Is a completely passive POWERFULL system possible now?

[Nordic]

Disclaimer: I am not building anything like this. This is merely a question of curiosity and feasibility.

Is a completely passive POWERFULL system possible now? No fans, no pumps. Passive.

You could put that passive nvidea 680, an i7 ivy with the passive cooler in the pic below, an ssd, and a highly efficient passive psu. All this cooled passively with no fans and no pumps. It would be the quietest computer possible. But is it feasible.

http://www.techpowerup.com/167975/Colorful-Unveils-Fanless-GeForce-GTX-680-Graphics-Card.html

http://www.eteknix.com/news/nofan-all-copper-cr-95c-passive-cpu-cooler-on-the-way/

If someone were to put this kinda system together, it would really be case dependent. An completely open case would probably work best. Probably a modern equivalent of this with the above components.

What do you guys think?

 

[Fourstaff]

Wiz's testbench is completely silent other than the graphics card being tested. Yes its more than possible for a few years already

 

[RejZoR]

I've had a silent high end rig like 2 or 3 years ago and i still have it. It's not highest end anymore but it's still a powerful rig stuffed in a small case and pretty much completely silent in all conditions.
It's active cooled but still silent so you can easily sleep in the same room.

 

[eidairaman1]

passively cooled components still use other cooling such as case fans.

 

[rectifryer]

Its possible. Just dip everything in mineral oil hahaha.

I am sure everyone has already seen those systems

 

[eidairaman1]

Its possible. Just dip everything in mineral oil hahaha.

I am sure everyone has already seen those systems

ya i remember that and what a mess especially if that oil gets contaminated with dirt/hair etc.

 

[sneekypeet]

really would depend on room ambient temperatures to say yes or no

 

[eidairaman1]

really would depend on room ambient temperatures to say yes or no

heck id say that for any machine no matter if its air, phase, water cooled.

The machine Here has its side open (not my machine) and the CPU fan is having to rotate at max speed just to keep the CPU cool (Noisy as hell) where as my bros machine is silent (TT V9 Case, Stock AMD Phenom II X4 heatsink) and its quiet

 

[Nordic]

I've had a silent high end rig like 2 or 3 years ago and i still have it. It's not highest end anymore but it's still a powerful rig stuffed in a small case and pretty much completely silent in all conditions.
It's active cooled but still silent so you can easily sleep in the same room.

My computer is really super quiet too. I sleep in my room with it, I forget it is on sometimes. Still though, fans make noise. The hypothetical system in the OP is completely passive. No noise at all.

passively cooled components still use other cooling such as case fans.

The hypothetical system in the OP would not use case fans. I will edit it and make that clear.

 

[sneekypeet]

Does the noise of the homes air conditioner running count as noise the PC makes? In other words, there has to be some sort of sufficient cooler air flow in the room to be able to run it for what it was worth long term. Room A/C, House A/C, Fan in the window on a wintery night, something


Let me say this...Can it be done? Yes, but my guess is things will be hot in a generic environment without some sort of ample circulation. This is why I bring up what you consider noise, as something has to move the air in the room to keep temperatures within tolerable limits.

 

[Mussels]

theres no such thing as a truly passive system, short of something like a mobile phone. you can get passive components, but they just rely on a fan elsewhere (Case, PSU, etc)


i've always had silent systems. if i can hear it, i'm unhappy. but thats not the same as passive.

 

[RejZoR]

My computer is really super quiet too. I sleep in my room with it, I forget it is on sometimes. Still though, fans make noise. The hypothetical system in the OP is completely passive. No noise at all.


The hypothetical system in the OP would not use case fans. I will edit it and make that clear.

I don't think anyone can hear a high quality 600 RPM fan. It will still perform better than just passive where natural air convection has to occur opposed to a slow speed fun but still a fan none the less, helping to move the air a bit.

 

[Nordic]

Does the noise of the homes air conditioner running count as noise the PC makes? In other words, there has to be some sort of sufficient cooler air flow in the room to be able to run it for what it was worth long term. Room A/C, House A/C, Fan in the window on a wintery night, something


Let me say this...Can it be done? Yes, but my guess is things awill be hot in a generic environment without some sort of ample circulation. This is why I bring up what you consider noise, as something has to move the air in the room to keep temperatures within tolerable limits.

I don't have an A/C myself but also live in cooler climate most of the year, so I don't have to consider that noise. But if I did, I don't think I would consider it pc noise.

Cooling could be a problem. You can't just have a closed case.
You might be able to get away with using a case like this one with the passive silent components mentioned in the OP.

i've always had silent systems. if i can hear it, i'm unhappy. but thats not the same as passive.

I agree. I am moving to silent computing. I just got an artic xtreme for my 6950 and couldn't be happier.

 

[Mussels]

The hypothetical system in the OP would not use case fans. I will edit it and make that clear.

that wont work. once you make a truly silent system, you'll realise theres the PSU fan, mechanical drive vibration... and then capacitor and coil whine. hell, if you listen closely enough you can hear LCD screens and mobile phones hum.

the only way to get a truly inaudible PC is to go deaf.

 

[Nordic]

that wont work. once you make a truly silent system, you'll realise theres the PSU fan, mechanical drive vibration... and then capacitor and coil whine. hell, if you listen closely enough you can hear LCD screens and mobile phones hum.

the only way to get a truly inaudible PC is to go deaf.

That is why I the hypothetical system uses an ssd, not a mechanical. There are passive power supplies. You got me on coin while though.

Like this silverstone 500w passive psu. I find it hilarious how they used a puppy in this psu's advertising.
http://www.silverstonetek.com/product.php?pid=308&area=en

 

[RejZoR]

I have my HDD suspended on pants elastics (regular kitchen elastics tend to disintegrate too quickly in constant heat and weight load of the HDD) for years and it works far better than any aftermarket solution. It doesn't look too nice if you look closely, granted, but it neutralizes virtually all vibrations. I can only hear the drive when i'm doing really hardcore intensive tasks. In 99% of the time, all that indicates HDD operation is a blinking LED in the front of the case.

Theoretically if i've used the cooling HDD enclosure and suspend it the same way i have the drive now i'd possibly eliminate even that 0,1%...

 

[Easy Rhino]

really would depend on room ambient temperatures to say yes or no

oh so you can't do it on the sun?

 

[Solaris17]

really would depend on room ambient temperatures to say yes or no

this passive coolers on CPUs and GPUs are nice the issue that I see is that passive cooling just means it doesnt have dedicated active cooling. I believe they are designed under the impression their will be other fans in the system.

 

[Easy Rhino]

this passive coolers on CPUs and GPUs are nice the issue that I see is that passive cooling just means it doesnt have dedicated active cooling. I believe they are designed under the impression their will be other fans in the system.

maybe if you blow on it hard enough

 

[Solaris17]

maybe if you blow on it hard enough

well that would certainly distract you from many sounds that may be in the room/office.

you might be able to start a new HWbot class fastest SB build on mouth cooling 3.8ghz on 98ºF

you would only be beaten by someone with the flu

but you would decimater anyone with pneumonia

 

[Nordic]

this passive coolers on CPUs and GPUs are nice the issue that I see is that passive cooling just means it doesnt have dedicated active cooling. I believe they are designed under the impression their will be other fans in the system.

But could you get away with it? Not using any fans of any kind and having an open style case. Sneakypeet probably had it right in that it would probably end up being ambient dependent.

 

[Solaris17]

But could you get away with it? Not using any fans of any kind and having an open style case. Sneakypeet probably had it right in that it would probably end up being ambient dependent.

i doubt it. ambient temperature dictates how long you have before a melt down. but you will need flow of some kind from someware or you will have whats called an oven were hot air doesnt move and stays in a box.

though you would probably never need to do another home reflow again.

 

[D4S4]

those components with 3-4 holes made for 500rpm 140mm fans in the bottom of the case and a mesh on top would make for a nearly inaudible and i'd guess very well cooled system.

completely passive, i'm not so sure, maybe a bench rig... maybe. if the convection alone can keep it cool.

 

[Solaris17]

those components with 3-4 holes made for 500rpm 140mm fans in the bottom of the case and a mesh on top would make for a nearly inaudible and i'd guess very well cooled system.

completely passive, i'm not so sure, maybe a bench rig... maybe. if the convection alone can keep it cool.

thats another thing to consider. if you made a specially designed case and places the parts right you could use 1 ultra silent fan and rely on physics if shaped right inducement can be actually pretty reliable but for any effectiveness you would need to find a way to bleed all heat to ideally a smooth surface that the air passes over. maybe if you turned th case into a huge tear dropped heatsink. But I digress. I honestly dont think it is possible without any or some kind of for of ambient cooling.

 

[RejZoR]

You could make a closed style case but it would have to be custom built because none of the aftermarket ones is designed to cope well with thermal requirements.

You'd need a case where natural heat exchange could appear. Convection. Basically, heat always goes up, so you'd have to make an open bottom case with slightly thinner opening on the top.
Now what this would cause is that hot air on the top, squeezing through smaller opening would create lower pressure below itself and would suck cool air from the bottom. If both openings were the same i don't think it would make the low pressure area below and that would make air move slower which is not cool.

The air would be required to pass straight from bottom to the top in order to create fast heat exchange. All components and CPU heatsink would have to be vertically aligned, meaning air would again swiftly pass through the fins. The biggest problem would be gfx card imo because they all have coolers, even passive ones designed for horizontal operation. You'd have to sort that out somehow.

There is also another way that would require obtaining "raw" heatpipes (heatpipes without any fins and a case with two case sides that would act as a heatsink. One for GPU and another for CPU. Heatpipes would physically connect from the core to the case side panel. This way you'd have a nice case and heat transferred to external cooling element, not bound to the thermodynamics of the case insides. Sidepanels could be solid aluminium with grooves through the entire height. It would work better if you could "spiral" the heatpipe over the larger sidepanel surface. Only downside of such system would be the inability to change gfx cards and CPU's too easily. You could make it but it would require some more thinking how to make the heatpipe connections easier to detach.