[SOLVED] fanless chassis

[fastcountach]

Can anyone recommend a fanless chassis brand. I'm looking at streacom, but it is hard to find their parts.
I'm looking to make a silent gameable HTPC.

 

[atljsf]

so you want fanless and also want to play games?

you have to choose between no fans or play games

is better to buy a pc with 140mm fans and set them to spin as slow as possible, so you control noise and keep airflow

otherwise you build a htpc with power efficient parts that will work hot all the time thanks to no airflow

 

[fastcountach]

Im not trying to play 4k at 60fps.
Max 1080p at mid or even low settings

I know that fanless gpus exist, most notably a custom job by toms on a 750.
Streacom makes a case that is big enough, and the case is the heatsink, so there will be more than average ambient airflow.

My question is, are there other brands of chassis that accomplish the same thing at that size, or is streacom the only game in town.

 

[geofelt]

I don't know of a gaming capable graphics card that does not have a fan.


As a practical matter, you do need fans of some sort, but they can be all but inaudible.

 

[tennis2]

Here's an idea. Most modern GPUs operate in semi-fanless mode (usually under 60C stock, but can be manually adjusted higher). On my undervolted and repasted RX480 using things like AMDs Chill and/or FRTC, I can play lightweight games (think LoL, CS:GO, etc) at 1440p without my GPU fans turning on. Heck, even under full load with OC, my GPU temps are 73C @ 1000rpm fans which is inaudible.

My PSU (EVGA G2) also has semi-fanless operation.

With some undervolting, many CPUs can run under a passive heatsink.

That said, I still have case fans. As others have said, you don't need a ton of fans, and they don't have to be loud. But you do need to get rid of waste heat, or it just gets hotter and hotter inside your case.

 

[geofelt]

What parts would you like to put into such a fanless case?
Motherboard/cpu/graphics card in particular.

You can run some low powered processors using integrated graphics without a fan.
But, the resulting rig is likely not capable of any fast action gaming.
It would be capable of HD movie playback.

 

[brom2855]

I would look at fans designed to be almost silent, like this PC fellow names here: https://graphicscardhub.com/best-silent-pc-fans/

You'd be mad to go fanless. CPU and GPU heat has to go somewhere. It absolutely will not object to possibly ruining your PC if you insist on going fanless.

 

[fastcountach]

I am thinking GTX1050 (or maybe 1650 if its the same power), i3 9100... I wont go through the whole specific list as the rest of the components are passively cooled anyway. But Mini ITX board, 512GB NVMe, 1TB SSD, slim BD drive, 16GB ram, I also wanted a TV tuner, but will have to come up with something other than PCIe with a mini ITX board, this case has a very specific passively cooled power supply.

The way this particular case works is you run a plate with heat pipes directly from the processors to the side of the case, and the case has fins on the outside, so thats how you get the heat out. I will not be nearly as effective as fan, but in lower power situation, even if i have to underclock a bit, should be sufficient. Also, there is no room in the case for fans at all, so even if i wanted one i couldn't put it.

Anyway, back to my original question... Is Streacom the only game in town for this type of case (where you run heat pipes directly to the side of the case)

 

[geofelt]

I can see pursuing a fanless case just for the challenge of it.
If you google "fanless case"
you will get a start on some other options.
One is the HDPLEX H5

HDPLEX-The Best Fanless Passive Silent PC Case Manufacture

Want to build your own quiet and fanless PC? Check out HDPLEX, the leading provider of high quality fanless aluminum pc case which is completely silent, minimalism designed, support latest Intel Kaby Lake and AMD Ryzen CPU upto 95W TDP. HDPLEX also manufactures fanless,highly efficient, and...

hdplex.com

Another is turemetal
https://www.anandtech.com/show/14562/turemetal-fanless-chassis-for-diy-highend-pcs

If, on the other hand, you are looking for a media center case that is quiet,
you can build one that is all but inaudible, and that costs less.

You might look at the G5620, a 65w unit that is quite strong.
The included HD630 graphics might be ok up to a point
https://www.newegg.com/p/N82E16819118090
A cooler with a 120mm fan will be all but inaudible.

If you buy a gold rated seasonic focus of sufficient power, it will not turn on the fan unless it needs to.
Overprovisioning a bit will obviate the need.

Hard drives do make noise.
But for storing video files they are the way to go.
Here is a nice article on the WD options:

Understanding the WD Rainbow

WD has a very diverse hard drive product line that can be difficult to decipher at times. In this article we go over the various 3.5inch hard drive lines from WD to help you decide which is right for your system.

www.pugetsystems.com

If you need fans, plan on running them at low speed.
600 rpm is all but inaudible.
Larger fans move more air at lower rpm.
I like the noctua fans, but some others are very good.

Sadly www.silentpcreview.com no longer seems to be active.
It was a good source for quiet computing.

If you find a case you like, use some silverstone acoustic padding on the case walls to dampen any sound.

 

[tennis2]

I agree with geo (again). Is the idea?

1. Build SILENT PC at any cost, potentially sacrificing performance.
2. Build inaudible PC for potentially much cheaper and/or with better performance.

 

[fastcountach]

I agree with geo (again). Is the idea?

1. Build SILENT PC at any cost, potentially sacrificing performance.
2. Build inaudible PC for potentially much cheaper and/or with better performance.

Item 1 is the goal, but there is an asthetic component. I dont want to put a mid tower or even a 2/4u rack under my TV. I understand cases of the type im looking for are unreasonably expensive by most measures and I'm not so concerned with that. Right now, with the components I'm looking at it's around $1500 for a not particularly powerful pc, but should be significantly better than the usual silent HTPC. Do y'all agree with that last statement, or am I chasing unicorns.
Thanks again for the help.

 

[tennis2]

Vote: chasing unicorns