Using a $13 Arctic Alpine 12 passive heatsink on an i3-8100 processor

[macs_forever]

The i3-8100 is a 65w processor. The Alpine 12 is rated for a maximum of 47 watts but it's designed to run passively. I'll be cooling it with a 120mm fan. This will be interesting. I'll update this thread in a few days when I get it together and run some tests.

 

[macs_forever]

It's a pretty big hunk of Aluminum pictured with a 92mmx14mm thin fan on top.

 

[macs_forever]

OK, I put together the system without a case...

 

[macs_forever]

I have a 120mm Noctua fan blowing on this setup. Idle temps are 31C or less. Full load temps are no more than 45C. This hunk of Aluminum could likely cool a 95w i7. It is overkill for the i3-8100. I would not recommend using it passively on any 65w CPU, but this Nocuta 120mm fan is only running at 1300 RPM and is barely audible just lying on the heatsink. It should be dead silent once installed in the Cougar QBX case.

 

[scottkendall]

Surface area, and good heat removal is all you need. It is only a 4core without turbo or hyper threads. Remember outside of the case are temps are much lower. I would see at least 10c increase when I put the door on so I have always run computers with side/door off. I bought an I3 for bench tests and the HS and Fan I got for it was like $12, the fan spun so fast it made my ears bleed. Put 120mm case fan on it was keeping numbers like you got above but it was never in a case.

 

[Paulx86]

I have a 120mm Noctua fan blowing on this setup. Idle temps are 31C or less. Full load temps are no more than 45C. This hunk of Aluminum could likely cool a 95w i7. It is overkill for the i3-8100. I would not recommend using it passively on any 65w CPU, but this Nocuta 120mm fan is only running at 1300 RPM and is barely audible just lying on the heatsink. It should be dead silent once installed in the Cougar QBX case.

Have you tried to run your setup without Noctua fan, completely passively? what temperatures do you get then? I have the same i3-8100 and would like to run it passive using this Arctic Alpine thing, to make my whole Hackintosh fanless. I would appreciate if you'll share your experience

 

[macs_forever]

Have you tried to run your setup without Noctua fan, completely passively? what temperatures do you get then? I have the same i3-8100 and would like to run it passive using this Arctic Alpine thing, to make my whole Hackintosh fanless. I would appreciate if you'll share your experience

Yes, it works fine under real world loads. If I max out all 4 cores with 5 "yes >/dev/null" processes running in 5 different terminal windows, it will heat up. I have yet to see it reach 70c under any conditions but it likely would if I max everything out for hours.

I have maxed out all cores for 2 hours with my final setup. I am using a Cougar QBX case which has a 120mm fan mount directly over the heatsink I have a black Noctua Chromax NF-F12 PWM fan with "FocusedFlow" blowing on it at full speed which is barely noticeable at 22.4db. It won't breach 53c under any circumstances and it stays below 40c unless you purposely max out all the cores continuously. It is at 33c most of the time. I am very happy with it. Best $13 heatsink out there even if I did add a $20 case fan to it. That fan would have been in that same spot with any heatsink. The QBX is a very open case (lots of ventilation on sides, bottom, top). In addition to the noctua fan, there is a 90mm fan that comes with the case that is installed. I did not use the 92mm fan in the picture for anything,

 

[TurbineSeaplane]

I'm a little late to this, but could the cooler be oriented 90 off from what you have it there?

I am considering using it and have case fans that would blow through the fins and exhaust heat out the back if the cooler could work the other way (perpendicular to the RAM vs parallel basically)