fanless workstation, choosing CPU

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soleen
Posts: 1
Joined: Wed Apr 11, 2012 7:14 pm

fanless workstation, choosing CPU

Post by soleen » Wed Apr 11, 2012 7:48 pm

I am working on my first silent computer. I do not like fans, and therefore, I decided to make it completely fanless. Also, note, I do not play video game, and therefore do not need video card.

Here is what I got so far (I am writing it all as it may be helpful for others):

Code: Select all

Part           Type                 Cost     Where
--------------------------------------------------
Case           HD-Plex              $324.00  link1
Media          Blue-ray/DVDRW       $53.89   link2
Memory         DDR3,16GB            $84.00   link3
SSD            Mushkin Chronos 240G $238.00  link4
Mainboard      Intel Mini-ITX H77   $138.78  link5
CPU            ???
link1 link2 link3 link4 link5

I am waiting for Ivy Bridge to be released, so I can buy CPU and power on my system. However, I am still now sure which one to get:
i7-3770T or i7-3770s, first one is 45W, second one is 65W, both are compatible with HD-Plex case, and both are priced the same. Any suggestion?

Also, could someone please sanity check my configuration, and tell me if I am missing anything. Thank you.

lordmetroid
Posts: 28
Joined: Sun Sep 06, 2009 1:27 am
Location: Borlänge, Sweden

Re: fanless workstation, choosing CPU

Post by lordmetroid » Thu Apr 12, 2012 4:05 am

There is a fanless Sandy Bridge system featured on Sweclockers. Based on that I believe an Ivy Bridge or Sandy Bridge CPU with equivalent TDP or lower with a Thermalright HR-02 mounted for cooling will suffice.

HFat
Posts: 1753
Joined: Thu Jul 03, 2008 4:27 am
Location: Switzerland

Re: fanless workstation, choosing CPU

Post by HFat » Thu Apr 12, 2012 4:42 am

Maybe you should rethink the whole notion of a fanless workstation. But if you've got cash to blow and reliability as well as multi-threaded performance are not a priorities, why not?
If you care about reliability, spend your cash on premium workstation gear. If multi-threaded performance is a priority, spend it on more cores. In either case, don't spend it on such an expensive case.

If single-threaded performance is a priority, you want to overclock and you therefore want a K CPU. You can probably still get away with fanless cooling by disabling cores.
soleen wrote:i7-3770T or i7-3770s, first one is 45W, second one is 65W, both are compatible with HD-Plex case, and both are priced the same. Any suggestion?
The official TDP ratings are useless.
Past experience has been that the value of the S and T models is dubious. But maybe Intel will surprise us this time. If you can wait for reviews, you'll have a better basis for choosing but if you can't, I guess the T version would be the safest. But I think the S version would be safe as well and it's faster.

Note that you may not benefit much from the i7 models. The slowest i5 might get you a similar performance for a good bit less money depending on your workload.
If you would actually benefit from choosing one of the i7 models, they'd run hotter than the lesser models in your computer and you'd probably benefit even more by getting a faster CPU and using fans.
soleen wrote:someone please sanity check my configuration
The SSD looks dodgy, especially for the money you're paying. Do you really have a use for such an expensive SSD? If you do, consider getting more reputable models such as the ones sold by Intel or Crucial. Especially if you aren't going to use an UPS and if you don't need the best performance, consider an Intel 3xx.

ces
Posts: 3395
Joined: Thu Feb 04, 2010 6:06 pm
Location: US

Re: fanless workstation, choosing CPU

Post by ces » Thu Apr 12, 2012 9:49 am

HFat wrote:Past experience has been that the value of the S and T models is dubious.
That will be even more so with Windows 8 which will permit you to downclock through the operating system.

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