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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?
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.
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