Passive Cooling for P4

[Speedyturtle]

Does anyone have any experience with P4 cooling without fans? I'm considering getting a Zalman heatsink because they seem to be the quietest out there. I'm not really looking to overclock my 2.4ghz P4 so I should be safe. Are there any good Canadian online stores where I can pick one up?

 

[cmdrdredd]

ok you're confused dude...a heatsink makes no noise so how can one be quieter than another? You're talking about the fan noise and that's NOT passive at all. I wouldn't recommend ANY CPU be run without a fan.

 

[rahvin]

Originally posted by: cmdrdredd
ok you're confused dude...a heatsink makes no noise so how can one be quieter than another? You're talking about the fan noise and that's NOT passive at all. I wouldn't recommend ANY CPU be run without a fan.

That's why your recomendations aren't worth much. DELL and other major producers don't have fans on their CPU's. It's all about structured cases with adequate cooling. A properly setup heatsink with a large quiet case fan can accomplish the same cooling as one of the loud HS mounted fans. On the other hand, if you are looking for a cheap case with passive CPU cooling you are smoking something good. The only way to achieve passive CPU cooling is to have an engineered design and you probably aren't going to get that with off the shelf components.

 

[FishTankX]

The Zalman heatsink comes with a low RPM 92MM fan that is suposed to blow across the heatsink into the powersupply. It keeps a 2.4GHZ p4 within thermal specifications and is whisper quiet.

IIRC the 120MM fans on some powersupplies are enough to keep a P4 with those monstrous Zalman heatsinks passivley cooled. Just make sure that the CPU doesn't become unstable and you should be fine, as long as you're not looking to use your CPU more than 5 years.

 

[FishTankX]

For the record Zalman's fanless sollutions have managed to get Ti4600's stable at stock speeds with no extra fans blowing across the heatsink in relativley poorly vethilated cases with only 1 exhaust and 1PS fan. That's what I call monster heatsinks! Their P4 heatsink (The one designed for passive cooling) should have even more stunning performance.

 

[zippy]

Originally posted by: FishTankX
For the record Zalman's fanless sollutions have managed to get Ti4600's stable at stock speeds with no extra fans blowing across the heatsink in relativley poorly vethilated cases with only 1 exhaust and 1PS fan. That's what I call monster heatsinks! Their P4 heatsink (The one designed for passive cooling) should have even more stunning performance.

That Zalman HS for the Ti4600 - are you referring to their video card heatsink or a CPU heatsink mounted on the Ti4600? I'm guessing the former, but I've seen the latter done - it's just a bit unclear.

Thanks.

 

[FishTankX]

Their videocard heatsink. I believe it doesn't take up any PCI slots and does a nice job of keeping almost any non bleedingedge top of the line grahpics card cool enough to operate. Don't O'C with it though, you won't like the temps.

I really doubt Zalman CPU heatsinks would fit on a Ti4600 without taking most of your PCI slots with it. They're absolutley massive!!