Creating an almost entirely passively cooled PC

SuprSi

I was browsing through Alienware's website last week and building a very nicely configured PC with dual-video cards and all the perks (no intention of buying), and I noticed that they offer a water-cooling solution.

I had water-cooling in one of my older PC's, and found it very good - 2 * 12" fans cooling the radiator from a Ford Fiesta kept the processor very cool, and made very little noise. The problem was the video card. It was only a Radeon 9800 Pro or something like that, but it made more noise than the rest of the components together. With 2 high hot and high-powered video cards, plus an uber-CPU and 1200 watt PSU, how noisy are these new beasts?

Would one of the Zalman Reserator XT's be enough to cool a CPU and two video cards? Obviously I wouldn't go near the PSU with water so I'd have to put up with that noise, but would the Zalman provide enough cooling to remove every other fan??

Cuddlesworth

Modern quad cores and gfx cards can output upwards of 500watts of heat. Near silent cooling is possible, the problem lies with being able to mount the needed radiator and pump.

I have a 1200 psu, its near silent.

Cuddlesworth

SuprSi wrote: »

Would one of the Zalman Reserator XT's be enough to cool a CPU and two video cards? Obviously I wouldn't go near the PSU with water so I'd have to put up with that noise, but would the Zalman provide enough cooling to remove every other fan??

Opps, forgot why I was typing. No, the Reserator is designed for a mid level low power system. It would not be able to handle a quad core and dual high end cards. I don't believe that there is any way to passively cool a high pc anymore.

SuprSi

Thanks, that makes sense. Now for the stupid question. If money was no object, couldn't you just use one Reserator for the CPU, and one for the GPU's? I mean, if you never transported your PC anywhere you could hide them away nicely (in a ventilated area of course) and they're silent.

PogMoThoin

Doubt one would handle 2 gpu's, gpu's idle and max at much higher temps than cpu's

uberpixie

SuprSi wrote: »

Thanks, that makes sense. Now for the stupid question. If money was no object, couldn't you just use one Reserator for the CPU, and one for the GPU's? I mean, if you never transported your PC anywhere you could hide them away nicely (in a ventilated area of course) and they're silent.

If you are going water cooling you would be better off specing your own kit.

Air cooling is very good theses days, you can get great 3rd part coolers for graphics cards both passive and actively cooled, you can buy very quiet power supplies and you can get good cases such as the Antec P182 which have great air flow and well pad side panels to muffle noise.

You can also buy scythe flex 120mm fans which are very quiet case fans and can be used to cool various 3rd party coolers for CPUs and gfx cards.

You have plent of options before you even hit water cooling. I would look to these first as they are less hassle than a water cooling setup.

If you are going water cooling you are going to have to do your research and you will be specing the parts yourself or buying a kit.

Tbh try air cooling first, it is suits you, stick with it. If it annoys you then go water cooling and do it properly.

You you want a quiet pc easy, air cooling is the way to go. Just get the right parts....

L31mr0d

you don't really need a passive pc more you need an inaudible pc. Which is very doable with good watercooling and silent fans. I've seen a few entirely passive builds around the net before and most of them where just barely successful and usually low to medium spec. Most of them also accepted that the heat issues they where having could of easily been solved with a low rpm fan placed over the heatsink.