Duron passive cooling

[neillybob]

What would I need to passively cool a duron 600MHz CPU

It will be running in my new download box

Thanks for any advice

[Beck]

Need more info, any case fans?

[neillybob]

Its going to be in the attic with a wireless connection.

I was hoping for a low powered, low heat system as much as poss(keep bills down).

I suppose I could put in a silent casefan, any reccommendations

[Beck]

Any copper heatsink should do the trick. What will this pc be doing? You can clock it down even more if the cpu speed doesn't matter all that much.

[neillybob]

It'l be used as a fileserver and for downloading stuff

So highspeed is not a priority

[stytagm]

You could work this out by trial and error and probably passive cool it on the cheap...Is it socket A? but before I start:

PLEASE BE A BIT CAREFUL, while a duron 600 is no heat machine, it could still probably fry itself (PLEASE DON'T SUE ME - I don't really know what I'm talking about, take my advice at your own risk).

Install a motherboard monitor and have a look at the cpu temp (assuming it's supported, might be a bit too old). If you can't find one, you can hold your fingers on the side of the heat sink and if it feels cool, warm or very warm (but bearable) - no problem really, if it's too hot to touch or you hear a sizzling noise - Switch off immediately and possibly head for casualty

Go to Ebuyer or wherever and buy a cheap but modern socket A cooler, designed for a barton at 2.5ghz, it should suck the heat out of the Duron like there's no tomorrow, then just try unplugging and removing the fan. If that's too hot, re-connect the fan but put a resistor in series with the fan. You can buy ready made jobs to do this, or do the sums and buy the resistors in Maplin for about 20 pence.

I think there are online resistor/fan calculators, I'll try and find the link when I get home tonight.

If all of that is a bit too cavalier, buy a socket A Zalman flower-cooler. Probably about £10-20 on ebay or £30 in www.quietpc.co.uk - I think this was mentioned recently in another thread.

Anyway, let us know how you get on.

[Rave]

If your motherboard supports voltage adjustment you can more than likely undervolt the processor. If you can get it running at 1.4V it'll produce about 25% less heat than it would at 1.6V. Test stability with Prime95 and run it at the lowest voltage that's stable.