Passive Heatsink

[YellowMenace]

I'm trying to build an HTPC that I want to be completely silent and I plan on using a AMD Sempron 145 (45w) as the CPU which shouldn't get too warm. Can I just get a decent heatsink like a Cooler Master Hyper 101i w/ AMD brackets and just take off the fan?

 

ALSO, is it possible to make a PSU passively cooled as well?

[nsyedhasan]

Maybe the Hyper 212 EVO.

[EChondo]

Seasonic has a fanless PSU.

 

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817151097

[helping]

You can buy a high wattage RM series and it will run in fanless under low load, or just buy a fanless. 

 

There are specifically designed fanless heatsinks, however, they are pretty large. A NDH14 or Hyper212 with a good amount of passive ventilation should be able to keep a sempron under -ok- temperatures. 

[mooommo]

http://www.memoryexpress.com/Products/MX43456

This one is a great one, and it comes fanless for a CPU cooler

[YellowMenace]

Seasonic has a fanless PSU.

 

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817151097

 

 

You can buy a high wattage RM series and it will run in fanless under low load, or just buy a fanless. 

 

There are specifically designed fanless heatsinks, however, they are pretty large. A NDH14 or Hyper212 with a good amount of passive ventilation should be able to keep a sempron under -ok- temperatures. 

 

Well, I'm trying to do this on the cheap and I feel that it'd be a HUGE waste of money to get such a high quality, expensive PSU or a $70 heatsink just for an amd sempron, radeon hd 5450, and 2gb of ram.

[helping]

Well, I'm trying to do this on the cheap and I feel that it'd be a HUGE waste of money to get such a high quality, expensive PSU or a $70 heatsink just for an amd sempron, radeon hd 5450, and 2gb of ram.

Fanless is expensive by nature, you can just get a hyper 212 and undervolt the hell out of a fan instead. 

 

It HAS to be high quality to be designed to run in a fanless mode (although RM series has some questionable quality concerns but everyone seems peachy about it) 

[YellowMenace]

Fanless is expensive by nature, you can just get a hyper 212 and undervolt the hell out of a fan instead. 

 

It HAS to be high quality to be designed to run in a fanless mode (although RM series has some questionable quality concerns but everyone seems peachy about it) 

I just remember having an old Dell optiplex computer with an Intel pentium that ran at 85w and it had a heatsink with a case fan blowing air on it from about 3" away and that heatsink didn't look too different than a stock amd aluminum cooler.

[Lord Pantaloons]

Passive heatsinks are expensive and large and are supreme overkill for a Sempron, just get an NH-L9a and use the included cable to reduce the voltage to the fan, it will be pretty much silent and is more than enough for that Sempron.

[helping]

I just remember having an old Dell optiplex computer with an Intel pentium that ran at 85w and it had a heatsink with a case fan blowing air on it from about 3" away and that heatsink didn't look too different than a stock amd aluminum cooler.

Those used plastic shrouds to channel and force air through the heatsink, saving money by not needing an exhaust fan and CPU fan. 

 

If there was no shroud then lol

[Flojer0]

Also keep in mind that it is loads cheaper and easier to build a very quiet machine than it is to build a fanless machine. As far as passive GPU's are concerned I've seen up to an AMD 7770 with passive heatsinks before.

[TheBLOODYTOXIC]

NH-D14 sickest fanless heasink my HTPC is running a AMD Athlon 64 X2 +3600 OC'd @ 3.1GHZ with 35-40C full load. My blu ray is louder...

[WoodenMarker]

Why does it need to be completely silent? Is very quiet not acceptable?

[YellowMenace]

Those used plastic shrouds to channel and force air through the heatsink, saving money by not needing an exhaust fan and CPU fan. 

 

If there was no shroud then lol

 

It didn't, we got it second hand.

 

Why does it need to be completely silent? Is very quiet not acceptable?

 

My house gets very quiet and this is going in the living room to co-exist with everything else. I just want no attention to get drawn to it and because it'd be fan-less, not as big of a worry for dust.

[brob]

It didn't, we got it second hand.

 

 

My house gets very quiet and this is going in the living room to co-exist with everything else. I just want no attention to get drawn to it and because it'd be fan-less, not as big of a worry for dust.

 

In fact fanless has more dust concerns. Fanless doesn't mean unmoving air, it simply means that the air is moved by convection.

 

In addition to the Seasonic fanless psu, Silverstone makes some, ST-40NF being the lowest wattage.

 

With a quiet case, using low powered components a psu like the Seasonic SSR-360GP, 80+ Gold with its thermally controlled fan may be an optimal compromise.