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Mini-PC w/o Fans?
blinky2 asks: "I just read this article on Tom's Hardware about small PC-cases. I would really like to have a small box next to my current one for development stuff etc. Here's the problem: I don't want to have any fans in it, and case like the one in the article needs heavy cooling. Is there anything out there that is small and doesn't need any cooling? the box should run 24/7 here in my room and i don't want to hear some noise while I sleep. A case like the SAX01 from Gigabyte would be nice, too. BTW, there is no need for a high-performance box: something like 300-500 Mhz with a moderate amount of RAM would be enough." A while ago, Ask Slashdot tackled this very question, has the intervening time made such a system a practical possibility?
NEC makes a fanless Crusoe server, but I don't think they sell them outside Japan. Also, the Netwinder 3100 was a fanless server, but Rebel.com is no more, so you'll have to find it used.
Get an ABIT NV7M micro atx Nforce chipset motherboard. Softmenu III allows you to underclock and undervolt your processor. Buy the XP1800 (good value for quiet & fast). I have an old Swiftech MC462 that can cool my XP1800 to sub-40c when I reduce the multiplier to 7.5 and voltage to 1.65 without a fan. I put a paper tube around the top of the heatsink to take advantage of the chimney effect. Remember, air MUST move but you can let the chimney effect do it for you. Nforce allows tiny design because no pci cards are required for a full fetured system. Slow hardrive @ 5400rpm or 40 Gb IBM 2.5 inch laptop drive willl be coolest. 36x max cd or 4-8x dvd for reduced noise/heat. Sorbothane shockmount everything. Get a vastly over rated powersupply 460w and throttle the fan down with a rheostat. The power supply will never be working at full load so you can safely reduce the fan rpm. Should be nearly silent, 800 to 1000mhz depending on how cool your processor is and cost less than 600 bucks. Oh, don't use paper for your chimney, that was just for test purposes.
If voting were effective, it would be illegal by now.
To quote Tom's hardware on the koolance:
"As far as the noise level is concerned, the new Koolance system is not quite as inconspicuous as the old one. At medium heat levels in the processor core, the three fans can produce quite a racket."
Also, It's a mid tower not a micro atx as pictured here (This is the propper link)
If voting were effective, it would be illegal by now.
Getting a fanless power supply has been a problem plaguing quiet-pc enthusiasts for some time. The company TKPower has manufactured them, but have been unwilling to sell to either individuals or small vendors.
Finally, Silicon Acoustics (who also sell the fanless 866MHz VIA C3 processor) have managed to wrestle some power supplies from TKPower. At $200, it is a bit steep, but is the only real safe way to have a fanless power supply. The form factor isn't standard ATX, but it is electrically compliant. If this could fit into that Gigabyte appliance case along with a C3, that'd be the way to go.
Ian
For example the PCM-9572 with a low power Celeron 500 (no fan), 8MB video mem (3D!) and up to 256MB RAM. Costs about US$ 1k together with a MicroBox chassis (MBPC-300-9572F) and the matching external 50W power supply (PS-55A).
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Du Deutsch -> Du gehe Symlink
As Tom's says, the 3 supplied fans are quite loud.
I went to Radio Shaft and picked up a couple centrifugal fans which are almost silent but move a lot of air. And once I decided voiding the warrenty was an option, I replaced the powersupply fan and the rear exhaust fan. A resister on the CPU fan helped quite that one. Finally with rubber insulation between all the body panels and the fan mounts, and a nice coat of black paint to match the TV and reciever it works pretty nicely.br>
With these mods the sound is hardly noticable above the already existing sounds in the apartment like the 'fridge and A/C.
One problem I would still like to solve is figuring out how to push the FSB down to 100MHz when using a stock 1GHz PIII. This would let me slow the CPU fan down even more than it is currently.
I hope you're not pretending to be evil while secretly being good. That would be dishonest.
Some kits with dials are sold for this job, though you can do the same thing by doing some math and calculating what resistor to get. Plenty of details are in the links below;
http://www.cocoon-culture.com/lib/noise-report/c om puter-noise-report.htm
http://www.hardware-corner.net/guides/fanbus_1.p hp
http://people.freenet.de/s.urfer/fan_control.htm
http://www.overclockers.com/tips746
A firewall can not protect you from yourself. Turn off what you do not need. Do not use the firewall to do your work.
If you want to stick with an Intel processor, you may want to look at the 0.13u version of the Celeron processor and cut the bus speed down to 66Mhz (if the chipset supports it) and cut down voltage (if possible). That should reduce the power consumption (and thus heat dissipation) by a fair amount.
Why not pick up a used laptop? 300-500 MHz will probably run about $500 or so. You could build a quieter desktop (laptop disks can be heard when they seek), but I would think it'll be quiet enough even in a bedroom. And you get the added bonus of portability.
I have K6-III/450 on 24/7 in my room. I replaced the power supply with an ultra-quiet one but not the CPU fan, though they are available too. I lucked out with a couple very quiet disks (one from my TiVo and a new 160 GB Maxtor).
It's quiet enough that I can watch TV or listen to music and not be bothered by the white noise. And I got used to the noise it does make so I have no trouble sleeping.
If I replace the CPU fan the machine will be *very* quiet.
"The cost of freedom is eternal vigilance." -Thomas Jefferson
Apple's G4 Cube, aside from looking cool with the right lighting, tackled this problem. Their solution was to put HUGE heatsinks on the CPU and vid card chips, leave a large area at the top of the case for hot air to get out, perforate the bottom profusely and stand the machine about 4-6" off the desk, letting convection do the cooling.
They also pulled out the power supply, which I think would be a must for ANY fan-less system. Putting this heat-generating monster outside the case significantly drops the temperature (and provides the user a GREAT foot-warmer).
Finally, as many other readers have said, look at ways to reduce heat generation - slower or cooler CPU & vid card, lower RPMs on your hard drive, etc. The G4 can blow quite warm when I'm giving it a workout and it's only 400MHz, I think anything over 5-600 may be beyond the limits of convection cooling.
/~mikeg
Also, if you have allergies, a device that accumulates -- and heats! -- dust is not the best thing to have around.
Some of the VIA C3 chips can run with just a heatsink. They even have a list of suggested heatsinks and other parts to build a quiet PC. They are probably the best x86 solution you can find without making this a major home project. You did mention that processing power wasn't a concern and the main drawback of the C3 is that it's FPUs run at half the processors clockspeed.
You mention that it needs to be on 24x7, but is this because it will be working all that time, or because you don't want to wait for it to boot up each time you come to it?
I put my desktop PC to sleep whenever I'm not sitting at it. In sleep mode the disk spins down and the fan slows right down so it is completely silent. It takes about 2 seconds to wake up when I jog the mouse. This may be worth considering.
If it's got to respond to other stimuli, e.g. an incoming call on the modem, a network request, cron, etc, you may even be able to make it wake up temporarily, deal with the request, and then go back to sleep, perhaps even without needing to start up the fan or disk. I haven't worked out how to do this yet (APMS doesn't seem as configurable as I hoped), but it is my aim.