fanless case - cause for concern?

[qionized]

i'm spec-ing out building some systems for a workstation farm. they will have the following at their core (cut'n'pasted from a quote-in-progress):

• INTEL Core™ i5-2400 Quad-Core 3.1GHz, HD Graphics 2000, LGA1155, 6MB L3 Cache, 32nm
• 8GB PC3-10600 DDR3 1333MHz SDRAM
• OCZ 120GB Vertex 3 SSD, MLC SandForce SF-2281, 550/500 MB/s, 2.5-Inch, SATA 6 Gb/s

they are going to be used as "worker" machines for an application we run which distributes processing; basically, they will have high I/O and CPU usage, but no intense graphics or any such nonsense (not even plugging monitors into them).

one of the specs is to keep the PSU at 200W (or less); even at full bore the components in this system should not exceed 200W.

given that we're not running intense graphics and will be using solid state hard drives, is a fanless case like the Thermaltake Element Q a viable option? or should i still be concerned about thermal wear given the bursts of high CPU-activity which will characterize their usage? for the latter consideration, i've been looking at systems based around the Shuttle XPC SH67H3 which has things like a fancy CPU heat-pipe and fan, etc., but is looking like it will run us about $100 more per machine.

basically, is a fanless case really only viable for heavy long-term use on ATOM-type systems, or ok for higher-performance CPU in the absence of intense graphics and mechanical hard drive?

 

[Zap]

Hello qionized, and welcome to AnandTech Forums.

The Element Q relies on the PSU fan as exhaust.

Were you looking at that for a cost basis, or did you need to make these things as quiet as possible?

 

[qionized]

thanks for the response. cost and physical dimensions...although quiet never hurts =) i thought the PSU was fanless as well, but perhaps i conflated fanlessness of the case with PSU fanlessness.

 

[Paperlantern]

I would wager the PSU has a fan. I could be wrong, but i cant see it having zero airflow.