SPCR

New person here, hello all.

Been pondering how to go about building a nearly silent mini-itx low-end gaming rig for fun lately. Figured I could have a lowish heat processor with a largish passive heatsink sitting in the middle of the board, and a HR-03 style video card cooler giving a sort of BTX style cooling scheme. Airflow could be provided by a single quiet 120mm fan either as intake or exhaust.

I've looked at opinions of BTX, and seems like it'll shorten the lifespan of components if the processor is a Prescott, but maybe not if its a Core-based Celeron-M or the like. I was inspired by the G4 Cube, but as the hardware in this case is slightly more powerful, perhaps the fan is needed.

I'm not too sure on thermodynamics heat transfer stuff, oddly enough since I'm taking an exam on it tomorrow, but is there any huge flaw in my logic here?

In my opinion, it is not the right approach to use only one fan. People on these forums have actually tried cooling an entire computer with a HUGE 25cm fan. In the end, multiple fans were always the result. You must figure out the right balance to get good efficiency. One fan is not efficient, two fans may be more efficient, 3 fans may be the right amount, 4 may be overkill. It really depends on the case/configuration. But for sure one fan will not do enough!

Also, I would say grab a core 2 duo. The prices have just fallen, and even the lowest core 2 duo, the e4300, will be better than any line of chips. At stock, these babies can be ran passively.

The HR 03 is the right decision because that too can be ran passively.

Keep us posted with pics when your done!

Derek

People on these forums have actually tried cooling an entire computer with a HUGE 25cm fan. In the end, multiple fans were always the result

actually,that's not strictly true,Felger Carbon & Bluefront both cool their PCs w/ just one 25/22cm fan IIRC.

The problem with mini-ITX is that most big heatsinks (which you will need for /semi-/passive cooling) don't fit. microATX is not that much bigger and fits all standard heatsinks.

I'm not too sure on thermodynamics heat transfer stuff, oddly enough since I'm taking an exam on it tomorrow

There's actually an equation to work out how much CFM you need, if you know how much watts your equipment puts out and the temp rise across the system, I'm sure it's in your textbook somewhere.

Well, I've come across an old athlon xp and motherboard that someone didn't want - hopefully it'll run slow enough to be cool enough to be cooled passively. Fortunately, the mobo has P4 mounting holes, which allows for a greater variety of heatsinks to try. Also picked up an R9800pro, which should be easy to cool passively, I'll post pictures of the melted mass when I have time to experiment