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| Thread ID: 96552 | 2009-01-14 09:06:00 | PASSIVE PC Cooling rant | Paul.Cov (425) | Press F1 |
| Post ID | Timestamp | Content | User | ||
| 738689 | 2009-01-14 20:18:00 | A bit of a browse around the AMD boards revealled that my many years old AMD 2200+ was running hotter than recommended which left me wondering what sort of crazy lenghts I'd have to go to to keep the likes of an AMD X4 Phenom cooled. I don't know whether to laugh or cry when I hear of PC's with 5+ fans inside them... some pushing air in, some pulling air out, and a bunch just moving hot air around inside... So I simply left the side off my gaming case, and got an immediate 10 degree drop in CPU and System temps. why not put a grille over the side of the case and let a whole bunch of free, silent, passive airflow do the job of a whole bunch of fans? This experience has got me wondering if a BIG passive (fanless) heatsink for the CPU would be ok for anything less than a major gaming rig Once upon a time CPUs only had little wee fans over them without whacking big heatsinks and large fans. But then they kept on adding more and more transistors. More hardware in a smaller space. You can look up the physics of this. Older AMDs did run hot. SO? It wasn't too hot or it would have long since died. Motherboards these days will shut down if they detect a too hot CPU and/or give warning beeps. You cannot have fanless cooling now, AMD or Intel. Unless you want to fry it. Case fans produce airflow. At least they do if set up correctly. The idea is to have it suck in air from the front and expel it at the back. Just having a grill isn't going to cause any airflow at all unless you have it outdoors in the wind. Also you should use a roomy case for gaming PCs, little HT cubes won't do. I think you don't really understand the principles of it. |
pctek (84) | ||
| 738690 | 2009-01-14 20:33:00 | Nice case you got there wratterus...is this you next upgrade?: I think that's too risky for my setup. Not very desk friendly, can't put stubbies on the top of it. :p |
wratterus (105) | ||
| 738691 | 2009-01-14 20:50:00 | I think that's too risky for my setup. Not very desk friendly, can't put stubbies on the top of it. :p :lol: I'm sure you could find a away....:illogical |
Blam (54) | ||
| 738692 | 2009-01-14 21:00:00 | Once upon a time CPUs only had little wee fans over them without whacking big heatsinks and large fans. <snip> You cannot have fanless cooling now, AMD or Intel. Unless you want to fry it. I know Im nit-picking here, but if you look at the attached pic, you'll see the CPU is the one with the smaller heatsink & no fan. I believe its the northbridge under the massive heatsink / fan! Also, I use a fair amount of AMD Geode CPU's, increasingly more-so, and they have no heatsink at all ;) |
Chilling_Silence (9) | ||
| 738693 | 2009-01-14 21:45:00 | I'd agree there seem to be a crazy amount of fans in computers these days. Passive cooling would absolutely be possible but would need to be very well designed to work properly which would be next to impossible with systems cobbled together from parts built by multiple suppliers. Manufacturers take the safe option and throw a fan on. My old gaming case is nothing special (a thermaltake swing with 2 12cm fans) but some sensors actually heat up when I remove the side, an indication of fairly good airflow. I often wonder why more cases don't take air out nearer the top - we all know hot air rises. Oh and my new gaming machine is built in a cheap small cube style case and has no problems with overheating, a single rear 12cm fan with 79cfm does the trick. You just need to chose your case and hardware to suit each other when going compact. |
dugimodo (138) | ||
| 738694 | 2009-01-14 22:31:00 | I know Im nit-picking here, but if you look at the attached pic, you'll see the CPU is the one with the smaller heatsink & no fan. I believe its the northbridge under the massive heatsink / fan! Also, I use a fair amount of AMD Geode CPU's, increasingly more-so, and they have no heatsink at all ;) Err, are you sure about that?....why would a north bridge require such a big HSF while the cpu doesnt?. I have check several of the mobo, and none appears to have the HSF on the NB? |
SolMiester (139) | ||
| 738695 | 2009-01-14 22:48:00 | Not on the D945GCLF or D945GCLF2 motherboards I have: www.upgraderguides.com Sorry, I should have clarified I was talking about the Atom boards in particular :) |
Chilling_Silence (9) | ||
| 738696 | 2009-01-14 23:21:00 | Do those boards come with the atom already installed chilli?....what are you using them for? | SolMiester (139) | ||
| 738697 | 2009-01-15 00:04:00 | Yup! You can only get them as the mobo / CPU combo. Im using them for *heaps*! Very cost-effective little suckers, and that was why I was asking in the other thread about their power consumption. I use them for: General Desktop computers The dual-core for a Media Center PC But primarily Im using them as VoIP PBX servers. Brilliant little boards, though if your Northbridge fan fails, it gets *incredibly* hot. It even corrupted the data on a CF card at one point. Now Ive got 24/7 monitoring with SMS alerts etc in-place that keeps an eye on that kind of thing. You could fart near a PBX and I'd probably know about it ;) |
Chilling_Silence (9) | ||
| 738698 | 2009-01-15 00:31:00 | You used any yourself? | Chilling_Silence (9) | ||
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