www: random: fanless: Mounting a powerful fanless computer

Signed-off-by: Alejandro Colomar <alx@kernel.org>
author: Alejandro Colomar <alx@kernel.org> 2023-09-28 13:39:17 +0200
committer: Alejandro Colomar <alx@kernel.org> 2023-09-28 13:44:54 +0200
commit: 47bce81288dfad158965c405ec5e935ee8d40eb0 (patch)
tree: e98e4e207e21737d7e492c8205f68a3ad10a8ff0
parent: dbff9047820edfd47a98eaa49d59670fc88756b6 (diff)
2 files changed, 420 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/srv/www/random.html b/srv/www/random.html
index 0e1deae..76fbb05 100644
--- a/srv/www/random.html
+++ b/srv/www/random.html
@@ -42,6 +42,9 @@
 	<h2>Random stuff</h2>
 
 	<ul>
+	<li>
+	<a href="./random/fanless">Mounting a powerful fanless computer</a>
+	</li>
 	</ul>
 </div>
 <hr/>
diff --git a/srv/www/random/fanless.html b/srv/www/random/fanless.html
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..17a3c92
--- /dev/null
+++ b/srv/www/random/fanless.html
@@ -0,0 +1,417 @@
+<!DOCTYPE html>
+<html lang="en">
+<!--=================================================================-->
+<!--    Copyright (C)             Alejandro Colomar Andres           -->
+<!--    SPDX-License-Identifier:  GPL-2.0-only                       -->
+<!--=================================================================-->
+<head>
+	<meta charset="utf-8"/>
+	<title>alejandro-colomar/random/fanless</title>
+	<link rel="icon" href="../share/misc/pictures/alx.ico"/>
+	<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="../share/css/style.css" title="style">
+</head>
+
+
+<body>
+
+
+<div id="path">
+	<h3 class="uri nomargin">
+		<a href="../">alejandro-colomar/</a>&#x200B;
+		<a href="../random">random/</a>&#x200B;
+		fanless
+	</h3>
+</div>
+<hr/>
+
+
+<div id="contents">
+        <h4 class="inl">
+                <a href="../">Home</a> |
+		<a href="../contact">Contact</a> |
+		Random |
+		<a href="../ssl">SSL</a> ||
+		<a href="../man/">man</a> ||
+		<a href="../src/">src</a> ||
+                <a href="../cv">CV</a> |
+        </h4>
+</div>
+<hr/>
+
+
+<div id="main">
+	<h2>Mounting a powerful fanless computer</h2>
+
+	<p>
+	No computer had been quiet enough for me,
+	until I mounted a completely fanless one.
+	</p>
+
+	<h3>Parts</h3>
+
+	<ul>
+	<li>Case:
+		<a href="https://cougargaming.com/products/cases/blazer/">Cougar Blazer</a>
+
+		<p>
+		This case has a great airflow.
+		It also can be easily modified,
+		as it uses screws instead of rivets.
+		</p>
+		<p>
+		I removed the top and front metal plates to improve airflow,
+		and bent the plate with the power button
+		(to have it easier to get my hand inside the case).
+		I also removed the plates for 2.5" and 3.5" drives,
+		and a few other parts that didn't seem necessary to me.
+		</p>
+		<p>
+		I won't use the USBs in the case (I never trust them),
+		so I cut the USB cables (I couldn't remove them).
+		I removed the cable for the case leds.
+		</p>
+		<p>
+		I put the case above a metal stand with holes in it,
+		to further improve airflow.
+		</p>
+	</li>
+	<li>Motherboard:
+		<a href="https://www.msi.com/Motherboard/MEG-Z790-ACE">MSI z790 ACE</a>
+
+		<p>
+		I chose an E-ATX board because
+		components have more separation,
+		which makes for a better cooling.
+		</p>
+		<p>
+		Also, I want my computer to last many years,
+		so I can give it away when I stop using it
+		and it will still work for someone else for a long time.
+		This high-end board has great
+		thermal solution and power protection.
+		</p>
+		<p>
+		I'm not interested in having so many connections.
+		I'm only using the PCIe 5.0 M.2 SSD,
+		and none of the SATA or PCIe slots.
+		If there was a board that had the quality of this one
+		with less connections,
+		I'd probably go for it.
+		</p>
+		<p>
+		Another nice feature is having two BIOSes.
+		One of them didn't work out of the box
+		(I still need to flash a newer one and test it),
+		but the other one saved me
+		(I was already fearing that
+		I might have some component DOA).
+		</p>
+		<p>
+		Finally, a feature I thought I wouldn't be interested in,
+		but which I have come to appreciate very much:
+		a 2-digit led screen
+		indicating the CPU temperature at all times after POST
+		(it serves as a debug code during POST).
+		Apart from the usefulness during POST,
+		I'm more interested in the ability to monitor the temps
+		while doing heavy tasks,
+		like compiling a large project.
+		</p>
+	</li>
+	<li>CPU:
+		<a href="https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/products/sku/230498/intel-core-i913900t-processor-36m-cache-up-to-5-30-ghz/specifications.html">Intel i9-13900T</a>
+
+		<p>
+		The best consumer CPU from Intel CPU,
+		but the underclocked variant.
+		</p>
+		<p>
+		I thought I would go for AMD this time,
+		but in the end I went for Intel because
+		it had the lowest TDP for a powerful CPU.
+		</p>
+		<p>
+		Intel has the 'T' variants of CPUs,
+		which is just an underclocked version of their normal CPUs.
+		This is interesting because the base TDP goes as low as 35 W.
+		Under load, it can go up to 106 W,
+		so there's room for performance.
+		If I need to compile a project,
+		it'll go wild for a few seconds,
+		or few minutes for huge projects,
+		and then go back to low-power mode.
+		</p>
+		<p>
+		I disabled hyperthreading,
+		and the performance improved considerably
+		(and temps went down).
+		For my use case, it's a useless feature, I believe.
+		</p>
+		<p>
+		I also don't need so many cores,
+		and would probably be fine with
+		the number of cores of an i7 or i5.
+		What interests me more of the i9 is the huge cache.
+		I found that it was really significant for some tasks
+		in tasks that I needed to run many years ago,
+		and now I look for the CPUs that have the larger cache,
+		which usually happen to have more cores too.
+		<p>
+		Using 106 W for short periods is fine,
+		but having the led screen showing the temps
+		makes sure you keep an eye to avoid burning the CPU.
+		(I got it to 99 Celsius when
+		compiling the kernel with all cores.
+		Just use less cores if you expect that
+		some heavy task will take more than a couple of minutes.)
+		</p>
+		<p>
+		Here are the temps while compiling a Linux kernel with
+		`make -j8`.
+		I wouldn't do this often,
+		and recommend using only 4 cores for the kernel.
+		For smaller tasks, though,
+		it's fine to use 8 cores, or even all of them.
+		<ul>
+			<li>0 s - 37 °C</li>
+			<li>10 s - 65 °C</li>
+			<li>1 min - 70 °C</li>
+			<li>2 min - 76 °C</li>
+			<li>3 min - 80 °C</li>
+			<li>4 min - 84 °C</li>
+			<li>5 min - 86 °C</li>
+			<li>6 min - 90 °C</li>
+			<li>7 min - 90 °C</li>
+			<li>8 min - 92 °C</li>
+			<li>9 min - 95 °C</li>
+			<li>10 min - 95 °C</li>
+			<li>11 min - 98 °C</li>
+			<li>12 min - 99 °C</li>
+			<li>13 min - 99 °C</li>
+			<li>14 min - 99 °C</li>
+			<li>15 min - 99 °C</li>
+			<li>15:11 - 99 °C (finished)</li>
+			<li>15:15 - 68 °C</li>
+		</ul>
+		</p>
+	</li>
+	<li>Cooler:
+		<a href="https://noctua.at/en/nh-p1">Noctua NH-P1</a>
+
+		<p>
+		I don't think there's much to choose from
+		(the only passive one from Noctua).
+		I always use Noctua coolers,
+		as they are the best.
+		This one is great as well.
+		</p>
+		<p>
+		I would have gone a bit farther and delid the CPU
+		and mount the cooler directly on the CPU die
+		to get even better cooling,
+		but it felt too risky.
+		Maybe next time I'll try with a cheaper CPU.
+		</p>
+	</li>
+	<li>Thermal pad:
+		<a href="https://www.thermal-grizzly.com/en/products/299-carbonaut-en">Thermal Grizzly Carbonaut</a>
+
+		<p>
+		I don't like messing with paste,
+		so I use thermal pads.
+		I don't get the best performance,
+		but it's already quite decent,
+		and it's clean and simple.
+		100% recommended.
+		</p>
+	</li>
+	<li>GPU: No thanks!
+
+		<p>
+		An integrated GPU is enough for me.
+		And it produces less heat.
+		Also, it would break the airflow.
+		</p>
+	</li>
+	<li>RAM:
+		<a href="https://www.crucial.com/memory/ddr5/cp2k16g56c46u5">Crucial Pro 32 GB Kit (2x16) DDR5-5600 UDIMM</a>
+
+		<p>
+		I tried other vendors in the past.
+		I don't recommend G-Skill.
+		They lied in the spec,
+		and you had to read the entire datasheet to find that
+		the actual speed was less than the one in the box.
+		To reach the speed specified in the box,
+		you had to use XMP (which is overclocking).
+		</p>
+		<p>
+		I also tried Corsair for a laptop,
+		and it was good.
+		</p>
+		<p>
+		But since Crucial is part of Micron,
+		and they are one of the three memory producers
+		(with SK Hynix and Samsung),
+		and you can't buy as easily from the other two,
+		Crucial has become my go-to brand for memory.
+		</p>
+		<p>
+		Also, I prefer the Pro version,
+		since the price difference isn't that much.
+		Crucial likely uses their best memory for producing these,
+		and since I want it to last for long,
+		I prefer these.
+		Also, they come with a heatsink.
+		</p>
+		<p>
+		Long ago I found that 16 GiB isn't enough for me.
+		I could use 64 GiB,
+		but it's more difficult to find in stock.
+		32 GiB kits are much more common (and cheap).
+		</p>
+	</li>
+	<li>SSD:
+		<a href="https://www.crucial.com/ssd/t700/CT1000T700SSD5">Crucial T700 1TB PCIe Gen5 NVMe M.2</a>
+
+		<p>
+		For the same reasons as with RAM,
+		I restrict myself to the three memory producers.
+		</p>
+		<p>
+		In the past, I used Samsung SSDs
+		I have a computer with a 950 Pro,
+		and one with a 960 Pro.
+		They were great drives.
+		I also had several 850 and 860 SATA III SSDs,
+		and they were also great.
+		</p>
+		<p>
+		However, in the latest releases,
+		Samsung has been decreasing the quality of its drives.
+		I don't trust Samsung NVMe drives any more.
+		</p>
+		<p>
+		At the same time, Crucial has been improving theirs.
+		This is the first and only PCIe 5.0 drive
+		from a brand I trust.
+		</p>
+		<p>
+		About the heatsink of the drive,
+		it's not great:
+		in the usual position, in a horizontal M.2 slot,
+		it traps the air in half of the heatsink.
+		</p>
+		<p>
+		However, I still prefer the version with heatsink
+		and not buying a separate heatsink.
+		Some heat is actually good for the health of SSDs
+		(not for their data retention, though).
+		It reduces the wear that flowing electrons
+		produces to the NAND flash.
+		(Now I can't find the source, but I read this.)
+		Also, I don't write that much to disk,
+		to get it very hot.
+		It stays around 55~60 °C.
+		</p>
+	</li>
+	<li>PSU:
+		<a href="https://seasonic.com/prime-fanless-px">Seasonic PRIME Fanless PX-450</a>
+
+		<p>
+		For PSUs, I only trust Seasonic.
+		I've had bad PSUs kill my hardware,
+		so now I only use the best PSUs.
+		</p>
+		<p>
+		I calculated that I only need around 100~200 W,
+		so the smallest PSU would work.
+		450 W is the smallest that Seasonic has.
+		</p>
+	</li>
+	</ul>
+	<p>
+	That is my main PC,
+	which I'll use every day.
+	Now, I'm planning a similar computer for my server,
+	which currently is on a Raspberry Pi 4B+.
+	</p>
+	<p>
+	The RPi4 is a bit sluggish,
+	and I also fear that longevity is not going to be good,
+	as the cooling is terrible.
+	</p>
+	<p>
+	The RPi4 is a very cheap computer,
+	but if you take into account that it will live a shorter life,
+	and that I need my server to be reliable,
+	a better computer can be worth it.
+	</p>
+	<p>
+	For a server,
+	I plan to use a cheaper CPU,
+	such as the Intel i3-13100T.
+	4 cores are plenty for a personal server,
+	and I don't care about the CPU cache there.
+	Being cheaper, I may dare try delidding it.
+	</p>
+	<p>
+	I also plan to use a different SSD.
+	This time, it'll be a pseudo-SLC one.
+	I don't trust consumer-grade SSDs
+	for something that must be reliable.
+	And HDDs have failed me too.
+	I don't use backups,
+	as everything that I do is on Git.
+	Every one of my computers,
+	where I have the repos cloned,
+	can be considered one of my backups.
+	</p>
+	<p>
+	If one of the computers dies,
+	cloning from my server is trivial.
+	But if my server dies,
+	setting it up again from the clones in my computers
+	is a bit more cumbersome
+	(especially if I'm traveling).
+	So I want it to be more reliable,
+	and thus I want pSLC there.
+	(True SLC would be too expensive.)
+	</p>
+	<p>
+	I also want the drive to be a NVMe M.2 drive,
+	so that I can use it in a MSI z790 ACE without adapters.
+	I would need at least 200 GiB.
+	I found a few drives that have 320 GB
+	and one with 512 GB (maybe GiB?),
+	for slightly over 1 EUR/GB,
+	which seems an acceptable price.
+	</p>
+	<p>
+	Since those drives don't come with a heatsink,
+	I'll probably get one;
+	still don't know which.
+	</p>
+	<p>
+	The other components will likely be the same.
+	</p>
+</div>
+<hr/>
+
+
+<div id="footer" class="footer">
+	<h2><a href="#top">^</a></h2>
+
+	<p>
+		This site doesn't use cookies.
+		<br/>
+		Last modified: <time>Sep/2023</time>
+		<br/>
+		<span class="name">Alejandro Colomar</span>
+	</p>
+</div>
+<hr/>
+
+
+</body>
+</html>
author	Alejandro Colomar <alx@kernel.org>	2023-09-28 13:39:17 +0200
committer	Alejandro Colomar <alx@kernel.org>	2023-09-28 13:44:54 +0200
commit	47bce81288dfad158965c405ec5e935ee8d40eb0 (patch)
tree	e98e4e207e21737d7e492c8205f68a3ad10a8ff0
parent	dbff9047820edfd47a98eaa49d59670fc88756b6 (diff)