Failing to Make a Fanless PC

The discerning modern gamer’s quest is to find a quieter computer without sacrificing performance. That proves challenging when modern components are highly efficient at producing monumental quantities of thermal energy. So the typical solution ends up moving enough air through the computer to create a rather tumultuous racket.

Well, as [Billet Labs] demonstrates, that’s not necessarily a good idea. The build begins with a block of aluminum which, with a bit of hand-metal work, may become the base of the PC “case.” A dry-fit of the aesthetically modified parts taken from a previous attempt at a fanless PC reveals the steampunk aesthetic that defines the build. On final assembly, a large amount of thermal paste under the flex ATX power supply and 6mm of thermal pads under the motherboard provide passive cooling to the block of aluminum they are attached to The cooling loop begins with three radiators: a big one, a small one, and a slightly smaller one.

But raw metal PC radiators are difficult and expensive to come by these days. Some paint stripping and polishing will fix that problem.