1366 i7 passive cooler

rpgman1 · Post by **rpgman1** » Sat Jun 20, 2009 4:11 pm

Interesting way of putting 3 fans in the IFX-14. How did you get the fans sleeved into one bundle and does it run on one Molex connector?

megame · Post by **megame** » Sat Jun 20, 2009 5:00 pm

rpgman1 wrote:Interesting way of putting 3 fans in the IFX-14. How did you get the fans sleeved into one bundle and does it run on one Molex connector?

Just soldered the power wires, and I think I'm using the middle fan's rpm wire and left the other rpm wires hanging... I'm plugging the fan s into a Scythe Kaze Master...

I found that my 140mm 1400rpm yate loon's only drew about .2 amps each, so although they probably draw twice that on startup, it seems to be working ok at the moment with the kaze master's 1 amp per channel rating... we will see how it goes long term...

Ender17 · Post by **Ender17** » Sat Jun 27, 2009 1:05 am

what kind of clearance does that have over the RAM slots? would it clear RAM with heatsinks like Corsair Dominators?

megame · Post by **megame** » Mon Jun 29, 2009 12:45 am

pretty much zero clearance... I mean you can move the fans further away from the motherboard with the stock mounting clips, as with 140mm fans the clips don't fit into the holes so you can put them how you like.. But if you moved the fans up far enough to clear dominators, you would lose some cooling - and need a very wide case. It only just fits as is in my lancool case, which is 210mm wide...

But really - do you need dominator ram??? my ocz platinum works fine and has no silly heatsinks

Auroa · Post by **Auroa** » Wed Jul 15, 2009 9:32 pm

If you guys don't mind me steering the thread back towards the original topic, I would be interested to know the best passive cooler for a demanding application such as an overclocked i7.

Let's just assume, hypothetically, that an active fan solution was not possible. Price and case size also are not an issue. Would what you pick as a passive heatsink? I've done some research and found a couple contenders:

Thermalright IFX-14
Prolimatech Megahalem
TRUE (rev. A)
Xigmatek Thor's Hammer

Ender17 · Post by **Ender17** » Wed Jul 15, 2009 9:47 pm

Auroa wrote:If you guys don't mind me steering the thread back towards the original topic, I would be interested to know the best passive cooler for a demanding application such as an overclocked i7.

Let's just assume, hypothetically, that an active fan solution was not possible. Price and case size also are not an issue. Would what you pick as a passive heatsink? I've done some research and found a couple contenders:

Thermalright IFX-14
Prolimatech Megahalem
TRUE (rev. A)
Xigmatek Thor's Hammer

completely passive?
that will be tough
I'd guess HR-01 Plus

Ven · Post by **Ven** » Sat Jul 18, 2009 3:30 am

Completely passive = no case fans, no PSU fans / PSU in other compartment.
I'd say that IFX might work, as well as Ninja, but not for OCed i7. Just stock speeds, perhaps with undervolt. Think about it as running lawnmower engine passive Vs pushing Ferrari to its limits passive. It is not going to work well.

Using case fans kills the idea of running heatsink fanless. You will get MUCH better temperatures and noise levels with case fans at lower speed + super-low-speed heatsink fan. My i7 920 does 3.8GHz easily on stock voltage, but I don't run it at this speed because it gets too hot despite using Megahelms + Scythe S-Flex @ 1200RPM + Silverstone Raven (3.4 now, will consider reapplying paste).

megame · Post by **megame** » Sat Jul 18, 2009 6:10 pm

passive - I'm gonna say NO WAY. Maybe with an Hr01+, plenty of case airflow, and the cpu undervolted it might work.. Seems a little silly to me though, as even a couple of fans running push pull at 600rpm can make all the difference.

For reference a couple of times I've turned my cpu fans too low and so on reboot they didn't start up...
now yes my ifx 14 is mounted in the incorrect orientation for passive, and my case airflow isn't designed for passive.. but
it lasted about 15 minutes at idle before it froze. given that its not even stable at idle (and I have speed step enabled) its nowhere near being stable passive under load.

Auroa · Post by **Auroa** » Sun Jul 19, 2009 11:53 pm

Thanks for the responses. I guess I should have bolded the word "hypothetically". I realize that a low rpm fan would be an optimal solution. I just wanted to know the best passive heatsink. That's all.

Ven · Post by **Ven** » Mon Jul 20, 2009 12:35 am

There's one really-passive-heatsink solution that might work... A friend of mine uses such thing for his C2D - radiator. It's a normal radiator like for house heating, which has copper tubing and is standing next to his case + powerful and pretty much noiseless Grundfos pump, good water block. He still runs case fans at around 300-500RPM not to let mobo fry, but the heatsink is really fanless. I'm pretty much sure that it would be enough for i7 even with minor OC.