Can I not use a fan for my CPU?

[JDMcelica]

hi i have a Athlon T-bird at 1.2 ghz right now. i used to overclock my cpu to 1.4 ghz but now i want to bring it back to original 1.2 ghz setting . i've had it overclocked for couple of months now and i am using Alpha Pal8045 Heatsink w/80mm Sunon fan to cool my cpu. Would it be okay if i just took out the sunon fan from the setup? Will the heatsink by itself suffice in cooling the CPU if its not overclocked at all? let me know, thank you.

 

[Corporate Thug]

the CPU will burn very fast

 

[Chrono310]

Yeah, I hear T-birds run rather hot. Usually if the heatsink comes with a fan attatched, you should use the fan. If you want a fanless heatsink, check out Zalman's stuff. They still suggest plenty of case ventilation, though.

 

[0roo0roo]

how silent is the rest of your system? if you have a psu with fans and case fans, going without a cpu cooler is rather pointless as you have noise no matter what. you can get expensive fanless psu's that have large heatsinks though. but if your case still makes noise, jsut buy a cpu fan that doesn't make more noise then the rest of your system, perhaps a panaflow or stealth fan. or more simply, buy a fanmate1 fanspeed controller for your cooler and slow it down until you don't notice, thats 5 dollar solution. or buy a fan controller that can control all your case/psu/cpu fans like a vantec nxp201. psu connection would require some ugh mod knowledge though.

better candidates for total fanless would be mature intel systems. like the tualatin pentium, underclocked those run pretty darn cool. or a p4 underclocked.

 

[batmang]

That'd be like taking the fan off your cars radiator. Burn.

 

[pspada]

Yummy, fried CPU!

 

[Jeff7]

NMB fans or Panaflos are quiet. SVC has Panaflos (the one is out of stock right now though), Vantec Stealths, and Zalmans. They have less airflow than other fans, but they are also very quiet.

 

[SWScorch]

I think your CPU woul most likely overheat at stock speed with no fan. A low speed Panaflo could work, or if you underclocked the CPU and undervolted it like I did, you could run sans fan.

 

[khayyam]

0roo0roo has the best solutions. turn that fan down to 5-7V and you won't even hear it.