Quote Originally Posted by McPhee View Post
Gonna take this whole thing as a lesson, passive isn't good. When i think about it properly there was never any advantage on going passive, there's still fans in the system so the system will never be more silent than the nosiest fan anyway.
Na passive is great Ive got a T7200 C2D laptop processor running in a random Aopen MoDT matx board which is passively cooled by a Scythe Ninja Mini in my HTPC rig. The laptop cpu kicks out a pathetic amount of heat and the cpu cooler is ultra efficient, but even then it requires the slightest of air flow over the cooler fins to drop and stabilise temps under load. I replaced the 120mm fan in the PSU with a super silent Yate Loon fan which I connected directly to the motherboard header. The mb controls the speed of the fan dependent on CPU temp, so if cpu temps rise due to load you know PSU load will have increased to. So the fan in the PSU serves two purposes to draw air through the entire system and to cool the PSU and it does it effectively running no faster than 500rpm.

You are right though you do have to have at least one fan to draw fresh air into the case, my processor and passively cooled HD3650 would slowly but eventually cook themselves otherwise, but the single fan can run ridiculously slow and still prove enough with a decent passive setup.

I simply cant hear the fan it runs so slow, the laptop drive I use in it is very quiet but its still louder than the single 120 fan.

problem is like most SFF cases the SG05 has poor air circulation and is pretty restrictive to. Also cooling desktop processors passively just isn't that easy, even these more efficient 45nm parts, undervolting can help though.

Ive attempted quite a few true passive setups in my HTPC projects and never had any luck with desktop Processors, their TDP's are always a little to high to cope with being shoved in a AV cabinet and being cooled passively.