Passive cooling a P4?

Politik · Post by **Politik** » Wed May 14, 2003 4:20 pm

Some of you have probably seen this article.. is it trustworthy??? I cant imagine passive cooling a 2.8ghz p4...

AndrewC · Post by **AndrewC** » Wed May 14, 2003 5:19 pm

Yeah I think something isn't right. Zalman said it cools up to 3.06 with a 92mm fan at 1300RPM. But they said they had no fans near the processor. Another thing is that they used a Thermaltake powersupply as there only exaust or fan for that matter and also commenting on it being silent. IMO there is a missing piece somewhere.

skinnypupp · Post by **skinnypupp** » Wed May 14, 2003 11:16 pm

The thermaltake power supply has 2 fans

trust me, that review is real and legitimate.

ruprag · Post by **ruprag** » Thu May 15, 2003 8:09 am

as far as I can tell this looks like it is on the up and up.

Impressive results with small effort

Post by **MikeC** » Thu May 15, 2003 9:11 am

So a reviewer of "hardcore gamers" stuff points to a PC that has a 2-fan stock PSU and a barracuda hdd mounted normally, and says it is "absolutely DEAD SILENT". Do you believe it? not me. I can hear any 2-fan PSU from across the room, ditto any normally mounted drive seeking.

But focusing on the issue of whether the Zalman 6500BCU can cool a P4-2.8 fanless, sure, but for how long? I ran that combo with a Panaflo fan at 6-8V and often, that was not enough if the system was on for more than an hour. And my system had well directed low airflow. Also the zalman clips wear, so the temp might be low in the beginning, but give them a couple of weeks with the 1kg weight hanging against them, and it's another story.

In general this article seems kind of misleading.

Athlon Powers · Post by **Athlon Powers** » Thu May 15, 2003 10:41 am

Yeah, right. 40db is "dead silent"? According to me my system is about 30DB and IT bugs me right now...

Politik · Post by **Politik** » Thu May 15, 2003 11:00 am

AtomicDude512 wrote:Yeah, right. 40db is "dead silent"? According to me my system is about 30DB and IT bugs me right now...

He says he held the DB meter right next to the PSU exhaust, so presumably it would be much quieter at a more common testing position.

Post by **MikeC** » Thu May 15, 2003 11:40 am

Politik wrote:He says he held the DB meter right next to the PSU exhaust, so presumably it would be much quieter at a more common testing position.

It's not his meter reading I question but what he hears and what he judges as "dead silent". People have noticed before how often oc sites' perceptions of loud/soft contradict opinions at SPCR (as well as their own perceptions). Not everyone has the same standards. If your normal system has 100+ cfm and related fan noise, then your expectation (psychoacoustically speaking) is very different from someone whose systems have 20 cfm or less. (Most of mine are in this category.)

And our standards for quiet are more demanding than any other site or group on the web.

EDITED -- spell check

skinnypupp · Post by **skinnypupp** » Fri May 16, 2003 11:27 am

Trust me, the single 80mm fan in the Thermaltake PSU is the only thing that generates any sort of noise in that system, and it is truly "dead silent". You don't have to take my word for it though...

AndrewC · Post by **AndrewC** » Fri May 16, 2003 11:38 am

Update: Since the article was originally published, we had some people questioning whether 40 dB is truly silent. Well I will admit that our sound level testing may have been flawed in this case. I should not have put the sound meter right up to the power supply like that, but rather 2 or 3 feet away from the PC, as in normal operation.

I tried this originally, but I didn't think I was picking up a reading! That's right, this PC was TOO SILENT, and it threw me off (the sound it put out was not above ambient noise levels, so I couldn't pick it up).

So please take my word for it - this rig is absolutely DEAD SILENT.

ez2remember · Post by **ez2remember** » Fri May 16, 2003 12:31 pm

Dead silent is a word I would not use lightly. A fan that makes any noise is not silent. So with regards that is the only thing that makes any noise, then it can't be silent.

Some people here have passive computers and don't even use a fan and they don't refer to their computer as being dead silent. A HD makes noise even when not seeking to our ears! and is probably the noisiest component when your system is quiet enough.

So your suggestion it is dead silent is your perception of the level of quietness. Decouple your Barracuda (hold it in your hand) and we still don't call it dead silent so how you come with this statement is astonishing.

Politik · Post by **Politik** » Fri May 16, 2003 5:46 pm

skinnypupp wrote:Trust me, the single 80mm fan in the Thermaltake PSU is the only thing that generates any sort of noise in that system, and it is truly "dead silent". You don't have to take my word for it though...

I'm just curious, how do you know so much about this system? Do you know this guy or something?

skinnypupp · Post by **skinnypupp** » Fri May 16, 2003 11:03 pm

To me, "Dead Silent" means "you can't hear a damn thing when you're in the same room as the PC".

It doesn't mean "you can hear the hard drive whining when you take it out and put it to your ear while it's seeking".

Obviously I'm not as fanatic as the people in a forum dedicated to silent computing. Neither are the rest of the people on the internet who do not read this site.

ciz28 · Post by **ciz28** » Fri May 16, 2003 11:11 pm

it's interesting how a zalman zm17cu kept his ti4200 perfectly stable, while my old ti200 would crash sitting on the desktop when i didn't have a fan directed toward it...

FrankT · Post by **FrankT** » Fri May 16, 2003 11:32 pm

Politik wrote:
skinnypupp wrote:Trust me, the single 80mm fan in the Thermaltake PSU is the only thing that generates any sort of noise in that system, and it is truly "dead silent". You don't have to take my word for it though...
I'm just curious, how do you know so much about this system? Do you know this guy or something?

Ditto