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Passive cooling for 486dx4
Pretty much dissatisfied with what the out-of-box routers/firewalls are
offering, I decided it's finally time for me to reinstate an old 486 box to serve as the first line of defense and traffic routing in place of a LevelOne box. However... Due to its location it is imperative that it's completely silent. I don't care much about the hard-drive's noise (in case I do decide to use it instead of a floppy or a flash card on flash-to-IDE adapter) - but rather about the other two moving parts: CPU fan and PSU fan. My questions are -- can this CPU survive with a passive cooler only? If so, which one(s) do you recommend? How about PSU -- which one to use (hopefully not some pricey one)? The specifications a 486dx4, 100 MHz, 32 MB RAM. For system+storage I'll either use a floppy, a CD, or a flash memory card. |
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Passive cooling for 486dx4
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#3
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Passive cooling for 486dx4
wrote in message ups.com... Pretty much dissatisfied with what the out-of-box routers/firewalls are offering, I decided it's finally time for me to reinstate an old 486 box to serve as the first line of defense and traffic routing in place of a LevelOne box. However... Due to its location it is imperative that it's completely silent. I don't care much about the hard-drive's noise (in case I do decide to use it instead of a floppy or a flash card on flash-to-IDE adapter) - but rather about the other two moving parts: CPU fan and PSU fan. My questions are -- can this CPU survive with a passive cooler only? If so, which one(s) do you recommend? How about PSU -- which one to use (hopefully not some pricey one)? The specifications a 486dx4, 100 MHz, 32 MB RAM. For system+storage I'll either use a floppy, a CD, or a flash memory card. With a large enough heat sink...a fan should not be needed for the 486... to ensure a cool cpu , you may even want to clock it down to maybe 66mhz or so as far as the psu, a fan probably is needed, though you might get enough cooling if you ran the fan at a lower voltage |
#5
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Passive cooling for 486dx4
wrote:
Pretty much dissatisfied with what the out-of-box routers/firewalls are offering, I decided it's finally time for me to reinstate an old 486 box to serve as the first line of defense and traffic routing in place of a LevelOne box. However... Due to its location it is imperative that it's completely silent. I don't care much about the hard-drive's noise (in case I do decide to use it instead of a floppy or a flash card on flash-to-IDE adapter) - but rather about the other two moving parts: CPU fan and PSU fan. My questions are -- can this CPU survive with a passive cooler only? If so, which one(s) do you recommend? How about PSU -- which one to use (hopefully not some pricey one)? The specifications a 486dx4, 100 MHz, 32 MB RAM. For system+storage I'll either use a floppy, a CD, or a flash memory card. I found a datasheet, and the power is around 5W max for the processor. For a Northbridge style heatsink, something around 2 inches high or higher might work. Or select some other form factor of heatsink which fits. It all depends on the mounting holes available, as to what might make a good convection cooler. But the 5W suggests it is doable with some care. For a PSU, there are some fanless ATX units, but they are expensive. There are some power configs, consisting of a pico power converter and laptop adapter, but that is probably still expensive, considering the small amount of power you get. And you'd need to adapt a device like this, with cabling suitable for your motherboard - it likely won't fit as is. http://www.mini-itx.com/store/?c=10#picoPSU Newegg carries one of the lower power versions of those kits. Your machine's total consumption might be quite a bit more than this can handle. To use low power gear like this, you really need to drive the system with a regular supply first, measure consumption under realistic max load, then figure out what size Pico might work. And for all the hassle, a fanless ATX regular supply makes as much sense. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813995001 Here is a fanless ATX. Currently listed as out of stock. May well be $100 when they get some more. You'd probably need adapter cabling, to convert from ATX cable to whatever your motherboard uses. Supplies like this make the most sense, when you are well under their "rated" power. "FSP Group (Fortron Source) ZEN FSP300-60GNF-R ATX 12V Version 2.0 300W Fan Less" http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817104902 Paul |
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Passive cooling for 486dx4
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#7
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Passive cooling for 486dx4
wrote
wrote My questions are -- can this CPU survive with a passive cooler only? If so, which one(s) do you recommend? How about PSU -- which one to use (hopefully not some pricey one)? The specifications a 486dx4, 100 MHz, 32 MB RAM. For system+storage I'll either use a floppy, a CD, or a flash memory card. I had a 486DX33 that had no heatsink or fan. The DX66 had a heatsink only, and the faster models had fans as I recall. Nope, the 586 worked fine with just a heatsink, no fan. I'd just use thermal epoxy to glue on the biggest heatsink I could fit on it. I'd think the Thermalright motherboard chipset heatsinks would work great. If the cpu dies, pick up another for six bucks. |
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