Is it possible to have a pc with all components passively cooled (no fans)

Question

Not a top performance pc but not a low end pc either. I guess you can get a passively cooled video card and a ssd drive, but what about the cpu and the power supply?

Answer 1

Silent PC Review is an excellent resource on this topic.

They reviewed a completely passively cooled PC: Fanless Ultra Powerhouse PC by EndPCNoise.

Also, they list two fanless PSU's on their Recommended Power Supplies article and at least one CPU heatsink that works without a fan on their Recommended Heatsinks article.

If your objective is a quiet PC, I recommend pairing a large, high quality fan that spins at low RPM with a high quality PSU and heatsink. The air circulation will be barely audible, but add significant cooling to your system.

Answer 2

Yes. I ran a 2.4GHz Core 2 Duo off a solid-state heatsink (albeit a fairly expensive one) and a passive video card, and it was fairly high end (at its time). There should be no problem doing that.

Answer 3

A ULV CPU won't need anything beyond a large heatsink and a modest, fanless PSU. If you're willing to go beyond x86 then there are lots of decent, low-power CPUs, such as the ARM family.

Answer 4

I did it sometime in 2004 or 2005 with a Thermalright XP-120 for the CPU and a Aerocool VM-101 for the video card. It has to be possible these days, but my newer Antec 900 has very quiet 120mm fans. A more modern version should still be based on heat pipes (good for cooling satellites too).

I've never seen a passively cooled power supply in a normal tower case, but there are smaller cases now with external AC-DC converters, so I wouldn't be surprised to see a case with a fan-less power supply.

This size comparison from Gruntville.com shows how much larger the XP-120 is (especially with the fan attached) when compared to a stock fan from the P4 days.

Answer 5

There's the TNN-500 from a while back.