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Here are the fanless systems I have used :

* Neo . The whole case is an aluminum radiator, with fins on two sides, and holes.
It died after 4 years (DC input capacitor on mobo, I guess).

* FitPC2i . The aluminum case is the radiator, with no fins, no holes (except for connectors).
Very small. Still running fine after 1 year (in the dust).

Both systems are silent - 0db - with solid state storage. Instead of SSD I use USB key and mmc on the FitPC2i.

Various configurations use those fanless cases, you can find some more suited to your needs

To be slightly contradictory it may in fact be an engineering idea to prevent people from stacking items on top it, for perhaps heat relating issues?

We had a fanless CPE that people were stacking other network equipment on http://www.lex.com.tw:8080/product/LIGHT.htm which cause the HDD's to fail.

Link to lex system updated

Choose product, neo case (0db, nice look in the living room), then see available motherboards, MV823A is the one for this multimedia purpose.

Enjoy real 0 db appliance( compact flash instead of hard drive, 1 GB are affordable now and enought for MythTV ).

Some details for MV823A mobo:

Processor :
. On-board VIA C3/Eden 376 pin EBGA package
. Front side bus 100/133 MHz
. VIA Eden Processor 533MHz/733MHz/800MHz/1GHz
. VIA C3 processor 800MHz/1GHz/1.2GHz/1.4GHz
. Integrated full-speed 192KB L1/L2 cache, F.S.B.133MHz
. Advanced multimedia instruction set for MMX ,3Dnow
System Chipset list :
. MB chipset :VIA CLE266 Chipset ( VT8623 and VT8235 )
. VGA : Integrated VT8623 Graphic chip
. Sound :VIA VT1616 AC97 SOUND
. LAN : Intel 100M/1G 82540EM or Realtek 10M/100M RTL8100B
. TV-OUT : VIA VT1622A Chip
. I/O : VIA VT1211 chip
. Video in : Philip 7113H Video input processor
. LVDS Transmitter : VT1631 DFP to LVDS signal
. IEEE1394 : VT6307 chip
Memory :
. Support one bank PC 1600/2100 DDR 266 up to 512MB
VGA Graphic :
. Optimized Shared Memory Architecture and maximum share 64MB
. Integrated 4x AGP, 128 bit. 3D graphics engine
. MPEG 2/1 Video Decoder, high quality DVD video playback
. Microsoft DirectX 7.0 and 8.0 compatible
. Resolution up to 1920 x 1440 x 16bit
. VGA resolution support 16:9 Mode
TV-out :
. NTSC( M and J) or PAL (B ,D , G , H , I , M , N and Nc ) TV output
. Graphics resolution up to 1024 x 768
. Automatic detection of TV presence

You should be able to find lots of small cases on mini-itx.com

Regardless, this company's Neo series
http://www.lex.com.tw:8080/home.htm
are very small (notebook HD only, no CD or other drive bays).
IIRC, they're under $400 with motherboard, CPU, case, and PS.

Neo case from lex system

I have 1GHz via proc, 3 eth, 2 usb (but usb 1.1), up to 512MB RAM, and sound.
Storage: I've chosen a very silent hard disk: seagate momentus 40GB 2.5" and Linux is tuned to spin down the drive: it only runs 15s every 10mn.
No CD/floppy drive: OS install with PXE and another PC on LAN.

You can have a real 0db system with LAN boot or using a compact flash for storage.
Of course network boot means another PC, noisy, but in another place ;-)

Believe me, I'm currently posting on Slashdot using this system, I really apreciate deep silence.

BTW, this is old news.

Teenagers will not take this one. Too bland sluggish and weak for their taste. Speaking out of experience as I have one in the house and quite a few in the office (circa 20-30).

The PC on the picture is LeX. http://www.lex.com.tw/. It exists in 2 major incarnations - 533 MHz C3 and 800 MHz C3. The first is fully passive cooling, the second is fanned. Both incarnations have subvariants with 1-3 10/100 Realtek or 10/10/1000 Intel Ethernets. Video is Cyberblade with shared RAM, audio and on-board chipset is Via. There is 3", 2", CF and disk on chip connector on board. The standard disk is a 2". Can take up to 512MB 133 SDRAM using a single low profile DIMM. DC to DC convertor on board, external 12V DC power supply.

The 3 interface variety make very good firewalls and routers.

The price quoted on the website is barely just above what Lex charges for the 533 with a minimal disk or flash and minimal RAM. This means that it is running either Linux or QNX.

The systems are nice, but I would not recommend them for use in anything but a dedicated server/system or a diskless terminal.

The reasons for this are:

• Bad cooling especially on the 533. If you add a disk the heat generation in the case is nearly always above the thermal throttle threshold. This makes the machine go sluggish even with minimal use.
• The video is quite sluggish and if pushed to higher frequencies takes a lot of the system memory bandwidth.

I have 1GHz via proc, 3 eth, 2 usb (but usb 1.1), up to 512MB RAM, and sound.
Storage: I've chosen a very silent hard disk: seagate momentus 40GB 2.5"
No CD/floppy drive: OS install with PXE and another PC on LAN.

You can have a real 0db system with LAN boot or using a compact flash for storage.
Of course network boot means another PC, noisy, but in another place ;-)

This seems expensive (300-400 euros).

How is the performance of the Geode CPU?

I've seen some VIA C3 boards with 3-4 Nics here.

They have a US Distributor here.
I talked to them in June; with case, motherboard w 4 RealTek nics and the fastest CPU it was $370.

Here is another one with 4 nics.

I'd be using it to run Astaro firewall, which is kind of a pig for CPU and RAM.

If you only need 1 NIC, LOTS of Mini-ITX VIA systems are available for under $200 with case, mb, CPU.
Their power consumption is supposed to be around 13watts + HD.

Lex Systems makes some nice Mini-ITX systems that might be right up your alley, of you can get past the horrors of their flash-based site. I bought a Light system from them a couple months ago with a fanless C3 533, threw a CF card in and installed Bering uClibc on it. Now I have a silent linux based firewall with an internal ADSL interface with enough oomph to run a few IPSEC tunnels and do some nifty firewall tricks. Best of all, since I installed that firewall and turned off the desktop system I never used the noisiest thing in my apartment is the 3 year old harddrive in my iBook, and with Laptop-mode even that isn't spinning most of the time. Silence is golden!
I've had a fanned 800Mhz C3 Light system running as a 3 port firewall at work for over a year now and it works great. A friend of mine has several of them scattered around town as NAT/DHCP/IPSEC appliances for the different branches of the company he works for. Never had a problem with the systems, only the DSL lines their connected to.

- RustyTaco

I just got the slower IBM/Hitachi 80 GB 2.5" (IC25N080) drive for use in a Lex Barebone, and turning it on for the first time it really freaked me out: with two desktops churning away close by, I couldn't hear anything. Even at home with no other noise source, it's barely hearable even when accessed.

... using a Lex board with 3 ethernet ports (WLAN and MoDem optional).

... using a Lex board with 3 ethernet ports (WLAN and MoDem optional).

• I have CAT5E in the walls,

• (this is wehre my AV Receiver and selfmade MediaServer is)

• another corner, where my DSL modem, switch and HomeServer is,

• IRDA, USB, AC97, TV & VGA-out and Linux. That is all you need.

• a system-HDD
• a swappable (not Hot, mind you) media HDD
• a DVD-Burner
• an M-Audio soundcard (want to have more than 48KHz on S/PDIF) for local sound with my 5.1 setup in the same room
• a DVB-s (that is European digital TV and radio broadcast over Sattelite) PCI card
• an analogue TV/Video card (to which my old VHS is connected and a terrestrial antenna)
• and soon an additional Matrox GH450
• all on a ATX P4 1,8GHz system with 256MB RAM

• C3 based Linux-STB (Allwell.TV)This system will connect to the small bedroom TV. It has an option for dual PCI riser, that also holds an MPEG4 chip (the Sigma Designs one). Its vidoe chip is even supported by DirectFB! It has SCART-out (for the European market), but also generic TV-out and S/PDIF

• LEX Thin EPIA client with MPEG2 accel, booting from DOM/DOC (or LAN) and running LinuxThis system will get a pair of active PC speakers with NXT technology (very flat). 64-128MB RAM is enough here, no HDD, instead DiskOnChip or as alternative: more RAM and LAN-boot. YMMV. As soon the LCD panels get cheap, I will add a touch-sensitive to this one, so I can have breakfast while reading /. (oh, my)
  
  As for the software...that still is not perfect. At the moment I have set up an icecast server and VideoLAN. This would allow for comfortbale media streaming to Windows and Linux clients, however I plan my own software, though based on these (as well as on Mozilla and DirctFB, maybe gstreamer)
  
  To say "Multiroom" in 2003 is the same to say "Ethernet". That simple.
  
  amix (not logged in)

How about the LexSystem? Or perhaps the Travla? I think both fit the bill nicely. The LexSystem is a bit tighter than the Travla, but for some reason I find the Travla very HURRR

I've only had them for about 4 months however they've been more reliable than the Celeron I bought at the same time.

Just replaced that (dead) Celeron with a 1 GHz C3 and so far it's solid as a rock.

There you go!

Mother of all small Motherboards

Built-in CF slot (CF is cheap and much more reliable than HDD in the car).

+12V power (no need for power supply!)

USB, ethernet, video, audio, you name it.

There's also a Atmel-based 802.11b controller you can add as an option. Can't seem to find it on their site, but I've seen it at some European resellers.

Not too expesive either: with the wireless option and the Intel chips, it runs at around 400 EUR (plus memory and storage).

No Hard Drive is going to stand up to a offroad racing truck. Use a RAM-based rocketdrive, or a series of 1GB Solid State CF drives. Lexsells an Via based Book that fills your needs pretty well, except that it doesn't come anywhere near 2Ghz. But it does run off of 60w, 12v that it could pull directly from the vehicle. It also runs remarkably cool, has hard disk slots (Bad idea) and a CF slot, 1-3 ethernet ports and 2 firewire ports, and upto 512MB Ram. Clamp a 120mm fan (with filter) to the back, and it should have no trouble running through Death Valley.

The better question is, of course, what are you going to do that you think you need a chip that draws 69W of power? Applying photoshop filters to live streaming video of your races, to be sent out over software firewire 802.11g adapters? Generate 3D maps on the fly from bumper-mounted webcams and compare that to existing topological maps to ascertain position?

What's the secret, Animats?

No Hard Drive is going to stand up to a offroad racing truck. Use a RAM-based rocketdrive, or a series of 1GB Solid State CF drives. Lexsells an Via based Book that fills your needs pretty well, except that it doesn't come anywhere near 2Ghz. But it does run off of 60w, 12v that it could pull directly from the vehicle. It also runs remarkably cool, has hard disk slots (Bad idea) and a CF slot, 1-3 ethernet ports and 2 firewire ports, and upto 512MB Ram. Clamp a 120mm fan (with filter) to the back, and it should have no trouble running through Death Valley.

The better question is, of course, what are you going to do that you think you need a chip that draws 69W of power? Applying photoshop filters to live streaming video of your races, to be sent out over software firewire 802.11g adapters? Generate 3D maps on the fly from bumper-mounted webcams and compare that to existing topological maps to ascertain position?

What's the secret, Animats?

Try this if you need dual ethernet, it has 3 in pretty much the same form factor and a CF slot! http://www.lex.com.tw/cv860a.htm

This case + a mini-itx motherboard (available on same site), a slim CD-rom, a 2.5" HDD and an extra ethernet card in the available PCI slot. Tada! A VIA EPIA 5000 would make it fanless and very quiet (except for the harddrive then...). 11.50"(295mm) x 2.50"(63.5mm) x 10.75"(273mm).

And then there's the 42(H) x 220(W) x 165(D) mm LIGHT System that you can get with three ethernet ports. Though I donät know where to buy it yet..

well maybe a fanless cpu.
-Nick

now if i can only find somewhere that sells it....