Silently cooling the Compac F miner, looking for the best fan configuration

[nullama]

The Compac F comes with no fans, and you must provide some kind of cooling to prevent its melting.

So I first just connected this USB powered fan:



I pointed it into the heatsink of the miner. This seems to do the trick, the miner works fine over a long period of time, no melting, and the fan is not crazy loud. Normally that would be the end of the story, and most people are happy with that setup.

But, when things get quiet, the fan is noticeably loud in an annoying way as it's right next to me, and I would like to change that.

So I started to look around to see how I could cool them down with minimum noise.

I first saw these small fans that can be attached directly to the miner:


But the fan is rather loud, so that's a no go for me.

I already have some big fans that move a lot of air very quietly, like the Noctua NF-A12x25 PWM:



You can manually set the speed for these fans with a controller, like this one(Noctua NA-FC1):



That way, I can lower their speed and they are basically silent, yet still move a lot of air. That's ideal for this, so I would want to use them.

What would be the best configuration to mount these fans to cool down the Compac F in the best way?

I usually see setups like this (I could mount the big fan on the USB hub and it would be moving air horizontally):



But looking around I've found this alternative setup:



It might work great with a single 120mm fan:



Would it be better to put the big fan on top like the previous photo(moving air towards the ceiling), or horizontally on the USB hub moving air either away or towards the miner?.

Also, is there any optimal distance between the fan and the miner?

[philipma1957]

How many sticks?

I have run as many as 128 usb sticks.


I have run over 15 of side hacks


If you have four sticks they can be like four table legs

for this pair of fans.

wait for link

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0828TW8ZW/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?

the fans can rest directly on top of the four sticks and blow the air upwards

you can do as many as eight sticks

if you have them on two usb hubs

[gt_addict]

419 Mining sell the fan stand in the last picture. I use it with a 92mm noctua fan on 6x Compac F's. Works a treat.

[nullama]

419 Mining sell the fan stand in the last picture. I use it with a 92mm noctua fan on 6x Compac F's. Works a treat.

Yeah, that's a great little stand, I'll probably get it.

419mining open sourced it so you can 3D print it yourself if you prefer: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3270261

[Powell]

Here is how I have mine setup.  The aluminum extrude pieces are just 2 rectangles that are joined up top by the fans and the hubs sit on top of them.

https://imgur.com/a/vbz5s1L

12 sticks at 575MHz

Currently at 24 days of up time with it like so:




Some of the sticks have Noctua fans with the Thingiverse 3d printed mount, but most are cooled 100% by the Noctua NF-A12x25 fans up top.

Granted all of them have been adjusted/tinkered with a lot to makes sure none run more than 3A per and I also have all of them on Gekkoscience hubs.

*EDIT* The I Power Meter reading is now at 200W (the 180 was at 550MHz), but that is powering EVERYTHING but the Pi!

[Bradthelad]

Powell you little champion, Thats a good looking set up. Just to be clear..You are drawing 200 watts (+ Pi, which one, I am using Zero 2w) for 4.5 TH/s. Presume this is is for solo work ?

[BogdanO]

My silent cooling solution pushing the frequency to 510MHz.
I bought these items:
1. https://www.amazon.de/-/en/dp/B09NSDPMRJ (1 x Aluminium Heatsink 300 mm x 25 mm x 10 mm Heatsink Module Cooling Fin for LED Cooling LED Emitter Diodes High Performance Splitter, Heatsink)
2. https://www.amazon.de/dp/B07JQD232W (Akuoly Set of 4 Aluminium Heatsink PC Cooling Fins Cooler Set Heatsink with Thermal Adhesive Tape Cooler Fin for Amplifier Transistor Semiconductor 70 mm x 22 mm x 6 mm Silver).
3. https://www.amazon.de/dp/B00XQ9AZ8Y (EC360® Glue 2W/mK Thermal Adhesive Liquid (10g))

I cut the longer blade in 3 parts for my three CompacF's, used the above glue to extend the heat sink with another 10cm of aluminium heatsink. Then for extra heat dissipation I add the smaller sinks on the back using same adhesive glue

https://talkimg.com/images/2024/06/12/criUw.jpeg
https://talkimg.com/images/2024/06/12/crB53.jpeg

[Nexus9090]

My silent cooling solution pushing the frequency to 510MHz.
I bought these items:
1. https://www.amazon.de/-/en/dp/B09NSDPMRJ (1 x Aluminium Heatsink 300 mm x 25 mm x 10 mm Heatsink Module Cooling Fin for LED Cooling LED Emitter Diodes High Performance Splitter, Heatsink)
2. https://www.amazon.de/dp/B07JQD232W (Akuoly Set of 4 Aluminium Heatsink PC Cooling Fins Cooler Set Heatsink with Thermal Adhesive Tape Cooler Fin for Amplifier Transistor Semiconductor 70 mm x 22 mm x 6 mm Silver).
3. https://www.amazon.de/dp/B00XQ9AZ8Y (EC360® Glue 2W/mK Thermal Adhesive Liquid (10g))

I cut the longer blade in 3 parts for my three CompacF's, used the above glue to extend the heat sink with another 10cm of aluminium heatsink. Then for extra heat dissipation I add the smaller sinks on the back using same adhesive glue

-SNIP-

That thermal glue you are using is really poor thermal conductivity. You'll basically loose most of the benefit of a larger heatsink due to the poor thermal conductivity of the glue.

If you're going to glue heatsinks together you'll need a better thermal conductivity glue, 2W/mK just isnt going to cut it.


Most basic silicon thermal paste is in the region of 6W/mK, there are some pastes that are in the 9-12W/mK but rarely any better than this.


There's a 7.2W/mK glue available through Farnell https://uk.farnell.com/omega/ob-101-2/adhesive-epoxy-twinpack-2oz/dp/3870429 if you insist on gluing heatsinks together.


Anyway, if you want to improve the thermal performance you'd probably do better by completely replacing the original heatsink with something larger more fins, bigger surface area and using a good thermal conductivity paste or thermal pad to the ASIC.

Also, use a black annodised heatsink. It will offer a 5-10% improvement due to black body radiation.