Building a Fanless/No Moving Parts PC?

M

MeatballCB

Weaksauce
Joined
Oct 8, 2008
Messages
124
Hey folks,

I have an old rig lying around and was kicking around some thoughts on what to do with it and just for grins I was thinking of trying to build a 'silent' machine that could run Windows 7, do basic browsing, skype, etc., without any fans or moving parts at all.

I have the old Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3R motherboard, an Intel Celeron e3300 CPU and 4 GB of RAM to work with already and I'm looking at what else I might need. I can go with a small SSD to remove the spindle HD and there's fanless PSU's and GPU's out there I can work with.

The main problem that leaves me with is if I can cool the e3300 with just a heatsink and no fans on the heatsink or in the case for that matter.

Any thoughts?
 
Last edited:
Check out Thermalright HR-02 or Xigmatek Thor's Hammer. They're both designed for passive cooling, but they don't come cheap.
 
Hmm, they both look good, but both seem to come with fans. You think they'd be able to cool the e3300 without the fan?
 
I found them for sale on Amazon and Newegg with Fans.

Thermalright HR-02 w/140mm Fan from Amazon

Thor's Hammer w/120 mm Fan from Newegg

I could just try those without the fans as well. I also have a Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus sitting around, maybe I should try that without the fan and see how that works as well. Of course, I don't know if the mobo will even post without a CPU fan hooked up.

I'll check out the links you sent along as well. Thanks!
 
As an Amazon Associate, HardForum may earn from qualifying purchases.
Go with the #1 heatsink at http://www.frostytech.com/top5heatsinks.cfm for temperature, and use Arctic MX-4 paste. Change paste on everything possible. For chipset heatsinks, replace them with something better than stock. Will hold up. May even consider underclocking if you don't need as much horsepower you might already have.
 
The best way to "silent" cool is with big fans rotating at low RPMs. You honestly can't hear them.

Buy yourself a fanless PSU and just get one 120mm fan to exhaust air from the case at about 800 RPM and get things moving (if that's not enough then get two, it wont add much noise). You will be able to cool your CPU with just that if you choose a big tower heatsink.

Two excellent fan choices:

Scythe Gentle Typhoon, S-FLEX or KAma Flow 2 (800-900RPM 120mm models are dead-silent).

Noctua (even better but usually more expensive).
 
Last edited:
Thermalright HR-02, or the "Macho" as it is called in its newest form, is the best fanless / low-RPM heatsink (that I'm aware of).

Using a few 500-800 RPM fans will be effectively silent. If you can in-set these fans further INTO the case (away from the exterior of the case) then the sound will be further insulated:

Examples:

- Intake/exhaust case fan is internally mounted (at any surface) behind a 25mm+ spacer (a hollowed out fan, for instance)
- Intake fan is mounted at the back of the top 5.25" drive bays, drawing air from the front through a duct


- Having at least one fan directly on the heatsink will be very effective. Other than that, I'd probably use 1 intake and 1 exhaust.

I'd personally go with 120mm 1150 RPM Scythe GT AP-13 fans on a Fan Controller, however if I were to buy a lower RPM fan, I'd have to do some research...

I've learned that below ~1000 RPM, the differences are negligible. While I believe the Scythe GT to be the best fan series available, the regular Yate Loons and Zalmans work well enough, but perhaps there are better options.

The 140/150mm fans that Thermalright ships with their heatsinks are quite good. I'd probably try to reduce the RPM, however.

I'm not sure what to do about the PSU. Find a quiet one... If there is one that is both fanless AND good, then go for it, but I wouldn't sacrifice PSU quality. If necessary, I'd modify (void warranty) a regular PSU's cooling.
 
what about building a water loop? get a cpu block and a 655 pump set it to 1(cant even hear it) and get the biggest rad you can fit inside your case or better yet mod the case to put it outside the case so your not dumping hot air back in to you case. whit something like a 3x120 you wouldn't even need fans most likely
 
Seasonic has fanless power supplies. If you chose a Coolermaster Centurion 5 case, you'll have a front panel that allows air to flow more easilly.

I like the fanless idea but I was thinking of something along the lines of an Intel i3-2120T or next-generation i3-3470T.
 
The water setup would probably work well, but I think the cost might start getting up there. I really don't need to build this, I'm just doing it to play around with parts I've already got. I've been doing some experiments with the basic setup I have now and think it might work with just a single case fan.

Here's my current setup.

- Thermaltake M9 Case
- Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3R Motherboard
- Intel Celeron e3300 CPU
- Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus Cooler (Testing both with/without the fan)
- 4 x 1 GB Kingston HyperX DDR Ram
- WD 160 GD HD (Soon to be replaced by a OCZ Agility 3 60 GB SSD)
- OCZ Fatal1ty 500W PSU (To be replaced with a Seasonic SS-460FL Fanless PSU)
- Asus EN8400GS SIlent (Fanless) 512MB GPU

I already had all the parts lying around except for the SSD and the Fanless PSU, so my costs are pretty cheap. I did some test last night both with/without the CPU fan on the cooler while Idle and under Load with Prime95. At Idle I was getting a max of 34C with the fan and 43C without the fan, at load I was getting 44C with the fan and 60C without the fan. This morning I added a NZXT 120RB 120mm fan to the rear of the case which lines up perfectly to draw air through the CPU cooler and even under load with no CPU fan I was keeping CPU temps in the mid 40's C.

I've ordered a Scythe 800 RPM fan that moves about the same amount of air as the NZXT at about half the sound levels. Once the fan, the SSD and the PSU comes in, I'm going to button the case up, fire up Prime95 and Furmark at the same time and see what happens. I'm thinking the PSU may dump some more heat into the case than the current one that's got a fan exhausting air out the back.

It'd be nice to get rid of that one rear case fan and I can then have a PC with no 'moving parts', but I don't think I can get away without having some sort of air movement. The e3300 is a 65W part, so I don't see why you couldn't use something similar with new CPU's.
 
tunatime said:
what about building a water loop? get a cpu block and a 655 pump set it to 1(cant even hear it) and get the biggest rad you can fit inside your case or better yet mod the case to put it outside the case so your not dumping hot air back in to you case. whit something like a 3x120 you wouldn't even need fans most likely
Click to expand...

Internal water radiators add nothing over a silent fan-cooled setup. A properly ducted case can move just as much heat as water, especially in a low-noise design.

And in fact they have a considerable disadvantage because the water pumps on most closed-loop coolers are LOUD, and finding a QUIET water pump means going custom-built.
 
Easily possible and honestly you would have alot more fun modding an older psu to be fanless than spending money on a new one. Most of the larger tower heatsinks work fine fanless, and alot of the htpc and lower end gpus have not problem running fanless. Your temps will be alot higher than your used to, but most computer components are fine up to 50-60c
 
Undervolt, for somethings sake, look at my sig, those puppies can run with a very lov voltage.

I do not know if you can achieve a lower voltage, as my system hard resets if the CPU voltage goes below 1.1V

I run mine fanless with a Sunbeam Silent Whisper, in an Antec Solo case with a low RPM case fan and PSU fan.

I have to use the case fan to keep heat from building up inside the case, this may not be a problem in your build.
 
Last edited:
I'd stick with the Seasonic PSU's for fanless. They make top quality stuff.
Also try out the Define R3 cases from Fractal Design. They're built with sound dampening materials to make their case line almost silent.
 
Am I the only one who looked at fanless PC and pictured this?

perspective.jpg
 
Keep in mind, adding 1 very low speed fan somewhere in there can drastically lower your temps, while adding essentially no noise to the system. IMO, most of the time, trying to get away with absolutely no forced airflow isn't worth it. Additionally, fanless/no moving parts doesn't mean there won't be any noise, and it might make coil whine (depending on how bad it is) stand out even more.

Otherwise, it's definitely possible to do, but it really depends on your case, ambient temp, things like that. If you decide to go completely fanless, it might be a good idea to test your build outside your case, or inside your case with the side(s) removed, just to be on the safe side.
 
Last edited:
I know someone who had one custom built by some company in california. All copper heat pipes no fans. I really wouldn't recommend it though. He has his running an Athlon II x2 and it get pretty hot.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top