PC enthusiast tames AMD's Ryzen 9 7950X using copper bars for complete silence

nanoguy

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In brief: We've seen many passively cooled systems over the years, and there are several companies dedicated to serving a growing niche for PCs that stay silent during normal use. Someone even managed to adapt a passive cooling system for AMD's fast and furiously hot Ryzen 9 7950X CPU, proving that taming it without a fan is indeed possible.

Everyone loves silent PCs, and several communities out there are dedicated to building systems with as few moving parts as possible or none at all. We often see enthusiasts building compact fanless PCs, and companies like MonsterLabo have made it their mission to develop full tower systems where you can cram in high-end components and get close to their full performance without the whirring noise of several fans hammering your ears.

As spotted by Tom's Hardware, one Redditor recently successfully built a fanless system integrating AMD's notoriously hot Ryzen 9 7950X processor. Our own Steven Walton described it as the new performance king and the jack of all trades, but he also noted it ran cooler than Intel's Core i9-13900K – a crucial requirement for building a silent system.

Interestingly, the build revolves around the Streamcom DB4, a unique compact case designed for mini-ITX systems. The Redditor used an MSI MPG B650i Edge Wi-Fi motherboard and paired the Ryzen 9 7950X with 64 gigabytes of DDR5 memory. All of this is powered by an HDPlex GaN power supply rated for 250 watts that is the size of the typical power bank from companies like Anker.

The Streamcom DB4 normally only supports processors with a TDP of up to 65 watts, with the possibility to extend that to 105 watts using an optional cooling module. However, the Ryzen 9 7950X has a TDP of 170 watts, so the Redditor decided to use two ESG Feinkupfer 1-kilogram copper bars and a custom-cut 233mm copper bar to conduct the heat from the CPU and motherboard chipset to the aluminum heatsink walls of the Streamcom case.

Furthermore, the Redditor didn't solder the parts and instead used Thermal Grizzly Conductonaut and Arctic MX-6 thermal compounds as interface materials. After pushing the Ryzen CPU to its limits for about two hours, he observed 95 degrees Celsius on CCD1 and 90 degrees Celsius on CCD2, while the motherboard temperature hovered around 77 degrees Celsius, and the case side plates stayed comfortably between 50 and 60 degrees Celsius.

While the system would have benefited more from a vapor chamber or heat pipes with custom baseplates for the CPU and the motherboard chipset, this DIY project achieved relatively good results with much less effort. And since the Redditor only uses their system for programming, it probably won't overheat during normal usage. The only downside is that the resulting build weighs around 13 kilograms (over 28 pounds), and the user is considering testing heat pipes soon to achieve a more efficient cooling solution.

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If power usage continue to increase with new processors and videocards, soon 13KG cooper will have to be included in common systems near classical coolers.
 
I'd say that copper block beats any AIO any day!

And is maintenance and drip free!
 
If power usage continue to increase with new processors and videocards, soon 13KG cooper will have to be included in common systems near classical coolers.
^^ This. I think this is the wall we are up against now. Sure, we can make faster CPUs and GPUs, but they will be power hogs. What happens when 12G isn't enough VRAM and we need 20, 30, 40 Gig or more? That's more power, heat, cooling and who knows what else. We may have to go back to full water cooled systems all around including the mobo and all components, not just CPU/GPU.
 
What happens when 12G isn't enough VRAM and we need 20, 30, 40 Gig or more?
Fortunately, VRAM isn't particularly power hungry and so generates relatively little heat. For example, 12 GB of GDDR6X running at 21 Gbps only uses 40W at the very most and for a lot of the time, it's quite a bit lower than that.

Edit: I forgot about this article! If you look at the GPU-z screenshot, the entire card is consuming 284W, but the VRAM is just using 14W.

Even if one assumes that 24 GB will use 80W in the same circumstances, that might seem to be a lot, but GPU vendors incorporate this value into their card's peak power usage. For example, a 4090 is rated to 450W at most, but 90W of that would be the VRAM -- it would actually force the GPU itself to be power throttled and run slower, unless the card's BIOS permits a higher power limit.
 
Fortunately, VRAM isn't particularly power hungry and so generates relatively little heat. For example, 12 GB of GDDR6X running at 21 Gbps only uses 40W at the very most and for a lot of the time, it's quite a bit lower than that.

Edit: I forgot about this article! If you look at the GPU-z screenshot, the entire card is consuming 284W, but the VRAM is just using 14W.

Even if one assumes that 24 GB will use 80W in the same circumstances, that might seem to be a lot, but GPU vendors incorporate this value into their card's peak power usage. For example, a 4090 is rated to 450W at most, but 90W of that would be the VRAM -- it would actually force the GPU itself to be power throttled and run slower, unless the card's BIOS permits a higher power limit.
VRam was just an example. Everything contributes to power draw, GPU, CPU, even RGB. Sure, RGB and/or VRam isn't the primary power draw, but 40w here and there and suddenly you've got a hundred or more watts of power, even while idle.

As we declare the death of the 8G GPU, I will say that the 750W PSU isn't far behind. I just did 2 high-end builds, one with the 13900K and the other with a 7950X. With the 7900XTX GPU the Intel build is running around 722W and the AMD build is running about 639. I think the 1000W PSU will become the norm for higher-end builds.

The point is that we will need more power to get more performance from the main components such as CPU and GPU. And that is not necessarily a good thing. Reducing power consumption by as little as 100W can save you $25-50/yr. Doesn't sound like much but over the life cycle of the machine it may make sense to spend a little more on more efficient devices.
 
With the 7900XTX GPU the Intel build is running around 722W and the AMD build is running about 639. I think the 1000W PSU will become the norm for higher-end builds.
The Navi 31 isn't the most power-efficient of GPUs, unfortunately, and paired with Intel's approach to topping benchmarks (I.e. performance regardless of energy requirements) it's not surprising it hit 722W. However, a Ryzen 7900 wouldn't be that much slower than the 7950X or 13900K for gaming, but use far less energy, and the same is true of the RTX 4080, for example. Chasing absolute performance will always result in high power demands; a more measured approach to component selection can easily knock a couple of hundred watts off the peak consumption.
 
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