Reference System Layouts; Thin Mini Itx Based System Design; General System Design Considerations - Intel Thin Mini-ITX System Design Manual

Reference System Layouts

7 Reference System Layouts
7.1

Thin Mini ITX Based System Design

Intel has identified several general core component (MB and thermal solution) layouts
for both All In One and Tiny PC system designs that can meet the thermal
requirements. The Intel reference thermal solution described in Section 6 was
designed to allow a high degree of flexibility in component layout while maintaining a
building block system design approach.
7.1.1

General System Design Considerations

 Utilize a CPU heatsink exit duct to force all of the exiting hot air directly out of the
chassis because hot air recirculation will degrade system thermal performance.
 Completely enshroud the CPU blower inlet to isolate it from the internal system air
itself to minimize the air inlet temperature to the blower and thus maximize CPU
cooling performance and minimize acoustic noise.
 Moving air must be supplied over the voltage regulator power FETs
 Chassis vents should be introduced to ensure VR heated air has an exhaust path
out of the chassis because over temp VR's will induce CPU throttling.
 System memory must have high velocity cool air moving over them. (High flow
rate is typically not required.)
 Single fan configurations typically require a thermal pad underneath the VR at the
bottom side of the motherboard
 Use as much venting as chassis Industrial Design can allow to minimize internal
air temperatures.
 The addition of an EMI cage or enclosure around the motherboard will make it
more difficult to get good cool airflow over the motherboard components. The
introduction of an EMI cage may require a VR thermal pad and/or air flow splitter
duct from the system fan to simultaneously supply system fan airflow to the VR
components and to the SO-DIMMs.
 The minimization of the air temperature rise from outside the chassis to the CPU
blower inlet has a significant benefit to CPU cooling performance. Target limiting
chassis temperature rise to at most 7C.
Thin Mini-ITX Based PC System Design Guide 55