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Fixing fanless router cooling solution (self.homelab)

submitted 1 year ago by snekerpimp to c/[email protected]

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About a year go I bought one of those fanless four port routers. Ordered one with a celeron, they sent me one with an 11th gen i3. Since then, core temps will regularly spike to 100c and it will throttle. Took it apart and found this as a cooling solution, which I’m sure would work fine with a celeron, but they gave me an i3 1115g4, with a base frequency of 3.1ghz, which can’t dump heat into this aluminum slug fast enough. The bios does not let me lower the clocks, or save power anywhere else. My only solution to make this work is to improve the cooling solution.

Would love to do a tower cooler, but can’t find any place that produces one that will fit my mounting holes. Been looking at laptop solutions as well, but again I am running into bracket and mounting problems. Nothing shows dimensions so I don’t waste time and money on solutions that don’t fit.

I have found copper shims, ranging from .3mm to 1.5mm thickness in a 20mmx20mm form. The aluminum slug they used is 45x25x2.73. If I stack these shims with thermal compound in between, would I get better thermal conductivity than just the aluminum slug? Are there any better ideas than what I am coming up with? Would it just be cheaper to buy another router that is cooled correctly?

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Does the exterior of the case get physically very hot? If it does, then your problem is that the case can't shed enough heat. If the case is mostly cooler, or only has a hot spot in the middle, then it's an issue with getting heat from the die to the case.

I would be looking at something like a 100x100x3 copper shim, to help with not just moving heat straight from the die to the adjacent section of case, but also spreading the heat sideways. Heat pipes would be nice but 3mm is too thin for a DIY solution.

[–] snekerpimp 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Case is cool all over, 3d printed a shroud for a 120mm fan to blow down on it, even the spot directly over the slug is cool, which makes me think it’s that blasted aluminum puck that’s holding me back.

If I forgo the case, a vapor chamber with heat pipes would be perfect. I guess I could just zip tie a cooler on there, but was hoping for something less jankey. Finding copper in the right size is my preference, but that stuff gets expensive quick.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

The aluminum has a rough looking finish. You could try giving it a mirror polish. Have you tried changing the thermal paste?

[–] snekerpimp 1 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Have tried thermal grizzly, arctic and noctua thermal pastes and a plethora of pads as well.

Polishing with finer and finer grit of sandpaper? I don’t want to used a chemical polish because it might stick around, right? Could use automotive sandpaper I guess… might give that a try.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I've never done it, but it's something I've seen people do to the heat spreader on the CPU. And yes it would just be mechanical sanding and polishing with paper and paste.

[–] snekerpimp 2 points 1 year ago

Dozen of YouTube videos on it. Thanks for the idea, I’ll watch a few and see what happens.

[–] modesto_hagney 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Did you also put thermal paste between the slug and the case?

[–] snekerpimp 1 points 1 year ago

Yes I did

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

What about going to a metal workshop and asking if they can make a replica of the aluminum piece but in copper, with a really polished finish?

Might even ask them to make it a little wider to spread the heat, if it fits inside the case.

[–] snekerpimp 2 points 1 year ago

Was thinking of this. Even though I live in a metropolitan area, shops willing to make a thing that small, I’d be paying so much in hourly labor, not sure it would be an inexpensive solution. Would be a fantastic one, but I feel I would be out as much if not more than the router. At that point might as well just get a properly cooled one and save myself the future headaches.