Passive Cooling I7 3770 in fractal mini

Soldato
Joined
6 Aug 2008
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Location
Birmingham
Hi all

Built a rig today for someone that wanted a super quiet high performance build - I used a megahalems "mega" cooler.

Ive mounted it using the 70lb screws.

Ive undervolted and limited it to 1.00 V, 0.95 seems to cause instability so given it a little more.

When priming with 1 side of the case of max temps I saw were 81 degrees - this is probably unrealistic as I don't think the rig is going to be hammered at 100% all cores that often.

Question is -

1.) Has anyone else passively cooled one of these chips
2.) Is this a good idea :D
 
he wants it "really" quiet - it looks lovely and uncluttered as well - will upload a pic...

Is 80 degrees ok?

If it is - ill leave it

Amazing to think you "can" even potentially passively cool one of these!
 
80c is perfectly fine imo
although, for passive cooling, i would have used a Silver arrow with a single akasa apache 120mm fan in the middle, would give much better temps and still be silent :)
 
At 80c you're starting to toe the line IMO, but stress temps are usually 15-20c higher than normal day to day stress. If worried about temps, as above stick a low rpm fan on, something like one of the noctuas, you won't hear it.
 
No.....

:)

Ive just run (with the side on) full batch of 3d mark 11 -

Thats more real world for what he will be doing IMHO - max temps then were 60 ish degrees.

And thats with a 7970 next door to it

Its basically only going to be video encoding type stuff where it goes uber high - and even then - there tend to be breaks in performance - which prime does not do...

Cheers for the feedback lads.
 
Passively running a cooler would still require a bit of airflow. As mentioned above, have a couple of fans running at low RPM and it should be near silent.
 
ts basically only going to be video encoding type stuff where it goes uber high - and even then - there tend to be breaks in performance - which prime does not do...

Doing encodes with Handbrake brings my CPU to within 2c of what prime does.... and when encoding starts on a 2 hour movie it runs full on with NO BREAKS for 20-30 minutes minimum.
 
Yep -its only 1 side off....

Im thinking if I put the extract fan on the lid it would make a big difference just to move all the air out and even if its on being 14cm it should be really quiet.
 
Okay, lets get a few things clarified first.

Define Mini or Arc Mini?

What mobo?

Is cooler facing back or top?

Which 7970?
 
Assume you means Asus Maximus V Gene

You want to built a quiet PC and don't want a HSF or case fans to cool it but are using a GPU that is making 36-44.1dB(A) :confused:

Seems like saying "I'm not going to eat with a mouthful of food. :D
 
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