous. The system operates in a closed evaporation-condensation cycle and uses capillary pressure to pump the coolant. The operating diagram of the CTT is shown in the picture above.

This type of device has a number of advantages compared to conventional heat pipes. Firstly, CHP has a significantly higher heat transfer capacity. Moreover, the efficiency of heat transfer does not depend on orientation in space - that is, it works both in a gravitational field and in weightlessness. Secondly, the technology allows you to create a variety of design solutions, some of which we have already shown. Finally, thirdly, such devices have high reliability and a long service life. Cooling systems based on LHP technology do not require an electrical connection, are not prone to leaks, and in general there is nothing particularly broken in such devices. In fact, this is why loop heat pipes are used in the space industry.

Copper, stainless steel, nickel, titanium and other materials can be used as a capillary structure. But the refrigerant in the Terkon CHP unit can be different. The company has a variety of developments that use water, ammonia, methanol, ethanol, acetone and freons.

Invasion Labs PROJECT MARS: system unit based on Terkon-KTT cooling

Loop heat pipe technology is well suited for cooling computer equipment. Moreover, completely passive CO is capable of working effectively with the most powerful hardware. For example, the Terkon company has successful experience of cooperation with the St. Petersburg assembler Invasion Labs. At the Computex 2018 exhibition, held this summer in Taipei, the PROJECT MARS system unit was presented, which, to be honest, very much resembles the previously mentioned Calyos NSG S0 project. The completely passive cooling system of Mars is capable of effectively cooling two video cards GeForce GTX 1080 Ti and 18-core Core i9-7980XE CPU. Three evaporators and two massive aluminum radiators are responsible for removing heat from all heating elements of the system unit.

It is clear that we are talking about simple office systems based on frankly outdated components. Therefore, the “Glava” computer was not particularly interesting to me. In fact, the Thermaltake Core G3 case along with the cooling system can be ordered separately on the Terkon website - at the time of writing, such a tandem cost 11,000 rubles. Based on these components, I decided to assemble a more powerful system. Much more powerful.

When asked why I chose the Thermaltake Core G3 case, I was answered quite expectedly: “ It is compact and has enough space for almost any motherboard, and the case fits perfectly with the dimensions of the radiator" Indeed, from the outside it seems as if the side wall of the Thermaltake model should look like this. However, it came with the computer detailed instructions installing a cooling system, that is, fixing it on the wall of some other case will not pose any special problems. The main thing is that the evaporator and loop heat pipes can easily pass through the window on the barrier wall of the case. Still, several holes will have to be made in the side wall of the other case.

By the way, the manufacturer replaced the legs of the body to make the structure more stable. Indeed, an empty Core G3, on the wall of which the radiator of the cooling system is attached, is unstable - the case strives to fall on its side. At the same time, there are no complaints about the stability of the assembled system unit.

The radiator has relatively small dimensions - 300 × 410 mm. It is made of aluminum, but painted with matte black paint. The radiator has 37 fins, the height of each ridge is 18 mm. According to company representatives, this radiator can remove up to 100 W of heat in passive mode. At the same time, the CHP does not have such restrictions: the tubes can transmit 300 W of energy - the main thing here is to manage to remove heat. Freon is used as a refrigerant, but exactly what it is is a secret.

The evaporator of the cooling system is small - it is made in the form of a copper bar with dimensions of 20 × 35 × 42 mm. This contact area is enough to completely cover chips for Intel LGA1150/1151/1155/1156 platforms. I think there will be no problems with cooling AMD processors Ryzen, although the KTT package included a mounting system exclusively for Intel solutions - this is a slightly modified fastener from Deepcool. Surely a similar clamping system can be made for the AM4/AM3+/FM2/FM1 platforms. But such an evaporator is not suitable for Ryzen Threadripper and Skylake-X processors - its contact area is too small.

A thin steel tube extends from the evaporator on one side, the outer diameter of which is 2 mm. On the other side, a steel cylinder is welded to it; refrigerant accumulates in it.

Thermaltake Core G3 is an unusual case. In particular, the video card is installed in it using a flexible cable upside down. Because of this, it makes no sense to use motherboards of ATX and even mATX form factors in a Core G3-based gaming system - most of the expansion slots will simply be blocked by the graphics adapter. Best choice here are mini-ITX solutions. Maximum height CPU cooler that is compatible with this case should not exceed 110 mm. Basically, the Core G3 is designed to use a maintenance-free water cooling system. The Thermaltake Core G3 also supports the installation of SFX form factor power supplies only.

For these reasons, I decided to build a test bench based on the motherboard. The evaporator of the Terkon cooling system was installed on a 6-core Core i5-8600K processor. All tests were carried out in this form. It’s a pity that the design of the device does not have another evaporator that could be mounted on the GPU - the video card had to be left with “native” cooling.

⇡ Testing

The complete test bench looks like this:

Central processor Intel Core i5-8600K, 3.6 (4.3) GHz, 6/6 cores/threads, 95 W TDP.
ASRock Fatal1ty Z370 Gaming-ITX/ac motherboard.
Video card NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 6 GB.
RAM DDR4-2666, 2 × 8 GB.
Solid state drive Kingston SA400S37/120G 120 GB.
Power supply FSP Dagger 600 W.
Thermaltake Core G3 case.
Cooling system "Terkon-KTT" + ARCTIC MX-4 thermal paste.

Windows 10 Pro x64 was installed on the SSD. Cooling system efficiency testing was carried out with the case mounted vertically and in a fully assembled state. The central processor was loaded for 30 minutes using the LinX 0.7.0 program. Temperature monitoring was carried out by the HWiNFO64 5.74 application. The entire system was loaded at computer game“The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt”, with maximum graphics quality settings in Full HD resolution, for two hours.

The screenshot above clearly shows why testing the “Chapter” system unit is not interesting at all. The cooling system at a room temperature of 27.8 degrees Celsius did not allow the dual-core Core i3-7100 to heat above 65 degrees Celsius in LinX. This means that when running office applications, the central processor will always be cold. Boring - and generally predictable. With the Core i5-8600K CTT, Terkon will obviously have to work hard. , this chip is not cold-tempered.

Pay attention to one very important feature of testing. We are dealing with a completely passive CPU cooling system, so the efficiency of this device is seriously dependent on temperature environment, as well as from the presence of drafts in the room. For greater clarity, I decided to test the Terkon CO under different conditions - at temperatures of 20, 23.3 and 27.8 degrees Celsius, respectively. The results are presented in the screenshots above.

Even in the most severe conditions (at least this year the summer in Moscow turned out to be hot), the Terkon contour heat pipes cope with their task. Half an hour of stress testing in LinX 0.7.0 - and the temperature of the hottest core Core i5-8600K rose to 92 degrees Celsius. The system is completely stable, there is no clock reset.

Note that the Core i5-8600K runs at 4.3 GHz under load, although the chip should run at 4.1 GHz by default when all six cores are loaded. These are little tricks of the manufacturers. Similar “tricks” were found in the comparative test of motherboards based on the Z270 Express chipset, but since the system turned out to be completely stable even at a room temperature of 27.8 degrees Celsius, I decided not to change anything in the BIOS of the ASRock Fatal1ty Z370 Gaming-ITX/ac.

As the ambient temperature dropped, the Terkon cooling system, which is not at all surprising, began to work even more efficiently. The temperature of the hottest core of the 6-core in other conditions dropped to 85 and 81 ° C, respectively. To be honest, I was very impressed by these results. It was initially assumed that the test bench would use a Core i5-8400, which, of course, is noticeably cooler than the Core i5-8600K.

Our test bench does not have completely passive cooling - the video card and power supply are still equipped with fans. However, airflow around the socket space was not carried out during testing. cheap H310 boards, we found out that saving on the power converter and the lack of even passive cooling on the circuit elements leads to their overheating and, as a result, unstable operation of the central processor. Even if the computer uses a junior 6-core Core i5-8400. The ASRock Fatal1ty Z370 Gaming-ITX/ac motherboard is an example of a device with an excellent power subsystem and an excellent cooling system. There is no airflow as such in Thermaltake Core G3, but there is no overheating of the power converter. This is clearly visible in thermal imaging images taken at room temperature of 27.8 degrees Celsius. The maximum heating rate of the motherboard elements was only 67 degrees Celsius under load in the LinX program. So if you are interested in the Terkon SO and you plan to build a gaming PC based on it, then under no circumstances skimp on the motherboard.

The radiator itself, which is supposed to remove heat from the loop heat pipes, heats up to 40-48 degrees Celsius. If you sit next to the Thermaltake Core G3, then this heating becomes noticeable.

Naturally, the vast majority of programs do not load the central processor as much as applications at the LinX and Prime95 level do. It turns out that if the system works stably during stress testing, then it will always work stably. For example, in games the Core i5-8600K cannot warm up the Terkon system at all. Thus, at an ambient temperature of 27.8 °C, the temperature of the hottest core of the 6-core was only 57 °C, and at a room temperature of 23.3 °C - 51 °C.

The safety margin of the Terkon CO is decent. In particular, it was enough to overclock the Core i5-8600K a little more. In the motherboard BIOS, in Offset mode, the CPU voltage was increased by 0.05 V, the multiplier was raised by two units, and the fifth Load-Line Calibration level was set. Well, at an ambient temperature of 23.3 °C, the processor was absolutely stable at 4.5 GHz. The temperature of the hottest core of the 6-core increased to 98 degrees Celsius. Obviously, the Terkon loop heat pipes are quite capable of cooling the 6-core Core i7-8700K. And if the processor is also scalped...

For greater clarity, I took out a fairly dusty cooler from the cabinet, which is also designed to operate in passive mode. Since this device does not fit into the Thermaltake Core G3, testing was carried out on an open test bench at room temperature of 23.3 °C.

The load in the form of LinX turned out to be an impossible task for the “Macho” - when it reached 100 degrees Celsius, the frequency of the Core i5-8600K began to rapidly decrease from 4.3 to 3.5 GHz, that is, throttling of 100 MHz appeared. In games, Thermalright Macho Zero performed much better, but still not as impressive as the Terkon cooling system.

It is clear that installing any fan on a Thermalright cooler will radically change the situation. In active mode, this cooler can effectively cool any existing chip for popular AMD and Intel platforms. And yet, our small experiment, in my opinion, clearly showed how Terkon loop heat pipes work more efficiently than a conventional tower cooler.

⇡ Conclusions

In the comments to the news about the Calyos NSG S0 case, which I talked about at the very beginning of the article, on one site or another there is always a cluster of skeptics. Local experts know everything in advance: it won’t work, overheating is guaranteed, and in general all the iron will burn out immediately. However, getting to know the Terkon contour cooling was a discovery for me, albeit not a big one. As it turned out, the device copes with its task perfectly, because not every cooler with a fan can effectively cool an overclocked Core i5-8600K. Therefore, systems based on CHP technology have prospects. At the very least, it was interesting to work with the Terkon equipment.

The absolute silence of a computer system is a controversial subject. There are plenty of high-quality fans and coolers on sale that can operate very quietly. However, “very quiet” and “absolutely silent” are, you see, different concepts.

Representatives of the Terkon company will definitely read this review, so to the Russian manufacturer I would like to expand the list of products. For example, releasing a kit not only to cool the CPU, but also to remove heat from the GPU - such a solution will definitely find a response among enthusiasts.

There have been no reviews of truly unusual devices on our website for a long time, so the development of a domestic company receives the Innovation and Design award. Because we can build a powerful and absolutely silent computer.

Taking into account the power of our components, we chose the Seasonic Platinum 400 Fanless 400 W power supply with very high efficiency. This power supply does not have a fan, and accordingly, it is absolutely silent.

It also lacks various squeaks and crackles, which were often observed in early revisions of Seasonic fanless models.

All the benefits of this silent power supply are written on the box with it, that's what you get when you buy this Platinum Certified Seasonic Platinum 400 Fanless model.

Seasonic Platinum 400 Fanless Specifications

Main characteristics (written on the back of the packaging box):

Ultra-high efficiency, 80 PLUS Platinum certified
Module connector DC Seasonic with integrated voltage regulator (VRM)
DC/DC voltage converter
Solid State Aluminum Conducting Polymer Capacitors (Japanese and Taiwan Brand)
High Reliability 105C Japanese Aluminum Electrolytic Capacitors
Accurate voltage stabilization (plus or minus 2%)
Active power factor correction (up to 99%)
High output power of the +12V bus
High current terminals (gold plated)
Double-sided PCB mounting
Structure ventilation grille honeycomb shaped for maximum air flow
Fully modular cables
Multiple GPU support
All-in-one cable design
Easily detachable connectors
Universal input AC(over full voltage range)
7 years warranty

Agree, this is pretty good, and at the same time, everything corresponds to reality. The Seasonic Platinum 400 Fanless fits perfectly into our configuration of a silent multimedia computer.

Seasonic Platinum 400 Fanless Price

How much does Seasonic Platinum 400 Fanless cost?? See the cost of the power supply on Yandex.Market.

Silent gaming computer

SILENT series computers were developed by HYPERPC experts for those who want to hear only what is happening in the virtual world, without being distracted by extraneous sounds. Special cases and components made it possible to make the PC almost silent.

Silent computers

The quietest system units

Ultra-quiet HYPERPC SILENT computers are built on the basis of special soundproof cases, video cards with silent operation technology, fanless power supplies and energy-efficient processors cooled by quiet coolers. This entire set of measures ensures virtually silent operation even when playing games with average system requirements.

Special buildings

Complete sound insulation - perfect silence!

The quietest and most powerful PCs The use of special noise-absorbing materials inside the case, as well as advanced engineering solutions in the field of optimizing air flow in conditions of maximum closedness of the system, ensure a significant reduction in the noise level produced by the cooling system of both the case itself and the components of a silent computer. Special systems for screwless fastening of drives and drives significantly dampen noise and vibration associated with the operation of these components

Quiet video cards

Silent video cards ASUS STRIX and MSI GAMING

High power with minimal noise The STRIX and MSI GAMING series video cards feature unique technology cooling, which leaves the fans off until the processor reaches 65°C. With the processing power of the 20-series GeForce® RTX, this kind of heating is only possible under high loads. At medium loads, the fans are turned off, heat is removed and dissipated by 10 mm metal tubes. This solution not only makes it possible to build a truly silent computer, but also significantly extends the life of the fans. Another advantage is that less dust gets into the housing.

Passive power supplies

Passive cooling, complete silence

Fanless computer Fanless computers are built with energy-efficient components that optimize the computing experience to reduce power consumption. The use of power supplies with passive cooling helps to significantly reduce general level system noise, especially under high load conditions. The HYPERPC SILENT series uses power supplies with high efficiency according to the 80 PLUS PLATINUM standard. Seasonic Platinum Fanless power supplies are manufactured using fanless technology. To implement this, the efficiency of the unit was increased to 90%, and the heating was reduced. Heat is removed by aluminum radiators. Separate connectors are provided for connecting components, and the permissible deviations electrical parameters do not exceed 2%. By optimizing the operation of the unit and components, a fanless computer consumes less energy than a conventional one.

Writing a blog about this build took me a lot of time, because selecting components for a computer with completely passive cooling is a complex and responsible matter.
The slightest mistake can result in overheating and inoperability of the entire configuration. Let's see what stores offer today for lovers of passive cooling and silence.

advertising

As usual, I went to Regard. I decided to assemble this computer from the most important component for a passive computer - the case. Nowadays it is difficult to find a case that is well suited for this purpose; there are a lot of cases on the market with glass or blank walls.

And there are fewer and fewer cases that “breathe” themselves, with a large perforation area on the side wall.
Having looked at all the cases in Regard several times, I found a good candidate for this assembly at an adequate price.

This is InWin G7 BWR143 Gray.

The price is reasonable, the quality is good and most importantly - free passage of air through the perforations on the bottom, side and top. This is extremely important for this build.
Here are a few more photos to give you an idea.

Greetings to blog readers.

I have always been interested in non-standard solutions in computer systems. Water cooling, passive cooling, overclocking and other things not needed by the average user. My urge to “reveal all the hidden capabilities” of a computer began during the release of intel core first generation. My home computer had an i3 530. Later it was overclocked from 3 to 4 GHz on the bus. I still laugh when I remember phrases from various forums that this processor does not overclock. After successful overclocking, I realized that this is accessible to everyone, the main thing is to read enough of the necessary information. Computers have become an interesting construction set for me (for adults). I started assembling systems for my friends. I got one of them into overdrive. Sometimes I bought laptops, but I couldn’t stand it and seeing a system on sale on some fx 8350 for an inexpensive price, I sold the laptop and bought a PC. This is how my fx 8350 at 4.7 GHz worked in mining.

I recently purchased DEEPCOOL DRACULA for a small amount. I took it for the future, I plan to put an r9 290x on the card. Well, while the cooler was collecting dust on the shelf, another thought came into my head. This cooler removes 250 watts of heat when the processor emits 50-120 watts (we don’t take into account the latest amd fx, I consider their 250 watt heat output nonsense). But what if you try this cooler on an already cold Intel stone. Thoughts were spinning in my head, my hands were itching. And I carried out these manipulations. At the end of the article I will outline the pros and cons.

TEST STAND

To be honest, the system was assembled from what was available.

Motherboard:GIGABYTE GA-Z68P-DS3
Processor:intel pentium g2020
RAM: Corsair Vengeance Low Profile(CML4GX3M1A1600C9)
Cooler 1: DEEPCOOL Theta 9
Cooler 2:DEEPCOOL DRACULA
Hard disk western digital 160 gb
Video: Intel graphics core.
Thermal paste: complete from DEEPCOOL DRACULA
Chieftec aps 850cb power supply
Operating system: windows 8.1

Test participant DEEPCOOL DRACULA

The sole is smooth as always.

Comparison of coolers in size (relative to each other)

Assembly

The assembly turned out to be quite fun. At first I wanted to cut out the fasteners from metal, but then I abandoned this idea and decided to be a little free.:)

It was decided to put elastic bands and tie everything together with strong threads (there were no ties at hand, and the threads fit well)

This is what the implemented fastening scheme looks like.

It seems to be more or less in appearance, but it’s terrible on the other side: D

On account RAM. With such a radiator, even two low-profile strips are installed with problems. The second one can be installed, but it will be tilted and may get scratched during installation. So I didn't make my life any more difficult.

Installing a video card. I also thought about this problem. We use a riser. I did not use a video card in testing, but for readers I took a photo of a riser with this cooling.

Imprint of thermal paste. As you can see, the cooler is not designed for the CPU, so it does not fit over the entire surface of the heat distribution cover.

So, the assembly is coming to an end. This is what the installed cooler looks like.

It takes up an awful lot of space in this arrangement.

At the socket connector itself.

Cooling covers all slots. Well, okay, we have extension cords (risers). It should be admitted that this solution is not a standard, which is where such incidents arise.

Photo with a ruler.

And for comparison, a photo with a regular cooler

We connect the power supply, hard drive, and the fighter is ready for battle.

I didn't use a video card, but a graphics core. Therefore, I connect the hdmi cable directly to the motherboard.

Let's move on to testing.

TESTING

I used my favorite tool LinX 0.6.4 And real temp for temperature measurements.

As you know, LinX exists with and without AVX.

First test. Passive cooling. LinX without AVX

during the test

completion of the test

I'm running LinX AVX. The temperature has risen, but is still within good limits. You can use it 24/7 without any problems with this passive cooling.

Tests with DEEPCOOL Theta 9.

I turn off the fan. The temperature is ok. The slight heat generation of the processor makes itself felt.

I connect the cooler spinner.

DEEPCOOL Theta 9 with the turntable turned on. We go through LinX AVX.

Total temperature 45-47 degrees. And again the credit goes to the small heat dissipation package.

NOISE LEVEL

But don't forget about the noise. Unfortunately I don't have a sound meter. But I will try to give you an approximate picture using the program.

Noise level in the room 30db

Noise level during the test.

We can conclude that the system, as expected, does not make any sounds.

And lastly, the noise level with DEEPCOOL Theta 9.

CONCLUSION AND CONCLUSIONS

Cons:

No CPU mount

Covers all PCI slots

It is not rationally located in the body.

The sole is not made for CPU

Pros:

Creating an ABSOLUTELY silent system

Handles 250W of heat

It's worth saying that DEEPCOOL DRACULA copes well with 55W heat dissipation without fans. Temperatures under LinX AVX were 67-68 degrees. This is a decent result. Of course, a cooler for 200 rubles copes with such a heat dissipation package with a bang, showing a temperature of 45-47 degrees in the same test, but at the same time making a lot of noise. DEEPCOOL DRACULA is suitable for creating a passive cooling system. All you have to do is replace the hard drive with an ssd, remove the turntable from the power supply, and your system will no longer make sounds. The noise level will be zero.