ASUS Tinker Board 3 goes passive

"The Akasa Skyline 3 Pro is designed for ASUS Tinker Board 3 and 3S: compact Arm® single-board computers (SBCs) with quad-core Cortex-A55 processors, Mali™-G52 graphics and built-in NPUs for seamless AI integration. Rich I/O, 4K display support and flexible power input make the SBCs ideal for digital signage, healthcare or smart retail systems.

A custom thermal module and high-performance thermal pads draw heat away from key hot zones into the aluminium body and fins, providing efficient, silent cooling for the ASUS Tinker Board 3/3S under sustained loads. The skyline-shaped top cover increases surface area, allowing heat to dissipate more efficiently and ensuring reliable performance without thermal throttling. 

The aluminium, skyline-shaped top cover increases surface area, allowing heat to dissipate more efficiently and ensuring reliable performance without thermal throttling. Combining modern aesthetics with functional performance, the Skyline Pro 3 delivers passive heat dissipation while protecting the SBC."

Building a custom OPNsense firewall

"Building your own firewall is a great achievement when you're ready to leave consumer units or ISP-provided hardware. There are a few software options available, but we recommend giving OPNsense a go. Just about anything with a compatible processor can run OPNsense, everything from used enterprise servers to a single-board computer (SBC). So long as you can have two Network Interface Cards (NICs) for WAN and LAN gateways, you're good to go.

I picked up an affordable $150 fanless mini PC with an Intel N3700 processor and four 2.5Gb Ethernet ports. After adding a small boot SSD and 16 GB of RAM, the firewall was ready for OPNsense to be installed. The entire process took less than 10 minutes from start to finish, and I had a new network up and running within half an hour. Though not perfect (I would like to move to a new system with 10Gb SFP links), it's proven to be reliable enough for keeping the LAN alive for almost a year.

This is something that isn't often associated with networking, but creating something from scratch can be incredibly rewarding. It's why the home lab has become such a popular hobby and why more people are looking to self-host as much as possible. It's a great way to learn something new, develop new skills, and be rewarded with a notably more capable LAN that's not only more secure, but can be configured in such a way as not possible with standard routers."

Source: XDA 

Streacom FC8 build

"Pros: - totally silent - relatively compact - perfectly fine for general use and lighter gaming Cons: - case does get hot under heavy load over extended periods of time (which is normal and generally expected of a fanless build) - case does not officially support AM5 cpus, but it was possible to install Ryzen 8700g into it (even though it was a bit fiddly)"

Source: PCPartPicker 

High quality thermal pads launched

"The Minus Pad extreme 2 consists of aluminum oxide, aluminum hydroxide, and aluminum powder. The different particle sizes of the materials allow even the smallest gaps in the carrier matrix to be filled with thermally conductive particles. This contributes to lower thermal interface resistance, as the surfaces (top and bottom) of Minus Pad extreme 2 contain more thermally conductive particles than its predecessor.

The Minus Pad High Compression thermal pads feature exceptionally high compressibility. This makes them particularly versatile in applications where a single pad needs to bridge varying height differences simultaneously. This is especially useful when modifying graphics cards with a GPU water block or when replacing thermal pads on GPU coolers, as a Minus Pad High Compression (HC Pad) can be used across different components such as VRAM, voltage regulators, and other contact surfaces." 

Source: Thermal Grizzly

New HDPLEX H1 in the works

The HDPLEX H1 case is being updated with a new version that features the HDPLEX H3's height (114mm). The H1 is HDPLEX's smallest chassis at just 270 x 264 x 63.5mm. In its current form, the case handles CPUs up to 65W TDP. Interestingly, the H1 is the only fanless mini-ITX case that supports the NUC's motherboard.  

Easy Streacom SG10 build

Waiting two years for the Streacom SG10 was a long haul, but this Chinese user's patience paid off. Streacom's giant copper case looks stunning. The PC assembly is very straightforward and when paired with the Ryzen 7 8700G, the heatsink case significantly outperforms Noctua's NH-P1 (seen in the background of the last picture). Given its price, which is roughly twelve times more, that's a welcome relief. At this time, the SG10 is only available to backers of the original Kickstarter campaign, or after buying a €479 pledge voucher here.

Source: Chiphell

How heatsinks are made

Shuttle's DL40N is here

Previously seen at COMPUTEX back in May, Shuttle's Twin Lake fanless PC is now official. Chassis and ports are identical to previous generation but the DL40N features Intel's latest low-power processors. "The DL40N series is a fanless 1.3-liter mini PC designed for 24/7 commercial use. Powered by Intel Twin Lake processors (N150/ N250/ N350) and supporting up to 16GB DDR5-4800 memory, it delivers reliable, energy-efficient computing for embedded and edge applications. Triple display output via HDMI, DisplayPort, and VGA provides flexibility for modern and legacy systems. Dual 2.5G LAN, dual COM, multiple USB ports enable seamless integration with peripherals and control systems, making it ideal for kiosks, digital signage, industrial automation, and other space-constrained deployments."

Source: Shuttle 

Snapdragon mini PCs concepts

Courtesy of HotHardware

ASUS feature-rich IoT motherboard

ASUS heard our cries and finally launches a DC-powered N100 motherboard. Positioned for professional applications its industrial-grade design warrants a premium price, though. The passively-cooled N100I-EM-A is already available for $219 directly from ASUS, or for $200 from MIXTPC.

"The ASUS N100I-EM-A is a Mini-ITX industrial motherboard featuring rich I/O capabilities and advanced connectivity. It offers various display outputs: 1 x VGA port, 1 x HDMI port, 1 x LVDS connector. The legacy options for industrial applications like 2 x SATA 6Gb/s ports, 4 x USB 3.2 Gen 1 headers, 3 x USB 2.0 headers, 3 x COM headers, 3 x COM connectors, M.2 E key, and M.2 M key. Besides, N100I-EM-A  can support to maximum 16GB DDR4 memory and two Intel LAN ports. This makes the ASUS N100I-EM-A an ideal choice for a wide range of embedded applications."

Source: ASUS