Fanless Calyos NSG S0 phase-change PC case hits Kickstarter

[Shawn Knight]

A fanless PC case has been a dream of mine for ages. Such a setup has technically been possible for a while now but I’ve never been all that interested in the various compromises necessary to make it a reality.

Instead, I’ve defaulted to a simple formula for peace and quiet that consists of an oversized Cooler Master Cosmos II case, a massive Noctua NH-D14 SE2011 heatsink with slow-turning fans, a passively cooled low-end video card and a “quiet” power supply.

With a new build looming and my desire for a truly fanless chassis persisting, Kickstarter may have just let me to my next case.

A company by the name of Calyos has launched a campaign for a fanless PC chassis called the NGS S0 that is designed to accommodate high-end hardware through the use of phase-change cooling for the CPU and GPU (and of course, lots of radiators).

Two years in the making and designed with help from Watermod, the NGS S0 can support standard ATX power supplies, any AMD or Intel motherboard up to E-ATX, up to four hard drives and a graphics card up to a GTX 1080 Ti.

Pricing is set at just south of $600 with plans to ship out the first units as early as August 2017. With more than $146,000 of the company’s $161,272 goal already reached and 28 days left to go, I don’t suspect Calyos will have any trouble getting the money it needs to move forward with production.

Calyos won Innovation Awards in the categories of gaming and computer hardware at CES 2017 but that’s no guarantee. As with any Kickstarter campaign, there’s a certain level of risk associated here and any money that you donate should be done with that risk in mind.

That said, the technology looks impressive but we’ll have to reserve final judgment until we get our hands on a test sample.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/68736-fanless-calyos-nsg-s0-phase-change-pc-case.html

 

[davislane1]

Potential game changer.

 

[Levi Sterling]

I would put on fans to overclock

 

[ikesmasher]

No offense or anything, but I cant imagine alot of guest readers and the like wanna read 2/3 paragraphs about shawns build before actually getting to the article content.

 

[hahahanoobs]

I'm not impressed - yet. The dude said fan a lot and said water and air cooling were constraints, but gave no numbers of any kind and no mention of overclocking. I'll wait for the final product, but right now, I'm gonna say this case won't live up to expectations or hype based on that video alone. It certainly didn't convince me to put any money up front.

The video referenced to a YouTube video, but this video should give me everything I need to know, and it doesn't.

 

[davislane1]

I'm not impressed - yet. The dude said fan a lot and said water and air cooling were constraints, but gave no numbers of any kind and no mention of overclocking. I'll wait for the final product, but right now, I'm gonna say this case won't live up to expectations or hype based on that video alone. It certainly didn't convince me to put any money up front.

The video referenced to a YouTube video, but this video should give me everything I need to know, and it doesn't.

He said that it can maintain temps below throttling, so the indication that the system will work as well as an air cooled system but short of a water-based system. But yes, some ballpark specs would have been nice. This was just simple marketing.

 

[Kenrick]

Test sample looks good.

 

[Bubbajim]

$600 for a case seems a bit steep, fancy or otherwise.

 

[Gadgety1]

$600 for a case seems a bit steep, fancy or otherwise.

It's not just any case. You need to make a comparison for a case with the cooling. So, either you need to add water cooling or air cooling to whatever case you buy. Neither will be silent.

 

[Gadgety1]

One thing I noticed on the PC shown compared to previous Calyos builds is the more limited cooling of the RAM and VRM. On previous builds this has been accomplished in two ways. Either with a tall fanless heat sink or with copper foam. The latter is very expensive. Probably half the cost of this case, around $300, from what I've seen.

 

[Gadgety1]

I'm not impressed - yet. The dude said fan a lot and said water and air cooling were constraints, but gave no numbers of any kind and no mention of overclocking. I'll wait for the final product, but right now, I'm gonna say this case won't live up to expectations or hype based on that video alone. It certainly didn't convince me to put any money up front.

The video referenced to a YouTube video, but this video should give me everything I need to know, and it doesn't.

He said that it can maintain temps below throttling, so the indication that the system will work as well as an air cooled system but short of a water-based system. But yes, some ballpark specs would have been nice. This was just simple marketing.

The actual blocks used can handle up to 1000W each according to info from Calyos. Cooing capacity is limited by the size of the condenser cooling fins.

 

[cartera]

Its missing a few things in those pictures, where are the HDD's? Even the m.2 slot is empty.

 

[andrewdoyle88]

Tom's hardware needs to use autocorrect.

 

[Skidmarksdeluxe]

Potential game changer.

I'm not inclined to agree with you. While phase change cooling is highly effective, it is also prohibitively expensive. It'll be a niche product because of it's price, and looks. If the big manufacturers see a market and can make phase change cooling a lot more mainstream and affordable, then yes, it will be a game changer... not to mention produce nicer looking cases. If that ever happens then this company Chaos, or whatever they call themselves will be have long been bought out by one of the manufacturers.

 

[Skidmarksdeluxe]

$600 for a case seems a bit steep, fancy or otherwise.

A bit??? An understatement if I ever saw one but phase change cooling is expensive. Don't expect big manufacturers to start offering this tech in their cases any time soon.

 

[Skidmarksdeluxe]

Tom's hardware needs to use autocorrect.

That was Linus Sebastian poking his nose around the case.

 

[zVujec]

600$ price , hehe

have old reserator 1, waterblock on cpu and gpu, all for 200$,
7600k 4600 Mhz, gtx 1050ti, all under 50c, fanless ofcourse.

 

[madboyv1]

I'm not impressed - yet. The dude said fan a lot and said water and air cooling were constraints, but gave no numbers of any kind and no mention of overclocking. I'll wait for the final product, but right now, I'm gonna say this case won't live up to expectations or hype based on that video alone. It certainly didn't convince me to put any money up front.

The video referenced to a YouTube video, but this video should give me everything I need to know, and it doesn't.

The Kickstarter page has a basic performance comparison between a water cooled system, an air cooled system, and their phase change system (taken with a heap of salt of course).

Its missing a few things in those pictures, where are the HDD's? Even the m.2 slot is empty.

The Kickstarter page shows how the hard drives are mounted in the case, and it looks like they are not normally visible.

 

[Gadgety1]

A bit??? An understatement if I ever saw one but phase change cooling is expensive. Don't expect big manufacturers to start offering this tech in their cases any time soon.

Sure it's a niche. The cost of a custom water loop isn't low either, and requires maintenance. In addition, and that's the big thing here, at least to me, this is silent.

 

[Skidmarksdeluxe]

Sure it's a niche. The cost of a custom water loop isn't low either, and requires maintenance. In addition, and that's the big thing here, at least to me, this is silent.

But just imagine if phase change cooling could ever become mainstream... It would make custom cooling loops ineffective, irrelevant, redundant and obsolete before you could wipe the crap from your eyes. Water cooling manufacturers wouldn't even be able to give their fancy priced components away.