45nm quad core with passive cooling?

interfear · Post by **interfear** » Sat Jun 21, 2008 1:23 am

Hi there

I built my last rig based on SPCR recommendations and never got disappointed. Currently, there's an older Core2Duo in my P180 which is passively cooled by a Ninja Rev2. I might have gotten lucky - despite the push-pin system, the cooler sits firmly on the CPU and I never got issues with CPU temps.

However, I'd like to upgrade (4-core Q9450 45nm) and I was hoping stick to passive cooling. What's your opinion / recommendations on this?

Thanks for your advice

thejamppa · Post by **thejamppa** » Sat Jun 21, 2008 5:01 am

Your best bet is Thermaright HR-01 Plus and try to duct that with rear fan.

Elvellon · Post by **Elvellon** » Sat Jun 21, 2008 5:39 am

For passive use I'd recommend Q9300 because it's only 43W (according to iXBT.com, known to English-speaking people as half of xbitlabs.com), which is comparable to E6600's 40W and lower than some of the higher-clocked E6000s.
6 MB less cache than 'full' Q9000s makes it a lot cooler and not a lot slower.

interfear · Post by **interfear** » Sat Jun 21, 2008 9:10 am

The HR-01 Plus looks good indeed, guess I'll give it a try

Regarding CPUs: I didn't think that there'd be such a difference in temps between the 9450 and the Q9300, that came as quite a surprise. Still, the bigger L2 cache still looks nice - my machine is a development rig, so L2 cache might indeed make a difference (compilers, VMs etc.)...

PartEleven · Post by **PartEleven** » Sat Jun 21, 2008 9:38 pm

Honesty, you should be able to use the Scythe ninja passively. Especially if you plan to run at stock settings. Just because the HR-03+ is better, doesn't mean that your ninja can't handle the new processor. If you're really concerned about temps, getting a thermalright bolt-thru kit for your ninja would be a much less expensive alternative to improving performance.

interfear · Post by **interfear** » Sun Jun 22, 2008 11:33 pm

PartEleven wrote:Honesty, you should be able to use the Scythe ninja passively. Especially if you plan to run at stock settings. Just because the HR-03+ is better, doesn't mean that your ninja can't handle the new processor.

This is good news! I'm having my office under the roof of our house, so ambient temps during hot summer days can get very high. My rig managed to get through those with the Ninja passively, so If PartEleven is right, I should be on the safe side with an HR-01 on the new CPU.

Thanks to all of you for your input - it's greatly appreciated

Cheers!

Holy-Fire · Post by **Holy-Fire** » Mon Jun 23, 2008 3:05 pm

If you want to minimize costs by keeping your current heatsink, you can consider undervolting if it gets too hot. But if you go get a new heatsink, I don't see the point of passive cooling for the sake of passive cooling - a good fan at low speed will be inaudible and yet offer a significant improvement.

fwki · Post by **fwki** » Wed Jun 25, 2008 5:22 am

I'm running a Q9450 "passive" with a Ninja using the TR bolt thru kit, and they undervolt well (I'm P95 stable at just over 1.0v). I do have a Lian Li A05 with a silent rear intake fan blowing across the Ninja though, so passive is more a state of mind.

elemental · Post by **elemental** » Wed Jun 25, 2008 11:33 am

Just my two cents --

I think a passively-cooled CPU is overrated. If you run your CPU w/ a passive heatsink, you'll need to maintain enough overall airflow through the case itself to get decent temps, or else put up w/ higher temps. That amount of airflow will require fanspeeds -- and fan noises -- that will probably cover up the noise of a very quiet, undervolted fan.

I used to want to go the passive-cooling route too, but I've realized that even with my fairly lower-end/noisy OCZ Vanquisher HSF, leaving the fan on very low makes it essentially inaudible while allowing me to run my case fans essentially at their starting voltage. And since I can't hear the HSF and go any quieter w/ the case fans, I don't see a reason to upgrade to a big, expensive, passive HSF when it won't make my system any quieter, and might actually make it louder if I have to turn up the case fans.

Mikey · Post by **Mikey** » Wed Jun 25, 2008 4:20 pm

I think it really depends on your case elemental.

I'm running my system (E6750 @ 3.2Ghz, 8800GT) completely passive except for the two nexus 120mm exhausts. There is a PSU fan, though as it's airflow is seperate i'm not sure it should be counted.

Temps are excellent, noise is practically non-existant.

This is in an antec fusion, which allows very little vertical space around the cpu cooler (minja) and the gpu fins (sparkle 8800gt passive), so it works rather well in this case.

I would think that if there was more vertical space, air wouldn't be forced through the components as it is, and i wouldn't be so successful.

elemental · Post by **elemental** » Wed Jun 25, 2008 6:38 pm

Yes, Mikey's got a point. You should consider case airflow too when it comes to fully-passive or not.

I've got all my stuff in a fairly cavernous P182. I think my CPU is a good 5"-6" above the PCIe 16 slot. I'm not sure why I got such a huge case, since I don't have that much stuff to put in it, but I don't regret it

But definitely, if I had totally passive, unless I turn up the case fans and/or do some heavy duty ducting to the case fans I'd expect to see rising temps just because there's too much cross-sectional area for air to move slowly through.

interfear · Post by **interfear** » Thu Jun 26, 2008 2:20 am

I currently have a pretty similar setup to Mikey's. A P180 with both exhaust fans (back and top) active with fan speeds of both fans controlled (one through motherboard, other through fan controller with temp sensors).

The setup worked great with my current board, an E6600 and the Ninja and allowed me to run both fans with very low RPMs. I'll see how this will work with the new setup and post back to the board once I've found the time to assemble the new components (which will hopefully be in a week or two).

thejamppa · Post by **thejamppa** » Thu Jun 26, 2008 4:24 am

Ninja is excellent cooler to use any existing airflow for its benefit. No other cooler really can do that. Too bad its attachment has been messed for LGA 775. I use undervolted 800 RPM slipstream as single exhaust for the case and 500 rpm slipstream at 12v on Ninja. Computer is practically inaudiable.

jontseng · Post by **jontseng** » Sat Jul 05, 2008 1:21 pm

Mikey wrote:I think it really depends on your case elemental.
This is in an antec fusion, which allows very little vertical space around the cpu cooler (minja) and the gpu fins (sparkle 8800gt passive), so it works rather well in this case.

how did you managed to get the sparkle 8800gt passive into the fusion?

Looking at the pics (http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3165&p=2) the heatpipes over the top look too tall to fit into the fusion? Did you do some more bending on the pipes or something?

J