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We tested the SS51G with not the hottest Intel processor but it still is necessary to dissipate 60 W. While it's possible to calculate air flow channels and control them with additional fans for large cases, it's impossible to do for such a baby as the Shuttle's box, especially taking into account other heat sources as a chipset, CD/DVD drive, hard drive, external video card etc. The cooling solution used in the SS51G looks original and turned to be very effective.
There is one fan (80mm) inside the box which pumps out air which comes in through the holes in the panels. At the same time the fan pumps air through the heat plates of the processor's cooling system based on the heat pipes technology. The heatsink with a copper base is attached to the processor and pressed against it with a clip, the fan is attached to the back panel pressing the upper heatsink against it as well.
The thermal efficiency of this solution is so high that the CPU's temperature (measured with the built-in sensor of the Pentium 4) doesn't exceed 60°C even though we ran games for a quite long time, and the system temperature (measured with the board's sensor) is just 40°C. (The measurements were taken with the integrated video used and with the cover closed.) It's especially important that this thermal mode is achieved at the fan's speed of 2000 rpm. We couldn't measure the noise level, but I must say that the fan makes much less noise than any other in our lab and it was "outrun" by the video card cooler. Considering that it's possible to set a processor's temperature at which the fan is to speed up, this cooling solution makes a good showing.
http://www.digit-life.com/articles2/shuttlexpcss51gbarebone/