Passive cooling for server, good idea or no?

[Nvidia2000]

I'm in thn process of building a mini file server (sharing mdb database file) for a friend's small company. There will be only max 2 clients PC sharing 1 file on the server. Im thinking of getting a AMD 64/Core 2 (due to low temperature) and lower the multiper to something like 6x or 7x. Furthermore, im thinking of putting huge passive heatsink i.e. SI 120/TT BT (take fan out). There will be 2x 12cm case fan in addition (case) and PSU 12cm case fan. Do you guys think this is sufficient or it's dangerous?

 

[krotchy]

The problem with passive, is the air is never let out, so you just keep heating up a space without giving it anywhere to go, so depending on the case you choose, you might have issues. Lowering the multiplier is likely not enough to prevent eventual overheating in the end, however with a very well planned design you can go passive. Overall though some fans operating at minimum can provide big temp drops from passive.

Also the SI-120 and Big Typhoon are not designed for passive operation, the Scythe Ninja or Thermalright Ulta-120 both are I believe though.

Overall by getting an E6300, a Scythe Ninja or Ultra-120 and like a Lian-LI PC-101 with the fans undervolted to 5V, you will have a totally silent computer, I think SPCR actually did something like this in a review of the PC-101 with success. Overall SPCR might be the better place to look for finding info on a 100% silent computer.

 

[Ayah]

Yup, it should work fine as long you undervolt in addiction to lowering clock speed. I have done it myself but with different chips.

 

[Matthias99]

Originally posted by: krotchy
The problem with passive, is the air is never let out, so you just keep heating up a space without giving it anywhere to go, so depending on the case you choose, you might have issues. Lowering the multiplier is likely not enough to prevent eventual overheating in the end.

That's not normally what I would call 'passive' cooling... generally if you want to go totally fanless, you set it up so convection will pull hot air out of the system and cool air in. A completely sealed system is incredibly hard to cool.

This guy sounds like he wants to run with no CPU fan and just case/PSU fans cooling the system. That shouldn't be a problem as long as you use a decent heatsink, and maybe underclock/undervolt a bit.

 

[oynaz]

Why not use a NAS for that purpose instead? A lot of those do not need cooling.