Passively Cooling a CPU – Never Again!

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[optimumtech]

So the Amazon reviews I breezed over were for completely different parts.. Messed up big time there. Although I will say that's pretty misleading for consumers. Nevertheless, this is an interesting look at clock / vcore / power behaviour when Ryzen reaches it's thermal limit.

[SedaBorzoi]

Those amazon reviews are for different cpu coolers that are sold on the same page as the Arctic passive cpu cooler. You can tell which cpu cooler they're talking about by what it says under "size" and "style" at the top of the review.

[dPropheta]

So you try to cool a 65W TDP CPU with a 35W TDP Cooler, were you hoping for a miracle??? That test doesn't make any sense.

[nindzamaleta]

47W on that cooler should be enough for the newly released Athlon 3000G

[ragtop]

The question isn't why are people buying it, the real question is why are people using it in applications it wasn't designed for?

[VascovanZeller]

"I but bicycle wheels on a car - never again!" This cooler is not meant for a ryzen 3600 and much less for blender renders. You should have tested it with something like a Athlon 200ge or maybe a 2200g watching youtube or Netflix videos or running some basic backup scripts. Maybe some light e sports gaming. That would be a realistic test that adds value. As it is, it's not even worth it for entertainment purposes!

[ilord]

Silence
Termals
Size
You can pick only two :)

[acvn-hggy]

Well, using it as intended on my athlon 200ge in my nas, its a perfect cheap solution with a single shadow wing 2 to blow air through the drives and create some airflow for the cooler.

[KingOfJonnyBoy]

bro the tdp of this is 47 watts. it's meant for like a 2200ge or 2400ge or 3000g

[subzerodirol]

Passive coolers sometimes may be useful in rarely servicable systems and systems where u can't use a moving/spinning parts.

[alexis]

Why not trying in a low power build ? It's like trying to drive an F1 in the dirt... it may work but it's not made for it.

[QuantumBraced]

It's really a 35W cooler (long duration power limit). For anything higher, it has to be used semi-passively and results vary greatly based on setup. People have reported good results using it in the Lone L5 case with front fans, some saying it outperforms the L9i. But you have to position it such that it gets airflow through the fins.

[odinsplaygrounds]

6:07 The GPU coil whine (even if not the loud of screechy kind) surprised me when I made my first SFF PC. It definitely is the loudest part in my machine. And only during a blender render or something could the CPU cooler top that. The GPU and CPU fans are mostly fairly quiet. It's jut the coil whine making noise.

[bitbunny_VR]

that cooler is perfect for lower power cpu's at max. like a oem ryzen 2700E which is 45w tdp, or ryzen 2400GE, or athlon 200GE (both low power, what the E stands for: Efficient)

[ollie]

I have the intel version of this cooler, the alpine 12 passive, and it keeps my 4570 below 70 degrees even after some pretty stressful gaming sessions. You just need to provide enough case airflow, which granted kind of undermines the point of a passive cooler, but still

[gagakserak]

The mobo + cooler look far far prettier, cleaner than other liquid or air cooler.

[joshcurtis]

I used this cooler successfully on a Ryzen 5 1600 for awhile. I bought it because it was cheap (I think it’s less than $20), and I thought it would be a neat experiment. Went down from a 240mm AIO with no noticeable performance degradation.

However, it relies very heavily on case airflow to be successful. Mine was set up inside a Corsair Obsidian 250D with a 200mm fan at the front, 2x80mm fans at the back, and 2x120mm fans on the side, effectively turning the machine into a bit of a wind tunnel. Because it was evacuating the air so quickly, it was effectively turning this cooler into an active cooler, which is how I met with success (to wit: orienting the cooler so the fins were perpendicular to the airflow in the case caused a huge performance hit in gaming). I keep it around to use in a pinch if I need something, but I’m not expecting it to cool a Xeon or a Threadripper or anything like that.

I’ve since changed it out for something a bit beefier so I can get away with some overclocking, and so that when I upgrade to a more powerful CPU in the future, I’ll be ready for it.

[meteormedia]

I really don’t get these people writing negative reviews. Like, what are they expecting? It’s a passive cooler for low-end chips under 50W. Ofc it’s gonna fail if you put it on a powerful CPU...

[TheNiteNinja]

This would be more effective if it was facing the correct direction. The mini DTX board forces it vertically, where in a typical setup, it would be smack against the exhaust fan of a micro ATX case. This would work in a Corsair Obsidian 250D type case though as it's got side intake/exhaust.

You'd need something like the big car engine oil pan looking passive cooler that Paul from Paul's hardware used for his HTPC to cool a 65w part from any orientation. But hey, it's fun to toy around with things.

[rdng]

Using this cooler for a small DIY NAS. Its strength is actually in semi-passive cooling. NAS is in a case with a 200mm fan running at 800 rpm, cooler keeps a Pentium Gold (58W TDP) at temps in 30-40 Celsius-range. The whole package is inaudible, even at close range.