Quiet, low-speed cooling and an overclocked Q6600, can it work?

Liberator21

Golden Member
Feb 12, 2007
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All of my parts are assembled except for the processor, which will be heavily overclocked. It's down to either the Q6600 or E6850. Only reason for the E6850 is because it's a lot cheaper than the E8400 and it still has a TDP of 65w.

Here's the setup:

Antec NSK4480
MGE Magnum 500 watt quiet power supply
80mm Noctua Intake fan
120mm Noctua 1200rpm
2x 120mm Noctua 800rpm: One over CPU and one over fanless 8800GT
And the cooler : Noctua NH-C12P

I've gone this route before, heavily OC'd and minimal cooling, and it worked fine. I've never done it with a quad-core though.

I'm interested to hear your thoughts on this!
 

aigomorla

CPU, Cases&Cooling Mod PC Gaming Mod Elite Member
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Sep 28, 2005
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Originally posted by: Liberator21


All of my parts are assembled except for the processor, which will be heavily overclocked. It's down to either the Q6600 or E6850. Only reason for the E6850 is because it's a lot cheaper than the E8400 and it still has a TDP of 65w.

Here's the setup:

Antec NSK4480
MGE Magnum 500 watt quiet power supply
80mm Noctua Intake fan
120mm Noctua 1200rpm
2x 120mm Noctua 800rpm: One over CPU and one over fanless 8800GT
And the cooler : Noctua NH-C12P

I've gone this route before, heavily OC'd and minimal cooling, and it worked fine. I've never done it with a quad-core though.

I'm interested to hear your thoughts on this!


E7300? There not much slower then the E8400. :T

OC Potential is showing up to be close to the same also, better multi on the E7300 as well.


Sorry i am currently trying your dream config right now (heavy clocked quad on near passive setup), and its requiring a Thermalright IFX-14 on an open bench. Incase your wondering the IFX-14 is that thing that looks like 2 Ultra120's.

There is no way in hell your gonna pull a heavy clocked quad in that small tiny case no matter how much you prayed to the cooling god.

EDIT: I think i got your case confused. I thought it was that small HTPC case. You can pull off a moderate clocked quad, but heavy clocked quads would require uber loud air cooling, or water cooling. :T
 

PianoMan

Senior member
Jan 28, 2006
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You will lose a lot of cooling headroom in that case, but you can probably make it work - doubtful it'll be silent.

I'd consider changing your passive heatsink on your 8800GT to one that directly vents to the outside - that'll give you more thermal capacity inside your case without all that hot G92 gases flying around in there.

Swap the fan/passive HS with maybe eVGA's Akimbo cooler.

Short of modding the case side panel, not much more air stuff you can do...
 

Foxery

Golden Member
Jan 24, 2008
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Looks like your case is 1" shorter in each direction than my Antec Solo, and I can vouch for keeping an overclocked E6750 silent in mine without any extra effort for "ultra-quiet" fans.

Also, for what it's worth, the Antec Earthwatts (which looks to be included with that case) remains silent until put under pretty heavy load. When the machine is idle, you won't hear it. With an overclocked quad-core, however, no. :)