Silent GPU Mining(Alt-Coin) for heating during winter.

[RandomQ]

I'm looking for some advice on getting the Lowest Noise GPU for mining(alt-coin), to use as a heat source. I was hoping for something that is AIR cooled.

Anyone have any luck getting a Passive(IE No Fan) water cooled GPU running 24/7. I was thinking about using a 55 gallon drum as a passive cooling for a 7970 water cooled.

[crazyates]

Passive air cooling? Kinda hard to do.

Passive water cooling works with a big rad, and only 1 or 2 GPUs.

I read here about a guy that hooked a 4 GPU setup to a big old car radiator, and the loudest part was the beefy pump that had to run it all. No fans on the car radiator.

Lets say you're using ~1KW of power. The 55 gallon drum might work, but once you ran it for a day or two, it would eventually heat up the whole tank. I doubt your water cooling setup would be as effective if the water being pumped in was 150F.

Your best bet? Try finding an old car radiator from a junkyard and hooking that up.

[ricm]

maybe you can find some fanless solutions from zalman.
http://www.izarmicro.net/fotos/productos/VNF100.jpg

[Hydroponica]

Most effective watercooling setups, use a dual, push-pull fan configuration for the radiator. Passive cooling, and over-clocking, are not a viable combination, imo

[kriwest]

Personally I've placed my computer in my walk-in closet that keeps the noise out. I've drilled a hole through the wall to my living room for the HDMI cable and I use wireless keyboard/mouse. Maybe you could do something similar where you lead the heat generated into another room through the wall? You'd be able to use fans without hearing the noise, and get the heat you're after. This would depend on the layout of your house/apartment of course.

[wmikrut]

I keep my rigs in the basement on a rack.  Heat rises. .. so I get some good heating throughout the house without having to hear the equipment.

At 10 degrees out, and my basement windows open, it stays around 65 degrees down there!