Building machines without fans.

311

Hello ,I've been looking into building a machine without fans.
Aiming to basically have a machine ,completely convection cooled.

Has anyone ventured into this area ,the thoughts of the heat build up are a worry to me. I've seen a zalman http://www.zalman.co.kr/eng/product/view.asp?idx=175
But the graphics on this would make it useless to me ,to put the effort into the building of it.

Is there realistically anything fanless available ,that would allow something like a 8800GTS .I was thinking along the lines of a high speed pump hidden somewhere ,cooling both the cpu and the gpu via long runs of piping.

gamer

Get mobo that has a large heatsink built in,looks like a large long l copper,buy large cpu heatsink .I got akasa evvo 5inch high ,4inch wide,has fins round a cylinder containing liquid coolant,2 screws hold it in.my cpu temp in bios,hardware monitor 23 degrees , mobo 33degrees.All i need now is 2 get a large lo noise fan 20db and my pc will be almost silent.
Google motherboard passive cooling ,get asus ,or good brandname mobo.Look at komplett.ie.MY cpu is 4000+athlon dual core.I THINK YOU can get graphics card similar in speed/power to the 8800 and buy a large large heatsink with a silent fan to install on it ,if you have the money.LOOK AT TOMS HARDWARE ,READ ,the motherboard review be4 you buy anything.get dual core cpu, not quad core,dual is fine for games ,most important is 2gig ram winxp,and fast graphics card.
GETname brand power supply ,eg corsair psu 400watt and quiet.Google quiet motherboard ,motherboard reviews.GOT cooler in maplin clearance ,32euro.i notice that zalman 300,compatible mobos r not compaible with 8800gt ,8800 ,just get a large cooler ,very quiet cpu fan and a quiet psu,and you,ll have a quiet pc.that zalman is out of date re the latest pci-e graphics card.i have a 7300 withfan,its silent.
i,ll be getting a faster card in january.

311

Thanks for the reply ,I've been thinking about how I'd go about my first build, to be honest I think I should play it safe first time around.

I picked out a case and power supply ,I'm not sure what motherboard to go with ,it will be a P35 one anyway.
There seems to be enough metal in the lian li case ,to shroud the graphics card noise.

http://www.xoxide.com/lian-li-pc-b20a-silver.html
http://www.bjorn3d.com/read.php?cID=945

gamer

i,ve built 5 pcs,last week i built a 4000+mobo, with mobo,cpu,psu,ddr dram, bought from adverts.ie .BE careful take precautions re ,static ,get a anti static wristband.maplins 7euro.ALL the items i bought ,brand new in the box.MY advice
get 4000+ cpu athlon x2 dual core ,get a large heatsink , cpu,with 17db lo noise fan 20db max. I DONT need any mobo fan,33 degrees is fine mobo temp.The only thing that was slightly awkward, was i had to remove the present heatsink holder ,remove 2 screws ,put on the new one ,put reciever onto underside of motherboard ,match up with 2holes in mobo,put top part on ,screw 2 screws thru top part of heatsink reciever to join 2 parts together. google amd video heatsink install before starting this.
I,M very pleased with powerunit ,400watt completely silent.I CAN play cod4 demo with textures low,no shaDOWS ,no water detail, medium detail 1024x768 30fps approx.winxp 2gig ram.
Remember theres a new 8800gtx card coming out in 2/3weeks ,MORE POWERFUL ,than present card.
I usually buy mobo,s with cpu /heaTSINK installed,so i just took it very slowly.
I think winxp is better than vista,re gaming, you,ll need 4gig ram for vista, dx 10 cards will run in xp, in dx 9 mode.
the 6200,and 9700 agp cards i had be4 made no noise as they had large
heatsinks with SILENT fans.

gamer

my advice get mobo with built in heatsink, get a large cooler 4 cpu,with a low noise variable speed fan,get 400watt psu silent.THEN get a case with front inputs 2 usb in,2 sound out 3.5mm. I,M USING a standard atx case ,it has no fan in at front ,it has no fan out at rear.MY PC has 2 fans,psu fan silent , and cpu cooler fan, which i will replace with lo noise fan soon. I downloaded cputemp prog,it says core 0 31degrees celcius,core 1 33 degrees.MY 7300card fan is silent.
if you want to reduce noise,i dont think its a great idea buying a case with 2 fans in it ,apart from the psu fan.get a large cpu heatsink,the fan on it will be lo noise or almost silent,google evvo akasa heatsink.IT has liquid inside ,absorbs heat from cpuand diffuses it thru fins all around ,4sides of heatsink.WHEN i buy a pc i usually disconnect rear fan, if theres airflow thru case it may not be needed, but i only had atlon 64 2.o ghz until last week
OR get a case ,with 2fans ,install CORETEMP program, if your coretemps under 45degrees ,core o,core1, then you may not need 2 connect them to mobo power , i,m using ultr a thin ide cable for dvdrom,hardrive .IF you needem in future you can connect em, my motherboard has 4 fan power in connectors.
would a 600watt psu not make more noise than a 450watt psu.
Get mobo with 2 pci-e grahics slots.

gamer

if you look at adverts.ie 2day, pc hardware4sale, theres a complete water cooling kt, for pc ,make sure its compatible with pci-e card ,whatever type of card you are buying.I dont know if its compatible with 88800gt cards.
Komplett.ie are selling case breeze noise reducing case,with silent 400watt power unit, 149euros.
PEATS have sharkoon silent eagle cpu heatsink s with silent fan, 29euro.4x4inch size approx.

Anti

if you want silent kit the best place to go is www.quietpc.co.uk.

But if you want a totaly modern high end pc it will never be silent. A quad core needs a hsf with a fan, passive cooling is not a option. Same goes for a top end graphics card. Yes, you can buy heatpipe coolers for them, but their not the may west, and they also need a fan.

gamer

Waste of money .and energy getting quad core cpu, all games designed for dual core,get fast dual core cheaper to buy,EASIER to cool=quiet pc, fast dual core will last you 3 years ,get win xp ,3gig ram ,it,ll play any game you can find at 1200x100 resolution.QUAD CORE ,hotter,uses more energy, needs more fans to cool, you,ll have 2 cores sitting there doing nothing , whats the point.
A GOOD intel dual core will play any game with 8800gt card 300meg ram ,or similar.IF your a power gamer ,get 2 pci-e slot mobo, just in case you MAY in future want 2cards in sli mode.IN 3 years time you can upgrade to quad core ,if any1 ever makes a game that uses 4 cores.
95 PERCENT , OF USERS do not need quad core.
4 my next pc ill buy a cooler in peats,if theres a problem ,i have my ,receipt i,ll bring it back to the shop.it might cost you 5euro extra in,peats but its worth it.
SEE asus cooler above,its silent gets good reviews.BUT if you r in a hurry ,you buy cooler in shop,within 24 hours you,ll have the whole mobo,cpu,cooler , winxp installed.id hate to be waitin 7days for a cooler 2 arrive ,when i have mobo/cpu ready 2 go.it looks the same a skooner cooler for intel,duo in peats 29euro.

311

Thanks for the replies ,I think the dual core route would stand me better ,when starting off.

I'm sure two years down the road ,I'll be looking at the latest cpu's when I'm a bit more educated.

I presume the new 1333Mhz bussed boards are the best way to go ? ,or is there a bus speed best suited to good graphics cards ?

daveharnett

_Brian_ wrote: »

Thanks for the replies ,I think the dual core route would stand me better ,when starting off.

I presume the new 1333Mhz bussed boards are the best way to go ? ,or is there a bus speed best suited to good graphics cards ?

FSB on the motherboard has no relation to the bus speed of the card. Yes, 1333 is the way to go right now. I'd recommend a Gigabyte GA-P35C or an Asus P5K (There are a few flavours of each to suit different budgets).

As to the original question, watercooling is the only way to keep up-to-date components cool. Devices with big heatsinks/fins assume that the case has fans installed to provide airflow. Completely fanless in a modern machine will require waterblocks for the cpu, gpu, possibly the northbridge on the mobo, connected to a huge radiator outside the case.

A more realisitc approach for an inexpierenced builder is to get a case with good acoustics, a couple of large slow spinning fans and passive coolers for the components. A system like this will be inaudible while music/movies/games are playing. I'd recommend the Antec P180 for this.

watty

The basic physics is, for the SAME cooling: the bigger, the quieter. Run a 8" 12V fan on 5V to make it slower and quiet.

311

daveharnett wrote: »

I'd recommend the Antec P180 for this.

I checked out the p180 and it seems people where having trouble routing the psu cables ,because the psu is located at the bottom of the case.
On komplett someone mentioned that the corsair psu's ,don't really work with the p180:(

I had a case in mind ,http://www.bjorn3d.com/read.php?cID=1011
It seems to have good acoustics ,should I stay clear of this one ?

gamer

TRY to get a psu,with silent fan on it, with at least 500watt, 22amps on 1rail,connector for pci-e card.LOOK at the cases people bought on this forum,when ordering thier pc parts/builds.Ithink 8800card needs 300watt,22amps into card playing cod4 at 1200resolution.

311

I am going for a corsair 620 psu ,I've read that they don't fluctuate much when they are under load and they are quiet aswell.

There is something about the corsair that clicks with me and tells me it's right. The same goes for the case aswell.

I've listened to the replies about the bigger the case ,the bigger the fans the quieter the fan sound. But I can't help thinking that a larger than needed case would only act as an Auditorium for the graphics card.