Coolermaster

I had hoped that the replacing the fanless ME6000 board with the 1Ghz M10000N Nehemiah board would be a simple job but, my optimism was unfounded.

The first problem was a surprise; the power supply, a 140w micro-ATX type, doesn’t seem to be big enough for the M10000 and this causes problems with the VT1211 chip (which provides the printer, com ports and the fanspeed & temperature monitoring.). I had to replace the PSU with a 200w model of the same size.

Secondly; the 1GHz chip generates a whole lot more heat than the Eden processor. I altered the ducting to provide a clean supply of fresh air to the 40mm fan, but although this kept the temperature under control, it only made the screaming little fan even noisier. I decided to fit a larger heat-sink.

After a small amount of machining to clear the capacitors etc. I was able to fit a Cooler Master heat-sink in place of the tiny VIA sink. The extra height of the heat sink and fan brought the fan too close to the top of the case, so I had to use lower board mounts and change the rear panel (yet again!).

The PVR (now fitted with a Nebula DigiTV PCI.)

Although the CPU fan is very quiet, the PSU fan is still producing too much noise. Unfortunately, I cannot slow the fan because the PSU’s internal heat sinking is poor.

So, next step is a completely passively cooled case...