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Pasive CPU cooling by accident

A

Antiflash

Limp Gawd
Joined
Jan 12, 2009
Messages
150
My HTPC is running an Intel i3 550 at stock speeds that is cooled by an Scythe Shuriken Rev.B (low profile).
Yesterday I open the case to clean filters and the CPU fan was not working... And probably have not worked since who know when. I tested the motherboard fan connector with other fan to confirm that it is the CPU fan that is busted.
The case happens to have decent cooling (for an HTPC case) and checking the temps with speedfan i get 43C idle and 60C when playing a bluray movie, that I think is the most strenuous load for my HTPC. For me those are perfectly save temperatures I'm thinking not to replace the cooler (I have the stock Intel HSF laying around).
Is there any consequences of not having a fan on the CPU cooler?!
By accident I have a quieter passive system!
 
It should be fine al long as your not doing anything more CPU intensive than watching a bluray.
 
Thanks!
What strikes me as surprise is that a fanless CPU cooling was even an option this days with a small Heatsink in a very small case.
We have come a lot way from the P4 days and their extreme heat dissipation needed.
 
Antiflash said:
Thanks!
What strikes me as surprise is that a fanless CPU cooling was even an option this days with a small Heatsink in a very small case.
We have come a lot way from the P4 days and their extreme heat dissipation needed.
Click to expand...

It's not that the chips got cooler, it's that the coolers got better. The biggest catalyst for this was heatpipes.

Everyone reminisces about the crazy "Preschot" P4s, but the reality was that the TDPs were the same, but our heatsinks were worse. Most of the Northwoods had a ~65w TDP, the same as an i3 or Athlon X2, with the Prescotts having a ~95w TDP, the same as an i5 or Athlon X4. It's funny how everyone talks about how cool the current Sandy Bridge chips run, because they have a significantly lower TDP than the old i7-920 with the 130w TDP. In reality, a Sandy Bridge quad core puts out as much heat as a Prescott P4, but much more efficient heatpipe coolers give us better temperatures and quieter computers. If you threw a modern heatpipe tower cooler on a P4, it would be very cool and quiet.
 
nalc said:
It's not that the chips got cooler, it's that the coolers got better. The biggest catalyst for this was heatpipes.

Everyone reminisces about the crazy "Preschot" P4s, but the reality was that the TDPs were the same, but our heatsinks were worse. Most of the Northwoods had a ~65w TDP, the same as an i3 or Athlon X2, with the Prescotts having a ~95w TDP, the same as an i5 or Athlon X4. It's funny how everyone talks about how cool the current Sandy Bridge chips run, because they have a significantly lower TDP than the old i7-920 with the 130w TDP. In reality, a Sandy Bridge quad core puts out as much heat as a Prescott P4, but much more efficient heatpipe coolers give us better temperatures and quieter computers. If you threw a modern heatpipe tower cooler on a P4, it would be very cool and quiet.
Click to expand...

And overclock well!
 
nalc said:
It's not that the chips got cooler, it's that the coolers got better. The biggest catalyst for this was heatpipes.
Click to expand...
Chips became more efficient, and thus in the long haul overall cooler. Additionally, they are more durable as far as high temperatures compared to their predecessors.

For example, instead of running at 2000 MHz all the time a processor will usually automatically adjust its clock on the go based on needs to save energy (thus heat).

And since, as mentioned, today's processors have greater thermal durability -- proportionally that would make them cooler than their predecessors.

My only problem is that they don't produce ultra low-end non-embedded x86-64 processors -- i.e. a 500MHz 20/24/28/32nm LGA775 quadcore (or even octocore with two, three, possibly even four physical dies/real cores) with 3MB+ caches. Just imagine how little electricity they would use and low thermal output they would have. You might not even need a heatsink.

Plenty of good and practical uses for these.
 
Antiflash said:
My HTPC is running an Intel i3 550 at stock speeds that is cooled by an Scythe Shuriken Rev.B (low profile).
Yesterday I open the case to clean filters and the CPU fan was not working... And probably have not worked since who know when. I tested the motherboard fan connector with other fan to confirm that it is the CPU fan that is busted.
The case happens to have decent cooling (for an HTPC case) and checking the temps with speedfan i get 43C idle and 60C when playing a bluray movie, that I think is the most strenuous load for my HTPC. For me those are perfectly save temperatures I'm thinking not to replace the cooler (I have the stock Intel HSF laying around).
Is there any consequences of not having a fan on the CPU cooler?!
By accident I have a quieter passive system!
Click to expand...

Which case are you using?
 
the south bridge cooler went out on my computer a few months after i bought it...never knew it was out but for the longest time 2 of the SATA ports never worked...after i replaced the fan they started working again...i'm probably playing with fire running a hard drive one of those ports
 
jalaj said:
Which case are you using?
Click to expand...

SilverStone GD04 HTPC Case, there is a good review here. As noted in the review title at 100% the fans are very loud for an HTPC.
Before I noticed the CPU fan not working I had all three 120mm case fans at 50% in bios (fans are connected to motherboard). Now I have them at 75%, (considering I need better airflow on the fanless cpu heatsink), and they are still relatively quiet.
 
I don't have a fan on my scythe ninja that sits on top of my q9550 (which is even OC'd to 3.4GHz) and temps are fine. That's cause I have great airflow through my p182 though...
 
Antiflash said:
SilverStone GD04 HTPC Case, there is a good review here. As noted in the review title at 100% the fans are very loud for an HTPC.
Before I noticed the CPU fan not working I had all three 120mm case fans at 50% in bios (fans are connected to motherboard). Now I have them at 75%, (considering I need better airflow on the fanless cpu heatsink), and they are still relatively quiet.
Click to expand...

The GD04's default cooling setup at 100% fan speed is capable of dissipating about 900W of heat (overall system) so you are probably more than ok running them at 50% again.
 
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