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Re: going fanless?



 I want to thank all of you for your comments and replies to this thread. 

After going to spcr website, I've pretty much narrowed my sites down on 
the zalman web site. (www.zalman.co.kr) 
I'm seriously considering getting a resorator.  Has anyone used one of 
these? They have two models, a passive one, (i.e. no fans) and hybrid 
one. ( I suppose the hybrid one must have a very quite fan.) I would get 
the hybrid one, but then it seems like I'm defeating the purpose of 
getting rid of all fan noise... 

Also, any comments on the quiet power supplies with heat pipes? Are they 
really that much more quite since I believe they still do have fans 
installed inside them. 

Cheers. Steve. 

Tom Metro wrote: 
> Ben Eisenbraun wrote: 
>> ...I would read a bunch of the articles here: 
>> http://www.silentpcreview.com/
> 
> I'd second that recommendation. I've used that site as a reference 
> over the past several years when selecting components for minimal 
> noise, as well as for techniques for modifying existing systems for 
> reduced noise (such as running fans on reduced voltage). 
> 
> 
> Stephen Adler wrote: 
>> ...I'm just wondering if anyone really uses it today. 
> 
> I've never built a water cooled system, but it doesn't seem to be used 
> for low noise as much as for high heat removal. It's popular with 
> overclockers. SVC (http://svc.com/) is a good source for water cooling 
> components. 
> 
> As I understand it, water cooled systems still produce noise from the 
> circulating pump and the moving fluid, so they won't be as quiet a a 
> passively cooled system. 
> 
> 
>> http://www.hothardware.com/Articles/XFX_GeForce_8600_GT_Fatal1ty/
>> It's got these big tubes on it... (Maybe I'm just being soooo neieve...) 
> 
> That's called a heatpipe. That technology shares some principles with 
> refrigeration. The pipes are filled with a substance that absorbs 
> heat, vaporizes, travels to the other end of the pipe, and then 
> condenses while releasing the heat. It's a method used to transfer 
> heat over a distance. Almost all of the current crop of CPU heatsinks 
> incorporate heatpipes as a way to pull heat further away from the CPU 
> and up into the radiator fins of the heatsink. 
> 
> You can find (see SVC again) CPU heatsinks made for passive cooling 
> that use heatpipes and big tower radiators. Though "passive" is a 
> misnomer as while they don't require a fan installed directly on them, 
> they typically still require a case with good airflow, and thus fans. 
> 
> Someday we'll probably start to see some standard form around 
> externally mounted heatsinks with heatpipes used to connect between 
> the CPU and the external heatsink. Mounting the CPU on the underside 
> of the motherboard would help facilitate this. External heatsinks are 
> already starting to appear on some specialty small form factor systems. 
> 
> 
>> ...couple of monster 24" monitors. (So I need the video power to 
>> drive these things.) 
> 
> Screen real estate doesn't necessarily require high performance 
> graphics. Of course if you're running both screens at high resolution 
> and expect to render images of 4 to 6 million pixels at 30fps, then 
> yeah, I guess you would need some graphics power. 
> 
>  -Tom 
> 


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