Can I get away without a fan on a tower cooler?

[GZeus]

I'm considering mounting a tower CPU cooler without a fan on my e4300 HTPC for the sake of noise reduction. I won't be home for a week to actually try it so I thought I'd ask to see if anyone has tried something like this?

The HTPC is housed in a SilverStone case (forget the model) and has 2 intake and 2 exhaust 80mm fans. I just bought 4 new fans (Vantec Stealth) to replace the 4 spare fans I popped in during the initial build. The current HSF is loud - louder than the current case fans. As it sits in my living room, I'm trying to knock down the noise as much as possible. If the Vantec's turn out to be as quiet as I've heard, then the HSF is next.

I'm thinking about swapping the current HS (a Zalman CNPS 8000 - sucks!!) for an Arctic 7 and I'm wondering if I could get away without installing the fan. The exhaust fans are directly behind the CPU and the case is pretty open for airflow.

If anyone has any experience with this, I'd appreciate some input. Thanks.

 

[xtremeskier97]

Why not use the stock hs/f?? The thing runs at 800-900 rpm and isnt audible in a closed case. I have a 6420 with stock cooler and i cant hear it at all.

 

[GZeus]

My bad.... I should have mentioned it was OEM.

 

[Slugbait]

MaxPC removed the fan of the stock HSF on the first C2D they reviewed, and while they recommended against it for most people, they were surprised at the temperature...and the fact that it still ran stable.

If you have good case airflow and you're not O/C, give it a go. Some aftermarket tower coolers cool impressively. But test it first, watch your temps, be sure to be using AS5 or good paste, whatever...

 

[GZeus]

Thanks for the info 'Slugbait' (and ribbon). Now that you mention it, I think I recall reading that article. I definitely planned on monitoring it pretty closely but I was curious if anyone had tried or is doing this.
I know it will come down to the case airflow but I don't want to create a new issue to cure the old. If the temps are reasonable and the new 80's still too loud I'll pull out the dremmel and see if I can fit a pair of low noise 120's - one front and one rear.
Could be fun. 🙂

BTW - anyone want to buy a slightly used Zalman CNPS 8000? 😉

 

[gramboh]

Another tip is try undervolting the CPU. If you are running at stock you might get lucky to run it at 1.2, 1.1 or even 1.0v, some people have managed to do this on C2D's at stock speed and still maintain stability. That will cut your temps a bunch for running fanless.

 

[mercanucaribe]

What you are planning to do makes no sense. You have 4 case fans, yet when you come to the CPU, you decide you want it to be fanless. Why don't you take one of those case fans and put it on the CPU?

Buy as 120mm heatsink and put a big slow 120mm fan on it.

 

[taterworks]

The two coolers to use for this sort of thing are the Scythe Ninja Plus and the OCZ Vindicator. Not every tower cooler is as suitable for fanless operation as another, since fin spacing also plays a role in the heatsink's effectiveness under passive convection. If the fins are spaced closely together, then greater air pressure is required to force the air through. The Vindicator and Ninja both use relatively wide fin spacing, to minimize airflow impedance as much as possible.

I'd get rid of all the case fans except the exhaust fans. Having intake fans doesn't serve to increase airflow unless you're filtering your incoming air (in which case you'd better put duct-tape over all the other unfiltered paths of air ingress), and I've actually found that filters are counterproductive when it comes to quiet cooling. Vantec's 'Stealth' fans don't have the best reputation of actually being "silent," or inaudible over the background noise in a typical room -- they're just "quiet." I've had good results with Evercool "Ever Green" fans -- the 120mm models only spin at about 800-900 RPM at 12v.

 

[zephyrprime]

You can definitely do that if you are not running a really high end processor or overclocking. Just get one of those huge heatsinks like the tuniq tower or something. Someone came out with this really big heatsink recently that would be perfect for this but I don't recall who. Nuts. You can also check out silentpc because I think they have a lot of fanless tests of heatsink performance.

 

[pelikan]

SPCR is a good place to get the kind of info you are after.

 

[GZeus]

Originally posted by: mercanucaribe
What you are planning to do makes no sense. You have 4 case fans, yet when you come to the CPU, you decide you want it to be fanless. Why don't you take one of those case fans and put it on the CPU?

Buy as 120mm heatsink and put a big slow 120mm fan on it.

Any case still needs some amount of airflow and exchange with air outside the case, how much is dependent on the setup. In my situation, I have a fanless GPU which means I'm already reliant on some exchange of air. The question I have is how far can I push that when it comes to the CPU

Are you suggesting that I can ignore outside air exchange and run a fanless GPU and a 120 on the CPU??? I don't think that would be a good idea. The CPU might be fine short term but the overall heat inside the case would build up - and this is a 24/7 HTPC with other heat generating components in the same rack (7.1, XB360, Cable Box, etc.).

Originally posted by: taterworks
The two coolers to use for this sort of thing are the Scythe Ninja Plus and the OCZ Vindicator.....

I'd get rid of all the case fans except the exhaust fans..... I've had good results with Evercool "Ever Green" fans -- the 120mm models only spin at about 800-900 RPM at 12v.

Thanks for the tips on the different towers and the Evercools. I will try a few different set-ups when I get home next week... including ditching the intakes - that sounds like a really good call.

I've been reviewing different set-ups on SPRC - its a great site.... but some of their higher rated fans are tough to find (unless you have relatives in Poland??). I have enough e-accounts already and don't feel like opening up another just for a couple of fans.

I'll try a few things when I get home and post the final setup in this thread when I'm done!

Thanks to all for the replies 🙂 :thumbsup: