Advice Sought - Keeping DDR4 Cool in a fanless case?

ytene

ytene

ytene

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In anticipation of a little surplus funding in the New Year, I'm in the process of building up a parts list for a new fanless PC - and would be interested in experiences and advice from anyone running a DDR4 system in a case with little or no airflow.

The basic configuration I'm going for will comprise:-

1. A Streacom FC8 Case - https://www.overclockers.co.uk/streacom-st-fc8s-evo-htpc-aluminium-case-silver-ca-016-sr.html
2. Gigabyte H610i Mini-ITX Case - which I had to source from ***elsewhere*** as OcUK don't stock it...
3. A Core i9 13900K [65W TDP / 8 Perf Cores / 16 Efficient Cores / 32 Threads / 2.0GHz base clock / 5.6GHz Max clock
4. 2Tb of M.2 Storage - I've used Samsung up to this point and had excellent results...
5. RAM - at least 32Gb, might go 64Gb this time...

The H610i has an integrated heatsink/cover for the M.2 drive, so there's not a whole heap I can do about fitting an after-market heatsink/spreader to the drive... But I might get luck with the RAM... The case is comfortably tall enough for me to consider selecting either 2x16Gb or 2x32Gb of RAM that comes with [or can be fitted with] some form of heat spreader or fins of some kind.

I'd be grateful for any advice on DDR4 ram to go with this setup. The board specification quote support for up to 64Gb of DDR4 with an operating speed between 2133 and 3200MHz. Obviously the faster the RAM the hotter this is going to run... and I'm not going to be running games on it.

It is going to spend about 60& of its operational life doing typical office/web/word processing activities - CPU utilisation under 25% except for the odd burst of activity... but then it's also going to spend a little more time in slightly more intensive tasks, including odd bits of compiling, which I've noticed can be a bit more CPU/RAM intensive.

Very interested in advice on good all-round RAM that can "keep cool under pressure" - and if that means opting for something at 2400 or 2666 speeds, then I'd much rather do that than hit reliability issues down the road.

Thanks in advance...
 
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I'd make sure to keep volts as low as possible. if I'm not misremembering, hardware power usage/heat output (same thing) are a function of a number of things, one being frequency and another being the square of the voltage. This means that reducing the voltage makes a significantly bigger difference to temperature than reducing the frequency.
 
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ytene said:
Very interested in advice on good all-round RAM that can "keep cool under pressure" - and if that means opting for something at 2400 or 2666 speeds, then I'd much rather do that than hit reliability issues down the road.
Click to expand...
You don't have to buy 2400/2666, you can buy OEM/JEDEC ram for 3200. Crucial also sell OEM/JEDEC memory with a heatspreader, called Crucial Pro.
 
That motherboard is going to throttle heeeaaavily with the 13900K.

Those VRMs will be terrible.

There’s a an itx motherboard which was on special for £160 (B760i) which is going to be far better and not that much more expensive.

Edit; it’s no longer on special but I’d still rather get a proper motherboard like the below. More USB, more M.2 and better VRMs.

Maybe also consider the 14700K instead?

More cores than the 13700K and should be easier to cool than the 13900K whilst being close enough in performance.

www.overclockers.co.uk

Gigabyte B760I AORUS PRO DDR4 (LGA 1700) DDR4 ITX Motherboard

Order Gigabyte B760I AORUS PRO DDR4 (LGA 1700) DDR4 ITX Motherboard now online and benefit from fast delivery.
www.overclockers.co.uk www.overclockers.co.uk
 
JollyJamma said:
That motherboard is going to throttle heeeaaavily with the 13900K.

Those VRMs will be terrible.
Click to expand...
ytene said:
It is going to spend about 60& of its operational life doing typical office/web/word processing activities - CPU utilisation under 25% except for the odd burst of activity... but then it's also going to spend a little more time in slightly more intensive tasks, including odd bits of compiling, which I've noticed can be a bit more CPU/RAM intensive.
Click to expand...
It's just a typewriter, it'll be fineeee :D
 
JollyJamma said:
That motherboard is going to throttle heeeaaavily with the 13900K.

Those VRMs will be terrible.

There’s a an itx motherboard which was on special for £160 (B760i) which is going to be far better and not that much more expensive.

Edit; it’s no longer on special but I’d still rather get a proper motherboard like the below. More USB, more M.2 and better VRMs.

Maybe also consider the 14700K instead?

More cores than the 13700K and should be easier to cool than the 13900K whilst being close enough in performance.

www.overclockers.co.uk

Gigabyte B760I AORUS PRO DDR4 (LGA 1700) DDR4 ITX Motherboard

Order Gigabyte B760I AORUS PRO DDR4 (LGA 1700) DDR4 ITX Motherboard now online and benefit from fast delivery.
www.overclockers.co.uk www.overclockers.co.uk
Click to expand...

Thanks... I didn't mention in my original post that the single most important criteria for my selection of that particular Gigabyte part was that it supports 3 displays... I have a triple-monitor setup and intend to keep that when I upgrade machine...
 
mattyfez said:
Running an i9 with passive cooling seems... Errm, a bit ambitious to put it mildly!
Click to expand...
Current machine is built in an FC8 case with an ASRock Z390M-ITX/AC motherboard and an i9-9900... Yes, if I run anything too CPU intensive on it, then it will throttle after a relatively short period of time... but for general use it's been absolutely fine for the last 3-4 years or so... Literally using it to type this reply.
 
All,
Stopping back to thank you all for your comments and suggestions... Based on feedback - and more reading - I think I'm going to need to move from the FC8 case - which can only deliver 160W - to the Streacom FC10 Alpha... I had not considered it to start with because it has top-side ventilation and I was a bit concerned about dust getting in... but I think the better cooling and better PSU options for the FC10 make more sense...

Appreciate all your guidance - thank you
 
A 9900k has nothing on a 13900k when it comes to power and heat. Many air coolers cannot even keep a 13900k cool and a big AIO is usually recommended. There is no way you are going to passively cool one and certainly not in either of those Streacom cases you are looking at. Their websites states that the FC10 Alpha only has 87w of cooling so there is no way it will cool a 13900k.
 
Setting aside what's already been noted about the other components, it's not hard to keep DDR4 cool, as it doesn't use much power. I have some DDR4 2666 (bare, without heatspreaders) in a fanless machine, and after stressing it a bit by running some benchmarks, the max. temp. was 45°C (room temp. of 20°C). It's in a full-size ATX case, so there's more airflow than in that Streacom though. Faster RAM will also be hotter, but not much if you stick to JEDEC voltage. It's manageable.
 
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