cooling mod recommendations

[dreamcast459]

ok so i have a VA-1 dreamcast that im going to be installing a GDEMU in and i figured since im taking it apart i might as well do some cooling mods to prolong the life? no idea if the DC uses thermal pads or thermal paste or even heatsinks what mods do you recommend to help with cooling? please dont tell me the mods are worthless

[Macabre]

Have you already upgraded the fan? a noctua fan and 3d printed adapters are pretty common parts off ebay now-a-days.

I know people have added custom heatsink for overclocked boards but idk if that was needed for the gdemu. Mine does run a little hot but it hasn't been a problem.

[dreamcast459]

nope no fan mod yet still using the stock fan but i deff wanna prolong the life of my system

[deluxux]

The dreamcast uses 1.5mm thermal pads

[Anthony817]

The VA0 consoles actually have heatpipes and they are super over engineered but that is not a bad thing and those consoles are sought after due to better cooling..



But still just adding a noctua fan mod upgrade to your VA1 would be sufficient.

[OGDCFAN99]

Noctua fan moves less air than the original fan, not increasing but lowering the cooling capacity.

The only advantage is that it's quieter.

[Stump909]

Noctua fan moves less air than the original fan, not increasing but lowering the cooling capacity.

The only advantage is that it's quieter.

Do you have CFM measurements for comparison?

[Pastel]

I've heard of one or two people replacing the thermal pads with appropriately-sized copper shims with thermal compound on both sides of the shim. It seems overkill, but they overclocked their system so it made sense. It works very well for other things that have thermal pads (GPUs, namely) so I assume it'd work equally well for the DC.

I'm going to try this with my DC in the future so I will let you know about that.

[OlivusPrime]

Noctua fan moves less air than the original fan, not increasing but lowering the cooling capacity.

The only advantage is that it's quieter.

This is a myth. The original fan has an airflow rating of 5.9m³/h, whereas the Noctua that most people use is at 8.2m³/h. Both use the same voltage too. I think this paranoia about the silent fan not pushing as much air might come from PS2 modders, where the Noctua fans being used for those consoles have a similar airflow rating to the originals but are being used at a lower voltage than they're designed for, thus there's concern that they might not be as effective.

If anything, the Dreamcast PSU just gets very hot. If you're extra concerned about prolonging the life of the console against heat, look for a good quality Pico PSU to use as a cooler replacement.

[OGDCFAN99]

I run Dream PSU's and thermal pad replacements on all m DC's and they all run as cool as can be with their stock fans (single drop of mineral oil in the motor shaft makes them run like new)

You are correct the Noctua fan does have a higher airflow rating but the Dreamcast either doesn't seem to supply it with enough amps to achieve it even if the voltage ratings would suggest so... or the 3D printed fan shroud isn't as air tight (thus not as effective at getting all the hot air out of the vent as the original fan's shroud).

Either way just hold your hand next to the exhaust vent and feel the difference for yourself. Put ear plugs in if you have to so the noise output doesn't subconsciously skew your opinion. You don't need any fancy tools or advanced knowledge on electronics to see what I mean.

Its been commented on in this forum quite a bit but no one's made an actual thread about it. And also it has nothing to do with the PS2 modding scene..I don't even have a PS2