Passive cooling and my Q6600

[Jay]

I recently upgraded for an E6600 to a Q6600 so I also decided to change my freezer 7 Pro for a Thermalright 120 Ultra Extreme and test out passive cooling on a Q6600 for a few days! I am planning to add a 120mm fan but I thought this would be a good test.

I removed the Freezer 7 Pro and put it next to the Thermalright 120 Ultra Extreme



I pulled the motherboard and cleaned off the old thermal paste



Took some shots of my X-Fi and 8800GT... why not





I fitted the Thermalright 120 Ultra Extreme to the board, what a nightmare, I really needed 3 hands, shame I only have 2!



Placed the board back in the case to check that it actually fitted






Looks pretty good!







Room temp= 25°C

Average Idle= 35°C

Average 4 core 100% load 60°C

Not bad for a passive heatsink and 4 hot cores!

[Pob255]

Nice

While in theory it should be slightly better the other way around passively, if you're going to stick a fan on it then it's not really worth the hassel of reseating it.

[arthurleung]

I wonder if it can really be considered passive cooling when the case fan is pulling air away from the heatsink. May be consider adding a fan shourd between the heatsink and the case fan?

[staffsMike]

Considering that the extreme isn't designed to run passive and normally requires quite a powerful fan to get it's best results that's pretty good.

Something like the Scythe Ninja is better for the job if you actually want to try it as a permanent solution as the fins are further apart allowing normal case air flow to give it sufficient cooling.

[Agent]

I wonder if it can really be considered passive cooling when the case fan is pulling air away from the heatsink. May be consider adding a fan shourd between the heatsink and the case fan?

Yeah I was thinking the same
Still, thats a stonking setup though mate

[arthurleung]

Yeah I was thinking the same
Still, thats a stonking setup though mate

I'll do some passive action with the (future) Q9450
Tried undervolting the Q6600 to minimum voltage? That will help with temperature a lot.

[moogle]

mine does 1.225v at 3gig so use that as a rule if you're lowering the volts jay.

[Hasnath]

BTW are you running dual channel in that config?

[Jay]

no, a faulty water cooler from overclockers.co.uk destroyed the other 2 memory slots.

You can argue that its not passive cooling but no matter what the heatsink does not have a fan on it!

[Jay]

I added the Thermaltake 120mm fan (after a bit of modding using a hacksaw!)







idle average about 29°C load average about 39°C

[Pob255]

Modding with a hacksaw?? what did you have to chop off?

[LuckyNV]

Modding with a hacksaw?? what did you have to chop off?

most likely the corners were closed on his fan, I've used a hacksaw and bolt grippers to open up the corners on some of my fans too.

[Jay]

the fan needed a bit on each courner removing. The clips need to go through the back side of the screw holes but the holes on the thermaltake fans go into a plastic tube between the front and the back of the fan so the clips would not work. I just hacked the tubes of each courner and all was good. Snub nose pliers where also used.

[Koolpc]

Gee, my E2180 idles at 38!! S1 128 Heatsink and fan.

[Jay]

but how warm is your room? Mine is about 25°C so I am looking at about 5°C above ambient idle and 15°C under load.

Its a serious Heatsink though, heavy, a pain in the arse to install but cools very well! I had to laugh at the temps that speedfan gives on quads though. 15°C under the actual temp. It was cooler than the room....

core temp all the way for me.

[Koolpc]

Yea, i am using Core Temp too. My mates AM2 3.2 runs at 28 idle though!! His room is warm too!!!