Slashdot Mirror

That was true in the Windows 7 era. PCs that come with Windows 8, on the other hand, ship with UEFI secure boot turned on, and users may need to figure out how to disable secure boot first.

Microsoft will no doubt get dragged into court over that. Count on the EU if no one else. In the mean time if I have to boot to the bios to switch it off I will, and Linux vendors have various workarounds. Another alternative is to buy Linux pre-installed. Endpcnoise has some fine machines with Ubuntu preinstalled. Their discount for choosing LInux instead of Windows is quite attractive. I call this dying gasp time for Microsoft. They haven't hit the really steep part of the cliff yet, but they will and they know it.

I bought from endpcnoise.com and I have nothing but good things to say about them. Indeed, they ship a nice case. Best, they assemble everything and QA it at a price that competes with me doing it and saves all kinds of skinned knuckles. Then these machines are really upgradable, I've upgraded the video card a couple of times, added two more spinning disks and an SSD. I will buy from them again, this time a 6 way 3.8 GHz Zamboni, err, Zambezi. And this time I will leave out the acoustic insulation but get the quietized hard disk enclosure. The HD and the power supply are the only moving parts in there, and they ship with a pretty quiet power supply. So no point to the acoustic insulation, but lots of point to the rather expensive HD enclosure. Then add my own SSD, using the hard disk mainly for swap (best not swap to the SSD). Not that I expect it to swap much with 16G. That will all come in around $1300, I know, it's more than a bargain basement box, but it's also a professional quality box. And they knock off $98 for no OS, $68 for Ubuntu. It's definitely worth the $30 to me for the preinstall, even though I will put on Debian Sid shortly after.

Quietized workstation: endpcnoise.com

My current laptop is a Dell core 2 inspirion, a nice generic laptop, however Dell seems to have ended its Linux preinstall program. The nice thing about Dell was the price. If I needed a new laptop today I might get one of these: linuxcertified.com

No doubt we're seeing the effects of an active, successful, and most probably illegal campaign by Microsoft to drive a wedge between Canonical and the PC vendors. So the Right Thing to Do is send your money to specialty vendors like above who Microsoft can't push around.

I think the (possibly delusional) people at Canonical have the idea that they're going to get equipment makers to include their distro pre-installed on devices, the way MacOS and Windows are today. They tried this with Dell IIRC, and that didn't work out so well.

I have two Dell machines here with Linux pre-installed that say you're wrong. Mind you, I upgraded both of them to stock Ubuntu after a while, which is more current. The thing is, those machines came to me fully functional, I was up and running in (much) less than 5 minutes out of the box. Then it's easy to look at what hardware drivers are in use and ensure that the same support is available in stock distributions. Which famously was not the case with Dell - it was a couple years before the embedded Wifi got a proper open source driver in the upstream kernel. I waited, big deal.

I would buy from Dell again. Yes, you get some way too cheap hardware that fails but that is just a fact of life in the consumer world. To their credit, Dell sends out replacement parts really without excessive procedure.

Actually, I can really, really recommend these guys: Endpcnoise.com. Excellent silent workstations running Ubuntu at a decent price. The only component I can hear in my 4 way Phenom is the hard disk, and not for very much longer.

The best places to check are:

http://www.endpcnoise.com/
http://www.silentpcreview.com/
http://www.acousticpc.com/
According to this, 3d support for r6xx and r7xx ATI cards (currently, everything numbered HD 2000 and up) is finally coming out.

Here is one card for $70 that meets your criteria if the 3D support above is really there.
http://www.silentpcreview.com/powercolor-hd4650

Uh, yeah. Or not.

I barely hear my Samsung Spinpoint.

You can buy a lot of quiet computing hardware, including hard drives. It can get pricey if you get really fanatical about it, but I wouldn't buy another PC again that wasn't designed to be quiet. A quiet office is just too nice.

1. Power supply. The Dell (at least Optiplex and Dimensions I've used) power supply is not standard. You cannot mount an off the shelf power supply because the power cord connector will be blocked by the Dell case.

For starters, http://www.endpcnoise.com/cgi-bin/e/dellconverter. html fixes the pinout problem. PC Power and Cooling and a number of other manufacturers also make native dell power supplies. For space concerns, ok, you'll have to get a dell or dell-style replacement, but... it's not a blocking issue. My local tiwanese-run bars-on-the-windows PC store sells 'em.

2. Case connector. The connector that attaches to the motherboard for power switch, reset, speaker etc. is in one solid block which plugs directly into the motherboard. Now the ordering of connectors on the block will not plug into an off the shelf motherboard. So you are generally out of luck if you want to use a non-Dell motherboard with a Dell case. You CAN cut the block off and rewire seperate connectors to allow connection to a different motherboard, but it's hardly worth the effort.

Agreed. But, that means that the dell case / motherboard are mated. It's not the end of the world. If the motherboard dies, throw the case away with it - you're down what, $40 these days? If the case dies... whatever, get a real case, put the dell mobo in it, and pin it out. Read the PCB.

3. Fan. The fan connector that plugs into the motherboard is not standard. Replacing the fan with an off the shelf generic one will not let you connect the fan connector to the Dell motherboard. This means that the Dell bios will think the fan has failed.

F1 -> halt on... -> no errors. Plug fan into molex connector.

You are correct in that add in boards and drives are not proprietary but you may find that Dell skimps in some ways on their motherboards. For example, the mid range Optiplex computers have no AGP slot and no PCI Express X16 slot. So no way you can add in a video card, you are stuck with onboard. Also most Dell desktops have only 2 DIMM slots compared to 3 or 4 on most standard motherboards. You also will need to pay a bit more if you want to get say 1 512MB DIMM versus 2 256MB DIMMS - in order to leave a slot open for future expansion.

You are comparing machines with vastly different purposes. This is probably better than the quality of motherboard you'd get in a standard dell cheapie business machine. Granted the one in the link has a PCI-E x16 slot, but it does only have 2 ram slots. Business people don't upgrade their graphics card. Those machines are the kind we buy for our computer labs here at VT - we need a fast processor, a good bit of ram, and then anything that will display 1280x1024 - 3D not required. And we buy 100 of them, plus monitors, at a time. Onboard graphics are great because they save money in these circumstances.

The high end motherboards you're talking about - ones with one, or even two, PCI-E slots and 4 ram slots - have you priced them lately? What's an SLI motherboard run? At least $115, and upwards of $160 to $200 if you want a good one or really good one. By comparison, that motherboard I linked to was made by intel, has onboard lan/audio/video/sata and only costs $65.

When dell makes a gaming machine (XPS or what have you), they use a motherboard with two PCI-E x16 slots and 3 or 4 ram slots. Dell is actually one of the only OEMs with advance access to motherboards which have FOUR x16 slots, and can do quad-sli.

So, in short, I'm not sure what you want them to be. You say their business support is fantastic, but then you say there are cheaper gaming PC's out there. Well... some gaming PC's suck, dell's high end ones don't. And Dell's high end gaming PC's come with the same support their shitty business PC's come with, which has to be paid from somewhere.

Could you elaborate on your hardware setup? My EPIA M10000 has a very noisy 40mm CPU fan (been meaning to replace that) and the case has a pair of noisy 40mm fans that I haven't had the balls to remove/undervolt yet. :-)

Via's fans are cheap and loud. If you replace those with something decent, like from Zalman or Nexus and you'll be much happier. http://www.endpcnoise.com/cgi-bin/e/cpucomparison. html?id=CfDcrzuT

Personally, I'm using a modified (hard drive removed) Hush PC http://www.mini-itx.com/store/product.asp?sid=HUSH -MCE.

Now that you can actually buy Via's NanoITX boards, my next project is going to be with one of those.

You have two choices other than dumpster diving - one is to buy really quiet components and other is go with fanless watercooling. I can tell you from experience that the fans make a really big difference. I usually buy the best fans I can afford and they usually run under 10-15 dB. It's hard to tell that stuff is even one, especially once you get the case buttoned up.

I have a case fan that I bought that runs at under 10dB - which less literally than a whisper. Keep the HDD and the CD/DVD drives quiet. Use a quiet power supply - yes, they make them - http://www.tweaknews.net/reviews/silenx/index2.php - that one is well under 15dB.

This link is to a quiet video card - http://www.endpcnoise.com/cgi-bin/e/zm80d-hp.html. It works without a fan at all but is dependent on the case fan/cooling.

This link is to fanless CPU cooler - http://www.overclockers.com/tips1218/ - uses a pump and water tank.

That means that you should be able to have your system built and running at no more than 30dB, if you choose your parts right, which is really really quiet. Closeted away, in a cabinet or some such, and you'll likely not even know it's on.

2 cents,

Queen B

I don't suppose google has been of any help, has it?
http://www.google.com/search?q=quiet+psu

I seemed to find a pretty quiet PSU pretty easy, dunno about you:
http://www.endpcnoise.com

Because while an external PSU might be cool, you're really only trying to solve the noise problem.

Here's an adaptor http://www.endpcnoise.com/cgi-bin/e/dellconverter. html

And newer Dells use standard ATX power supplies.

Thermaltake makes a peltier cooler. I tried it when I first built my P4 system about 18 months ago. It was abysmal. The controller would let the CPU run up to almost the published thermal limit (65C+) and then kick into high-gear. The fans ramped up to an unacceptable noise level and the peltier started making this loud click-click-click sound.

Granted, the temps went down to about 36C amazingly fast. At that point, though, the cooling system went back into it's quiet state and the temps would start creeping back up again.

I switched it out for a much simpler, quieter, and far less expensive Zalman 7000. My CPU temp runs consistantly within a range of 38-40C now. Maybe a bit higher under heavy gaming load, but not 20-25C higher. The Zalman cooler costs 1/4 the price of the peltier and provides consistant cooling equal to the best the peltier could do.

http://www.endpcnoise.com/

Everything about the [DELL] boxes were fairly standard for the most part.

Just hope they weren't manufactured between '98 and '04 (thru the 8100 series)... because they used nonstandard, proprietary, power supplies and motherboards.

And try to find a power supply for one of those frickin mini-HPs or compaqs for under $100...

This Zalman Tower and this Breeze seem like a better combination at about the same price.

Not as stylish, but just as quiet:

http://www.endpcnoise.com/cgi-bin/e/quiet_cube.htm l

you can even buy power factor correction power supplies if your Q gets too big, as the power company does charge for imaginary power.

Custom-built quiet PCs. I'm not affiliated with them in any way, I just think it's a good idea and am probably going to buy one.

Ahanix sell PSU's to go with their cases. I have the Dvine6SQ case, which has a matching "media pack" containing a VFD display, IR sensor, remote & PSU. The PSU is rated at about 400W I think, and is labelled as 14dBA (!). According to reviews it's the quietest PSU available, but in exchange you have to be careful with heat. In my main desktop I use a Nexus NX3000 which really is quiet. 18dbA at idle, 19 under load. I really can't hear it running unless my ear's up against the fan.

Check out these guys to buy and these guys for reviews.

I recently bought a silent Nexus power supply. Ran me $70. It's silent, looks very cool, and to boot the fan actually blows across the CPU. The back of the PS (the part when you put the plug into) is a mesh instead of solid metal, so the airflow is quite effective.

YMMV

There are also hard drive enclosures.

I second that - can't say enough good things about them. SO quiet. I replaced the one that came with my early-model mac g4 (a Maxtor (Western Digital's are equally noisy, BTW)) with a Seagate Barracuda I picked up from www.endpcnoise.com, and now the whole machine is maybe a third as loud. It's like a dream - the only sound I can hear is that of the power supply fan. I also replaced the case fan with one that was (unfortunately smaller) much quieter. So now, if I can find a quiet power supply that is guaranteed to work with my machine, I'm golden.

In my last place, I had the thing in a closet, which really quieted it down. I was nervous about the heat, but nothing bad happened at all. I had to keep it quiet so I could do recording. Now I just have the mic in a different room. Much nicer.

I was tired of my computer making all sorts of noise too. For the cost of that, he probably could have gone to EndPCNoise.com and got a silent CPU fan and PS. I got a Nexus CPU Fan for my 1500+ and I can't hear it at all. Also went with the Nexus 300W PS. The only thing that makes noise in my computer is the HDD's, and those are the next thing to go. Plus it's a lot more practical and reliable then all that copper.