going fanless

greenwiggle

greenwiggle

greenwiggle

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Joined
9 Nov 2008
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20
Location
Sheffield
dear oc'ers

i have the following custom built machine (14 months old)

intel quad q6600, g0
4gb 800mhz ram,
maxtor 320gb, 10,000 rpm
nvidia 8600gt
board: msi p6 sli
psu: ezcool super silent, 650w (is pretty quiet)

the stock cooler was replaced by a Spire fan with an aluminium heatsink (i don't know if these are any good).

i don't game anymore and would like to get this pc as quiet as possible, hence no overclocking.

the loudest component seems to the cpu fan.

i would like to replace the 8600gt with a passive cooled ati 3450 (blu ray playback is the min spec)

now i have heard of passive cooling in the form of thermalright.

can i just take the cpu fan off and replace it with a fanless thermalright?

in addition to this can i also turn of the rear case fan or would this be pushing it to extreme levels, regarding case heat build-up levels, given that it is a quad core?

i am open for any suggestions

thx
 
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You could get the Thermalright Ultra Extreme and try it passive, this is your best bet without a fan, if its getting too hot just get a silent 120mm fan, something low speed and you won't hear it anyway.

Or just get a Noctua NH-U12P and at low speed this will be near enough silent.
 
Yup a premium heatsink would work nicely without a fan, you may need to undervolt your quad a little and also make sure there is a little airflow passing through your case.

I've used a few Thermalright Ulta-120 eXtreme for passive cooling but they have been used with Dual-Cores. Your Quad Core will run hotter but should be fine. As always it's just a matter of experimentation to see what works best! :cool:
 
I'd be interested to see how you get on with passive CPU cooling as I've been thinking about trying to quieten down my media rig. I just don't have the money at the moment to experiment as much as I would like. Theres a credit crunch happening apparently ;)
 
Coolermaster Z600 are passive and very cool also for the graphics go for a 4350 or 4550 as these support 7.1 audio through hdmi ;)
 
Scythe Ninja is very respected for very slow or no fans.

Slow fans are better than none and still silent. Try to get slow, decoupled (grommets) case fans and maybe a slow fan on the cooler too.

Maybe fans in the 1000rpm kinda range and then a fan controller to turn them down further.
 
To my knowledge I’m the only one here with a completely fanless pc (yes that inc the psu) and in all honesty I’d not recommend it especially with a quad.

But having said that you make no mention of swapping your psu – single fan pc’s are a much better option and massively more forgiving when it comes to hardware selection. But I still wouldn’t passively air cool a quad – sell it and get a duel core, as you just don’t need the extra two cores.

The TRUE is without doubt a great HS but when run passively with just the psu fan it’s not so good.
Thermalright HR-01plus or Scythe ninja (with bolt mod) are the real winners
(Xigmatek HDT-S1283/TRUE are worth a look with a quality fan at 5v)

Spcr – silent pc review is the place to go for info and forum help, but their a few silent/ultra quiet members here.

After you’ve got your passive gpu and cpu HS you’ll notice your HDD make a lot of noise – an elastic cradle or a bungee mod will sort that out for a few quid. But then your psu will sound loud... and so it goes on...
 
Big.Wayne said:
Yup a premium heatsink would work nicely without a fan, you may need to undervolt your quad a little and also make sure there is a little airflow passing through your case.

I've used a few Thermalright Ulta-120 eXtreme for passive cooling but they have been used with Dual-Cores. Your Quad Core will run hotter but should be fine. As always it's just a matter of experimentation to see what works best! :cool:
Click to expand...

I have run a Q6600 @ 3.0GHZ passive on a S1283 and it was a little hot, but fine unless benching (which it wasn't intended to do) It idled around 50 and peaked around 68 under prime :) That was with one 120mm at the front of a case and one at the back.
 
I had assumed greenwiggle was talking about "going fanless" for his CPu cooling and not the entire system! :D

Once you remove any kinda airflow from inside a system things get out of control and Thermal Runaway kicks in. I've been playing around with different set-ups trying to work out what works best for me and I can see that a quiet and cool PC needs two things to float my boat

  • Positive Air Flow
  • One Mahoosive 200mm quiet intake fan
So taking that into account there is no reason to actively cool a CPU unless overclocking like a mad thing, turning the overclock down a bit and using a good premium (or Ghetto) CPU heatsink combined with some gentle case airflow keeps Thermal Runaway at bay! :cool:
 
The problem with everything being passive is that there's nothing at all to move the air around.

If you undervolt and underclock, and don't run graphics heavy apps, you can get the thermal output down, but eventually the heat will build up (especially with blu-ray playback)

It can work, but you can't just replace all the fans with big heatsinks and turn the fans off. Keep one fan and run the system at the highest load you're likely to use (eg blu-ray playback?); watch the temps and see how low you can get that fan. A 12cm fan at minimum isn't much louder than your hard drive; and anyway - you'll have your sound system going too.
 
Big.Wayne said:
snip..QUOTE]

Not sure if my post was very clear, I meant that I was running the Q6600 @ 3.0Ghz using a S1283 with no fan.

But yeah, you do really need some airflow even a little is better than none, unless your case is an Antec Skeleton :D
Click to expand...
 
Don't forget to look into sound adsorbing material that you can stick on the inside of the case, some of the video reviews of cases which come with said material already installed are quieter. This material can also go into dead zones in the case for extra sound absorption (5.25" bays IF no fans installed there), although do not over to it and reduce air flow.
 
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