Passive Cooling

Valo · 24 Mar 2006 at 12:41

I'm shortly going to be building my new media server box with some spare bits from my old rigs:

AMD 2000+
Abit KX7-333R
1GB DDR RAM - PC 2100
40GB IDE Raid 1(System) - Using onboard raid controller

Buying New:
1TB SATA Raid 5 Array(Data) - Using PCI SATA RAID card.

I'm wanting the system to be as quiet as possible, so I'm going to be replacing the northbridge fan with a passive Zalman ZM-NB47J heatsink as seen on OcUK.

I'm needing some help finding the best passive/silent cooler for the CPU, any ideas?

Dutch Guy · 24 Mar 2006 at 12:54

ThermalRight SI-97 perhaps?

Problem is that you need a Socket A cooler while most coolers are Socket754/939/478 ones taht you can't use.

Valo · 24 Mar 2006 at 13:08

Dutch Guy said:
ThermalRight SI-97 perhaps?

Problem is that you need a Socket A cooler while most coolers are Socket754/939/478 ones taht you can't use.

Thanks Dutch Guy, that's a possilibity.....That's the problem I've found you can't find a decent Socket A cooler anymore

There is going to be a 92m exhaust fan in the case so do you think it will be enough?

Raikiri · 24 Mar 2006 at 13:27

You are better off getting something like the Big Typhoon (says compatible with K7 and is rated up to an athlon XP 3400+ so i presume it still comes with the correct fittings).

The fan is very quiet anyway, running at about 1200rpm but if you were to 7v it and lower the RPM to 700~ it would be silent and will easily handle the heat output of the XP2000+ and costs a bit less than the thermalright does without a fan.

Vegeta · 24 Mar 2006 at 14:28

I've got the thermalright SI-97 - quality cooler definetly cool that CPU.
I've got it combined with a Vantex Stealth 92mm fan, silent (atleast i think - got a 6800gt and 3 80mms so cant really tell as these make a racket).

Valo · 24 Mar 2006 at 15:24

Vegeta said:
I've got the thermalright SI-97 - quality cooler definetly cool that CPU.
I've got it combined with a Vantex Stealth 92mm fan, silent (atleast i think - got a 6800gt and 3 80mms so cant really tell as these make a racket).

So the SI-97 will be fine to cool my chip without the need for a fan....excellent!
How easy is it to fit this bad boy?

Havana_UK · 24 Mar 2006 at 16:53

Tumbler^ said:
Thanks Dutch Guy, that's a possilibity.....That's the problem I've found you can't find a decent Socket A cooler anymore
There is going to be a 92m exhaust fan in the case so do you think it will be enough?

Just put the 92mm fan on the SI-97 heatsink and don't bother with an exhaust fan.

Hav

Havana_UK · 24 Mar 2006 at 16:54

Tumbler^ said:
So the SI-97 will be fine to cool my chip without the need for a fan....excellent!
How easy is it to fit this bad boy?

SI-97 is easy to fit - just like most socket A coolers it uses a big spring clip which you fit with a flat head screwdriver.

Hav

armed_gorilla · 25 Mar 2006 at 07:41

Thermaltake sonic tower would be my choice for a passive system. I have one here with an 80mm Nexus fan blowing over it and i cant hear it at all. I even left it for a few days running with no fan and had no problems. Only bad thing i would say about it is it is suprisingly HUGE so you'd have to be careful which case you put it in.