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Possible to passively cool Pentium G3220 with stock heatsink?

*NixUser

*NixUser

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It would be used on a machine as a router/firewall/fileserver on home network, I doubt it would be stressed over 10% for any sustained period of time (maybe only when booting the system, which is under a minute).

Anyone has experience with this?
 
A Pentium G3220T (with T at the end) 35W can be passively cooled, as specified by Intel. The regular 53W requires a fan in most cases.
 
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The stock heatsink isn't designed for passive cooling, but as long as there is some case airflow it will probably at least boot to an OS.

What are you trying to accomplish?

Zero noise? You can get VERY quiet without requiring zero fans if you pick fans carefully and are willing to mess with their speeds/voltages.

No moving parts? That's going to be quite hard and you're not likely to be able to do it with a big-core chip without a fancy case and fancy heatsink to go with it.
 
Essence_of_War said:
The stock heatsink isn't designed for passive cooling, but as long as there is some case airflow it will probably at least boot to an OS.

What are you trying to accomplish?

Zero noise? You can get VERY quiet without requiring zero fans if you pick fans carefully and are willing to mess with their speeds/voltages.

No moving parts? That's going to be quite hard and you're not likely to be able to do it with a big-core chip without a fancy case and fancy heatsink to go with it.
Click to expand...
It's absolutely possible. Trade it in to a Pentium G3220T selling for $40 shipped on eBay, then it can be passively cooled.

In case he really wants to keep the 53W G3220, he would need to apply TONS of thermal paste in it, and set the power option to passive from active in Windows.
 
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The question wasn't "which chip should I switch to to do passive cooling", the question was "is it possible to passively cool this chip".

I appreciate you pointing out the T-series chips though, that may be useful information for the OP, to sketch out some other options.

This though:
he would need to apply TONS of thermal paste in it
Click to expand...
is HIGHLY dubious advice. Applying more thermal paste doesn't result in better transport of thermal energy. It creates an additional physical layer that heat has to be conducted through, an additional layer which has worse conductivity than any of the metals involved. You want enough thermal paste so there isn't an air gap between the IHS and the heatsink, but you don't want to slather on thermal paste like peanut butter.
 
Essence_of_War said:
This though:

is HIGHLY dubious advice. Applying more thermal paste doesn't result in better transport of thermal energy. It creates an additional physical layer that heat has to be conducted through, an additional layer which has worse conductivity than any of the metals involved. You want enough thermal paste so there isn't an air gap between the IHS and the heatsink, but you don't want to slather on thermal paste like peanut butter.
Click to expand...
You're right, forgot about that. Regarding thermal paste, just put in acceptable amount, but it depends on the quality of material it uses. Some thermal paste is thick grey like a rock, while some is very watery and liquid. Anyone know which one is better?

Back on topic, I think it's possible to passive-cool on the standard 53W, but with some experience on cooling and airflow is involved.
 
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Frankly, this is a bad idea. A sudden burst of activity will send the CPU into throttling territory. A much better solution is to plug the fan's power cable into the motherboard and set a very progressive fan profile, starting at 500RPM or so. If the motherboard doesn't have the appropriate controls, Windows software is available to get the job done.

I run my overclocked 4690K with a passive heatsink, so yes, passive is possible, but it's got to be a big chunk of metal, not the tiny Intel heatsink.
 
You either need low wattage or good airflow for passive to work.

The supermicro cooler has heatpipes and is designed to work with a lot of airflow in a system with limited space.

If you need good airflow, you might as well use a fan on the heatsink and set it up to be quiet.
 
You can undervolt/underclock if your motherboard supports it. I did this on my NAS because I would never go over 20% cpu usage.
But the stock heatsink is not a good idea. It is designed for top-down airflow and will be nestled amongst the other components near your motherboard. There is no good scenario where the hot air will have anywhere to go.
Now, if you mount a tower heatsink, and have the motherboard mounted vertically, then you have a chance of normal convective airflow carrying away that heat.
 
If you can reliably use software to set the CPU, frequency, you can try. In Windows, the advanced power options allow you to set the maximum processor state. Set it way below 100%, and the multiplier won't increase. I used 20%, and my Celeron G550 stayed at 1.6 GHz while Prime 95 was running.

Linux has cpufreqd, which I have never reliably got to work, but things might have changed by now.
 
waltchan said:
It's absolutely possible. Trade it in to a Pentium G3220T selling for $40 shipped on eBay, then it can be passively cooled.

In case he really wants to keep the 53W G3220, he would need to apply TONS of thermal paste in it, and set the power option to passive from active in Windows.
Click to expand...

Uhm, no, that's not how it works...

Edit: Sorry, I see that has already been covered.
 
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Thank you all. Well, I would like this machine to be as silent as possible. I was planning to mount the PSU upwards to exhaust air from inside the case and that would be the only fan generating some noise.

I would definitely buy the T model for this build, however it seems to not be easily available in my region. Also, the added cost of an aftermarket heatsink is not an attractive proposal in this case (low cost DIY router). In fact I already changed my CPU plans and the Celeron G1840 (53w) is my current choice. Won't make a difference for the intended workload.

Undervolting/running at lower speed seems a good option, I will probably experiment with it. I am still evaluating OS's but it definitely is not Windows, so at this time only BIOS tweaks are doable.
 
waltchan said:
It's absolutely possible. Trade it in to a Pentium G3220T selling for $40 shipped on eBay, then it can be passively cooled.

In case he really wants to keep the 53W G3220, he would need to apply TONS of thermal paste in it, and set the power option to passive from active in Windows.
Click to expand...

Applying TONS of thermal paste on it will not aid in passively cooling the CPU. It will cause it to run hotter. Metal to metal contact is the best way to cool the CPU. WAY better than having paste in between the heat spreader and HSF. The paste is there to fill in the gaps where there is no metal to metal contact, so you only need a small amount. "TONS" of paste will essentially eliminate all the metal to metal contact and start acting as more of an insulator than a conductor of heat.
 
I have passively cooled a similar chip, but with an old Hyper 212 mounted so that convection will induce flow upward through the fins. It worked. I would never try this with the stock HSF, as it is explicitly designed for forced air.
 
You can passively cool anything (I play CS on a passively cooled APU). Minimum is a balance of airflow and the size of the heatsink. But simply more is better.

I imagine people are selling bigger factory heatsinks for peanuts... But I'd try it passive and see how it goes. It's almost impossible to smoke a chip these days.

*Usual disclaimer about advice from the interweb
 
What's the point? Extra airflow is going to be required, which defeats the point of the fanless cooler. The stock cooler is pretty damn quiet at low loads anyway.
 
Essence_of_War said:
The question wasn't "which chip should I switch to to do passive cooling", the question was "is it possible to passively cool this chip".

I appreciate you pointing out the T-series chips though, that may be useful information for the OP, to sketch out some other options.

This though:

Quote:
he would need to apply TONS of thermal paste in it

is HIGHLY dubious advice. Applying more thermal paste doesn't result in better transport of thermal energy. It creates an additional physical layer that heat has to be conducted through, an additional layer which has worse conductivity than any of the metals involved. You want enough thermal paste so there isn't an air gap between the IHS and the heatsink, but you don't want to slather on thermal paste like peanut butter.
Click to expand...

I want to like this post SOOOO MUCH! So many people don't understand the real purpose of thermal paste, and the best application of it is just enough to remove all air gaps but still keep the metal as close as possible.
 
I would say you can passively cool anything with any heat sink, if you can underclock and undervolt it enough. For instance, my Sandy Bridge laptop can run Prime95 with the fan turned off - if I underclock it to 800MHz.
 
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