Fanless cooling for FX6100?

[alxcsb]

I tried to keep the rig as quiet as possible, and the only thing that can still be heard (although only at night) is the stock CPU cooler. Initially, I wanted to go for the Hyper 212 and ditch the fans, but will that rad alone keep things cool? I have plenty of airflow in the case, with 2x120mm and 1x140mm as intake fans, and 2x120mm and 2x140mm for the exhaust part. So, the question I actually have, is this is a smart thing to do, or should I just keep the hyper stock? Thanks guys. P.S. I will not be overclocking and cable management is good enough to allow the case fans to do their jobs.

 

[jamesriley94]

No one can really say. You'll need to try it yourself.

I don't really see the point tbh though, why not just buy a quieter fan and put that on the heatsink? Or run the fan off a voltage resistor and run it at 7 or 5 volts?

 

[airdeano]

the CM 212 is a PWM fan, so the CPU_HEADER can be slope-curved to 30% under
30° and high fan 80% at/above 45°.
the blade master fan is pretty healthy and flowing under 50%, just over they
tend to get windy and whirling.

but i'd think to go fan-less you'll need more heatsink area than 120x120x50
and four heat-pipes.. 'cas them AMDs get a lil warm when in a deep thought.

airdeano

airdeano

 

[cronic5]

Probably the best passive cooler you'll find is the NoFan CR-100A. If you're not overclocking it should be fine for you. Otherwise go with an H100 and slow fans.

 

[MacLeod]

Not sure any passive cooler will be enough for your FX. Those things do put out a considerable amount of heat. A Hyper 212 Evo would be one of the quieter coolers on the market and if you tinker with the fan profiles you could make it nearly silent when at idle cause the FX chips do idle nice and cool which is weird considering how much heat they put off under load.

 

[alxcsb]

Thing is, with the stock cooler, it peaks at around 60 in prime, and the fan spins up to around 60%. I'll get the 212 and test without the fans, see how it does. In any case, even if I do need to put the fans back on, I am thinking it will be a lot quieter than the stock one, right?

 

[rumblejack101]

Anything will be better than stock. You say you have some 120mm case fans so just get a cooler with a 120mm fan & set in bios if you can to silent mode & it should be fine. No more noisy than your case fans. maybe ditch a case fan in faver of a cpu fan.

 

[dragoonk]

That fan must be one annoying little bugger to make you want passive cooling.

 

[alxcsb]

That fan must be one annoying little bugger to make you want passive cooling.

It's the sort of thing that wouldn't bother a friend or anyone else using your PC occasionally, but for me it tends to be somewhat annoying because it is the only component producing noticeable noise.

 

[dragoonk]

You're runing the 6100's stock cooler? If you are , then I get it. i had one similar to that that came with my Athlon X3, but I replaced it with a 125W Phenom's , the one with the copper base and heatsinks... this one reaches RPM's past 5000... so it sounds like an aeroplane. As for passive cooling, I think you should go with a Noctua NH-L12, the design is nice, it's quiet, low profile and it's got some good performance... that'd be my personal choice.

 

[cronic5]

Any heatsink out there that comes with fans, will likely need fans in order to keep your system cool. Personally, I'd rather have a slight hum and cool temperatures rather than warm temps and no sound.

If you are running the case that you have in your signature, that is your problem. While the Core 3000 is great at cooling, it is pretty poor in the sound department. If you went for the R4, or another good "silent" case I doubt you'd hear anything at all.

If you're really stuck on an extremely silent case, to the point where even one 120mm fan is too "loud" for you, you'll have to either deal with close to overheating temperatures on a load, or switch cases. No matter how you look at it, you'll likely need a fan for your CPU cooler using that processor. Only thing you can change at that point is the case.

My only recommendation for passive cooling is the NoFan CR-100A. Although it isn't exactly designed to cool your specific processor efficiently, it's about the only totally passive cooler on the market that might do it.

Really, if you have any half-way decent CPU cooler and a GOOD fan, I doubt you'd hear it. Noctua fans are always good for silence. I doubt you'd find any complaints with a Noctua fan.

 

[BesiX]

Since the Nofan CR-100A is a bit expensive, I'd recommend finding a Scythe Mugen 2 Rev. B. It has great cooling capacities without fans. My buddy has ditched the fans on his 2 years ago and his CPU is idling at 20°C.

And the CR-100A will work though, since your CPU is 95W TDP.
I reckon it will idle at about 23°C (my i5 ran stock at 17 °C).

 

[dragoonk]

I don't know, fanless heatsinks don't inspire confidence to me... and you also need to have fans spinning atleast to keep a negative or positive pressure inside and make sure you exhaust all that warm air. Even with water cooling, you will never escape fan noise.

 

[BesiX]

You could always mount fans with a fan controller, which would enable them when the system is heating up...
(that's my plan with my silent PC, but I'm still looking for a decent fan controller.)