Could I run a PC with only a CPU Fan?

Skeeter

Skeeter

Skeeter

Caporegime
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If I built a server PC using a standard case, and then removed all the case fans so the only fans would be on the PSU and the CPU cooler, would it be ok? Not going to cook the HDDs or anything?
 
impossible to give decent advise mate, as you know heat is the enemy, depends on the rig your building, time of year, postion in the house , central heating on? all these things are taken care of by supply cool air into the case from fans, removing them is creating the problems. I asume noise is the reason for removing them? maybe 2 really slow rpm fans would be idea should be very quite.
 
I think the question, more than anything, is WHY you'd want to do this? It might mean we can suggest a better way.
 
fini said:
I think the question, more than anything, is WHY you'd want to do this? It might mean we can suggest a better way.
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My thoughts exactly, you can get drive bay fans and what not, but i would keep the case fans on, if anything most people like to try and put 120mm fans on over existing 80mm fans etc.

Id say leave them, but as fini said why would you want to do this:confused:
 
fini said:
I think the question, more than anything, is WHY you'd want to do this? It might mean we can suggest a better way.
Click to expand...

I want to build a home server. Id ideally loke an Atom mobo in a small case with a single drive inside and then a drive or 2 USB. Unfortunately, this isnt cheap.

I have got my old standard PC case and my old 965P mobo doing nothing. I could get a cheap PSU, E2140 or similar, and 1GB of DDR2 for less than £50 and do that.

The server would be either in my room, or by the family PC in the living room, both of which would mean it would need to be silent or near silent to be able to stay on all night. It will be running WHS with 2 or 3 3.5" drives in it, so wouldnt be worked hard. Was looking at just using the stock intel cooler and then the psu fans and leaving the rest fanless? Would it cook my machine? The case only has a single 120mm exhaust fan in it anyway.
 
I've got my own server that just has a CPU fan on it and it's fine. Granted, it has the side panel off all the time and lives in a cupboard but the HDD's rarely go above 42C and the CPU is nice and chilly.

Just make sure that it's got a lot of "free" air to push around and you should be just fine IMO.

If you want it to be uber quiet and still be kept cool, get one of these if it'll fit. Got one on a case with no ventilation other than the PSU and it does a grand job of keeping it cool (again, side panel off).
 
The case is crud, dont think the side panel even fits properly, so would be off anyway.

I just dont want to spend 200 or 300 quid on a server to find out I dont really need it
 
Ah, poo, just had a though... will a PC boot without a graphics card and without onboard graphics? Ive got an old 7800GT I would use to install stuff, but would take it out and then run headless.
 
My first PC had a 40mm cpu fan and nothing else. Cant remember if the PSU had one or not. Dont think so.

Computers were quiet in those days. Hard drives were still noisy *******. You could tell if they were about to die easier from the noise back then.
 
Skeeter said:
Ah, poo, just had a though... will a PC boot without a graphics card and without onboard graphics? Ive got an old 7800GT I would use to install stuff, but would take it out and then run headless.
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No you'll get an error beep, but you could put any low power VGA card in - doesn't need to be connected to a monitor.
 
I have a decent spec air-cooled PC here with no fans at all. If the room is cool and you're not working the CPU hard then passive cooling is quite easy.

If you want to do it right, get a Zalman Reserator 2nd hand off the 'bay and use that.
 
ChrisLX200 said:
No you'll get an error beep, but you could put any low power VGA card in - doesn't need to be connected to a monitor.
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You can set the BIOS to ignore the lack of a VGA card. 'Ignore all errors' and it will run fine without.

My home server runs XP and I just use remote desktop to access it. Works fine, and was even better once I found you can change the RDP options to LAN and so move a lot more data.

I don't have a DVD drive in it either, I just map the drive of the PC I use to acces it.


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I love RDC, does everything I need.

It would be headless with no CD drive. so litterlly a mobo with cpu and ram, psu, and then some cables to sata drives

Think I might go for it. PSU for cheap, CPU and RAM cheap, and then buy the HDDs i need.

Would the stock intel cooler be ok on its own? I could always add a cheap aftermarket one.
 
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