[SOLVED] Pondering Passive / Fanless set up

chuffedas

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But don't want to pay a fortune for the case. I have picked up an AMD 2400GE. 35W CPU. This is a slight improvement on what I had before. I am after opinions on my ponderings please. Are my thinkings right?

Rather enjoying cutting down my power usage. I don't game. Have not got a GPU now. Not needing my case fans to kick in. Only have a Wraith Stealth and fan and that is only at lower revs. (Couldn't find a bracket to attach my Hyper 212 Evo to fit to AM4) Anyway, point is, I am not creating huge amounts of heat. I would love to have a silent PC. I know one can get pretty darn quiet, but silent would be lush.

I looked at various CPU coolers and the top ones seem to be Noctua NH-P1 and NoFan CR-80EH. I started off hoping to find used versions, but looks like The Noctua is too new and the NoFan is no longer made and the only used ones seem to have no bracket (can't find the AM4 bracket anywhere on its own) or just the 1150 bracket.

I wasn't thinking to spend this amount, but, I am getting used to the idea. Looks like the Noctua is much more effective and also read that the bracket on the NoFan is a bit not great. Then I realised the Noctua covers the AM5 as well, which adds a bit of future proofing. I know it is a bit overkill by the looks of it, but I think I want that to be on the safe side.
Allows for using on higher W CPU and also summer heat etc etc I think I am leaning the way of the Noctua but open to opinions.

Case
I have looked at cases and they cost a bob or two. So I am thinking of making one out of wood. I am thinking sort of square and tall. I am thinking I will have intake on the floor (coldest part of my house). I am thinking i will guide the airflow over the CPU heatsink, possibly narrowing at that point in the hope the air would accelerate there. Then I was thinking that I will add a fan at the top with the mobo set to fire it up if things get too warm. The plan is to hide it under a unit. I was also wondering if it might be prudent to leave a hole in the case at the back of the mobo but that would mess with my attempt at creating flow bottom to top.

Then I had a thought about making a taller box. so did some searching and only found one guy that has 3d printed a six foot tall type thing. My question runs as to whether there is an advantage to a tall case like that? Would the air accelerate or anything if the case was six foot rather than two foot tall?

VRM Cooling
I am unsure about this bit. The coolers suggest buying a mobo with ample VRM cooling. But where tells me that bit? So, mine is this one:
Nothing is mentioned about VRM cooling is there? It shows where it is and that there is no temp gauge near it.

RAM
I have Corsair Vengeance LPX RAM.
https://www.corsair.com/uk/en/Categories/Products/Memory/VENGEANCE-LPX/p/CMK8GX4M1E3200C16
My thinking is that they have heat spreaders and are designed to be pushed for overclocking (which I will not do) and should provide me with some headroom.

Have I got anything right/wrong? Have I missed anything completely?

Sorry for the essay :)
 
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Solution
Then I realised the Noctua covers the AM5 as well, which adds a bit of future proofing. I know it is a bit overkill by the looks of it, but I think I want that to be on the safe side.
When going passive, your friend is actually having as much surface area as possible. If the Noctua passive cooler added ridges to the layers of the aluminum fin stack, you'd see a lot more heat dissipation. Perhaps they come out with a V2 of it, with grooves in the fin stack. But yes, that's a good candidate to passive cool your platform.

So I am thinking of making one out of wood.
If you have time on your hands, tools at hand and materials to source with ease, then be my guest but if this system is your daily driver with no other backup...

Lutfij

Titan
Moderator
Then I realised the Noctua covers the AM5 as well, which adds a bit of future proofing. I know it is a bit overkill by the looks of it, but I think I want that to be on the safe side.
When going passive, your friend is actually having as much surface area as possible. If the Noctua passive cooler added ridges to the layers of the aluminum fin stack, you'd see a lot more heat dissipation. Perhaps they come out with a V2 of it, with grooves in the fin stack. But yes, that's a good candidate to passive cool your platform.

So I am thinking of making one out of wood.
If you have time on your hands, tools at hand and materials to source with ease, then be my guest but if this system is your daily driver with no other backup platforms to fall onto, then I'd suggest getting a case off the shelf and calling it a day. You're also going to have to factor in tolerances and heights with the standoffs, rear I/O clearances. You could look on Overclock.net and Bit-tech.net or even SmallFormFactor.net to understand what people are doing with custom passive builds and the DIY route. There's also the matter of airflow, even if you ran the build passive, you'll need to introduce the air to which convection currents will aid in the dissipation of heat.

You could add VRM heatsinks found off of Ebay, if you're concerned with their temps.

Making the rams go to the advertised speeds is overclocking, as DDR4-2133MHz is the base clock speed, anything above that is overclocking.

Good luck on your project!

P.S: You sure you don't want to look into this case;
https://hdplex.com/hdplex-h5-fanless-computer-case.html
and an accompanying PSU from them? Streacom make passively cooled/fanless cases as well.

Edited your thread's body to be concise and remove all the unnecessary one line spaced sentences to form paragraphs.
We usually deal with people who make walls of text, your thread had too many lines that didn't form paragraphs. Had to edit that in order to aid comprehension, without essentially having to recreate the thread's content. Sorry if you see it's been edited.
 
Solution

chuffedas

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Feb 20, 2009
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Then I realised the Noctua covers the AM5 as well, which adds a bit of future proofing. I know it is a bit overkill by the looks of it, but I think I want that to be on the safe side.
When going passive, your friend is actually having as much surface area as possible. If the Noctua passive cooler added ridges to the layers of the aluminum fin stack, you'd see a lot more heat dissipation. Perhaps they come out with a V2 of it, with grooves in the fin stack. But yes, that's a good candidate to passive cool your platform.

So I am thinking of making one out of wood.
If you have time on your hands, tools at hand and materials to source with ease, then be my guest but if this system is your daily driver with no other backup platforms to fall onto, then I'd suggest getting a case off the shelf and calling it a day. You're also going to have to factor in tolerances and heights with the standoffs, rear I/O clearances. You could look on Overclock.net and Bit-tech.net or even SmallFormFactor.net to understand what people are doing with custom passive builds and the DIY route. There's also the matter of airflow, even if you ran the build passive, you'll need to introduce the air to which convection currents will aid in the dissipation of heat.

You could add VRM heatsinks found off of Ebay, if you're concerned with their temps.

Making the rams go to the advertised speeds is overclocking, as DDR4-2133MHz is the base clock speed, anything above that is overclocking.

Good luck on your project!

P.S: You sure you don't want to look into this case;
https://hdplex.com/hdplex-h5-fanless-computer-case.html
and an accompanying PSU from them? Streacom make passively cooled/fanless cases as well.

Edited your thread's body to be concise and remove all the unnecessary one line spaced sentences to form paragraphs.
We usually deal with people who make walls of text, your thread had too many lines that didn't form paragraphs. Had to edit that in order to aid comprehension, without essentially having to recreate the thread's content. Sorry if you see it's been edited.
Thank you for such a great reply. I really appreciate it.
Unfortunately that sort of case is out of my budget.
I am happy with the edit. I tend to think more in bite sized chunks than full paragraphs, but I know different people prefer different things, so I am easy.

I see what you are saying about the V2, I have wondered that as well. I suspect they will learn from this version and people's experience. Make some money and then reinvest into a V2.
Having read about it, I suspect they went with surface to encourage less turbulent air?
I wouldn't be surprised if it is more effective and cheaper.

I do have the tools to hand and a bunch of scrap wood in the garage.
Ample to make a case for sure. I am not saying it will be a pretty thing, but the plan is to hide it anyway if I do the smaller one. I am also wanting to improve my woodworking skills so this would be a good learning project. It will be quicker for me to make a case than it would to earn the money to pay for one of those ready made ones. Although I would rather like one if I did have the money for sure. I hadn't seen that one. It does look good.

You could add VRM heatsinks found off of Ebay, if you're concerned with their temps.
Ah, thanks.

Making the rams go to the advertised speeds is overclocking, as DDR4-2133MHz is the base clock speed, anything above that is overclocking.
Ah, right, thank you for this. I didn't know that. I went with 2400MHz but only because they cropped up.

Thank you for the suggestions of those sites.
I shall go and have a read and continue to ponder.
 

Lutfij

Titan
Moderator
I suspect they went with surface to encourage less turbulent air?
When you have a fan chop through the air and said air bounces off the frames or any obstacles, you will hear said turbulence. The surface area is to help with convection currents. Gamers Nexus did a piece on it;
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N8EjMwS2ut0


I went with 2400MHz but only because they cropped up.

Your Ryzen APU platform would benefit from going with a DDR4-3200MHz dual channel ram kit, FYI ;) well, after you've made sure your BIOS version is updated to the latest(A.G.E.S.A 1.2.0.7 code).
 
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chuffedas

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Thanks again for the info.
I don't need any more ram than what I have and it is the cost/beneit thing eh?
This seemed to be the sweet spot for cost. I did go dual as I think I understood it to be better to have dual sticks rather than the one.

Good point about upgrading the BIOS. I assume it is worth doing now anyway?
I don't understand 'A.G.E.S.A 1.2.0.7 code'. Is that a standard? My version is 1004 and what i think is the right update would be Version 2814.
https://www.asus.com/uk/motherboard...20m-k/helpdesk_bios/?model2Name=PRIME-A520M-K
 

chuffedas

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Ah, thanks again. I hadn't expanded all.

It has been a while since i have updated my BIOS.
Last time i looked into it (years and years ago) if I remember rightly, it could sometimes cause issues and it was recommended only to do so if needed.
Has that changed?

Also, can I just jump straight to the newest one and that will include the previous updates or do I do each one in order?
 

chuffedas

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I have managed to create myself another question.
My mobo has an M.2 slot and looking at the prices, I am considring getting one.
It seems like some get warm, the power usage varies.
Does it vary enough between them that I should look for a low power/low heat one?
Or are they all relatively similar and not something I should be concerned about?
 

chuffedas

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Good luck on your project!
Ticking along slowly.
Picked up a used Noctua NH-P1.
Very easy to fit.
I still have it in my old tower case.
I think it is running a bit cooler than when it had the stock heatsink and fan. (I am aware they are not much to write home about)
Sitting here with the case side on, not much running on the PC admittedly, and it is below 22C. (CPU temp)
I haven't done much of a stress test, I tend not to stress it generally. I did a geekbench benchmark and it topped out at 43C.

Getting closer to thinking cases :)
 
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chuffedas

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I would gradually work my way to the latest. Others in the community would suggest just jumping to the latest. I tend to play it safe, that's all.
I am just about to update BIOS.
Read this on their FAQ:


Q5: If the BIOS version of your motherboard is much older than the version in ASUS official website, is it necessary to update each version to the latest version?
A5: Without any special Reason, no need to update each version, just update to the latest version.
*Before updating BIOS into the latest one, there is a special Version BIOS that must be updated into on some Models.

So. If you have one of the 'special' ones, you need to do one at a time.
However, I can't find if I have a special one, so need to update one at a time.
So, end result is that everyone needs to do one at a time just in case :)
Even if the ones with the 'special' ones make it obvious, the ones without don't make it obvious that they aren't 'special'
 

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