Help, passive cool mini itx

[MrX8503]

So I'm thinking about buying this board and putting it inside an Antec 300 case. What cpu heatsink should I use to passively cool an i3 and still have my pci slot accessible? Thanks!

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813135259

 

[frostedflakes]

What's the point of buying a mini ITX board for an ATX case?

The CPU socket is so close to the PCI-E slot, I doubt you'll be able to find a fanless heatsink that doesn't obstruct it. You'd be far better off getting an ATX board and passive CPU cooler.

edit: Or wait, are we talking about the ISK 300-65, not the Three Hundred ATX case?

 

[aigomorla]

are you gonna overclock? -> none.

Are you gonna underclock? -> maybe

Are you going to keep it stock -> might be tough as u wont be able to fit a lot of sinks on that...

Also i dont trust ECS.
I wouldnt get that ECS board no matter what it costs.
Your best off finding a Gigabyte, or a Zotac one, they have them both in itx.

 

[MrX8503]

No I'm using an antec 300 atx case because it has 6 bays. I'm building a whs that can transcode.

I settled on the ECS cause it has hdmi plus optical out just in case I decide to change it into a HTPC. Its also a newegg combo deal with rebate, so that was another reason for me going with this vs. another board.

I may put up with the extra noise and stick with the stock cooler.

 

[WoodButcher]

I'm with aigo on this, an ECS board free after rebate is too expensive. A few years ago one of the big retailers pushed these boards in combo deals and the one thing the boards were consistant with was failure. People were buying them because the combo deal got you the chip for less than other retailers were selling the chip alone. Did they get better? somehow I doubt it. I wouldn't risk the rest of my hardware to find out.....

 

[Zap]

First thing is that if you're going to use a big case, at least go with a micro ATX motherboard. That way you get your integrated video, plus you probably get more SATA ports to begin with, and have more slots for expansion.

Regarding passive cooling for lower noise, if you have six mechanical HDDs in there, I don't think you'd hear any quiet CPU fan over the HDD noise.

You would still want case airflow because your HDDs need cooling too, and "passive" CPU coolers still need airflow, believe it or not.

If you want it really quiet, then just get some case fans undervolted so they are running under 1000RPM. I find that suitable for a quiet system if it isn't sitting right next to you. For CPU cooling, the stock cooler with Smart Fan enabled is usually sufficient for a stock clocked CPU under normal usage. If you are going to be doing a lot of transcoding then the CPU fan will end up spinning faster for the duration. In this case, any big CPU heatsink with slow fan would suffice.

If you really want to pursue pseudo-passive cooling (remember it still needs airflow) then look into CPU coolers designed for that, such as the Thermalright HR-02. Basically a heatsink designed for super quiet or passive operation will actually have FEWER fins that are spaced farther apart. They are usually not the best fan cooled heatsinks because of this.

 

[fuzzymath10]

There's almost no difference in noise between a completely passive system and having one good fan, but a huge temperature difference. Also, you'll probably want to cool hard drives if you have enough and especially if they are 7200rpm.

In my living room PC, I have one 120mm fan blowing into my hard drives and one at the top for exhaust. It also serves as my CPU fan and temps are not too much higher than if I plugged in the one on the heat sink. I could not run this machine comfortably with one fan (let alone no fans).

Could you wait and get a T-series 1155 CPU? Their TDP is 35W and you could also get quicksync.

 

[MrX8503]

Thanks for the advice everyone, I think I'm gonna go for an ATX or micro. Just to be clear, when I said passive I meant just the heatsink, I'll still have case fans.

T series 1156? Is that sandy bridge? When is that coming back and how much does it cost?

 

[Zap]

Could you wait and get a T-series 1155 CPU? Their TDP is 35W and you could also get quicksync.

That's a spankin' good idea! It should offer faster transcoding than any normal CPU and even normal GPU acceleration.

Thanks for the advice everyone, I think I'm gonna go for an ATX or micro. Just to be clear, when I said passive I meant just the heatsink, I'll still have case fans.

If you'll still have case fans, then why worry about the CPU being passively cooled? Just use the stock or any decent aftermarket unit (with 4 pin PWM fan) and enable Smart Fan in BIOS/UEFI. Done!

T series 1156? Is that sandy bridge? When is that coming back and how much does it cost?

No, socket 1155. Yes, Sandy Bridge. Supposedly replacement motherboards will start coming out by the end of April, plus look forward to the new Z68 chipset. I don't know about when the T low voltage chips will be out, but likely by the time boards are available we should know more about the chips. This would be a win for you because of faster transcoding (free with integrated graphics!), lower power use, lower heat output and latest platform.

I think the normal Sandy Bridge chips start around $150 right now. Not as cheap as a socket 1156 Core i3, but you should be able to significantly cut your transcoding times. Read AnandTech's Sandy Bridge article from a month ago - it has some info on that.

The T chips will likely cost more. You can probably get by with a normal chip though, as I've heard they idle in single digit wattage. It'll just use a big more when loaded.

 

[MrX8503]

The 35w CPU would be nice but I'm not sure if I would want to wait that long for a chip that'll cost more. I usually don't adopt new tech within it's first few months either.

I'll def still consider sandy bridge though.