Passive | KitGuru https://www.kitguru.net KitGuru.net - Tech News | Hardware News | Hardware Reviews | IOS | Mobile | Gaming | Graphics Cards Thu, 21 Dec 2023 12:26:28 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.4.3 https://www.kitguru.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/cropped-KITGURU-Light-Background-SQUARE2-32x32.png Passive | KitGuru https://www.kitguru.net 32 32 KitGuru Advent Calendar 2023 Day 19 – Win one of THREE Noctua bundles! (Closed) https://www.kitguru.net/tech-news/competitions/matthew-wilson/kitguru-advent-calendar-2023-day-19-win-one-of-three-noctua-bundles/ https://www.kitguru.net/tech-news/competitions/matthew-wilson/kitguru-advent-calendar-2023-day-19-win-one-of-three-noctua-bundles/#respond Tue, 19 Dec 2023 11:00:19 +0000 https://www.kitguru.net/?p=640476 For day 19 on the KitGuru Advent Calendar, we are teaming up with Noctua to give away THREE prize bundles! Each bundle comes with a Noctua CPU cooler, a set of fans, thermal paste and wipes to keep your hardware clean. 

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This competition is now CLOSED. Our winners today are Guy Snead (NH-U12A Chromax Black) András Sivadó (NH-U12S) and Giorgos Adamakis (NH-P1). A new competition is now live and can be found HERE

For day 19 on the KitGuru Advent Calendar, we are teaming up with Noctua to give away THREE prize bundles! Each bundle comes with a Noctua CPU cooler, a set of fans, thermal paste and wipes to keep your hardware clean. 

There are three bundles – the top prize features a Noctua NH-U12A chromax.black CPU cooler and two NF-A12x25 PWM chromax.black 120mm fans. The second bundle features an NH-P1 passive CPU cooler and two NF-A12x25 LS-PWM 120mm fans. Finally, the third bundle features an NH-U12S redux CPU cooler and two NF-P12 redux-1700 PWM 120mm fans.

All three bundles also come with a 10g tube of Noctua thermal compound and a set of cleaning wipes.

Entering this giveaway is simple, all you need to do is head over to THIS POST on our Facebook page and leave a comment. We plan to have a new discussion topic each day, today we are asking you guys to tell us – what CPU cooler are you currently using?

This competition is open worldwide.

The winner will be picked randomly shortly after 11AM GMT December 20th, and a new competition will also be announced for Day 20. The chosen winner has 48 hours to respond, if we do not hear from them, then the prize will be revoked and a new winner will be picked.

Terms and Conditions: This competition is open worldwide, starting at 11AM GMT on December 19th and ending at 10:59AM GMT on December 20th. Due to the busy Christmas season, prize deliveries could take longer than usual and some prizes may not ship until January. In compliance with GDPR, we will not collect or store any personal information as part of this competition. Once the winner has been contacted and their prize received, personal details will be deleted from our email servers. Your details will not be shared, we respect your privacy.

KitGuru Says: Good luck to everyone entering today's competition – we'll be back tomorrow to announce a winner and open the door for day 20!

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X570Silence – ASUS and Gigabyte Motherboards Review https://www.kitguru.net/components/motherboard/luke-hill/x570silence-asus-and-gigabyte-motherboards-review/ https://www.kitguru.net/components/motherboard/luke-hill/x570silence-asus-and-gigabyte-motherboards-review/#respond Mon, 04 Oct 2021 11:55:50 +0000 https://www.kitguru.net/?p=534013 X570S is here and Luke checks out two options from ASUS and Gigabyte

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AMD’s X570 platform has been superb since its launch in July 2019, but B550 stole some of its thunder in summer 2020. Especially because B550 was fully passive and had some updated features given its 1-year newer status. With X570, only a couple of the ultra-high-end boards were passive – most had an annoying chipset fan.

Not happy with the highest-end AM4 options just sailing into the sunset until AM5 arrives, the motherboard vendors have brought out some new X570 motherboards often designated ‘X570S’. And these boards are passively cooled without a chipset fan, thus eliminating one of the most annoying features for the X570 offerings in general.

Before you get too excited about the ‘new X570S' chipset, we spoke to AMD and they confirmed that there is no real difference with the chipset silicon itself. There is no new process node or adjusted feature set. Instead, the motherboard vendors have more or less taken it upon themselves to use X570S as a marketing term for the chipset… but it’s still X570!

To be perfectly frank though, that is not such a bad thing. X570 is still a superb platform, with PCIe Gen 4 connectivity throughout and a high-bandwidth four-lane highway between the CPU and chipset. Realistically, the only downside to X570 motherboards as they have currently existed on the market has been the chipset fan. But now, better cooling implementations from the motherboard vendors have that annoyance fixed.

Anyway, that’s enough for the introduction. We will be examining a couple of passive X570 motherboard from ASUS and Gigabyte.

We have the £360 ASUS ProArt X570-Creator WiFi that is intended for prosumers with personal workstation type use cases. And the £340 Gigabyte X570S Aorus Master which carries on from the original X570 Aorus Master by intending to be an all-round enthusiast option with a high-end, but not over the top price tag.

Let’s take a closer look at both of these motherboards.

Be sure to check out our sponsors store EKWB here

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MonsterLabo The First Review – Not Quite Silent https://www.kitguru.net/components/leo-waldock/monsterlabo-the-first-review-not-quite-silent/ https://www.kitguru.net/components/leo-waldock/monsterlabo-the-first-review-not-quite-silent/#respond Mon, 27 May 2019 12:49:20 +0000 https://www.kitguru.net/?p=413515 It's an ALMOST silent Mini ITX chassis - but how well can it cool your hardware?

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MonsterLabo The First is a PC chassis that is built around the largest heat exchanger we have ever seen inside a computer. Picture the heatsink used in, say, a large be quiet! cooler and then imagine something five times larger and you have a starting point for The First. This enormous heatsink is located in the upper half of the chassis and is connected via heat pipes to a CPU cooler and a GPU cooler, to which you attach your motherboard assembly and graphics card.

Yes, you first need to remove the stock cooler from your graphics card and yes, you need to check the FAQs to see whether your hardware will fit inside The First. We would love to claim this is a passively cooled PC, however MonsterLabo sent us their Premium Package that comes with a 140mm Noctua fan so while this PC is very quiet indeed, technically it is not completely silent.

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Specification:

  • Motherboard support: Mini-ITX.
  • Included fans: Premium Package includes 1x 140mm Noctua.
  • Fan mounts: 1x 120/140mm.
  • Radiator mounts: None.
  • Fanless configuration: CPU 100W, GPU 120W.
  • Active configuration: CPU 140W, GPU 160W.
  • 5.25-inch optical drive bays: None.
  • Internal drive bays: 1x 3.5-inch, 3x 2.5-inch.
  • Power supply: ATX, SFX-L, SFX (Max. length 160mm)
  • Dimensions: 430mm H x 205mm D x 215mm W.

Be sure to check out our sponsors store EKWB here

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Palit GTX 1050 Ti KalmX (Passive) Hands-On https://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/luke-hill/palit-gtx-1050-ti-kalmx-passive-hands-on/ https://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/luke-hill/palit-gtx-1050-ti-kalmx-passive-hands-on/#comments Thu, 09 Feb 2017 09:06:02 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=321185 GTX 1050 Ti without fans? Palit's KalmX has you covered.

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Our initial impressions of the GTX 1050 Ti were that it is a solid GPU that is good for gamers wanting a budget 1080P, 60FPS solution. Power draw is one of the strengths of the GP107 GPU used for the GTX 1050 Ti, with Nvidia setting the value at 75W. Low power draw and a 1080P60 target shout loudly for a passively cooled solution and Palit delivers just that with the new GTX 1050 Ti KalmX.

Despite the modest 75W TDP of GTX 1050 Ti, dissipating that level of heat passively is not a straightforward task. Many graphics cards have the ability to shut down fans under low load and temperature conditions (usually below 60°C GPU temperature). Typically, however, the heatsink design of such cards is not optimised for maintaining a sub-60°C temperature under load and the fans become a necessity when any form of heavy gaming load is applied.

With its KalmX solution, Palit calls upon a copper contact plate and a pair of 6mm heatpipes to shift thermal energy from the GP107 die through 43 aluminium fins that boost the card's weight to almost half-a-kilo (470g, to be precise). It's silent under low load and it's silent under full load.

Measuring in with an 18.5cm maximum length (to the end of the heatpipes), 13.5cm width (accounting for the subdued PCIe slot connector, 14cm without subtracting its dimensions), and 3.6cm thickness (dual slot with no backplate), Palit's KalmX isn't the smallest of mid-range GPU offerings and its width could be a challenge for installation inside compact mini-ITX cases.

No power connector is required as up to 75W can be drawn from the PCIe slot. Video outputs consist of DisplayPort 1.4, HDMI 2.0b, and dual-link DVI-D (digital only).

43 fins are housed in an array that measures approximately 14.7cm long, 12.5cm wide, and 3.6cm at its thickest point. Spacing between the fins is large at around 3mm because this design allows for air to more easily move through the array without the requirement for the flow to be operating at high pressure (which is difficult to achieve without nearby fans or blowers mounted on the array).

The heatsink alone weighs 350g, though this weight is concentrated close enough to the PCIe slot and GPU-area mounting holes to prevent a significant bending moment causing PCB sag. It's great to see attention given to MOSFET and choke cooling by the use of thermal pads connected to the KalmX heatsink.

It's worth noting the fin orientation. With the fins pointing towards the side panel in a typical case design, Palit's card would be best partnered with a side panel fan that forces air directly through the fin array. Air flow coming from the front of the chassis would be less effective at penetrating the fin array and dissipating the heat. With that said, this design choice implies that Palit has built the GTX 1050 Ti KalmX with Small Form Factor (SFF) users in mind, as many mini-ITX cases do not follow the conventional front-to-back airflow regime.

Palit's KalmX model is clocked at reference GTX 1050 Ti speeds of 1291MHz core, 1392MHz boost, and 7Gbps effective for the GDDR5 memory.

As is common for cards with Nvidia's GPU Boost technology, the Palit GTX 1050 Ti KalmX actually operated well above its rated 1392MHz boost clock. We observed clock speeds as high as around 1700MHz out-of-the-box. The average core clock speed under load typically cycled around the mid-1600MHz level (around 1620 to around 1670MHz range). Throttling tended to be power-induced, not due to thermal performance.

We used our typical GPU test system and procedure to grab the above performance results, information for which can be obtained HERE.

Palit's KalmX GTX 1050 Ti put in numbers that are typical for a reference-clocked card. However, this should not be overlooked given the card's complete lack of dedicated cooling fans.

The ability to hang with a reference-clocked dual-fan card from ASUS is certainly a solid result for Palit's passively-cooled offering.

Even more impressive was the thermal performance of the Palit GTX 1050 Ti KalmX. We tested the card enclosed in an NZXT Phantom 630 case with the large front fan and rear 140mm unit set to medium speed. The Corsair H110i GT was set as medium-speed exhaust.

Palit's card stayed around the 50°C mark for our short-duration test scenario which involves a 5-minute circuit of Unigine Heaven at 1920×1080. This was a superb result that saw the passive card outperforming competing GTX 1050 Ti solutions with dual-fan coolers (albeit small ones).

We put the card to a stress test which involved a four hour continuous run of Unigine Heaven at 1920×1080. The KalmX card stabilised at 64°C in our test environment and was still operating around its general GPU core clock speed of mid-1600MHz at this point in time. Based on our testing, thermal throttling is unlikely to be an issue with the Palit GTX 1050 Ti KalmX even if you want to game continuously for hours, provided you have decent case airflow.

Some of you may be wondering how a passive card can run cooler than one with dual, low-speed fans (albeit over a short period of time). The reason for this improved performance profile is due to Palit's sizeable KalmX heatsink. The large slab of metal is able to absorb a significant amount of thermal energy that is removed from the GPU core without needing to dissipate it at a high rate, initially (thermal capacitance).

So, over short periods of time, the KalmX cooler can keep temperatures in check thanks to its volume of metal and some low speed incidental airflow. But when the thermal load is applied for a longer duration, the requirement to dissipate that energy that has been transferred to the heatsink becomes more important. The incidental airflow has a more difficult time shifting heat off the fins thus the fin array increases in its metal temperature and the rate of conduction from the GPU core is slowed.

In layman's terms, the sizeable KalmX cooler is very effective at keeping the GPU cool with respect to short-duration loads but this superb cooling performance is somewhat lessened when a heavy load is applied for a greater, continuous time period. Putting this into perspective, however, a load temperature of 64°C after 4 hours straight of Unigine Heaven 1080p is very impressive for a graphics card with no dedicated fans.

Needless to say, the GTX 1050 Ti KalmX card's cooling profile will be heavily dependant upon the chassis it is housed in. A more compact case is likely to see the card's temperature rise due to a smaller volume of air (which will act as a coolant medium) being enclosed within the chassis. With that said, closer proximity to chassis fans inside a compact enclosure may benefit the KalmX's temperature profile as air is better directed towards the card.

The overall card was not particularly hot when operating under load conditions. There were areas on the rear of the PCB that climbed towards 70°C but these spots were concentrated around the GPU core and MOSFET sections.

Palit's passively-cooled GTX 1050 Ti KalmX is a smart piece of engineering that tackles the 75W GP107 GPU for GTX 1050 Ti by using a sizeable fin array rather than one or two small fans and a miniature block of metal. This approach works well as the card was able to operate without thermally throttling throughout the duration of our testing inside a NZXT Phantom 630 chassis with only two medium speed case fans.

If you are considering building a gaming HTPC for your 1080p living room TV and want it to be as quiet as possible, Palit's passive GTX 1050 Ti KalmX is certainly deserved of a spot on your shortlist. A fanless graphics card certainly won't appeal to all but for those users who prefer to control their system's cooling functions through low-speed chassis fans, rather than small and fast GPU cooler fans, Palit's GTX 1050 Ti KalmX provides such an option.

Discuss on our Facebook page, over HERE.

KitGuru says: Palit creates the KalmX cooler with finesse by using a sizeable volume of metal and more than 40 fins that confidently cool the GTX 1050 Ti graphics card.

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CES 2017: SuperMicro unveils passively cooled mini-ITX PC https://www.kitguru.net/desktop-pc/gaming-rig/jon-martindale/ces-2017-supermicro-unveils-passively-cooled-mini-itx-pc/ https://www.kitguru.net/desktop-pc/gaming-rig/jon-martindale/ces-2017-supermicro-unveils-passively-cooled-mini-itx-pc/#respond Fri, 06 Jan 2017 12:18:19 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=316735 SuperMicro has shown off a new passively cooled cube concept PC at CES 2017. Complete with some strong internal hardware and a compact chassis, the system has the potential to be a powerful little gaming PC that is devoid of noise entirely. While SuperMicro might be mostly focused on the creation of servers, that doesn't …

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SuperMicro has shown off a new passively cooled cube concept PC at CES 2017. Complete with some strong internal hardware and a compact chassis, the system has the potential to be a powerful little gaming PC that is devoid of noise entirely.

sueprmicro04

While SuperMicro might be mostly focused on the creation of servers, that doesn't mean it doesn't know what it's doing with gaming PCs too. This latest conceptual design contains an Intel Core i5-7500 CPU, paired off with a GTX 1060 graphics card and a brand new Kaby Lake motherboard of the mini-ITX form factor.

sueprmicro01 sueprmicro03

While hardware like this would usually take at least some measure of active cooling, what's most impressive about this SuperMicro build is that it doesn't have a single fan in its design. Instead if features a large mesh of aluminium fins which help natural air current dissipate the heat that builds up inside.

sueprmicro02

Although usually concept builds don't make it further than a trade show like CES, we're told that this PC should end up going on sale for around £1,000, though when is anyone's guess.

Discuss on our Facebook page, HERE.

KitGuru Says: Normally I would say that quiet fans are enough to get by, but having run a pump-whining Fury X for a while, the idea of a passive system sounds pretty nice. 

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Need a passively cooled graphics card? Asus has you covered https://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/brendan-morgan/need-a-passively-cooled-graphics-card-asus-has-you-covered/ https://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/brendan-morgan/need-a-passively-cooled-graphics-card-asus-has-you-covered/#comments Thu, 11 Dec 2014 08:51:37 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=225787 Asus has announced the release of a fan-free NVIDIA GeForce GTX 750, that should soon be available for those of us who value a bit of peace and quiet while gaming. The card uses the ASUS DirectCU Silent cooler, to radiate heat away as fast as possible, with ASUS claiming that it will be 16% cooler than other …

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Asus has announced the release of a fan-free NVIDIA GeForce GTX 750, that should soon be available for those of us who value a bit of peace and quiet while gaming. The card uses the ASUS DirectCU Silent cooler, to radiate heat away as fast as possible, with ASUS claiming that it will be 16% cooler than other passively chilled graphics cards.

Asus passive 750

Although it is not yet available to buy here in the UK, you can preorder it for around £109. Unfortunately it will not be quite as capable as the 750 Ti version, which is also available as a passively cooled card from Palit (Palit GeForce GTX 750 Ti KalmX) and costs only slightly more.

The specification differences between the two cards are relatively small, with the Palit 750 Ti having more CUDA Cores (640 vs 512) and slightly faster clocked memory (5400MHz vs 5010MHz). This will make a difference for anyone playing more demanding games, but how big that difference is we do not yet know.

Full specifications:

  • NVIDIA GeForce GTX 750
  • 2GB of GDDR5 Video Memory
  • GPU Boost Clock : 1085 MHz
  • >GPU Base Clock : 1020 MHz
  • >512 CUDA Cores
  • 5010 MHz ( GDDR5 ) Memory Clock
  • 128-bit Memory Interface
  • DVI, HDMI 1.4a, DisplayPort 1.2

Discuss on our Facebook page, HERE.
KitGuru Says: While not ideal for serious gaming, this card would be great in a home entertainment PC where you don't want the sound of a full powered graphics card's fans spinning up during the middle of  your movie night. Anyone running a passive graphics card at the moment?
Source: ASUS

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