Low power/Low heat not compatible with a multicore system?

[demonic]

Pretty much whenever I read 1000W power supplies, I tend to worry about my electricity bill.

I currently have a Dual P4 805, running with 3GB of ram, 4 Hard Drives and 1 DVD Rom. Running quite nicely although a bit loud because of the crappy intel fan.

It runs 24/7 and hopefully quite cheaply too, its only running a 300W.

Im looking to upgrade this to a 2x Clovertown (giving me 8 cores) and 8GB of Ram.

Anyhow, I was hoping not to really increase on the PSU and to run on a fanless psu, one that runs with a heatsink. In addition, was hoping to run the xeon cpus with heatsinks as well. Im really looking for a quiet solution that sits in the corner.

The only PCI-E card in the system will be a really low-end gfx card, with its own heatsink too and the ram chips (2gb each), will have their own heat spreaders.

So the question is, is this all achievable? I want a low powered, silent but high performance server. The tasks this box will deliver are running multiple versions of Windows 2003 EE, alot of server applications and alot of versions of Windows XP SP2.

 

[Bobbler]

I think you'll likely need a new power supply... and I don't think there are really fanless versions of a size you'd likely need (to handle 8 cores).

Are you saying you want to run fanless on the CPUs as well? Because I don't think that's very practical with 4 CPUs -- the only chance I can think of would be the low power versions (which are like 2x the price and lower clocked)... even then I think you may be out of luck (there are those heatsinks that are huge like the scythe for fanless operation, but having 4 of those in a box with no fans isn't likely to end well, especially if you had a fanless psu as well).

How important is silent operation? More important than speed? If so, you should be able to underclock the xeons enough that they should run cool enough to work with just big heatsinks without killing the system.

I'd say you're best bet is just getting very quiet heatsink/fans (large/low rpm) and going that route -- if it's tucked away in the corner you shouldn't be able to hear it very easily anyways.

 

[[maven]]

As an example, the Mac Pro is reasonably quiet (using the default passively-cooled GeForce) and not too much of a power-hog for a quad-core system.

Unless you are an experienced system-builder, it might be a good idea to go with a prebuilt workstation (e.g. from Apple, Dell, HP, Sun, ...) as they usually take things like noise and power consumption into account when designing their systems.

None of these system would qualify as low-heat or low-power, though...

 

[AlexV]

Actually, higher wattage PSUs may help with the Electricity bill. They`re generally higher-efficiency then their lower rated counterparts, they`re almost always higher quality and even though a near peak draw will make your PSU work closer to it`s stated efficiency, you don`t want your PSU shitting its pants trying to power your system as that`ll make it gobble power(meaning a lower wattage one that has to work really hard to keep your system pumping will probably draw more)

 

[Accord1999]

Im looking to upgrade this to a 2x Clovertown (giving me 8 cores) and 8GB of Ram.

Anyhow, I was hoping not to really increase on the PSU and to run on a fanless psu, one that runs with a heatsink. In addition, was hoping to run the xeon cpus with heatsinks as well. Im really looking for a quiet solution that sits in the corner.

A system with a pair of 2.33GHz Clovertowns will probably need a PSU upgrade.

http://realworldtech.com/page.cfm?ArticleID=RWT111406114244&p=4
http://www.2cpu.com/review.php?id=114&page=15

 

[Pete]

If you need to upgrade the PSU and noise is a factor, check out the PSU reviews at SilentPCReview.com. In particular, you'd want high-efficiency units, like those certified "80-Plus." Seasonic PSUs are renowned for their low noise. Even if you can't escape a fan on the PSU, getting a high-rated, quality PSU (500+W) may mean fan noise with your typical < 300W draw would be quite low (quiet, not silent).

If your case can accomodate them, a couple of Zalman or Scythe HSFs should help quiet those future Xeons while providing active cooling (comparative reviews at SPCR, too).

If your HDs are contributing to system noise, too, consider suspending them (again, see SPCR), though you'd have to take cooling into account (I think they dissipate some heat via the screws). Of course, if you decouple a HD from the case, remember to ground it.

Morgoth, I thought that previous PSUs were always more efficient closer to their rated output, and less efficient when serving up significantly less than they were capable of. Though things have likely improved with the new 80-Plus PSUs, they're probably also still (slightly) more efficient at higher draws. Lower noise should be a benefit either way, as the higher-wattage units should have beefier heatsinks (though some may have faster fans to compensate for an anticipated higher constant load, so read reviews).