Passively cooling i3-3240

sellw88 · 9 May 2019 at 19:27

Hi All,

Firstly i hope this post is in the right place, if it's not then my apologies.

I am in the process of building a machine to replace my old HP Gen 7 Micro Server.
Due to demand from running various docker containers I needed something with a bit more grunt, at a reasonable budget.

So I have already sourced all the following parts:
Case: Fractal Design Node 304 (Used)
PSU: Corsair 450W Power Supply (New)
CPU: Intel Core i3-3240 (Used)
Mobo: MSI H61I-E35 ITX (Used)
RAM: 8Gb DDR3 (Used)

So all in, its come to around £150, which I'm really happy with.

So, my question:
As this machine is running 24/7, I fancy the idea of having a passive cooler on the CPU rather than the Stock Intel one.

Having looked around the only affordable one i can find is:
https://www.overclockers.co.uk/arctic-alpine-12-passive-cpu-cooler-black-hs-06z-ar.html

The case seems to have a good front to rear air flow, so would this help the cooler cope with the 55W CPU, when its rated up to 47W?

The only other passive coolers are around £50, which is by far the most expensive component... and would push me way over my planned budget.

Or am I being a bit silly wanting a passive cooler when others would cope with 24/7 use perfectly fine?

Any advice would be appreciated.

LuckyBenski · 9 May 2019 at 20:31

If you have good front to back airflow, you probably have fans that are less than silent (even if not noisy). D you really need the silence?

My advice would be, get a decent one (either catch a used bargain or spend the cash) or get a modest fan cooler. The 3240 really can't generate much heat, I maxed mine out recently and I think it was 56° at the most with stock cooler. I also have an i5-3470S under a Scythe Ninja (pretty old, bulky cooler) run passive in between case fans. Basically with passive, you need to go big

LuckyBenski · 9 May 2019 at 20:32

I should add that i got the Ninja for about £10 then modified it for socket 1155 using a file!

doyll · 10 May 2019 at 15:56

What LuckyBenski said. There are many good low cost air coolers that will work very well as long as case has some airflow.

Are you planning on having no case fans? Then maybe a low speed fan on cooler would be advisable. None of my systems make enough noise in normal use to know if they are on or off. I need to have CPU under near 100% load before I can hear the fans .. case and cooler fans are all synced so case supplys airflow as needed by cooler fans.