Finding the best fan setup for the Compac F miner

The Compac F doesn’t come with any cooling fans, so you need to add something to keep it from overheating. I started with a USB fan aimed at the heatsink, which seemed to work well. The miner runs smoothly for long periods, no melting, and the fan isn’t overly loud. Typically, that would be enough for most people. But when it gets quiet, that fan can be pretty annoying since it’s right next to me, so I want to sort that out. I began searching for quieter options to keep it cool without the noise. I stumbled upon these smaller fans that can be directly attached to the miner: Unfortunately, these fans are too noisy for my taste, so I’m skipping them. I have some larger fans that circulate a lot of air and are super quiet, like the Noctua NF-A12x25 PWM. I can control their speed manually using a controller like the Noctua NA-FC1. That way, I can crank down the speed, and they’re nearly silent while still moving plenty of air. Sounds perfect for this situation, so I want to go with that. What’s the best way to set up these fans for optimal cooling of the Compac F? I usually see setups where the big fan is mounted on the USB hub, pushing air horizontally. Then I found this different layout: This might be effective with just one 120mm fan. Should I place the big fan on top, blowing air upwards, or mount it horizontally on the USB hub, directing air away from or towards the miner?

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

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

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!

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 ?

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

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.