Fanless H/S any good

T

taylormsj

New Member
I saw my friend had a fanless heatsink, looked pretty impressive
do these keep cooler than a stock heatsink and fan?
 
No. A heatsink + fan will usually keep things cooler. The only exception is if you have a HUGE heatsink. But you could put a fan on the huge heatsink and make it even better, if you aren't concerned about noise (which is usually why someone would use a huge heatsink instead of a combo).
 
There are a lot of heatsinks that don't have fans and perform nearly as good as the best ones with fans. Some people prefer these, as basically the only thing that can fail in a HSF is the fan... so if you don't have one, you have a heatsink that will be good forever. Also, some people prefer video cards without fans for this reason, as a video card fan can fail or become noisy.
 
My previous build had an arctic freezer 64 on it. The fan on it spun at about 2000RPMs max and probably did nothing for the heatsync :P I heard of many people running that cooler without the fan.

Now, of course if the processor runs very hot to begin with, you probably wouldn't have a chance of doing this...but yeah, there are some that would work well...
 
taylormsj said:
for example would this with or without a fan keep my system cooler than say a cheaper £10 heat sink with fan ?
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At first glance I thought that was a building :rolleyes: I think it would, but it says it includes a large 120mm fan. I'd use it on it's lowest setting just for a little added breeze. I honestly don't think you'd hear the fan... I've had some 120mm's you couldn't even hear at their highest speeds.
 
Yes, that fanless heatsink should keep the temperature lower than stock heatsink. However, by adding a really slow/silent 120mm fan, you would decreased the temp but hardly hear anything. I have a Antec 120mm fan set at low hanging over my heatsink and it keeps my temp at about 30 degrees ish right now.
 
passive cooling can do wonders to be fair , the scythe ninja that you posted is a beast of a size but keeps things cool and well within tolerances. The advantage then is that if you decide you fancy a bit of overclocking there is an option to attatch the 120mm fan to the side.

Other passive coolers such as thermaltakes big typhoon also provide cracking cooling too.

Yes active cooling can invariably be slightly better but there are some blinding passive coolers out there which will keep you processor cool enough, the only thing you need to ensure is that your case is big enough to house it :)
 
I have a tower 112 .. its pretty big .. I have 2 4000rpm fans on it so there loud .. but doesnt bother me cause my music's louder :D but at night time when i Download i leave my computer on so i just turn them right down to aound 400rpm just to keep the air flowing and the temp only goes up 15 degrees so not bad and i can hardly hear it .. but i know my fans actually do something.

cpu - E6400

4000rpm

25 degrees idle
35 degrees average load
40 degrees max load

400rpm

40 degrees idle
45 degrees average load
donno bout max load dont usually keep it at low speeds to perform.
 
No. A heatsink + fan will usually keep things cooler. The only exception is if you have a HUGE heatsink.
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Actually, a large heatink + fan will still do better than a large heatsink by itself

but doesnt bother me cause my music's louder
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Precisely! I never understood why people complain about fan noise when a set of speakers can easily ecclipse it (for the record i run 4xTornados in the case, two outside).
 
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