I'd like to slip my tubestick into your sister
 

Does anyone have any experience with passive cooling?

Basically, to sum it up, it's the following: Instead of having fans in your computer, you just increase the heatsink size to where the heat dissipation would be so high that the temperatures of your CPU would be the same as with a fan. This usually means an overly-huge gigantic tremendous superflous heatsink, but hey, it's completely silent. They are usually homemade.

Anyone built one?

Nope haven't done it myself....
I've seen it done on 'cooler' processors, but with cutting edge hardware you're looking at a difficult project I think.

But what does the thread title have to do with it??

:confused:

Edit: I just _had_ to add an emoticon to this....

Not really sure what the title has to do with anything. It was the first thing that came to mind when thinking of a title. It's from Full Metal Jacket. Maybe the Metal got me going?

I saw a mod recently on another forum where the guy had an old processor (Pentium or something) and he incorporated the passive cooling into the case itself. It was awesome.

Well, this title actually made me look at a thread about passive cooling... I think it did it's job... but alas, no info on the cooling...

the rage f:50 pc from www.voodoopc.com has a fanless case.. the whole thing is one huge heatsink.. thats the closest ive ever heard of anything like what you're talking about..

That is completely awesome. Did you see the pic of the CPU? It had pipes coming out of it attached to the case. Truly awesome. Now that's an idea.

I've noticed that coolermaster has a new passive cooling solution for CPUs, which works with heat pipes. If the passive solution isn't good enough, one can always add a very slow-moving fan to the thing, to minimize noise.

As for VGA cards, Zalman has a passive thing for those too. I've seen one of their systems on a Radeon 9800 pro, so it's definately good enough.

In other words: look around, it's out there. :)

"What'll you take in trade?.....What do you got?"

Yeah, I don't know anything about computer cooling, but the quote did make me look. I'm just curious for all you people working to build these ultra-silent computers, are you building them out of sheer necessity, or is it more of a self-imposed challenge.

both. right now my roomate is my twin brother and so we both don't care about loud computers (we both have them). but next year one of my best friends is my roomate and he and his girlfriend probably won't appreciate my vortex of a computer. also it would be cool to turn your computer on and not hear anything.

Maximum PC has an article about how to silence your PC in the April 2004 edition. Some of the suggestions:
1) Minimize your fans.
2) Underclock your Video Card
3) Slow down your hard drives
4) Soundproofing foam
5) Use filters on your Fans
6) Install water cooled CPU, Memory, HDD, and Vid Card

Basically, I already do #1 as I have a fan RPM controller. However, I only silence when not in use. Otherwise it sounds like a jet taking off. #2.. No thanks.. Why buy a 256 MB vid card but run in in the 128 range.. #3.. No thanks again. I am not sacrificing performance. #4. Ok, I will think about this. #5. Filters are nice, but the once a month replacement is bordering on high maintenance.. #6.. HELL NO! Fun factor of 10, but the expense is high just to silence a pc..

Instead of putting filters on the fans, why wouldn't you just have a way to control the speed of your fans? At least then you could get the extra cooling when you need it.

the sound is so low, it can't be tested!! How cool is that?