[Concept Build] Silent ITX Beast

Ridley303 · April 24, 2020

Motivation:

Going to LAN parties with a PC built inside a Fractal Design Define R6 can be quite the hassle. However I love how quiet that case is, which is one of the main reasons it houses my current gaming rig.

With PC hardware becoming ever more efficient and lots of companies focusing on better cooling for their components it's only a matter of time until the convenience of ITX builds will be greater than the loss in performance and noise.

This is why I want to combine the two: A (close to) silent ITX PC.

Concept:

'Passively' Cool Everything.

GPUs and PSUs already turn off their fans while idling and only produce minimal sounds when running on a manual fan curve. So the thing to focus on is the CPU cooling.

I want to replace the fans on the CPU cooler with a 200mm front intake fan.

This 200mm fan would take in fresh air and push through the case and CPU cooler in order to passively cool the CPU, replacing the only constantly running fans with one that is barely audible even at full speed.

Components:

Case:

The BitFenix Prodigy Mini-ITX is old. Really old. However where I live it's still sold at decent prices (80$ in ~2 weeks or 95$ from stock) and it combines everything that is needed for this kind of build:

Natively compatible with 200mm fans, full sized GPUs and chonky CPU coolers
Filtered front panel/intake
Carry handles; to take to LAN parties

The Case is the component I put the most research time into. There are numerous newer ITX cases around but I wasn't able to find one that fits the bill better.

CPU Cooler:

In order to have a realistic shot at passively cooling a CPU the cooler must be quite massive. The NH-D15 is the best cooler on the market, only really having the Dark Rock Pro 4 as competition, so it's the obvious choice.

Rest of Components:

This build is meant as a midrange/high-end gaming and midrange content creation PC. This is why the component choice is rather conservative, with a no-dollar-wasted mindset.

Both the R5 3600 and RTX 2080 Super are subject to change in case newer components in the same price range outperform them.

So is the motherboard. I'd prefer the X570 chipset because there's definitely no BIOS update needed, but those are either not available or still too expensive.

What do you think about this build concept?

Can a passively cooled CPU with an NH-D15 and a 200mm fan work?

Do you know of any case that would be a better choice than the BitFenix Prodigy?

boggy77 · April 24, 2020

made a few changes

PCPartPicker Part List

Type	Item	Price
CPU	AMD Ryzen 5 3600 3.6 GHz 6-Core Processor	$174.15 @ Walmart
CPU Cooler	ARCTIC Alpine Passive Fanless CPU Cooler	$16.99 @ Amazon
Motherboard	MSI B450I GAMING PLUS AC Mini ITX AM4 Motherboard	$129.99 @ B&H
Memory	G.Skill Ripjaws V 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3600 Memory	$85.99 @ Newegg
Storage	Crucial P1 1 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive	$109.99 @ B&H
Video Card	EVGA GeForce RTX 2080 SUPER 8 GB BLACK GAMING Video Card	$693.98 @ Newegg
Case	BitFenix Prodigy (Black) Mini ITX Tower Case
Power Supply	Cooler Master MWE Gold 650 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply	$99.99 @ Best Buy
Case Fan	Noctua NF-A20 PWM chromax.black.swap 86.46 CFM 200 mm Fan	$35.90 @ Amazon
	Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts
	Total (before mail-in rebates)	$1376.98
	Mail-in rebates	-$30.00
	Total	$1346.98
	Generated by PCPartPicker 2020-04-24 04:25 EDT-0400

Ridley303 · April 24, 2020

1 hour ago, boggy77 said:

CPU Cooler ARCTIC Alpine Passive Fanless CPU Cooler $16.99 @ Amazon

Thanks for bringing that to my attention. I didn't know there were specially made passive air coolers.

What do you think about the SilverStone Heligon HE02 or the DEEPCOOL Lucifer K2 as alternatives, since the TDP of the 3600 is quite a bit over 47W?

boggy77 · April 24, 2020

11 minutes ago, Ridley303 said:

Thanks for bringing that to my attention. I didn't know there were specially made passive air coolers.

What do you think about the SilverStone Heligon HE02 or the DEEPCOOL Lucifer K2 as alternatives, since the TDP of the 3600 is quite a bit over 47W?

they are better, but not sure they would fit in the case. i know it's 47w, but that's not paired with your 200mm fan. with that fan, I'm sure it can handle it.

ShadowChaser · April 24, 2020

I've messed with using chassis fans to 'passively' cool CPUs, currently doing that in my dual xeon server with 120mm intakes moving air over 120mm towers. While warm under load, even budget hyper 212 style coolers will be able to keep a 95W chip cool, so for a 3600, any reasonable tower cooler you can fit in there that is exposed to airflow will do fine in my opinion.