I'll try to get right to the point. I have a Intel Xeon E3-1220 (80W Thermal Design Power) in a well ventilated 1U chassis. It came bundled with a Active cooling solution that is just barely too tall to fit inside the chassis. My question is:
If I remove the fan and only keep the heatsink, is this a passive solution or are those heatsinks (that come with passive solutions) different than the ones that come with active solutions?