passively cool nano-itx boards

[gurgel2]

I have an epia n700 nano-itx board with the 1.5ghz cpu - equipped with a fan. I was wondering if its possible to either underclock it to a heat level not requiring a fan. That or somehow do some hardware mod / replace heatsink so it can be fanless. Anyone got any ideas?

[lyonsksd]

Originally Posted by gurgel2

I have an epia n700 nano-itx board with the 1.5ghz cpu - equipped with a fan. I was wondering if its possible to either underclock it to a heat level not requiring a fan. That or somehow do some hardware mod / replace heatsink so it can be fanless. Anyone got any ideas?

Why do you want it to be fanless? I have the same N700 in a 4 X 9 metal box with a touch screen display giving off heat and no case fan running with no problems at all. It was checked today running for about 2.5 hours and the temp never got over 45 degrees C.

[Matt3o]

I don't have your board but I'm pretty sure it can be underclocked, probably from the bios or even software-wise (on linux I use cpufreq).

The alternative is to remove the small included fan and place a bigger quieter 80mm or even 12mm fan. You need some modding skills obviously.

[gurgel2]

Originally Posted by lyonsksd

Why do you want it to be fanless? I have the same N700 in a 4 X 9 metal box with a touch screen display giving off heat and no case fan running with no problems at all. It was checked today running for about 2.5 hours and the temp never got over 45 degrees C.

cool. At what cpu load do you run the machine? What did you measure. Heatsink temp or did you read the cpu temp through software?

[lyonsksd]

The only cpu load that I had was surfing and downloading drivers and updates for the system. As far as temperature goes, I used a thermocouple just hanging inside the sealed box to measure the ambient temperature. I wanted to be able to measure the cpu temp and battery life, but wasn't able to get the up and running yet.