As mentioned, would it be safe to build a lowish end gaming PC with entirely passive cooling and no case fans, or would it overheat, specifically the CPU and video card? I'm not going to build anything like this because fans didn't murder my family, I'm just wondering if it's possible.
For example...
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks
CPU: Intel Pentium G3420 3.2GHz Dual-Core Processor ($69.99 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: ASRock H81M-ITX Mini ITX LGA1150 Motherboard ($59.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: G.Skill Sniper Low Voltage Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($84.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Green 500GB 3.5" 5400RPM Internal Hard Drive ($58.95 @ Newegg)
Case: Fractal Design Node 304 Mini ITX Tower Case ($89.56 @ Mwave)
Power Supply: SeaSonic X Series 400W 80+ Platinum Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($119.99 @ Amazon)
Other: Dynatron R8 CPU Cooler ($29.99)
Other: SAPPHIRE ULTIMATE R7 250 1GB GDDR5 ($94.99)
Total: $608.45
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-05-08 19:35 EDT-0400)
For example...
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks
CPU: Intel Pentium G3420 3.2GHz Dual-Core Processor ($69.99 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: ASRock H81M-ITX Mini ITX LGA1150 Motherboard ($59.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: G.Skill Sniper Low Voltage Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($84.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Green 500GB 3.5" 5400RPM Internal Hard Drive ($58.95 @ Newegg)
Case: Fractal Design Node 304 Mini ITX Tower Case ($89.56 @ Mwave)
Power Supply: SeaSonic X Series 400W 80+ Platinum Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($119.99 @ Amazon)
Other: Dynatron R8 CPU Cooler ($29.99)
Other: SAPPHIRE ULTIMATE R7 250 1GB GDDR5 ($94.99)
Total: $608.45
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-05-08 19:35 EDT-0400)