Has NE1 used or is using any fanless heatsinks?

[SOcRatEs]

I've been seeing a variety of these cpu/gpu fanless heatsinks
showing up on the shelves latley.
"Fanless cpu"
I'm not sure what to think about fluid coolers vs. fanless.
Heat is very much a concern and managing it is my goal.
Faneless is intriguing tho, I would think, less power draw on Psu.
Or is this just the latest trendy thingamabob

 

[zephead]

fans draw a neglible amount of current, but do add to noise production and increased dust collection rates. i've installed a few fanless gpu/cpu heatsinks and they are invariably heavy, bulky, and a regular pain to install. these were, however, for guys who had a problem with air cooling or wanted thiers "rly quiet". in all cases they were unnessesary. if a zalman 7000/7700 isn't quiet enough for you then don't get a computer, say i. in addition to said drwabacks, they always ran much hotter than conventional (stock) cooling and offered no thermal headroom.

 

[CMH]

lol, very true. Forget about overclocking on those.

they cost a bomb too, and unless you're in cahoots with the Al-Qaeda, you probably don't own a bomb.

 

[tom_pearson]

yeh.. yeh i've got a fanless heatsink. on my 33Mhz 486 hehehe

 

[CMH]

lol, those were the days...

 

[zephead]

ahh, my old overclocked 486 was uppedfrom 33 to 50 and still ran fine without any cooling device...but those days ended a long time ago. however, powered peltiers (i haven't interacted with one since 1998) allow a fan/heatsink assembly to be located a distance from the cpu, leaving only a copper transfer block over the socket. modern ones usually allow the heatsinks on the dissipating end to be secured in front or behind a standard case fan, thus using an exsisting fan to draw air out of the case and cool the cpu at the same time.