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Fanless desktop options

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  • In late 2018 I would look at a Ryzen based APU with its configurable cTDP of 45/65w. You will have to confirm which motherboards expose the option in their UEFI, not all do.
  • SSD over HDD as spinning platters will be audible over low RPM fans.
  • Larger cases will offer better cooling, especially those with top air vents for convection.
  • Fan wise look at Noctua, can spin as low as 300rpm. Some of their dual tower coolers might be good.
  • Undervolting or underclocking might be necessary if you cant configure the TDP.
 
A fanless desktop is actually easier than ever, thanks to Intel and AMD dropping 35W chips left and right 🙂

On the Intel side, a 35W i3/i5, a Thin Mini-ITX and Akasa's Euler heat sink case, and you're good to go!
On the AMD side, get the Athlon 200GE (or Ryzen 3 2200GE / Ryzen 5 2400GE if you can find them) and Nofan CR-80EH or SilverStone HE02. Make sure to get a case with mesh on top (I like Fractal Design cases, ModuVent removed).

If you don't feel like building it, ZOTAC's new Core-based fanless ZBOX look amazing. The CI660 (i7-8550U) will offer similar performance to the i3-8100 https://www.cpubenchmark.net/compare/Intel-i3-8100-vs-Intel-i7-8550U/3103vs3064

CI660.jpg
 
Ok I digged a bit. The conclusion is that it would be much easier to get an Intel.

I have 4in wide of space, which is reducing my options a lot. I didn't know about the Athlon 200GE so thank you, but the performance increase does not seem to worth it in comparison to my A8-4555M.

If I try to do the computer myself with 4in case, the only interesting thing I found until now is the Antec ISK 300-150 which is not fanless.
 
Ok after a bit more digging I found the few fanless cases for mini-atx motherboards. They seem good but they do cost a bit more.

You know what ??

I'm thinking of just buying the components and attach them to a plate, in open air, and put a fanless heatsink on the CPU. That is the best cooling I'll get, fanless, it will just be ugly !
 
kensiko30 said:
Ok after a bit more digging I found the few fanless cases for mini-atx motherboards. They seem good but they do cost a bit more.

You know what ??

I'm thinking of just buying the components and attach them to a plate, in open air, and put a fanless heatsink on the CPU. That is the best cooling I'll get, fanless, it will just be ugly !
Click to expand...
Just get the fanless ZBOX mentioned above.
 
OK just so you know, I received almost everything, used an old computer to make the open air case (or a support if you can call this). It's ugly ! It's a work in progress. I don't have the fanless CPU cooler yet.

The power supply is nice, it's 50 CAD$, a Seasonic, and the fan can be stopped if the power request is low enough. I didn't play yet with underclocking or the cTDP setting (which is unavailable on my board, or I didn't find how to get it).

What's next is to make this a little more beautiful, get the led workings (I just need some cables, the old computer is not using standard cables), attach the front usb plate, cover possibly the front, use paint, and so on. As future upgrades, it would be much better with a fully modular power supply or a picoPSU and an M2 SSD, so this way there won't be much wires anymore.

1539359253-img-20181012-113453.jpg


1539359249-img-20181012-113744.jpg
 
kensiko30 my setup is similar to yours, I use a closed waterpump from corsair with no fan, just the PSU fan pointed to the radiator so I only have the PSU fan on the system, is very quiet. I have my system in a open desk with no case.
 
It may actually be possible with your space to take off side glass panels from Raijintek Ophion or Ophion Evo Case, and put your hardware, iff you have mITX MoBo into the case, because those are the only mITX cases that are fanless cooling friendly(removable dust filters on top and bottom, and perfect for convection).

Both cases are 16 cm wide, so they could potentially snug into your space, without the side panels, which should give in this config more airflow, and additional 1 cm of space.
 
kensiko30 said:
The power supply is nice, it's 50 CAD$, a Seasonic, and the fan can be stopped if the power request is low enough.
Click to expand...

SSP-300SFB I guess? Too bad that the 80+ Gold version (SSP-300SFG) does not support the semi-passive mode.

Glo. said:
It may actually be possible with your space to take off side glass panels from Raijintek Ophion or Ophion Evo Case, and put your hardware, iff you have mITX MoBo into the case, because those are the only mITX cases that are fanless cooling friendly(removable dust filters on top and bottom, and perfect for convection).

Both cases are 16 cm wide, so they could potentially snug into your space, without the side panels, which should give in this config more airflow, and additional 1 cm of space.
Click to expand...

Nope that case is no good here. It has very limited space for CPU cooler because it is made for a dedicated graphics card which it puts BEHIND the motherboard. Here in this use, that space would be wasted.
 
OK guys I've found the TDP setting, it was not easy to find at all and it was not as in the manual.

So I have 35, 45 and 65W setting. I ran prime95 and I could see the effect on the temperature, so it is working. However, the AMD Ryzen Master software reports that the CPU part is only taking 30-35 Watts in total, the GPU is probably the one pushing on 65 Watts but I was only doing CPU testing with Prime95.

With this setting, I'll be able to install the fanless CPU Cooler without worrying about temperature. However, for the power supply, even at 35 Watts, the fan was still spinning, slowly, but spinning. I had hoped that it would not at 35 Watts.
 
OK the fanless cooler is here and installed.

I've let the TDP setting to 65 Watts for now to see how it handles it. I've tried Prime95 and it goes higher than 85 Celcius, so I stopped the test.

For the desktop usage, it is between 40 and 60 Celcius. I tried WoW Legion and it is not using all the CPU power, at least where I was, and the temperature was only about 55.

I would need something to test the CPU and the GPU at the same time, any game you know that is power hungry ?
 
Ok I tested with Prime95 and Furmark on 35 and 65 Watts TDP. I also connected my Kill-A-Watt to see power usage.

Fun fact is that when I run Furmark at the same time, I overall have less power usage (CPU power lowers to 23 Watts) and the temperature is below 80 Celcius. Stopping Furmark brings back the CPU power to 30 Watts.

In 35 Watts setting, I don't see a dramatic change. I can see in Ryzen Master the CPU power not getting more than 25 Watts, but the temperature did increase over 80 Celcius.

Power usage on the Kill-A-Watts is around 80 Watts when the CPU gets hot, TDP 35 or 65 Watts.

I guess that the TDP setting has more impact on the 2400g.
 
Interesting. When I tried that on my old A10-7700k (FM2+) I had to go to all kinds of trouble to uncap power usage (my 7700k would throttle to 2.8 GHz whenever the iGPU was in heavy use; defeating that behavior was a PITA). Once I did it and then loaded down both the CPU and iGPU elements of the chip, it would send power consumption through the roof and make it heat up like a sumbitch.

I'm still surprised I didn't kill the chip doing that, considering I had it running @ 4.7 GHz and some ungodly high iGPU clockspeed to try to compensate for it only having 384 shaders.

It looks like the newer APUs still have some power usage restrictions when the dGPU is fully loaded.
 
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