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ALongEnoughName · ‎04-30-2015

I know... It sounds stupid, but I want to build a fanless PC, so hear me out.

I'm hoping to build a custom mini ITX PC which is largely open air. I may put grills on it to keep the Cheetos out. I figure it will have a reasonable performance with just an i3 or i5 CPU. I think a NoFan CR-80eh heat sink will cool it, and fit next to the GPU.

However, I also want to play games reasonably. To that end I prefer maximum detail, but maybe dialed down resolution. (I think 1080HD is plenty good.) I'd prefer a 970 or better if I can do it. I'm a BF3, Crysis 3 player.

The biggest issue is of course cooling a bigger GPU. I'm wondering how unpleasant it is to get the GPU to throttle, or even underclock. Trimming performance in clocks speeds may not be as devastating to performance as folks think. i.e. more Cuda cores in a 980, but less clock speed may indeed be my happy meal.

I guess one part of my question is just how well does the Strix work without its fans and cowls? Will it safely and pleasantly throttle itself?

I'm a huge fan of Asus 5 Way auto tuned power management, but I'm not so sure about GPU tweak yet.

Here's one of the fastest Asus passive GPUs;
https://www.asus.com/ca-en/Graphics_Cards/GTX750DCSL2GD5/

Here's an MSI GTX 960 Gaming GPU modified to be fanless (and it works);
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tCvhmISioJw

I could contemplate a bigger heat sink and not put the fans on that too;
http://www.arctic.ac/worldwide_en/accelero-xtreme-iii.html

Anyone have any ideas about this? (Besides thinking I'm crazy? 🙂 )

FYI, I have 2 GTX 980's in my main PC largely for rendering, and I frequently stress out my PC doing that. I'm not planning to do that with the fanless PC design. I just want it to be dead quiet and portable.

Nate152 · ‎04-30-2015

Hello AlongEnoughName

LOL you're not crazy for wanting a silent pc with no fans (well maybe a little) but without any fans your components will run substantially hotter.

If you want a quiet pc maybe you should rethink your build and get a case that has some water cooling options but you'd still need a couple fans for a radiator or two.

More expensive - Yes

Silent - Yes

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ALongEnoughName · ‎04-30-2015

Ah no. If I wanted to know about water, I would have asked. I want a PC with no moving parts. That is my goal.

Nate152 · ‎04-30-2015

I wish you the best of luck in your quest on building a pc with no fans. The ROG motherboards and gpu's are designed for overclocking, most people here at ROG are overclockers and they want/need good cooling.

What about your psu, doesn't it have a fan?

Have a read through this.

http://www.logicsupply.com/blog/2015/01/28/building-fanless-pc-goes-comes/

ROG Strix 1070 OC Guide - ROG Spatha X Rapid Fire - ROG Falchion Touch Panel - z270 BCLK Overclocking - Xsplit Gamecaster Guide - ROG RX 460 OC Guide

ALongEnoughName · ‎04-30-2015

Nate152 wrote:
I wish you the best of luck in your quest on building a pc with no fans. The ROG motherboards and gpu's are designed for overclocking, most people here at ROG are overclockers and they want/need good cooling.

What about your psu, doesn't it have a fan?

Have a read through this.

http://www.logicsupply.com/blog/2015/01/28/building-fanless-pc-goes-comes/

You can get PSUs without fans, that's simply not an issue. (Up to 500W anyways.)

I know what ROG is about. (I gotta ROG laptop for work... ) ROG also happens to be the best source of knowledgeable people on Asus products. So I thought I'd start here.

Much of the same tech used to overclock works in reverse. Its also not always obvious what will get you the best back bang for your buck. I am a big fan of the Asus AI Suite.

Here's one inspirational design;
http://www.fanlesstech.com/2015/01/nofan-cr-80eh-build.html

This is another;
http://www.silentpcreview.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=67691

This is my desk top;
Intel i7-4790K, Asus Z97-A, Corsair 32GB DDR3 1866MHz CL9, 2XAsus STRIX GTX980 DirectCU II OC 4GB, 4XSamsung 840 EVO Raid 10, Win 7 x64 Pro.

Ntwlf · ‎04-30-2015

Hi ALongEnoughName,
I agree with Nate152, as he's quite knowledgeable and helpful, I've read many of his replies.

Since you have mentioned an open air build, "a case, chassis, frame" or whatever it's called, constructed like this http://www.amazon.com/Aluminum-Mini-ITX-Tower-Computer-Case/dp/B00PGAEPMI/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=143... would be most beneficial in not trapping hot air within. (and it's mini-itx)

I would recommend leaving the fans on the GPU for the time being. With an open frame, the heat escapes quickly, and thus the fans "could/may" be silent all the time or nearly silent during gaming at best.
GPU choices, from reading reviews on the GTX 970 & 980's, they run cooler than their predecessors. So with an down-clock this may work well.

I suggest "not" going all out on silence, put it together, and then see what happens. But to start reasonably simple at first, then try part changes (eg...unplug/disable fans) after you get a base line to work from. This way can possibly be the least expensive in the long run.

Also there air fanless/passive PSU's on the market now, example http://www.amazon.com/Rosewill-SilentNight-Platinum-Certified-SilentNight-500/dp/B009CP8LL4/ref=sr_1..., with platinum 80+ certification to boot.

Here's a link to an excellent highly recommended PSU Calculator. http://extreme.outervision.com/psucalculatorlite.jsp

ALongEnoughName · ‎04-30-2015

Ntwlf wrote:
I would recommend leaving the fans on the GPU for the time being. With an open frame, the heat escapes quickly, and thus the fans "could/may" be silent all the time or nearly silent during gaming at best.
GPU choices, from reading reviews on the GTX 970 & 980's, they run cooler than their predecessors. So with an down-clock this may work well.

I suggest "not" going all out on silence, put it together, and then see what happens. But to start reasonably simple at first, then try part changes (eg...unplug/disable fans) after you get a base line to work from. This way can possibly be the least expensive in the long run.

I'm doing this for the same reason people people do case mods. For the fun of it. Although I'd like to avoid any fires. 🙂 My objective is to get rid of all moving parts. (Granted... I can't afford a keyboard like that, but they've been around for 25 years.)

I think I need to know what to do about the GPU up front. Any sort of after market cooler will alter its size considerably.

I'm an electrical engineer, I work with several mechanical engineers who are interested, I have access to a machine shop with idle time (oil and gas mud motor factory), and I even have access to an industrial 3D printer.

Nate152 · ‎04-30-2015

I agree that you're going to have a tough time finding a fanless gpu cooler for the gtx 980 and if you have two in sli that could even be more problematic.

I looked around for a while and could not find any fanless gpu coolers for the 980. I came across one universal gpu cooler but was only rated for up to 70 watts, not nearly enough for a gtx 980.

http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=fanless+vga+coolers&qpvt=fanless+vga+coolers&qpvt=fanless+vga+co...

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ALongEnoughName · ‎05-01-2015

The Arctic Accelero S3 can clear 120W of heat passively, 200W actively. Under stress testing a GTX 960 (MSI Gaming) quickly hit unstable temperatures. It gets to a toasty 60 to 80C while gaming. Also consider that the GPU is overclocked from stock.

I just played with my desk top GTX 980 cooling, and brought my memory and core clocks down by 500Mhz. (Funny thing, I don't do SLI... it messes with GPU rendering.)

I was able to run the Unigine Valley benchmark on my 980 at 40 frames per second. Afterburner says it was running at 60% power the whole time. That's with not exactly great circulation, another 980 sandwiched up, and fans on 25% the whole time. That was a higher frame rate than many folks are getting with GTX 960s.

I'm wanting to know if I can get more umph out of more (slower) cuda cores rather than trying to run a GTX 960 balls to the walls (what ever that means).

Nate152 · ‎05-01-2015

In theory more cores vs. less cores and higher clock speed should give you better performance, I say this comparing the gtx 980 to the gtx titan x.

The titan x also has more of everything than the 980 except the higher clock speed so I'm not sure how fair of a comparison this is.

gtx 980 - 2048 cuda cores - 1126MHz, boost 1216MHz (this is the reference 980)

gtx titan x - 3072 cuda cores - 1000MHz, boost 1075MHz

the titan x doesn't just beat the gtx 980 it blows it away.

http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=titan+x+performance+chart&view=detailv2&&qpvt=titan+x+performanc...

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Removing the fans from an Asus Strix?