Background

A gaming PC is the single most important device of a gamer. The hardware and software technologies of gaming keep improving at a dramatic rate, but the design of the computer itself hardly does. For some reason, the majority of gaming computers in 2018 are still bulky and noisy.

From time to time an attempt is made to design a gaming PC that is small and quiet. Unfortunately the first thing these designs sacrifice is usability - these PCs are notoriously hard to service and often next-to-impossible to upgrade.

Many would consider the holy grail of gaming PC to have the following properties:

Uncompromising performance

Silent

Small

Easy to upgrade

These are exactly the design goals Compulab set for Airtop2 Inferno.

Note: As for reliability, that design goal goes without saying. All Compulab PCs ship with 5 year warranty, and Airtop2 Inferno is no exception.

What is Airtop2 Inferno?

Inferno is a compact, high-performance gaming PC with silent cooling.

High-performance means Core-i7 7700K (91W) + desktop GeForce GTX 1080 (180W). Both working at full performance, they are not underclocked, in fact both are unlocked. Inferno also has up to 64 GB RAM and 2x NVMe.

Silent cooling means 0dB - not "quiet, specially designed fans". There are simply no fans at all in Inferno, no CPU and GPU fans, no case fans and no PSU fan. There is no water cooling either. The graphics card has its fans removed. Both CPU and graphics card are cooled by Natural Airflow.

Inferno CPU (right) & GPU (left) cooling

About Natural Airflow technology

Compulab is a pioneer in fanless computing and has been designing and making miniature fanless PCs for 12 years, mostly for industrial use (where fanless PCs are widely recognized as more reliable).

In 2013 Compulab started researching how to cool a high-performance PC without fans, which resulted in Natural Airflow technology - an effective method for harnessing the stack effect to generate sufficient airflow for cooling a 200W small-form-factor PC. That's the principle behind Airtop (a field proven product shipping for 2 years) and Airtop2 on which Inferno is based.

Natural Airflow illustration

To watch a video about Natural Airflow click here

Natural Airflow is very scalable. This allows extending the cooling capacity from Airtop2's 200W to the 300W+ required for cooling GeForce GTX 1080 + Core i7 7700K in Airtop2 Inferno.

Airtop2 Inferno in the press

Technical details

Highlights:

CPU : Intel Core i7-7700K (Quad-core 4.2 GHz – 4.5 GHz, 91W)

: Intel Core i7-7700K (Quad-core 4.2 GHz – 4.5 GHz, 91W) Graphics : NVIDIA GTX 1080 8 GB (Base clock: 1620 MHz)

: NVIDIA GTX 1080 8 GB (Base clock: 1620 MHz) RAM : Up to 64 GB DDR4 2400 (4x UDIMM)

: Up to 64 GB DDR4 2400 (4x UDIMM) Storage : 6 storage devices: 2x NVMe + 4x SATA SSD / HDD

: 6 storage devices: 2x NVMe + 4x SATA SSD / HDD 9x USB (2x USB 3.1 + 7x USB 3.0)

Front and rear audio

Dual Gbit Ethernet + optional WiFi and 4G modem

Integrated OLED display (I3M) for showing real-time temperatures, power, system load and system information.

(See complete specifications below)

Inferno features

Inferno dimensions

Inferno block diagram

Inferno specifications

Benchmarks

Benchmarking was conducted on Inferno's motherboard with final CPU and graphics card. See gallery for a picture of the test system. The only difference from final Inferno is that the hardware was spread on a table with active cooling and not installed into the final housing (that will go to production only after this campaign succeeds).

Test system:

Airtop2/Inferno motherboard

CPU: Core-i7 7700K (4.2 GHz)

Graphics: Zotac GeForce GTX 1080 Mini (1620 MHz)

RAM: 4x 16 GB DDR4 2400 (64 GB total)

Storage: NVMe 960 EVO 256 GB

OS: Windows 10 64 bit (10.0.15063)

See more details here

3DMark 11 on Inferno. score: 20463

Fire Strike V1.1 on Inferno. Score: 16847

Sky Diver v1.0 on Inferno. Score: 36710

Time Spy v1.0 on Inferno. Score: 6776

Unigine Heaven 4.0 on Inferno. Score: 2785

Upgrading Inferno

Installing RAM and storage

Installing / upgrading RAM and storage is extremely simple in Inferno thanks to the tool-free clamshell opening.

Inferno and Airtop2 share identical inside structure. This video demonstrates installation of RAM and disks in Airtop2. The procedure is identical in Inferno.

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Upgrading graphics card

Upgrading graphics card

When new and better graphics cards become available Compulab will adapt to Inferno the best compatible one and will offer it as an upgrade kit where graphics card is already installed on the replaceable door. Upgrading should take no more than 5 minutes:

Turn-off Inferno

Open clamshell door

Disconnect PCIe adapter and power cable

Unscrew hinge

Pull-out the door with attached graphics card

Repeat steps in reverse with the new door+graphics card

Notes:

In order for a graphics card to be supported by Inferno it has to be 17 cm (mini-ITX) or shorter.

Compulab validates certain graphics cards and does the adaptation to Inferno. This is an involving process that cannot be accomplished by the user.

Upgrading motherboard

Compulab may be offering in the future a motherboard with a new CPU.

In that case the new motherboard will be offered as a kit.

Please note that replacing the motherboard is a more involving process which is not recommended for users who do not have previous experience in assembling a PC (including attaching a heatsink to the CPU).

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Rewards

Inferno half life

A barenone system with CPU but no graphics-card. The owner has to add the RAM, storage and operating system to achieve a functional system.

What is it good for? Anything but immediate gaming. Namely:

1. Silent high performance home-theater PC.

As Ganesh T S from Anandtech points out:

"I spent a lot of time in the last few months of 2017 attempting to figure out a good configuration for a high-end home theater PC (a market that the Inferno targets) : https://www.anandtech.com/print/12171/a-budget-home-theater-pc-setup-4k-hdr-uhd-bluray-and-more

I came to the conclusion that the integrated graphics is more capable when it comes to 4K home-theater tasks - for example, UltraHD Blu-ray playback (with attached USB Blu-ray drive) is possible only when the Kaby Lake integrated graphics is used to drive the display."

2. A next generation gaming PC.

Wait for the next generation graphics card and buy it once available.

3. A silent home-PC for non-gamers.

Plenty of performance, plenty of storage, small footprint, silent, 3 displays.

Think writing code / documents / high performance compiling etc.

4. A PC for audio.

Silent. high-performance, plenty of storage, digital audio ports, available PCIe x16 slot.

Skeletal Inferno

A barenone system with CPU and graphics-card.

The owner has to add the RAM, storage and operating system to achieve a functional system.

RAM and storage are expensive in 2018.

With Skeletal you can reuse RAM and disks you already have, buy them elsewhere piece by piece or wait for Black Friday to make a major upgrade.

Inferno makes a convenient barebone system for the following reasons:

- Very easy installation of RAM and storage (see video above)

- Built-in diagnostics:

The most frustrating step in installation is when you plug in everything, turn on the computer and it does not start. Normally that leaves you guessing what's wrong, but Inferno has the following indicator LEDs:

- Detecting RAM --> detected

- BIOS passed POST --> booting

- Display detected on integrated HDMI port

- Display detected on one of the integrated DP ports

This makes troubleshooting much easier.

Demonic Inferno

Demonic is a ready to use high-performance Inferno.

It has the same CPU and graphics like all other models.

Demonic would provide the same frame-rate as more expensive models and will score the same in most gaming benchmarks.

You can add RAM and storage any time to promote Demonic to Diabolic or better.

Diabolic Inferno

Some gamers want more, better and faster (or so we heard).

Diabolic tries to address that by adding:

- Samsung 960 EVO NVMe (extremely fast, shortens loading time)

- Double the RAM to 32 GB

- Double the storage 2x 1 TB (possible to configure in RAID)

- Adding 802.11AC WiFi + BT (Intel 8260AC, Skeletal and Demonic owners can order the WiFi separately)

Diabolic can be upgraded further (RAM, storage, 2nd NVMe...)

Doomsday Machine

We just put there everything Inferno can take.

We guess every yacht needs one.

fit-statUSB

fit-statUSB

fit-statUSB is a smart RGB LED with a micro-controller that implements a simple serial-over-USB protocol. It allows running an application on the host to set the LED color and brightness according to host's state.

fit-statUSB in AIrtop2

In Inferno it is useful for running a daemon that polls the CPU temperature and sets the color of the LED accordingly.

Compulab will provide such a daemon for Windows and Linux.

Development status and plans

Technically, Airtop2 Inferno is an enhanced variation of Airtop2 which is a shipping product. Furthermore, Inferno is booting, running stable and was benchmarked with the 7700K CPU and GTX 1080 graphics card.

The thermal design, industrial design and validation of the new parts with the manufacturer have all been completed successfully.

This means there is no pending research and development to carry out, only execution of manufacturing the exterior air-tubes, stress testing and tuning.

In parallel Compulab intends to design a new FACE Module for Inferno adding dual USB 3.1 gen 2 (10 Gbps). This FACE Module is straightforward to design and will not delay the roll-out of Inferno.

Why Kickstarter?

Airtop2 Inferno is unique by being small, fanless and high performance, but it is far from being the lowest-cost gaming PC on the market.

We are certain that we can manufacture Airtop2 Inferno and that it will work well, but we can do it only if there is interest in the product, and we believe Kickstarter is the right place to find that out.

Milestones on the road to Inferno

About the Inferno creators team