P4 2.8Ghz Northwood - 100% PASSIVE!!

gonsped · Post by **gonsped** » Fri May 23, 2003 11:51 pm

Check these out guys if you haven't!!

Some dude in HK cooled his Intel P4 2.8GHz Northwood PASSIVELY 100% with the Zalman CNPS6500A-Cu heatsink alone - no fan!!

It is running crazy high temps I think but if he can do this - I can plop an SKU900U on my XP1800+ Palamino FULLY PASSIVE too, no?

http://www.hardcoreware.net/reviews/review-118-2.htm

ez2remember · Post by **ez2remember** » Sat May 24, 2003 4:24 am

gonsped wrote: It is running crazy high temps I think but if he can do this - I can plop an SKU900U on my XP1800+ Palamino FULLY PASSIVE too, no?

I don't think the SLK-900U will make any difference or maybe a poorer performer as a passive cooler because it is designed is to have atleast some directed airflow through the fins. The sheer mass of the Zalman cooler is probably a better bet for passive cooling (1kg flower vs 0.6kg SLK-900).

Nice article.

Post by **MikeC** » Sat May 24, 2003 7:50 am

This article has been discussed before. We don't think the guy is selling the straight goods on his project, there's little chance that his rig would work fanless for any length of time without overheating.
http://forums.silentpcreview.com/viewtopic.php?t=4696

ez2remember · Post by **ez2remember** » Sat May 24, 2003 9:46 am

I felt a bit of DeJa Vu.

pingu666 · Post by **pingu666** » Sat May 24, 2003 9:54 am

p4s can throttle back, guess that what his is doign

gonsped · Post by **gonsped** » Sat May 24, 2003 3:02 pm

I dun think he is throttling back - because first, he never mention it - and second, he even goes as far as overclocking his GPU card.

(Thanks Admin for the previous discussion - I must've missed it looking at the archives)

But I noticed several ppl in this forum is dissing this guy in some little way. I am not supporting anyone here but I think his rig is working on the borderline of overheating as look at his CPU and GPU temps - they are waaay too high - than most ppl here would like them to run at.

But in the end - it works and quite stable it seems.

Post by **MikeC** » Sat May 24, 2003 4:03 pm

stable? who knows?

I know the author is simply wrong or extremely exaggerated when he says the system is ABSOLUTELY DEAD SILENT. No way a system with a 2-fan PSU and a normally mounted Barracuda drive can be "dead silent": It will measure 26~30 dBA @ 1 meter. Almost guaranteed. And that is totally audible.

Knowing that someone is stretching the truth a lot in one way makes it easy to believe he's stretching it in other ways, too. Plus I have a P4-2.8 that is hard to keep below 60C under load in a highly airflow optimized case with a Thermalright SLK900 + Panaflo 80L @ 12V. (This case has 3 other Panaflo 80Ls).

skinnypupp · Post by **skinnypupp** » Sun May 25, 2003 5:39 pm

Mike: If I still lived in Vancouver I would invite you over to see it. I was surprized to get the results too. The 2.8 does get hot, but only up to a certain point. As you saw in the article, it topped off in the high 60's, but was always 100% stable and was NOT being throttled.

So 25 dB is not literally dead silent. It's just a catchy title.

Anyway, believe it or don't. What's done is done.

And yes, I am the writer of that article. Sometimes I try to remain anonymous so I don't get accused of trolling, but this is one of those times where people simply refuse to believe the truth, so I have to stand up and state the facts directly. I hope I've done that.

ez2remember · Post by **ez2remember** » Sun May 25, 2003 6:08 pm

I tell you what is suprising, I don't doubt you have not run the CPU and GPU fanless. The problem is the PSU you mentioned is noisy by SPCR standards. The 14dBA SilenX PSU is much quieter, and yet we don't call this thing "DEAD SILENT" or even silent for that matter. Your Barracuda IV is not even decoupled which reduces the noise even further, but some here in the community still complain its still not quiet enough even decoupled.

Its all to do with perception, you will find many here that has reached beyond your noise level rating and still don't call it silent. If you were use to the noise of 50dBA PC and you made a 30dBA computer then you may percieve that as being silent.

Your dual fan PSU probably helped you to run your CPU fanless.

pingu666 · Post by **pingu666** » Mon May 26, 2003 1:59 pm

im surprized u could run with no performance hit in benchies

daedalus411 · Post by **daedalus411** » Tue May 27, 2003 3:00 pm

I'm running a 2.0A with a Zalman 6500B-AlCu with no fans and no problems.

I'm a developer and not a gamer.. so I'm generally not at 100% utilization for very long.

Seasonic 300W PS and it's pretty quiet.

Athlon Powers · Post by **Athlon Powers** » Tue May 27, 2003 3:17 pm

Wow. 65Db on a "normal" computer.

Kostik · Post by **Kostik** » Tue May 27, 2003 3:42 pm

Hey guys, still talking about this article ? What's the big deal about it ? I think there's something you might have missed :

- look at the orientation of the cpu hs fins on this photograph (look at AGP slot to get an idea). Put that in a corner of your brain for later use
- look at his PSU. Note it has two fans

Now. Turn the previously seen photograph of the PSU upside-down, cause that's the way it will be in the case. Do you notice something ? Yes, the internal fan of the PSU is sucking hot air from the cpu hs. Looking at the orientation of the fins, I would add "in a rather efficient way". This means the PSU does the job of cooling the CPU, and therefore is fed warm air. The fans have to speed up, and that's the flaw in the system. That's a very good example of using products labeled as "quiet" in such a way that they are not quiet anymore. This also clearly shows that using less fans can lead to more noise, as the remaining fans will have to run faster.

Anyway, this computer is obviously not silent by spcr's standards, but it's not that bad, and it's a good first attempt. And if its owner is pleased with it, everything's fine

rpc180 · Post by **rpc180** » Tue May 27, 2003 6:50 pm

Actually, this is the first article I've ever read on Silencing PCs. In fact, I found it a few days before finding SPCR. Up till then I've only been reading about rheobuses and the like to quiet things down. Being a po' college senior at the time I didn't want to risk a processor meltdown with a 6500 even if someone else tried it. But it opened me up to the possibilities that there are other ways to quiet a computer besides running fans lower. So I dunno, I guess I'm a little biased since its probably been a big influencer in my silencing origins...

Zhentar · Post by **Zhentar** » Tue May 27, 2003 7:55 pm

Kostik- unless he has other exhaust, whether or not he has a CPU fan won't affect the speed of the PSU fans- they must exhaust all of the heat produced by the CPU regardless.

Kostik · Post by **Kostik** » Tue May 27, 2003 11:38 pm

Zhentar wrote:Kostik- unless he has other exhaust, whether or not he has a CPU fan won't affect the speed of the PSU fans- they must exhaust all of the heat produced by the CPU regardless.

You're right. I hate it when I wake up in the morning just to realize I've been posting a late night, slightly arrogant message about me understanding things other people don't understand

. One should never post at 1:42 AM after playing GTA Vice City for five hours

, I apologize.

P4 2.8Ghz Northwood - 100% PASSIVE!!

P4 2.8Ghz Northwood - 100% PASSIVE!!

Re: P4 2.8Ghz Northwood - 100% PASSIVE!!