How much cooling does a PC need when not processing?

googler

I have a Windows 10 PC for music playback, using an outboard streamer, reading from a hard drive within the PC.

It has a fan on the power supply, and a shroud fan directing air to the processor.

How much cooling is it likely to need when not streaming? Whenever I'm not listening, it's just sitting there doing nothing. Would you feel confident in disconnecting any or all fans?

that

Over 98% of the PC's power consumed ends up as heat

[Deleted User]

googler wrote: »

I have a Windows 10 PC for music playback, using an outboard streamer, reading from a hard drive within the PC.

It has a fan on the power supply, and a shroud fan directing air to the processor.

How much cooling is it likely to need when not streaming? Whenever I'm not listening, it's just sitting there doing nothing. Would you feel confident in disconnecting any or all fans?

Far too many variables to answer that. If the fans are controlled by the motherboard you can usually set parameters in there.

Neil_Jones

googler wrote: »

Would you feel confident in disconnecting any or all fans?

Never disconnect the fan on top of the CPU processor. It's there for a reason, not to look pretty.

Even at idle a processor continues to generate heat and unless you have a really really low wattage processor that happens to be able to be cooled by passive air exchange (ie it doesn't get hot enough to need a fan), trying to dictate otherwise usually ends in failure.

forgotmyname

Depends on the MB/CPU.

But the fans will be using a miniscule amount of power.

If all your fans run 24/7 they may use £1 a year.

googler

It's not the power consumption that's the issue, but the noise, since it's in the same room as I'm listening in.

Yes, I could have bought a fanless PC, and that might be a solution in the future, but the current one is a trial machine to see how the streamer behaves when accessing a 4Tb drive.

Task manager shows the CPU running at 4%, memory at 47%, the primary drive (OS on C) at 0%, and the 4Tb secondary drive (with all the music) at 0%. It seems to read an occasional 'chunk' from this drive into the streamer, and then goes static for a while.

stragglebod

I currently have an i3 4340 with onboard graphics that I put together about 5 years ago. Recently opened it up for the first time and saw that the case fan was broken. For how long I've no idea. Obviously the computer didn't need it. The power supply is in a separate chamber in the case so the only cooling in the case is the CPU heatsink and fan. Although it's a big Hyper 212 Evo which I got to keep the noise down.

dan958

If noise is the issue, take a look at after market fans. The ones that come with cases are generally terrible.

esuhl

How much cooling you need depends on the maximum temperature of the CPU, the size of the case, the airflow, the size, speed and efficiency of the fans, etc. Way too many variables to give any specific answer.


Tools like SpeedFan will display readouts of the various fan and temperature sensors in the PC. Then you can decide if they are "in range" or not:


http://www.almico.com/speedfan.php

Mobeer

Take the side of the case off and have a listen to where the noise comes from.

Does the CPU fan run all the time? Previous suggestion of using Speed Fan could help.

Do you have any fans in the case itself? I found with my own similar PC that a couple of 120mm slow 500rpm case fans really helped.

onomatopoeia99

It is possible to get passive CPU heatsinks, but these still require movement of air through the case. This can be achieved with larger, slower fans mounted inside the case and high quality, quieter options are available.

Just disconnectiing the fan on a standard CPU cooler is unlikely to be a wise move.