If you were to passive cool a mobile XP..what would you use?

forcemac101

Senior member
Oct 29, 2001
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For a mATX box in a HTPC, was wondering if you can get away with passive cooling a mobile chip or do they put so much heat you need a fan?


Was thinking of throwing a huge HS on it (zalman flower maybe?) and see if it can stay stable.
 

Zap

Elite Member
Oct 13, 1999
22,377
2
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At full speeds probably need some active cooling, though not much. Perhaps a Panaflo L1A undervolted on those Zalman heatsinks (using the included Zalman bracket). You can also try some ducting. I've passively cooled an overclocked Celeron 800 (1066MHz) using an all-copper Zalman heatsink just by making sure the exhaust fan was pulling air through the heatsink through ducting. You can also try underclocking and undervolting the CPU. A mobile Athlon XP is much more power than a HTPC needs for playing back music and videos so you won't miss the performance.
 

WobbleWobble

Diamond Member
Jun 29, 2001
4,867
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I run my mobile Athlon XP with a Zalman CNPS-7000A Cu. My fan is running at ~5V and you can barely hear it with your ear very close to the computer. I think you might be able to get away with it, but I still recommend a fan.

The 7000A is also quite a bit better at cooling than the older flower models.
 

Acanthus

Lifer
Aug 28, 2001
19,915
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ostif.org
Originally posted by: Zap
At full speeds probably need some active cooling, though not much. Perhaps a Panaflo L1A undervolted on those Zalman heatsinks (using the included Zalman bracket). You can also try some ducting. I've passively cooled an overclocked Celeron 800 (1066MHz) using an all-copper Zalman heatsink just by making sure the exhaust fan was pulling air through the heatsink through ducting. You can also try underclocking and undervolting the CPU. A mobile Athlon XP is much more power than a HTPC needs for playing back music and videos so you won't miss the performance.

Dell cools Intel 3.2Cs like that :p
 

MegaWorks

Diamond Member
Jan 26, 2004
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Thermaltake Tower112

------------------------------------------------------
AMD Athlon XP T-Bred B DLT3C 1700+ @ 2.3GHZ (1.775v) 400FSB = 3200+
Abit NF7-S V.2 (nForce2-U400)
Corsair TwinX XMS 3200LL 512MB @ 2-3-2-6 (2.6v)
Sapphire Radeon 9500 Pro 128MB
Antec TrueBlue 480W
Thermalright SLK-947U with 92mm Vantec Tornado @2800RPM
Antec PlusView 1000AMG
Cambridge SoundWorks MegaWorks THX 550 5.1
 

jagec

Lifer
Apr 30, 2004
24,442
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Frankly, I think that it's much more cost effective to go for a big HSF and a quiet fan than all-out passive cooling, because modern chips throw out a LOT of heat.
 

oldman420

Platinum Member
May 22, 2004
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i am running at 2500 mhz 1.6 vcore and my cpu idles at 38 i think with a flower hs you could do it but the fan on it is so quiet why bother removing it