Terrible idea; could a Noctua NH-D15 passively cool a Pentium?

[Arya]

I was stuck in traffic for three hours this afternoon and I had a really bad idea. Actually I had several. Anyway, I saw a passive CPU cooler recently, capable of running a 2700X quite comfortably at torture test loads. I noted how big it was, and I'm wondering if a very large heatsink like my NH-D15 could perhaps passively(and therefor silently) cool a much lower TDP CPU at low-load tasks.

I have the heatsink, but I don't have a Pentium or similar to hand to test it with. Yet. Would this stand even a snowball's chance in hell of working, or should I stop wasting brain cycles?

[Omega]

I would guess it to be doable but mainly due to the mass of the cooler alone. If you start putting that chip under a heavy load it will likely eventually overheat and throttle.


I find this somewhat relevant here:
https://youtu.be/yA0oo12rbiM
It's in german but you can enable subtitles.

Derbauer pulls the heatsink off a 8700k (delidded) to show that the PC will shut itself down once the chip overheats. Funny thing is that the chip never reaches the point of thermal shutdown even while running stress tests.

So it might be possible that if you delid a Pentium that it's able to run without a heatsink since it's a significantly lower wattage chip.

[Arya]

Ursprünglich geschrieben von Omega:

I would guess it to be doable but mainly due to the mass of the cooler alone. If you start putting that chip under a heavy load it will likely eventually overheat and throttle.


I find this somewhat relevant here:
https://youtu.be/yA0oo12rbiM
It's in german but you can enable subtitles.

Derbauer pulls the heatsink off a 8700k (delidded) to show that the PC will shut itself down once the chip overheats. Funny thing is that the chip never reaches the point of thermal shutdown even while running stress tests.

So it might be possible that if you delid a Pentium that it's able to run without a heatsink since it's a significantly lower wattage chip.

Interesting, thanks a lot. I'm going to have to try this at some point; a friend of mine has a Pentium build that's due for some maintenance, I'll ask him whether he's up for a little experiment. He usually is - he's as crazy as I am.

[Omega]

Ursprünglich geschrieben von Wolfey:

Ursprünglich geschrieben von Omega:

I would guess it to be doable but mainly due to the mass of the cooler alone. If you start putting that chip under a heavy load it will likely eventually overheat and throttle.


I find this somewhat relevant here:
https://youtu.be/yA0oo12rbiM
It's in german but you can enable subtitles.

Derbauer pulls the heatsink off a 8700k (delidded) to show that the PC will shut itself down once the chip overheats. Funny thing is that the chip never reaches the point of thermal shutdown even while running stress tests.

So it might be possible that if you delid a Pentium that it's able to run without a heatsink since it's a significantly lower wattage chip.

Interesting, thanks a lot. I'm going to have to try this at some point; a friend of mine has a Pentium build that's due for some maintenance, I'll ask him whether he's up for a little experiment. He usually is - he's as crazy as I am.

It was _I_ who originally gave me the idea, for suggesting passive cooling an R5 for my upcoming HTPC. And that's lead me to wonder if the wattage was low enough for a Pentium to Thermal-Mass cool.

I also have a family member his Pentium G4560 machine here atm for some maintenance and a disk swap. One of the HDDs is giving SMART warnings.

I could swap the Hyper 212 which is currently installed with my Be Quiet! Dark Rock Pro 4 as a little fun experiment..

I think that is a little bit too much of a hassle right now, I don't feel like spending 30 minutes swapping coolers.

I could try it with the Hyper 212.

[Arya]

Ursprünglich geschrieben von Omega:

I also have a family member his Pentium G4560 machine here atm for some maintenance and a disk swap. One of the HDDs is giving SMART warnings.

I could swap the Hyper 212 which is currently installed with my Be Quiet! Dark Rock Pro 4 as a little fun experiment..

I think that is a little bit too much of a hassle right now, I don't feel like spending 30 minutes swapping coolers.

I could try it with the Hyper 212.

My patient had it's CPU cooler "knocked off" Apparently he was cleaning it, and managed to thump the Stock Cooler so hard it came unstuck and "fell off" the CPU. Yikes. Clearly it needs a new heatsink, that gives me an excuse to see how this works in practice.

I have a sentimental attachment to the 212. My first serious build in 2007 had an original CM212, and when that went obsolete I salvaged the cooler and PSU. It was still in service with the original fan until only a couple of weeks ago, when I finally replaced it with a nice new Phanteks.

Best $37 part I ever bought.