Passively cool an i3 530?

[Maximilian]

Are there any heatsinks capable of this? Im not overclocking it or anything it will stay at stock with HT on and the GPU on, in fact i might even undervolt/underclock it if that has any significant benefit on heat/power consumption.

I would like it to be able to stay reasonbly cool at full load, it will probably never be at full load but its better safe than sorry.

If theres nothing passive then what is the quietest heatsink possible?

 

[Kantastic]

I'm assuming the heatsink with the most surface area which would be a D14. A heatsink is only as loud as the fan you use with it so grab a Noctua fan and you'll be good to go.

 

[alyarb]

are we talking SFF or what? if you're putting this in a full size case, just get a xigmatek/cogage/mugen2 and PWM the fan down to an inaudible level - equally silent and far better than zero airflow. you probably wouldn't see great temps with no fan unless your case has superb ventilation.

 

[DrMrLordX]

Might want to ask around the cases&cooling forum for more pointers. There used to be an odd one Thermaltake sold as being an exclusively passive cooler . . . the Sonic Tower? It used to work pretty well with fans though, too.

Another one that might work okay as a passive HSF is the Scythe Orochi.

Please keep in mind that fin surface area isn't the only factor. Tightly-packed fins that require a fan with a high static pressure for optimal cooling won't necessarily do as well as fins with a similar surface area that are spread further away from one another.

 

[Zap]

There are a couple of heatsinks suitable for "passive" cooling such a CPU, but know that "passive" in this case just means no fan on the heatsink. You still need airflow. This means your case fans must be pushing air.

 

[Maximilian]

Righto, i was planning to take out the case fans, its a lian li A05NB it comes with two. Guess ill just go with a super quiet 120mm deal, first ill find out how the stock cooler fares which looks garbage but dosent look like it will be noisey with a low power i3 530.

 

[yh125d]

Unless it is in a tightly cramped case in a hot room, any half decent tower cooler could passively cool it with ease


I passively cooled my e7200 at 3.5 in an antec with no fans at all (only PSU fan) and load temps were fine... Did this with a Xigmatek S1283 and a TRUE

 

[Maximilian]

Might want to ask around the cases&cooling forum for more pointers. There used to be an odd one Thermaltake sold as being an exclusively passive cooler . . . the Sonic Tower? It used to work pretty well with fans though, too.

Another one that might work okay as a passive HSF is the Scythe Orochi.

Please keep in mind that fin surface area isn't the only factor. Tightly-packed fins that require a fan with a high static pressure for optimal cooling won't necessarily do as well as fins with a similar surface area that are spread further away from one another.

Holy god.... Its huge!

http://www.dvhardware.net/news/scythe_orochi_2.jpg

Really? I really need somthing like that to passively cool this?

Unless it is in a tightly cramped case in a hot room, any half decent tower cooler could passively cool it with ease


I passively cooled my e7200 at 3.5 in an antec with no fans at all (only PSU fan) and load temps were fine... Did this with a Xigmatek S1283 and a TRUE

Well its a lian li a05b:

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/pimg/C..._21844_400.jpg

With good/ok/bad/atrocious cable management:

http://img339.imageshack.us/img339/4452/19032010063.jpg

Its not an mATX case but its smaller than a midi tower and i plan to have zero airflow, although it comes with 2x 120mm fans i dont want to plug them in as its a bit noisier. Do you think i could passively cool a downclocked to 1.2ghz i3 530 with a normal tower and not somthing like the beast scythe thing?

Would this do:

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/198975

?

 

[ChippyUK]

Holy god.... Its huge!

http://www.dvhardware.net/news/scythe_orochi_2.jpg

Really? I really need somthing like that to passively cool this?



Well its a lian li a05b:

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/pimg/C..._21844_400.jpg

With good/ok/bad/atrocious cable management:

http://img339.imageshack.us/img339/4452/19032010063.jpg

Its not an mATX case but its smaller than a midi tower and i plan to have zero airflow, although it comes with 2x 120mm fans i dont want to plug them in as its a bit noisier. Do you think i could passively cool a downclocked to 1.2ghz i3 530 with a normal tower and not somthing like the beast scythe thing?

Would this do:

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/198975

?

It's the first time I've ever felt sorry for electronics... You might do well to buy a bigger case or consolidate your hard drives (lol to the poor one in the 5 1/2 bay).

You could always try getting this heatsink first and see how the temps pan out, then get a fan if you need it (with that many hard drives in your machine, I'm sure they generate a lot of heat!).

 

[21stHermit]

Are there any heatsinks capable of this? Im not overclocking it or anything it will stay at stock with HT on and the GPU on, in fact i might even undervolt/underclock it if that has any significant benefit on heat/power consumption.

Surprisingly not. I tried both with my 530 connected to a Kill-A-Watt, no difference. Stock is about 1.25V and I started at 1.0V, same power. At 0.975V the 530 wouldn't POST.

I've come to learn that all Core CPU's have over one million transistors devoted to power management. All the underclock/volting is done dynamically by the PMU. And meddling by mere mortals is not needed/appreciated.

If lowest power is your goal, consider the Intel MB(s). Best by test.

 

[Maximilian]

It's the first time I've ever felt sorry for electronics... You might do well to buy a bigger case or consolidate your hard drives (lol to the poor one in the 5 1/2 bay).

You could always try getting this heatsink first and see how the temps pan out, then get a fan if you need it (with that many hard drives in your machine, I'm sure they generate a lot of heat!).

Ah i thought about it but its gotta be the lian li The HDDs wont be under constant use i imagine, im not sure how RAID 5 works exactly but ill only be accessing the array intermittantly to play music/watch movie etc or maybe access an important file.

Amazon still havent delivered my 5.25/3.5 bracket thing so that hdd is sitting up there in the plastic packaging it was delivered in heh.

Surprisingly not. I tried both with my 530 connected to a Kill-A-Watt, no difference. Stock is about 1.25V and I started at 1.0V, same power. At 0.975V the 530 wouldn't POST.

I've come to learn that all Core CPU's have over one million transistors devoted to power management. All the underclock/volting is done dynamically by the PMU. And meddling by mere mortals is not needed/appreciated.

If lowest power is your goal, consider the Intel MB(s). Best by test.

Hmm i see, well my next question was gonna be "can a 1.2ghz i3 transcode well with tversity" but i guess thats irrelivent now. Ill leave it at stock then, impressive power management but a shame theres no tweaking to be done, i kinda like tweaking

 

[ElFenix]

There are a couple of heatsinks suitable for "passive" cooling such a CPU, but know that "passive" in this case just means no fan on the heatsink. You still need airflow. This means your case fans must be pushing air.

technically a fan on the heatsink is still passive, although the computer nerds have so overused the wrong terminology that it's impossible to find the proper usage anymore.



anyway, using a big tower heat sink and putting a shroud on it so that the exhaust fan sucks through it is a pretty decent set up. cardboard and duct tape ftw.

Its not an mATX case but its smaller than a midi tower and i plan to have zero airflow, although it comes with 2x 120mm fans i dont want to plug them in as its a bit noisier. Do you think i could passively cool a downclocked to 1.2ghz i3 530 with a normal tower and not somthing like the beast scythe thing?

Would this do:

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/198975

?

you can't cool with 0 airflow. remember that all you're really doing is moving heat around, and there has to be some mechanism of doing that. fans work by blowing warmed air over ----> there. if you were running with the side door off you might get enough circulation in and out of the case from air currents in the room (and the simple fact that warm air rises) to use a giant tower heatsink, but i wouldn't try it if i'm transcoding for hours on end.

 

[Maximilian]

Surprisingly not. I tried both with my 530 connected to a Kill-A-Watt, no difference. Stock is about 1.25V and I started at 1.0V, same power. At 0.975V the 530 wouldn't POST.

I've come to learn that all Core CPU's have over one million transistors devoted to power management. All the underclock/volting is done dynamically by the PMU. And meddling by mere mortals is not needed/appreciated.

If lowest power is your goal, consider the Intel MB(s). Best by test.

Oh i forgot to ask, what about temperature? Did that lower any with undervolt/clock? Might help me passively cool it no?

 

[mozartrules]

I am running an i5/660 with a Thermalright MUX-120 (not that big) and didn't put a fan on it. But I am running the case fans on low (Silverstone Fortress FT02) which keeps it plenty cool (42C after one hour of Cinebench). The MUX should be able to cool the CPU as long as you have some airflow in the case.

 

[21stHermit]

Oh i forgot to ask, what about temperature? Did that lower any with undervolt/clock? Might help me passively cool it no?

I didn't go that far once I realized no power savings. Ultimately all electric power consumed is converted to heat, so they're interchangeable.

I followed the path of least resistance, stock HSF, 60mm case fan, and stock fan in the EW 380W PSU. I can hear none of them. Before, my Foxconn Atom barebone's fan along with the 3.5" HDD drove me nuts.

So unless you're going to wear this new PC like earmuffs, I'd say passive cooling is a waste of your time and money. But don't let me stop you, as you mentioned, you like tweaking.

 

[sxr7171]

Put some fans in there or do it the right way:

http://www.atechfabrication.com/MC-2500_system_order_form.htm

 

[yh125d]

That zalman ought to have no problem at all cooling it passively. Load temps may be a bit higher but definitely within reason

 

[DrMrLordX]

Holy god.... Its huge!

http://www.dvhardware.net/news/scythe_orochi_2.jpg

Really? I really need somthing like that to passively cool this?

No, some smaller units will do, but the Orochi does a really good job as a passive cooler. Under the right circumstances, it could probably cool an i3-530 via convection alone (or at least make a really good show of it), not to speak of one that has been downclocked and/or undervolted.

Consider it to be added insurance in case something goes wrong.

Its not an mATX case but its smaller than a midi tower and i plan to have zero airflow, although it comes with 2x 120mm fans i dont want to plug them in as its a bit noisier. Do you think i could passively cool a downclocked to 1.2ghz i3 530 with a normal tower and not somthing like the beast scythe thing?

If you are in a closed case with no fans, you still have airflow, but this is only provided by convection or external air currents (if any). I'm sure that a downclocked/undervolted i3 isn't going to get very hot, and that you could probably get away with something . . . less extravagent, but there are no guarantees. It's just that when you're dealing with something like the Sonic Tower or Orochi, you have something that is specifically designed to thrive when air currents backed up by loads of static pressure are not available (such as when you are relying on restricted convection, as you will be). That being said, the Orochi just might not fit with the side of your case on. The same might even be said of the Sonic Tower since it's so tall.

Would this do:

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/198975

?

That will probably work, though I would look for something that doesn't rely on tight fin configurations. Most of the top-performing HSFs have something like that, making some of them less-than-optimal for passive cooling (though the IFX-14 and NH-d14 could probably hack it . . . like the Orochi, both are huge). I recall the Scythe Ninja did pretty well in its various incarnations as a passive cooler, as did the Ninja Mini, but you might have difficulty finding mounting hardware for either of those coolers on LGA1156. Scythe probably has updated versions of them though . . . ah, here we go:

http://www.scythe-usa.com/product/cpu/046/scnj2100-detail.html

Obviously you'll want to find someplace else to buy one, but there you go.

The Orochi is still going to cool better in fanless operation, but the Ninja 2 Rev. B is no slouch. Ninjas were used for fanless cooling on athlon 64s years ago (yes, the 130nm ones), so they sure as heck ought to be able to handle an underclocked i3-530.

And no, this isn't a giant ad for Scythe . . . they just have a habit of producing HSFs with really loosy-goosey fin arrangements. The Infinity was another one of their HSFs that was good at passive cooling, but they seem to have dropped that from their lineup.

The real question is: where is all the heat from the REST of your system going to go? Convection is only going to do so much for you here. If you have multiple platter-based harddrives in RAID 5 in your case, then things could get ugly. And honestly, if you don't understand how RAID 5 (or RAID in general) works, you might not want to mess with it, though if you've already got the hardware lined up . . . tally-ho! And hope you roll a 20.

Seriously, you COULD cool the whole shebang via convection (well, maybe), but you're going to have to be very careful about how you do it. The real sticking point is going to be the HDDs first, and then maybe the PSU. If your PSU hits 45-50C or higher, if it's not top-notch quality, it could cause serious headaches. And I'm assuming you'll be running a fanless PSU to boot?

In fact, you should draw up a list of heat emitters as well as some sort of approximation of what heat you expect them to dissipate (if you know that yet). Then you need to examine what sort of failures could result from overheating in case convection doesn't get the job done. For example, platter-based harddrives that are subjected to operating temperatures in excess of 50C for any period of time will suffer a reduced MTBF; this may manifest as random, isolated incidents of complete drive failure or data corruption problems that get worse over time (or both).

 

[OVerLoRDI]

Honestly your best bet is the biggest cooler you can fit. Biggest cooler with a large slow spinning fan, you will barely hear it.

Also, the hard drive in the 5.25" bay, I lol'd.

 

[DrMrLordX]

There IS one other option: the H50. It needs a fan (at least) on its radiator though, so it's far from passive. The stock H50 fan is pretty quiet though.

 

[Mr. Pedantic]

Honestly your best bet is the biggest cooler you can fit. Biggest cooler with a large slow spinning fan, you will barely hear it.

Also, the hard drive in the 5.25" bay, I lol'd.

It depends. Because you have no forced airflow, your best bet would be a heatsink with fins that are reasonably far apart, and angled so that the hot air can rise out of the heatsink. That's the principle most passive heatsinks are designed on. If you have a massive heatsink with the fins a couple mm apart and oriented so the fins are all horizontal, a fat lot of good that will do you.

 

[Maximilian]

Awesome some great advice here especially DrMrLordX.

Ok well i guess it dosent need to be entirely passively cooled although i will give it a bash and see how that turns out. Its pretty quiet with the stock fan but not quiet enough, with that unplugged i cant really hear the PSU fan at all unless im right next to the case so a quiet fan may well do the trick since the stock is so low already (although it isnt too quiet when things start to heat up). I couldnt afford a fanless PSU heh so i went with the corsair CX400, people said it was quiet, i agree its pretty quiet.

Anyways i looked around the the scythe ninja 2 rev b, i only found it available on one site, i also found the mugen 2 (renamed infinity apprently) which was more ubiquitous and generally seems to be as good as the ninja 2 give or take a few degrees, it also comes with a bonus fan which is good if my passive attempts dont pan out Any opinions on the ninja 2? I read its a nightmare to fit heh.

Also another bonus is if it dosent fit i can stick it in my main antec 300 skt1366 rig and use the H50-1 that was in the antec 300 in the lian-li instead.

As for RAID 5 yeah i dont know what im doing with it tbh, server 2008 R2 was free with the dreamspark programme but ive been reading posts about how it can take days for the thing to finish its "resynching" cycle and i cant add more drives to it without losing everything and how some people ditched RAID 5 for WHS. I think ill check out WHS as it seems more suitable for a storage/media server. Ill see if i can borrow my friends copy, hes messing about with the new V2 build based off server 2008 thats been floating around.

In the meantime i just gotta wait for the mugen 2 to arrive, the brackets for the extra hard drive and then i can start tinkering about with temperatures etc, see how much difference fans make. Theres actually a fan right in front of the 3 main hard drive bays, a 120mm fan but it blows out the front of the case by design, some lian li theory about back to front cooling in this case i dunno, once everything is in place i might fiddle with that, see if it makes any difference etc. The drives are mostly 5400 RPM so that should lessen heat output no?

 

[DrMrLordX]

It depends. Because you have no forced airflow, your best bet would be a heatsink with fins that are reasonably far apart, and angled so that the hot air can rise out of the heatsink. That's the principle most passive heatsinks are designed on. If you have a massive heatsink with the fins a couple mm apart and oriented so the fins are all horizontal, a fat lot of good that will do you.

We have a winner.

Awesome some great advice here especially DrMrLordX.

Just doin the best we can.

Ok well i guess it dosent need to be entirely passively cooled although i will give it a bash and see how that turns out.

Good luck, and don't let your drives run at more than 50C for an extended period of time.

Its pretty quiet with the stock fan but not quiet enough, with that unplugged i cant really hear the PSU fan at all unless im right next to the case so a quiet fan may well do the trick since the stock is so low already (although it isnt too quiet when things start to heat up). I couldnt afford a fanless PSU heh so i went with the corsair CX400, people said it was quiet, i agree its pretty quiet.

The CX400 seems like a good PSU, but keep in mind that if you run fanless otherwise, you will be forcing your PSU to vent all heat out of your case. One extra exhaust fan should help keep it well within preferred operating temperatures (though the CX400 seems to be able to handle temps as high as 50C in stride, so you know it isn't a piece of crap).

Anyways i looked around the the scythe ninja 2 rev b, i only found it available on one site, i also found the mugen 2 (renamed infinity apprently) which was more ubiquitous and generally seems to be as good as the ninja 2 give or take a few degrees, it also comes with a bonus fan which is good if my passive attempts dont pan out Any opinions on the ninja 2? I read its a nightmare to fit heh.

I don't know anything about current mounting hardware for the Ninja. In the old days, the Ninja was bolt-through, I think, but Scythe has probably changed mounting hardware several times between then and now.

The Mugen 2 seems to be superior to the Ninja 2 Rev. B with a low-speed fan but inferior when run fanless. I'm sure it would still be adequate with both a PSU and a slow exhaust fan pulling heat out of the case whether you run the HSF fanless or not. And, honestly, the Ninja isn't going to be an option if you can't order it (or feel uncomfortable doing so from the one outlet that offers it).

Also another bonus is if it dosent fit i can stick it in my main antec 300 skt1366 rig and use the H50-1 that was in the antec 300 in the lian-li instead.

Yeah, that would work.

In the meantime i just gotta wait for the mugen 2 to arrive, the brackets for the extra hard drive and then i can start tinkering about with temperatures etc, see how much difference fans make. Theres actually a fan right in front of the 3 main hard drive bays, a 120mm fan but it blows out the front of the case by design, some lian li theory about back to front cooling in this case i dunno, once everything is in place i might fiddle with that, see if it makes any difference etc. The drives are mostly 5400 RPM so that should lessen heat output no?

Lian Li has always had interesting ideas about case airflow. I'm sure that fan will help keep the drives cool, and it would take a lot of stress off your PSU by not forcing it to be the sole path of waste-heat ejection.

5400 rpm drives should produce less heat than 7200 rpm drives, but this varies from product to product.