Non-SLI with Passive Cooling?

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JJ
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Non-SLI with Passive Cooling?

Post by JJ » Wed Feb 22, 2006 1:24 pm

I'm building a system to be used for video and audio editing and encoding. It will have an AMD 64X2 4400+ CPU and 2GB RAM. I haven't decided on a video card yet, maybe a GeForce 7800GT, maybe a 6800GS, maybe even a 6600GT, since gaming won't be priority.

One thing I know - I'll never use SLI with dual video cards. I have been considering the ASUS A8N-SLI Premium, in part due to its passive cooling. But I'm wondering if there are any good non-SLI PCI-E motherboards with passive cooling, or how easy it is to refit a board with active cooling with a passive solution.

cybermud
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Post by cybermud » Wed Feb 22, 2006 7:00 pm

I have been searching for the same thing...it seems like all AMD boards with gigabit ethernet that support the dual core chips are SLI. I have been serisouly looking at the .65 micron intel chips, because the motherboards available for those CPU's are more in line with what I am looking for.

quikkie
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Post by quikkie » Thu Feb 23, 2006 6:22 am

cybermud wrote:I have been searching for the same thing...it seems like all AMD boards with gigabit ethernet that support the dual core chips are SLI. I have been serisouly looking at the .65 micron intel chips, because the motherboards available for those CPU's are more in line with what I am looking for.
uhh, every socket 939 board will support dual core processors (might need a bios flash first). As for the gigabit network interfaces, IIRC every nforce 4 board has one.

However if you want non-SLI, with gigabit ethernet, with passive chipset cooling then have a look at the "Asus A8N-VM CSM nForce 430/GeForce 6150" which I found fairly quickly and I bet there are more...

stupid
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Post by stupid » Thu Feb 23, 2006 6:48 am

cybermud wrote:I have been searching for the same thing...it seems like all AMD boards with gigabit ethernet that support the dual core chips are SLI. I have been serisouly looking at the .65 micron intel chips, because the motherboards available for those CPU's are more in line with what I am looking for.
Below is a link to newegg.com of all socket 939 motherboards that:

1. Supports Gigbit
2. Non-SLI - Just 1 PCI-e x16 slot

Product Search Results

I would be surprised if not a single one of them is offered in the UK.

stupid
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Re: Non-SLI with Passive Cooling?

Post by stupid » Thu Feb 23, 2006 7:05 am

JJ wrote:I'm building a system to be used for video and audio editing and encoding. It will have an AMD 64X2 4400+ CPU and 2GB RAM. I haven't decided on a video card yet, maybe a GeForce 7800GT, maybe a 6800GS, maybe even a 6600GT, since gaming won't be priority.

One thing I know - I'll never use SLI with dual video cards. I have been considering the ASUS A8N-SLI Premium, in part due to its passive cooling. But I'm wondering if there are any good non-SLI PCI-E motherboards with passive cooling, or how easy it is to refit a board with active cooling with a passive solution.
The following link provides a list of 3 motherboards that uses the GeForce 6150. All of which are passive, but they only have 2 PCI port since they are m-ATX boards.

GeForce 6150 Boards

There is a larger list of motherboards if you do a search filter on the GeForce 6100 chipset. These are also all passively cooled chipsets.

For other motherboards it will be a little more difficult since there is no search filter for a passively cooled motherboard.

Since you will be doing encoding, I would suggest the ATI Radeon X1xxx series. ATI is developing 'Avivo' that will help accelerate encoding times by using the GPU to do video encoding. Of course this means that the X1900XT will perform better than the X1300. It is still in development. Below is a preview from Anandtech.com that looks at performance.

Avivo Preview.

JJ
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Re: Non-SLI with Passive Cooling?

Post by JJ » Thu Feb 23, 2006 4:17 pm

stupid wrote:The following link provides a list of 3 motherboards that uses the GeForce 6150. All of which are passive, but they only have 2 PCI port since they are m-ATX boards.

GeForce 6150 Boards

There is a larger list of motherboards if you do a search filter on the GeForce 6100 chipset. These are also all passively cooled chipsets.
That might be a possibility... I've been looking at 6150 chipset boards to build some workstations at the office that will just use the onboard video. What kind of overall system performance difference would there be between a 6150 board and one with an nForce 4 chipset?

Nobody has answered whether some type of passive cooling can be added to an active cooled chipset. I'm thinking in particular of the ASUS A8N-E board.

tjpark1111
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Post by tjpark1111 » Thu Feb 23, 2006 5:33 pm

for less than $10, you can get a Zalman ZM-NB47J passive northbridge cooler and slap it on, getting rid of that noisy 40mm chipset cooler. So the cooling thing should be out of the equation for you. I'm getting the EPoX 9NPA+ Ultra, it seems excellent with no issues at all(no SLI too), with the USB issues concerning dual-core processors fixed recently. If you can't trust EPoX, the ASUS A8N-E should be an excellent choice as well.

quikkie
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Post by quikkie » Fri Feb 24, 2006 7:45 am

Quikkie points at his sig (nforce4 ultra motherboard is now passively cooled)
I have pictures if you want them.

NFW
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Post by NFW » Tue Mar 21, 2006 12:52 am

Have you considered the Asus A8V E SE?

http://search.ncix.com/displayproductde ... cture=ASUS

Max_s
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Post by Max_s » Tue Mar 21, 2006 5:35 am

tjpark1111 wrote:for less than $10, you can get a Zalman ZM-NB47J passive northbridge cooler and slap it on, getting rid of that noisy 40mm chipset cooler. So the cooling thing should be out of the equation for you. I'm getting the EPoX 9NPA+ Ultra, it seems excellent with no issues at all(no SLI too), with the USB issues concerning dual-core processors fixed recently. If you can't trust EPoX, the ASUS A8N-E should be an excellent choice as well.
hi, I was thinking to get epox. the question is if it supports Cool'n'Quit.

ronrem
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Post by ronrem » Wed Mar 22, 2006 10:14 pm

A friend did a build with the ECS KN-1 Extreme (NF4 Ultra) removed the active,replaced with the Coolermaster Blue-Ice,fan removed. This is a chipset cooler with heatpipes,ample fins,looks like a little Ninja. Logically,the heatpipes aid in dissipation beyound what a basic Zalman can do.

The ECS board worked great,had dual LAN including GB,and can run a gazillion hard drives incluing a couple of Raid arrays.

The board has a peculiar duct in the rear which HAS a fan (noisy bugger) but it CAN be removed. Minus the fan it's used as an inlet duct conveniently near the CPU,in his case a Winchester 3500 with a Ninja.

I'd recommended he use a Coolmax CR450 PSU,which has a 140 mm 3 sp fan,1000 rpm low. As this is near the Ninja,it does a nice job getting the heat out quick. We cut and glued an aluminum L bracket so air from the rear vent would not bypass the Ninja,and glued another to the back of the case sothe inlet would not be drawing the exhaust back in.

He had a coolermaster 120mm he was thinking of using on the Ninja,its 700 rpm at 12 v,can undervolt to a quiet 500. It would be controlled by the mobo (in theory) so would only come on at certain temps. Not sure if he did use that. He'd used a V Tech mesh case,lots of filtered air coming in but little noise blocking,so internal components had to be extra quiet.

It worked

For the rig you are talking about,I'd probably do the 3800 X2,which should run cooler,could be "Ninja'd". I've heard a 4200 X2 can do passive.

Most of the High End/Hisgh $ Vid cards are mainly just better at 3d game framerates. I'd want a Vivo card unless I was doing a seperate Vid capture card lke a Rage Theatre 500. A Basic Radeon and a GOOD Vid capture card might be what's your best bet.

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