March 18, 201115 yr I'm looking trying to make my Unraid box as quiet as possible since its located right next to my entertainment center/tv. Setup: CASE:Rosewill Destroyer http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811147144 DRIVE CAGE: 5-in-3 Norco ss-500 (three) http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816133030&Tpk=norco%20ss-500 CPU:Athlon II X2 245e (45w TPD) HDD: WD Green 2TB x 12 I've purchased 3 silent/quiet 120mm case fans, and 3 silent/quiet 92mm fans for the Norco's and would like to get a passive heatsink. Not all the parts have arrived so i haven't setup anything yet but I'll experiment with fan placement and voltage. I would like to have all fans running continuous at a very low RPM so its never heard. The norco's will fill the front of the case, all with a 92mm fan pulling air into the case, then i'll experiment on placement but have up to 3 120's in the back/top pushing air out. Again i'd like to find the 'sweet spot' and undervolt all of them to run at minimum RPM's and have a passive CPU heatsink. These are some that i'm looking at, i have no experience with aftermarket heatsinks though so any recommendations welcome: Sunbeam Core Contact Freezer -$16.99 after mail-in rebate http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835207004 IGMATEK HDT-S1283 -$31.99 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835233003 Prolimatech Megahalems Rev.B -$39 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835242001R Tuniq Tower 120 -$41.99 after mail-in rebate http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835154001 SILVERSTONE NT01-E -$48.99 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835220032 Thermaltake CL-P0071 4 in 1 Heatpipe -Out of stock http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835106056 Thermalright Ultra-120 -Out of stock http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835109140 ASUS Triton 75 -Out of stock http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835101016 I'm liking the first three because of the prices, but i have no problem spending more money for a decent one. The CPU is is the 'energy efficient' model at 45w, so i imagine passive cooling would be ok?
March 18, 201115 yr The second one should work. It would be cool best if it orients so the wide direction is horizontal or so the fan was blowing up if a fan was mounted. I had a Scythe Mini-Ninja on a 4850e processor and it cooled passively fine. And that was in a HTPC case with the heatsink plates horizontal which doesn't lead to much convection cooling. Peter
March 18, 201115 yr The advantage in a fully passive heatsink is if the case itself is passively cooled.... so you have no fan noise at all. If you have ANY fans, then you will do much better by putting one, even at a non-audible 300 rpm, on the CPU heatsink.
March 18, 201115 yr I just had my case open so I stuck the above mentioned mini-ninja onto my unRAID box. It's running about 2C hotter compared to the stock heatsink while running both processors at 100% via BOINC. So, a big passive heatsink works about as good as the little stock with a fan. Peter
March 18, 201115 yr Check out this insane review on fans. http://www.overclock.net/air-cooling/724577-well-dressed-megahalems-65-fans-112-a.html
March 19, 201115 yr Author Shortly after posting i realized there wasn't much of a point of a passive heatsink since the case has fans. What would be the quietest then? Obviously it doesn't need much cooling since its 45w and will mostly run at idle speeds besides parity checks. Any recommendation?
March 19, 201115 yr Author Good to know, kizer. What CPU fan/heatsink do you have? I don't want to put my rig together only to find out the CPU fan is to loud for me, especially if its a bolt through design and i have to remove the mobo. I'd rather spend 40 bucks and not need it just to be on the safe side. Kind of leaning towards a fan heatsink now after reading some different forums This is what i'm planning so far, let me know if anyone has any suggestions. Case fans: Nexux d12sl 120MM case fans that should be near silent, even if i need to put in 4 for sufficient airflow. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835610006 Drive cage fans: Nexus DF1209SL-3 92mm fans to replace the stock fans in the norco case. I have all green drives so hopefully i can get these pretty quiet without running too hot. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835610005 Revised heatsink options (can always replace/undervolt fan if to loud and again its only a 45w CPU) Freezer 7 Pro http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835186134 -OR- Xigmatek HDT-s1283 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835233003 Also- if anyone has input on my HTPC fan/cooling setup (core i3-2100 and SSD in microfusion micro-ATX) Three Enermax UC-8EB 80mm case fans http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811999199 cpu cooling: Scythe Big Shuriken w/120mm fan http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835185129&Tpk=N82E16835185129 -OR- Cooler Master RR-CCH-PBU1-GP w/120mm fan http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835103046&Tpk=N82E16835103046
March 19, 201115 yr I have the stock fan and heat sync that came with my Sempron 140. Honestly its pretty quite and my CPU normally runs around 19-20C depending on Room Temperature. When I run Parity it normally spikes up to around 21-22. I haven't beat it up over the summer yet so this year will really tell. Actually I just put my ear to my PC and it appears my rear exhaust is a bit louder than my front case fans because I didn't under volt the rear fan. My thought was I would have a constant vacuum
March 19, 201115 yr Actually I just put my ear to my PC and it appears my rear exhaust is a bit louder than my front case fans because I didn't under volt the rear fan. My thought was I would have a constant vacuum Sometimes (no hard rules here) it is better that the exhaust fan moves less air than the inward facing fans. Otherwise the exhaust fan can draw air away from places and prevent the new cooler air from reaching them resulting in local hot-spots. The difference in airflow will be made up by the small leaks from other places around the case. The actual requirements for relative airflow vary widely from case to case and depend upon the hardware inside, of course.
March 19, 201115 yr If you put a fan on each drive cage then they would likely move enough air that exhaust fans aren't needed. That server will be loud. The HDD's in my server make it louder when spun-up even with 2 x 80mm and 2 x 120mm fans running at full speed. I have 4 x greens and 2 x 7200rpm Seagates. I would consider you HTPC with 3 80mm fans and 1 120mm fan just plain loud, no matter what under-volting you do. Find a case with a grill on the top so you can use the 120mm CPU cooler fan for the whole thing. Go with a SSD or laptop drive to get rid of the HDD heat and a picoPSU to eliminate the power supply fan. I have 1 x 120mm fan and a laptop drive turning in my HTPC and I can hear it but it's very quiet and unobtrusive. Just in general having that server and HTPC by your entertainment system will be loud. There will be no way around this. Peter
March 19, 201115 yr Just to clarify - I didn't mean special additional exhaust fans, but most PSU fans are configured to exhaust air from within the cabinet to the outside. If that fan is too strong compared to any fans pushing air into the cabinet, then it can sometimes cause the problem that I described.
March 19, 201115 yr S80_UK When I under volted my rear exhaust fan I watched the inside case temp go up 2degrees. Currently I have 3 fans in front blowing over my drives and 1 rear exhaust at normal speed. My initial reason for slowing down my drive fans was to keep the drives at a more constant temp opposed to keeping them really cold when not in use and letting them really warm up in use. So far everything seems to be fine. I'd guess that each case and fan layout would differ in setup and design. Of course all I'm doing is monitoring my drives and CPU so who knows how the rest of the case is doing. My PSU draws from outside the case (bottom) and blows out the back.
March 19, 201115 yr Like I said - "sometimes". Each combination of fans, case, hardware etc will be different. I imagine that with three fans blowing in, they were already exceeding the ability of the PSU fan to blow air back out again, and so to slow it down would have raised the temperatures as you described.
March 20, 201115 yr FYI, after I stuck my server back into the room it was in before I'm now seeing about 4C cooler on the processor. So, I would say that just about any of the big tower heatsinks like the ones you linked will easily keep a 45W processor cool enough as long as the case has airflow through it. Peter
March 21, 201115 yr I have AMD Sempron 140 underclocked and undervolted and a Hyper 212 Plus on top. I did not attach the cooler fan, but rely on 2 80mm exhaust and 1 80mm intake fan (all @ 5V in a very ancient tower case) and the cpu stays nice and cool (with unraid). if a do a parity check then the fins get a bit warm, but it stays pretty cool and one less source of noise.
March 22, 201115 yr I have a large Xigmatec HSF on my e2160 without its fan and temps are identical to what they were with the fan attached and running. Even OC'd it runs cool. Of course, this is all in an Antec 900 case that has excellent cooling. I run all the fans on low speed too.
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