Passive cooled CPU's

[Aganack1]

I'm looking for a passive cooled cpu? any suggestions??

 

[dkozloski]

Dell has put out quite a few of them. I would suggest that you start with a heat sink that looks like a cylinder off a motorcycle so that the slightest breeze will do the job.

 

[DaveSimmons]

this site might help: www.silentpcreview.com

The trick on anything other than a VIA C3 is to have a big heatsink and a shroud / hood between it and an exhaust fan. But for quiet PC it also works to use a heatsink that can take an 80 mm fan instead of 60 mm, and to run that fan at a low voltage / slow speed.

 

[buleyb]

Some kind of heatpipe solution (from Taisol or Zalman) might do the trick, what CPU? The newer/faster the harder it will be to find a decent priced/sized passive cooling solution...

 

[shansen008]

Check out shuttles cube systems if youre looking for a whole system. They use the heat pipe tech.

 

[Woodchuck2000]

If it's simply a matter of noise, you're better off getting a heatsink that'll take and 80mm fan then running a quiet panaflo on top of that. I've used a Thermalright AX-7 with a panaflo 19dBA fan and it's pretty much silent.

 

[DaveSimmons]

Originally posted by: shansen008
Check out shuttles cube systems if youre looking for a whole system. They use the heat pipe tech.

But before you do, go to www.sudhian.com and visit the forums, small-form-factor area. Many owners say the Shuttles are tiny and cool-looking but not very quiet.

FYI it's much easier to make a "big" computer quiet since big slow fans (for case, CPU and power supply) can cool much more quietly than the small fast whiny fans needed for small cases and small power supplies.