P150 with (almost) fully passive cooling?

mmmis · Post by **mmmis** » Mon Feb 13, 2006 5:36 am

I have a ECS KT600-a motherboard with Athlon XP (Socket A) 2600+. Right now the system has a fan-cooled PSU and an Arctic Cooling Silent Copper 2 CPU-cooler. This gives me around 40-45 degrees Celsius CPU-temperature at normal usage. The graphic card is a Geforce3 Ti200 with passive Zalman cooling.

Since I only use the computer as some type of server (I never play games or other demanding applications) I am thinking of making it a bit quieter.

What do you guys think about this system:
*Antec P150 with a Antec Phantom hybrid PSU (instead of the original NeoHE).
*Thermaltake Sonic Towers (because it's the only passive cooling suitable for Socket A)
*Either the original TriCool fan at "Low" or some other really quiet 120mm fan.

What kind of CPU-temperatures can I expect? Since the hardware is old I don't really care about wether the lifetime os shortned or not, as long as the system is not dangerous regarding fire and such things. And oh, the information in the HDD's (Two Samsung SpinPoint 250GB's) is also important., so I would prefer a system where the CPU or some other part "fails first", and not the HDD's.

KnightRT · Post by **KnightRT** » Mon Feb 13, 2006 6:59 am

You could do that, or something similar.

That particular CPU is good to around 90 C. The hard drives are designed to accomodate users who stuff them into a case with no fans.

Were I attempting this, I'd start by changing the PSU as you say, then ditching the TriCool for a Nexus. But I'd also throw in a second 120mm or equivalent, undervolted and pointing at that heatsync.

KRT

jaganath · Post by **jaganath** » Mon Feb 13, 2006 7:13 am

The Sonic Tower is not particularly good for passive/ low airflow situations because it's cooling fins are so close together; you would probably be better off with the Zalman 6000 AlCu or the Swiftech MCX462-V or Thermalright SI-97A.

~El~Jefe~ · Post by **~El~Jefe~** » Mon Feb 13, 2006 8:18 am

Hey I have an idea, an idea I always recommend:

NO VIDEO CARD.

remote into it, try a version of Linux that you can do that with, then you lose 20 watts of heat in the case. Just a thought. Every little bit helps a WHOLE lot I noticed in a 24/7 case. Either heat is being lost or heat is being built up, the midpoint takes a long time to hit. I have built linux boxes (without much computer knowledge mind you!) without video cards before.

that chip is awesome, good choice there. Can you undervolt it or underclock it? 40-45 Celsius, if your board gives proper numbers, means that it will never be passive with the case closed. That is hotter than my 2 ghz a64 clawhammer, not a good sign. That chip is good, but I duno if I would want it to be 80 degrees C and bake the rest of the system. I would consider an open case. Yeah dust is bad, but you just shoot with dust off stuff. maybe a notebook drive on foam, I duno. depends on how ugly you want it. that normal operating temperature is very high though for a soon to be passive system.

mmmis · Post by **mmmis** » Mon Feb 13, 2006 11:21 am

~El~Jefe~ wrote:Hey I have an idea, an idea I always recommend:

NO VIDEO CARD.

remote into it, try a version of Linux that you can do that with, then you lose 20 watts of heat in the case. Just a thought. Every little bit helps a WHOLE lot I noticed in a 24/7 case. Either heat is being lost or heat is being built up, the midpoint takes a long time to hit. I have built linux boxes (without much computer knowledge mind you!) without video cards before.

that chip is awesome, good choice there. Can you undervolt it or underclock it? 40-45 Celsius, if your board gives proper numbers, means that it will never be passive with the case closed. That is hotter than my 2 ghz a64 clawhammer, not a good sign. That chip is good, but I duno if I would want it to be 80 degrees C and bake the rest of the system. I would consider an open case. Yeah dust is bad, but you just shoot with dust off stuff. maybe a notebook drive on foam, I duno. depends on how ugly you want it. that normal operating temperature is very high though for a soon to be passive system.

Since it's not a dedicated server I can't go for linux and no graphics, but that would have been a good idea otherwise.

Howver, regarding the temperature right now, have in mind that I am running without a "chassis-fan" (don't know if this is the correct english word for it, the fan which will be the TriCool one in the P150 system). So yes, I am taking the CPU and PSU fans away, but I am adding a chassis-fan to the system.

hravn · Post by **hravn** » Mon Feb 13, 2006 11:42 pm

I wouldn't bother with replacing the Neo HE (at least not if it works

), it's really quiet IMHO (and the Phantom is really expensive)... try the other things first (replace HSF, put in exhaust fan).

Gxcad · Post by **Gxcad** » Tue Feb 14, 2006 1:22 am

IMHO, and I've said this before, you lose the noise benefit of fanless cpu cooling if you have fans at all in your case. Might as well have a very quiet undervolted one on the cpu heatsink and drop the temps by 15c or more.

-Ken

mmmis · Post by **mmmis** » Tue Feb 14, 2006 2:14 pm

Gxcad wrote:IMHO, and I've said this before, you lose the noise benefit of fanless cpu cooling if you have fans at all in your case. Might as well have a very quiet undervolted one on the cpu heatsink and drop the temps by 15c or more.

-Ken

Everywhere I ask they seem to agree that I should atleast have one fan in the system. If we say that i keep the NeoHE in the box, how would a system work where I unplug the TriCool fan and replace the CPU-fan with the Sonic Tower? This will mean that the only fan in the system will be the one in the NeoHE.

zhenya · Post by **zhenya** » Wed Feb 15, 2006 7:11 pm

I think you're going to find that a couple of quiet fans at 5-9 volts each are still going to be below the noise floor of your two drives. If that is true, why bother removing fans that are performing cooling duties, and aren't really contributing to the noise you hear?