My ultimate HTPC

"The Akasa case is great, albeit a bit larger than I expected. It is a solid chunk of aluminum weighing over 1.5 kilograms. The cooling capacity of the case is better than I expected and better than the original NUC case with a fan. With the original NUC case setup the idle temperature was often around 100 F degrees and could hit over 130 F degrees which kicked in the fan noise. With the new Akasa case the idle temperature is around 83 F degrees and around 100 F degrees during high bitrate playback, even with MPEG2 files which I am not using HW decoding. Many times it remains under 90 degrees during playback. The external antennas perform far better than the stock NUC setup. I can see my neighbor's WiFi SSIDs from over 100 ft away with a moderate signal level."

Source: LibreELEC 

ODROID-H5 hands on

"It’s fanless and cooled by a large and thick heatsink, and most ports can be found on the rear panel: 12V DC jack, two USB 2.0 ports, a 10GbE RJ45, two USB 3.0 ports, one HDMI port, and two DisplayPort connectors. A look at the top shows one of the M.2 PCIe Gen3 x2 sockets (SSD2), an eMMC module slot, Power and Reset buttons, an RTC battery connector, a 4-pin 12V fan connector, and a 24-pin GPIO header. The bottom side features a single SO-DIMM connector and three more M.2 sockets. Note that SSD1 and SSD3 are PCIe Gen3 x2 sockets, but SSD4 is only connected to one PCIe Gen3 lane, so that’s something to keep in mind when connecting modules."

Source: CNX Software 

Panther Lake-H KUBB

The French-designed mini PC measuring just 12 by 12 centimeters and featuring an eye-catching heatsink case is now powered by the new Intel Core Ultra X7 358H processor. The system is fully configurable with up to 64GB of RAM and 4TB of storage. The KUBB Fanless is available from 1850€.

https://kubb.eu/en/4-mini-pc-kubb-fanless.html

i3-powered mini tower

The ANDAQI IX26 is a rugged industrial computer engineered to deliver reliable operation in demanding work environments. A standout feature of this model is its hot-swap capability, which allows for drive replacements without requiring a system shutdown. The system features dual Gigabit Ethernet ports, dedicated COM ports, USB 3.0/3.2 ports, HDMI, and VGA. The i3-1215U-powered barebone is available for $771.99.

ZimaBoard 2 review

"The ZimaBoard 2 is a serious upgrade on the original in every area that counted against it: faster processor, faster memory, faster networking, and a better PCIe slot. At $279 for the base model, it sits in a competitive price bracket, but the combination of x86 compatibility, dual 2.5GbE, passive cooling, and a genuine PCIe expansion path is difficult to replicate at this size and price point. The soldered memory and external drive arrangement are compromises worth knowing about before buying, and the four-core processor imposes real limits on multi-VM ambitions. For homelab builders, NAS enthusiasts, router experimenters, and anyone who wants a genuinely hackable low-power server that can run almost any OS without argument, however, the ZimaBoard 2 makes a compelling case for itself."

Source: TechRadar 

Panther Lake-H ASRock iBOX

Just six months after announcing Alder Lake-H fanless iBOX models, ASRock launches two more powerful Panther Lake-H systems, the iBOX-358H (Core Ultra X7 358H) and iBOX-325 (Core Ultra 5 325). These 200 x 176.6 x 53.6mm (roughly 7x7-inch) PCs now support a whopping 128GB of RAM. Connectivity is extensive, featuring two Intel 2.5 Gigabit LAN ports, one USB4 / Thunderbolt 4 port, four USB 3.2 Gen2 ports, two USB 2.0 ports and two HDMI 2.1 ports.

Meet the ODROID-H5

ODROID returns with its most feature-rich model yet. Barely larger than a NUC motherboard the compact 120x120mm system comes with a built-in 10GbE Ethernet port and packs an impressive four M.2 slots (three PCIe Gen 3 x2 and one PCIe Gen 3 x1) to accommodate multiple NVMe drives, AI accelerators, or expansion cards. The ODROID-H5 is powered by the highly efficient Intel Core i3-N300 and comes with a capable aluminum heatsink for $250 / 285€.

Fake champagne energy

The ROG Crosshair 2006 motherboard celebrates the 20th anniversary of the Republic of Gamers brand. Built on the modern AMD X870E platform, it pays tribute to the original 2006 Crosshair by incorporating a retro aesthetic that features what look like copper heatsinks. Well, it's not copper. It's copper-colored aluminum. What a strange way to celebrate the original. As copper prices continue to skyrocket, we may soon see the material completely phased out of motherboards and CPU coolers.

Source: ROG 

Steampunk experiment N°2

Billet Labs are back. This fanless custom-watercooled gaming PC features top-tier hardware (actually components from their recent 100kg Victorian radiator build) including an AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D processor, an NVIDIA RTX 5080 graphics card, 32GB of RAM, and a 2TB SSD. To manage the immense heat entirely without fans, the open-frame build relies on multiple liquid-cooling loops and large copper tubing. This is art.

Source: reddit 

Steampunk experiment N°1

"Had this idea for a couple years. Go fanless with relatively large radiators and full copper on a wall mounted custom ‘case’. I’ve seen projects similar, but not all in the same build. Without the fans, I knew I would need to watercool nearly everything and have a fairly large mass of water because the passive cooling would need some extra time in my heat sink. My ‘heat sinks’ are 3/4” base board and have roughly 10’ of it combined. I believe I have about 7500mL of coolant. Coolant is a 10:1 mix of automotive antifreeze. Recently finished so don’t have extended loads (8hrs so far), but I haven’t got water temps higher than 35."

Source: reddit