Billet Labs has built a fanless water-cooled PC that relies on a convection chimney effect. The system uses triple-stacked radiators to dissipate heat without any active fans. The build is designed to test the limits of passive cooling for high-end components.
Passive cooling proves insufficient for modern gaming hardware
The PC is powered by an AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D processor and an Nvidia GeForce RTX 5080 graphics card. It uses an Aorus Pro B850 motherboard. Under combined load, the system draws over 450 watts of power. The cooling loop uses only passive radiators, with no fans to move air.
Specifications
- CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D
- GPU: Nvidia GeForce RTX 5080
- Motherboard: Aorus Pro B850
- Cooling: Passive water cooling with triple-stacked radiators, no fans
- Power draw: Over 450W under combined load
In testing, the CPU throttled at 95 degrees Celsius under load, while the GPU did not thermal throttle. Radiator water temperatures exceeded 60 degrees Celsius during combined Cinebench and FurMark stress tests. Billet Labs founder Felix acknowledged that passive water cooling alone is not sufficient for a powerful modern gaming rig.
The company may add a single 120mm fan in a follow-up build to improve cooling performance. Billet Labs has not confirmed a release timeline or pricing for any potential commercial version. The project remains a custom experiment rather than a product announcement.
Tom's Hardware reported on the build, noting the thermal challenges. Billet Labs has not disclosed plans for further development beyond the possible addition of a fan.
Discussion
0 comments
Log in to join the thread with a thoughtful take, question, or correction.