In disassembling a tr3a today I took the heatsink fan unit apart and was quite shocked how small the sink part really is :shock:
Anyhow here are some pics for those that haven’t:- (coin is a uk 5 pence I think roughly dime sized at 18mm)
Images also show an AMD Duron CPU & a standard sized motherboard Northbridge sink
Will try to fabricate something a little bigger and copper, stock item is cast aluminium, contact surface unfinished / poor thermal pad.. I know it’s not a performance machine but cooling is still cooling, and these do run hot
The PC and 3d cards used here were top end at the time (2002)
Watercooling is now almost mainstreem in the PC moding world now but it was in it’s infancy when i was after a goal of a fanless gaming PC.
I had plans to make them but coper prices have gone through the roof in the UK in the past 4 to 5 years.
Anyway back to TR… I’ll hopefully be able to modify a decent copper heatsink to make the most of the space availible and use much better thermal interface paste 8)
Yea, I was a cooling fanatic in my last desktop and had a total of 15 fans in the unit plus any kind of heat sink I could add. The noise was loud and it was ok, but now that I downsized and have the TR, I want to cool it as much as possible.
You’re not ringing your own bell and it looks like you are more obsessed than I! I can’t wait to see your product. If you feel like it, I would consider buying one from you
Well it’s a while ago now, and other factors have taken over in my life so I don’t have the time, but it was a fun project. I still have the fanless PC and it’s still fanless running fine, (although i’ve moved home so the cooling is done via an old JCB radiator now not an underground tank).
If you read the links you’ll see most of the blocks I made with simple hand tools only, the later splitter-x and 9800 pro requiring a manual mill.
If I make something for TR and it works I’ll detail it here, i’ll try to keep it simple so it can be easily reproduced for others, or they can be made yourself 8)
Found a heatsink I like for this project, now needs some mods to mount and fit fan etc, its a high quality forged all copper northbrigde unit from HERE..
Wow, what a great find BladeRunner! I am excited to see the modification you will make with this. Are you going to post the steps and pictures as well?
Pictorial detail stage 1…Just remember to tell me when you are beginning to loose the will to keep living :D
firstly tank or gaffer tape on the base to protect, then I used a dremel with sacrificial thin cut off wheels to cut the pins down. The pins were then sanded flat using 180 grit wet & dry or silicon carbide paper with water on a flat surface. Pins require a little straightening but I’ll do this last thing, the sink is now about the same profile as the original heatsink unit.
next stage will be making the mounting mechanism..
As soon as I see you finished with the project, I am going to buy the same heat sink and do this as well.
Actually, my project for the TR2A is going to be huge because I am going to do ALL the modifications at once so I only open the unit one time. This will include painting the casing as well, professionally.
Too bad you have been ill as that is no fun :( But not to worry about PMs or anything. I was just curious if you had made any progress is all. Get better!
Not wishing to ring my own bell here I’ve had a bit of an obsession with cooling.. 
