Active or Passive?

it is, if you look at the actual boxes it says on them "with Active fan thermal solution" or with "passive thermal solution" so its reffereing to the HSF thats supplied with the processor
 
The cooler?

Do you mean the fan? and if so? whats the difference-(besides $20) Active thermal or passive thermal?
 
active will have a fan and passive will generally just be the heatsink but with no fan

Generally the passive coolers are often larger with more heatpipes to enable it to dissipate more heat. The advantage of passive cooling is that its quiet as there is no fan to make a noise :)
 
Active cooling uses a fan, passive doesn't. Though it's pretty rare passive cooling really works well :P At least when it comes to passive motherboard coolers.
 
remember said:
Do you mean the fan? and if so? whats the difference-(besides $20)
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The passive ones probably have a much larger heatsink, where the Active ones would have a smaller heatsink and a fan on top of it. I would recommend the Passive version, and if it needs more cooling, get a fan to blow on it.

Of course, that would only be if you are planning on keeping the stock cooling. For $30, you could get a high performance cooler..
 
More product(passive) for less money?

To jimmymac:
You say the passive version has a larger heatsink and dissipates more heat, but if for whatever reason that (Jet) says "if it needs more cooling, get a fan to blow on it". How will I know if need more cooling on it? Definitely before any damage could be done?

To The Other One:
I dont understand. You say "it's pretty rare passive cooling really works well" Are you recommending to get the "active " version? It would save me atleast $25. Also I dont know what you mean by passive motherboard coolers? I thought the "cooler" or the cooling device was the heatsink, so are you referring to some other cooler on the motherboard?

To Jet:
What do you mean by "planning on keeping the stock cooling" What is stock cooling? The "stock" cooling of the heatsink or the "stock" cooling of the computer case? I dont understand. And also, will there be enough room in my computer case, if I find out I need to add an extra fan for the Passive CPU?
 
remember said:
To jimmymac:
You say the passive version has a larger heatsink and dissipates more heat, but if for whatever reason that (Jet) says "if it needs more cooling, get a fan to blow on it". How will I know if need more cooling on it? Definitely before any damage could be done?

To The Other One:
I dont understand. You say "it's pretty rare passive cooling really works well" Are you recommending to get the "active " version? It would save me atleast $25. Also I dont know what you mean by passive motherboard coolers? I thought the "cooler" or the cooling device was the heatsink, so are you referring to some other cooler on the motherboard?

To Jet:
What do you mean by "planning on keeping the stock cooling" What is stock cooling? The "stock" cooling of the heatsink or the "stock" cooling of the computer case? I dont understand. And also, will there be enough room in my computer case, if I find out I need to add an extra fan for the Passive CPU?
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I would recommend you get the Active cooling version, and then, if the temperatures are too hot under load (You can download Speedfan to check) then you can get a better cooler (heatsink/fan combination) for around $27.
 
As others have said, active mainly means that it has a fan that helps the cooling process. Passive is just a heatsink.

And The_Other_One, alot of motherboards use passive cooling...
 
Is the heatsink/fan included with CPU sub-sufficient?

To Jet: First you said "I would recommend the Passive version", then you say "I would recommend you get the Active cooling version"?

If I get the Active version it already comes with a heatsink & the fan, so in the same sentence where you recommend getting the active version, you add "if the temperatures are too hot under load, then you can get a better cooler (heatsink/fan combination)". Are you saying that the heatsink/fan given with the active version might be sub-sufficient? (P.S. I dont play any video games- which seems to be the only application where overheating seems to apply?) So needless to say, I still dont know why there are 2 different versions.

How would the smaller "active" heatsink be insufficient? What applications would I have to be doing to make the given heatsinks/fan insufficient? Is there anywhere I can see pictures of what the heatsinks/fan for these CPU's look like?
 
remember said:
To Jet: First you said "I would recommend the Passive version", then you say "I would recommend you get the Active cooling version"?

If I get the Active version it already comes with a heatsink & the fan, so in the same sentence where you recommend getting the active version, you add "if the temperatures are too hot under load, then you can get a better cooler (heatsink/fan combination)". Are you saying that the heatsink/fan given with the active version might be sub-sufficient? (P.S. I dont play any video games- which seems to be the only application where overheating seems to apply?) So needless to say, I still dont know why there are 2 different versions.

How would the smaller "active" heatsink be insufficient? What applications would I have to be doing to make the given heatsinks/fan insufficient? Is there anywhere I can see pictures of what the heatsinks/fan for these CPU's look like?
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Sorry for being confusing :)

First, I recommended that you get the passive version, because if you added a fan, it would be cooler than the active one. However, when I looked at the price difference, I realized that:

Price of Passive CPU + Price of Fan = Price of Active CPU + $30 cooler

Out of those two options, the $30 cooler would provide better cooling. So.....do you get what I am trying to say? Basically: Get the Active CPU, and if the heatsink/fan that comes with it isn't good enough, spend $30 more and buy a quality air cooler.
 
So smaller active heatsink is ok?

Obviously I would rather spend less than more, and if the smaller heatsink for the active version is sufficient, then Ive got no more questions. But it seems strange that the extra $30 is for just a "little"? bit bigger of a heatsink plus no fan. So I guess these heatsinks are more expensive than they look? Do you think the bigger heatsink makes much of a difference, in the short or long run?

P.S. What is the difference between "fan" and "cooler"? "Price of Passive CPU + Price of Fan = Price of Active CPU + $30 cooler"
 
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remember said:
Obviously I would rather spend less than more, and if the smaller heatsink for the active version is sufficient, then Ive got no more questions. But it seems strange that the extra $30 is for just a "little"? bit bigger of a heatsink plus no fan. So I guess these heatsinks are more expensive than they look? Do you think the bigger heatsink makes much of a difference, in the short or long run?

P.S. What is the difference between "fan" and "cooler"? "Price of Passive CPU + Price of Fan = Price of Active CPU + $30 cooler"
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Just because two heatsink/fan (or coolers) are the same size doesn't mean that they will cool the same. It's not always about size (though in general bigger is better), but about quality, manufacturing, and type of materials used.

A cooler is a combination of a fan and a heatsink.
 
Im learning a lot-Thank you

Well, If I were to learn anymore about this, I would be excavating the raw minerals and manufacturing these components myself. If you ever want to do something like, let me know. In the meantime, thanks for all these teaching lessons. I'd say you should be charging for this, but then I wouldn't enjoy it so much. I just wish I didn't have to ask so many questions, but Im going to start looking for a good book for someone like myself, to learn all this stuff, before I tick everybody off with my million questions. Maybe you should write a book on all this stuff?
 
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