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Passively Cooled Rig Help

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ancalime

ancalime

Member
​
Joined
Mar 26, 2007
Hey guys my friend wants a completely silent rig with decent cooling and performance. There will be some modest overclocks, nothing big though.

Basically a water cooling setup is what he is looking for. What water cooling build would be a decent cooler without any fans? He is looking at the Zalman Reservator 1 V2 kit, but that is definetely on the expensive side and the cooling it provides isn't very impressive either. Are there other options (preferably cheaper)?

Also he does not plan on having any case fans. Will this lack of air flow be an issue? I'm thinking the hard drive and motherboard might get too hot or is this a non issue? Or perhaps an issue that can be solved without adding any fans? If necessary I guess he can add another cheap loop to cool the hard drive and chipset?

This doesn't pertain to water cooling but is the Seasonic S12 series absolutely SILENT? I know it is quiet but I never had the chance to hear one running. If it isn't absolutely silent he will probably go for a fanless PSU but he would like to avoid this if the S12 is silent.

Thanks for the help. :beer:
 
build your own, use some heatercores since they are cheap or go with BIP3/gts360. to go passive water your going to need alot of surface area since you dont want any fans.
 
How quiet does it have to be? Because the hard drives will make some noise when there are in use. I would say use the biggest fans that are as quiet as possible. Like these.

Even a little bit of airflow will give him/you peace of mind.
 
Running some 120mm fans on 7v or even 5v may be quieter and way cheaper and more convenient than running some huge passive water cooler.
 
Yates are super quite too. I love the FOUR (and three are on my external rad) I have running on my rig. The loudest part of my rig is my pump (DDC+)
 
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What you are saying is not possible cheap. If he wants to go spend about $1200 on a zalman silent case.

What he wants is a quiet computer, and that can be achieved with a custom built setup with yate loons at 4v, DDC pump, PA 120.3, and the blocks of your choosing (dtek fuzion is a good choice).

The reservator is not a completely silent solution, and its performance is less than steller.
 
Thanks for all the input guys. But he decided to drop the idea of a fanless system. He is just going to build a regular water cooling setup:

MCR220 Rad
Apogee GT Block
DangerDen Maze 4 Block
MCP 355 Pump w/ Delrin Top
..and some yate loons that will be 7v modded.

Again thanks for the help though.
 
ancalime said:
Thanks for all the input guys. But he decided to drop the idea of a fanless system. He is just going to build a regular water cooling setup:

MCR220 Rad
Apogee GT Block
DangerDen Maze 4 Block
MCP 355 Pump w/ Delrin Top
..and some yate loons that will be 7v modded.

Again thanks for the help though.
Click to expand...

that'a boy

--pak
 
Personally. I would go with the 350.. Otherwise that 355 is going to be the loudest component in your case.
 
good call on fans. the difficulty of them is just ridiculous.

its just so easy to find fans whos sound output is below the rest of the system(hard drives, PSU fan) my computer is 100% silent, and I mean that literally, you will NOT hear it. except for the HD. raptor makes alot of noise when the arm moves.

I have 8 fans in total, none running a full 12volts, but they dont need to. more fans running slower is the key to less noise.
 
I dont think passive is a big ask....

Increase the surface area with multiple rads

Make a massive res, so it will take forever for the water to heat up by 1 deg

Get an ehime pump that does not dump heaps of heat into the water

(Gettting a cool CPU would also help)

I think it can be done....
 
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massive res wont help when tring to do a passive setup. what if anything he would want a water bong setup. given he would have to refill it every so often. then is room would be more humid.
 
Nahhh massive res does help create a passively cooled pc... just look at this link in overclockers.

http://www.overclockers.com/tips1218/

This dude has done it passive without the use of any fans!!!

A bong still has a fan doesnt it? So you cant consider it passive because the "true meaning" of passive is without the aid of a fan. Please remember "silent" fans does NOT = passive water cooling!

I have enough water in my loop to run for 3 hrs before I see a 1 deg increase in temperature (when all the fans are turned off). I have a 6 Litre res, remember it takes a lot of energy to heat up 1 Litre of water by 1 degree.

I still think it can be done.....
 
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Passively cooling a water setup is not impossible by any means (i.e. geothermal, larger radiator), but trying to cool with NO airflow on any component is another matter entirely.

I used a small car rad with no fans on it for almost a year and it cooled just fine.
 
if you want true silence, the reserator is probably the way to go, although it is crap. Id recommend the Reserator 2 if you had to buy one. Although un-impressive they are inaudible. Modest overclocks will be possible with the reserator
 
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