Accidental Passive Cooling

[techbob]

I recently got an Antec P180 case for free, and moved the components of another PC into it. As part of the move I re-purposed a Xigmatek HDT-S1283 from an old broken PC (that build mentioned in this thread).

After the move, the temps for the Phenom II 955 were about 32c - not much higher than my 3570k with Hyper 212+! It's winter so ambient room temps are around 70f.

A few weeks later I noticed the temps rising from the low to high 30's - currently at 38c when web surfing, watching mkv files with VLC, etc. Turns out the CPU fan bit the dust. For weeks the CPU cooler was relying on the 3 120MM fans in the case and the results not bad!

A problem with the Xigmatek cooler - if I had known would have avoided, is the CPU fan is attached with rubber stoppers. To replace the fan with those stoppers I'll have to remove the MB from the case, which I want to avoid. People use needle nose pliars and lube to get to work with those stoppers! The plan is to use zipties straight through the screw (rubber stopper) holes - so the hopefully I won't need to take the MB out of the case.

Not sure if this is of interest, but goes to show how decent the airflow is on that old P180 case!

 

[platero]

Sounds like a pretty good heatsink choice if you're going for the silent PC route.

 

[techbob]

Sounds like a pretty good heatsink choice if you're going for the silent PC route.

The Xigmatek HDT-S1283 was (no longer sold) similar to the Hyper 212+, but quieter. Possibly the fan had lower DB. What's cooling the CPU are those three 120mm case fans in the P180. Must be a wind tunnel in there! Fanless CPU 36c as I type this.

 

[Ardillakilla]

I'm using a HDT-S1283 right now on a Q9300. I do have a new 4770K build in the works.

The rubber things made removing the fan from the heatsink very tedious. The way I removed the dust was to blast it with a pre-charged pneumatic air rifle (200 bar). That would remove dust no canned air could touch. It was as good as disassembling everything and cleaning with a brush but much, much quicker.

 

[Direfox]

I used a metal skewer, like what you would make kabobs on, to gently pry the rubber tabs up on the top. The space was pretty tight, but there is enough room for something that size to fit in that channel. Once the top was free I had plenty of room to do the same thing on the bottom. I really hate that design also, but I used a 1283 dark knight for over a year and had to clean out the dust a lot so I was very careful. Those rubber stoppers are more sturdy than they look.