P4 2.53 Ghz cooling with no fan ?

aderyn · Post by **aderyn** » Sat Jun 28, 2003 5:28 pm

Hi

Have anyone tried to passivly cool a Pentium 4 processor with decent results (No FAN on the heatzink) ?

Since its possible to cool a radeon 9700 pro passivly it should be possible to cool a P4 passivly i guess.

Thx for any advice.

Bluefront · Post by **Bluefront** » Sat Jun 28, 2003 6:27 pm

Here's how I did it...P4 Ducted

Phrozenpenguin · Post by **Phrozenpenguin** » Sun Jun 29, 2003 4:00 am

You should be able to underbolt a P4, if you run it at stock speeds?
Does anyone know how far you could typically underclock a P4 2.53ghz?

Post by **MikeC** » Sun Jun 29, 2003 7:55 am

Given than you'll still need other fans that make noise to move air out of the case, I don't see the point. A big HS with a quiet fan on it gives you so much better cooling headroom & safety; yet there is no change in perceived noise (compared to passive CPU cooling) if you do it right.

It is only in a system with low overall power dissipation that passive cooling of everything becomes useful & a practical goal. In such a system you really can design it to run safely with no fans. Or just one very quiet fan.

Athlon Powers · Post by **Athlon Powers** » Sun Jun 29, 2003 8:10 am

Phrozenpenguin wrote:You should be able to underbolt a P4, if you run it at stock speeds?
Does anyone know how far you could typically underclock a P4 2.53ghz?

I personally have not done this because I am a die hard AMD person but generally with a good P4 you can either, a) undervolt it really far or b) overclock it really far. Your choice.

Post by **Ralf Hutter** » Sun Jun 29, 2003 8:29 am

MikeC wrote:Given than you'll still need other fans that make noise to move air out of the case, I don't see the point. A big HS with a quiet fan on it gives you so much better cooling headroom & safety; yet there is no change in perceived noise (compared to passive CPU cooling) if you do it right.

I agree with this.

In my main rig I'm running a P4 2.66 that's overclocked to 3.0Ghz. I'm using an Alpha 8942 with an L1A Panaflo on it and i can't hear it over the other fans (PSU, various 7-volted L1A, a 12V NMB) in the box.

I'm just speccing out a new box built around a P4 2.4C and Intel 865 MoBo. This wil not be OCed. I'm going to use a Thermalright SLK900(U) heatsink and a 92mm L1A or M1A, starting at around 7V and adjusting as necessary. I highly doubt that I'll be be able to hear this outside the case.

I'm running a 7-volt 80mm M1A on my PIII-S rig and can't hear it over the Nexus 3000 PSU and 5 volt 120mm L1A case fan.

In other words, why jump through a bunch of hoops to run a CPU fanless if you don't have to?

Bluefront · Post by **Bluefront** » Sun Jun 29, 2003 12:25 pm

Ralf.....There are other ways of looking at this. Most of us have at least one fan blowing out of the case...the PSU fan, and probably another fan blowing in somewhere. Without too much engineering we should be able to make do with these two fans.

Two rather than three fans gives several advantages. One less fan to vibrate, whine, make noise. One less fan to fail. One less fan to install. One less fan to buy. Probably other reasons.

I've seen fan setups on these and other forums that pull against each other, making me wonder what the installer was thinking about. With the ATX design, you can have a PSU fan, a CPU fan, and a rear case fan all trying to draw air from a few cubic inch area...what a waste. Some planning, maybe a duct setup....one less fan to worry about.

arman68 · Post by **arman68** » Sun Jun 29, 2003 1:40 pm

I have had my P4 2.53Ghz "passively" cooled for a while now and have not had any problem, even during the hot weather spells.

I am not even using a good heatsink: it's a cheap bog standard aluminium heatsink (coolermaster) which I got a long time ago before I knew any better. The fan on it was quite bad (noisy delta). I tried replacing it at some time, but the sound of air being forced down the fins is noisier than anything else.

Case is cooled by 4 80x80x25mm papst which I run at 5v. I have a zalman bracket with a 92mm thermaltake fan (not particularly quiet) with a rehostat blowing over the cpu are. The rehostat is always at low speed. When I need to do a long cpu intensive batch process I set it at medium speed. It would cope a low speed but I don't like overheating my components too much.

The noisiest things at the moment are:

* a 80mm coolermaster fan blowing above a passively cooled GF4 Ti4200. Speed is controlled via speedfan. I will replace it with a passive Matrox G550 soon and can get rid of the fan.

* a (very old) maxtor hard drive, I have 2 barracuda V but have not got round to reinstall the os yet

Post by **MikeC** » Sun Jun 29, 2003 3:09 pm

arman68 -- "a zalman bracket with a 92mm thermaltake fan (not particularly quiet) with a rehostat blowing over the cpu" -- that's hardly "passive"!

Phrozenpenguin · Post by **Phrozenpenguin** » Sun Aug 10, 2003 10:08 am

My 2.53ghz runs at 1.2v undervolted. MAy go even less, havent tried yet.

herosformula · Post by **herosformula** » Sun Aug 10, 2003 9:14 pm

During the middle of the winter, I ran my 2.53 for a week using only a Zalman 6500 HS a 80mm L1A case fan, and a 92mm fan in my PSU. It was about 10c higher than when I had the fan blowing across the HS. I would not recommend it any other time.