How to assemble MiniSys T8 fanless, passively cooled HTPC - Tutorial

Today I'm gonna  show, how to assembly fanless, passively cooled  HTPC system based on MiniSys T8 case.

MiniSys T8 it's a new product of Chinese "Iwill" company  who specialize in aluminum  PC chassis.

This chassis is sold with short manual/assembly leaflet, but I've decided to make this tutorial to help "desperatos" who are desperate to build a completely silent HTPC, and wish to use this particular Iwill housing, as manual assembly leaflet  in  not  very detailed and  assemble  by less experienced   DIY may not be easy.....

Step 1: disassemble T8 chassis.
It is quite  easy,  please unscrew top  four  screws located on the corners of the top lid.
then  please do the same with the bottom screws -  they are located inside of the   anti-vibration legs. Please do this  gently as that's the only screws that keeps chassis  parts together. After disassembling, case will looks like  on the photo below:

Step 2: Install the hard drive(s) on the bottom plate of the chassis. MiniSys T8 HTPC case can  accommodate  2 x 2.5 inch Hard/SSD drives. On the photo below  you can find  a spaces designated for HDD/SSD installation:

Simply, apply Hard drive  to the space on the bottom lid designated for  HDD and then use a black short screws attached  in the package, to screw in the  hard drive  from the underneath of the bottom lid. If T8 120W DC power used, please screw in this board as well in a designated space. 

Please Note!
 SATA sockets of the hard drive(s) should be directed towards front panel of the  case.


Please  plug in your SATA  cables to the hard drive as on the photo below:

Step 3: Motherboard, CPU & RAM   installation.
Please  install CPU in your motherboard's socket, also RAM  modules in memory banks.
Before you will  screw your motherboard  in to the bottom lid of the case  please install  bottom  part of T8 case cooling system  as on the photos below:

Please note!
    This tutorial was prepared  without using a thermal compound/paste. It is essential to use such a thermal paste when installing cooling heat pipe system, otherwise  it may lead to  overheating your  motherboard & CPU, which may cause damage of your PC components. 

Step 4: Front, rear panel and side radiators installation.

To install rear panel  please insert metal I/O shield provided with your motherboard, into space on rear panel, designated for such a shield. Then please  screw in all  aluminum corner pillars, except one of two rear pillars.Then please place rear panel sheet  into  rear corner pillar already  installed, like on the photo below:

Then please insert another pillar(not yet installed), to his designated position in the chassis, making sure that another side of rear panel sheet is also  hidden in pillar's cavity:

Then, please  use remaining  anti-vibration pad, and screw in the last pillar to the bottom case lid:

After rear panel installation, your case's bottom lid should looks like that:

Now we can   mount side radiators, which is really an easy job.
Just slide in each radiator from the top of the case, as  shown on the photos:

Please do the same with a front panel:

Step 5: Cooling system installation.

T8 case cooling system  contain: cooling CPU core with  bottom  installation socket mount, 4 x 6mm diameter copper heat pipes & 2 x aluminum  side cooling  pads.

Please put all 4 heat-pipes on the bottom part of  CPU cooling radiator as ahown on the photo:

Then please screw in a top lid of the CPU radiator, but please leave some loose, so heat-pipes can be moved left or right:

Now, it's time to  apply side aluminum pads. Simply screw in one side pad to each side radiator like on the photo:

Step 6: Cables connecting & front panel  installation.

This step it's quite easy,  please connect  a front panel  connectors to the motherboard, and also hard drive(s)  SATA cables, and DC 12V  plug to the rear panel.  

Step 7: Optical drive installation.
Please skip this part if you're using  T8 case model without optical drive  slot, otherwise....

MiniSys T8 case coming with designated space for optical drive. Please note that   this case to not  support EJECT button. Only slot load-in optical drives can be used in this case type. 
    Firstly, we have to  install your optical drive inside of optical drive mounting holder  provided together with the case:

When  drive is mounted inside of  ODD holder, we have to  install it in the case:

And of course connect SATA cables to the motherboard.

Step 8: Top lid  installation.

Ok, all parts are  mounted inside of the case. It's time to close everything up.
Please  put a top lid of the case  on it's designated place, and use black  short screws to screw it in:

And job done!

Voila!

BR

Tomas