Hi I was looking to set up a new HTPC and wanted to use a silent CPU/heatsink, any idea of the best processor to go for? I was going to use it for gaming as well, so i might get a silent 7600GS, so was looking maybe at a mid range core 2 duo. There are some fanless heatsinks out there but they are pretty bulky things, i wanted quiet a low profile one so it could fit into a lo lying htpc case like the dign h7 or something. I wasnt going to overclock it or anything, although chances are the PC will be turned on 24/7 Thanks
generally speaking, to go passive cooling means a huge surface area and thus a large heat sink. Low profile and fanless cooling don't really go together. you can get away with some smaller heat sinks if you push air past them with something like a 7v modded 120mm fan in the case. Might require case mods to fit it and to make it as silent as possible with rubber grommets and such. go for a stock e6300 or the low wattage stuff that AMD and Intel are starting to put out. should be plenty for casual gaming. Good case airflow is the key.
me and my friends have thought about this hard at are local lan event. my friend reckons his A64 3500+ winchester could be passivly cooled under his akasa EVO 33. his case dose have an 80mm exhaust fan. but when we clocked the 3500 down from 2.2 to 2GHz it performed fine in games and the temps were really low, i think they were high 20's with the fan at its lowest RPM
Zalmans flower-orb coolers are great for HTPCs. I have a 2.6C P4 running with it almost silently in a Silverstone case. The case I have has a vent right near the CPU, so fresh air keeps things cooler which means I can run the CPU fan slower and quieter.
actually the zalman (quiet solution) flower coolers are surprisingly LOUD! i just bought one and it screams without fan controller.only quiet, not silent, with fan on low. however, i must point out that these tests are without a case : P if put into a case, theyll be very, very quiet, almost inaudible(specailly my wood case )
Athlon XP? Depends on the core, if it's a Palomino core, then fanless is definatly not an option, those things get very hot, very fast, I can remember my old one hitting temps of 62 centigrade after a few hours of gaming, which is very warm, even if they are rated to 90 degrees. As crazydeep said, if you can sacrifice gaming / game on a different machine, a C3 chip is a very tasty option, and not too expensive either
One of my cases is closed and is quiet, the other has the top and side panel completely off fully exposing the innards to the room. With fan control enabled via BIOS, a hardware controller is not necessary unless absolute silence (vs. relative near silence) is desired. A 120mm Zalman will of course be quieter than a 92mm Zalman, but I highly recommend the 92mms from experience.
