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Completely Silent Media PC

Posted by timothy on from the nothing's-completely-silent dept.

Kez writes "Zalman's first completely fanless PC case, the TNN 500 was an impressive piece of engineering, but it was very bulky. Aiming their new chassis at those looking to build multimedia PCs and who don't want noisy fans to spoil their experience, the TNN 300 is smaller than its predecessor. From the Hexus.net review: 'It's a niche product that will appeal, in no uncertain terms, to a select bunch of users that value silence above all else. If you happen to be one of them, the TNN 300 is a pretty unique product that will appeal to you.'"

14 of 275 comments (clear)

  1. Alternative reviews by flurdy · · Score: 5, Informative

    Here are some alternative reviews and piccies while the site is slashdoted: dutch site, uk site, toms hw, japan.

    ok its a google search, but usefull

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    My other Sig is very funny.
  2. what? no link? by dostick · · Score: 4, Informative

    There's link to shameless plug "review site" but no link to product itself. Not even in the sidebar thing on top.
    Here it is.

    1. Re:what? no link? by hcdejong · · Score: 2, Informative

      That's a link to the TNN 500. I can't find the TNN 300 on the Zalman site yet.

  3. Re:Car, Audio amplifiers by edremy · · Score: 2, Informative
    You mean kind of like this?

    It's by the same people. I've got some Zalman fans and heatsinks in my machine and they are really nicely done.

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    "Seven Deadly Sins? I thought it was a to-do list!"
  4. Coral Cache by lucas+teh+geek · · Score: 2, Informative

    link

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    TIAEAE!
  5. Re:The sound of silence by OwnedByTwoCats · · Score: 3, Informative

    Fanless PCs. Hmmm....

    Apple II, Mac, Mac 512, Mac +, Mac Cube, and the iMac (G3). None of them had fans.

  6. Overrated.. by chewy_2000 · · Score: 4, Informative

    Why would you bother with that? The Hush PC (no affiliation) looks much better for most silent applications, especially HTPC - it's small, (the case in the article looked huge) it looks good and it's silent. Shame it looks like it's hard to upgrade, not to mention massively expensive. And, contrary to TFA's claims, it has been around for a few years now.

    1. Re:Overrated.. by jtosburn · · Score: 2, Informative

      Thanks a lot. I get all excited, as they do look awful good, and then realize that they're only sold as complete systems with Windows MCE. And they start at 700 Euro, with most systems being well over 1200. Such disappointment! Oh well.

  7. Anandtech Post by HansF · · Score: 2, Informative

    Not really a mirror, but some pics from this case are at anantech. They took them while visting Computex.
    Just wanted to mention it since zalman.com and hexus.net are currently down.

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    --> Insert Funny Sig Here
  8. Re:The sound of silence by shotfeel · · Score: 2, Informative

    I've been using an iMac DV, and it does just fine capturing DV and playing any kind of video file I throw at it (haven't tried HD yet though). It also hasa built-in DVD player and that nice VGA port on the back that I hook up to my TV through a VGA-S-Video convertor, and the sound goes straight to my stereo. Couple that with an FM remote, OS X, QT and VLC and I have what I consider to be a "Media PC". And no problems with overheating (though my house is air conditioned during the summer).

    If I actually want to burn a DVD, I just sit down at my "main" computer and pull the captured video off the iMac (100 Mbps ethernet) and burn.

    Really, unless you're encoding/transcoding video, you don't need that much computing horsepower.

  9. Linux Scores Another First by paranerd · · Score: 3, Informative

    My media PC has been stone silent ever since I switched from oss to alsa.

    1. Re:Linux Scores Another First by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

      run alsamixer.

  10. Re:My attempts for a silent PC by oever · · Score: 2, Informative

    The Dell X1 can do without fan because it has a ULV Pentium and is therefore supposedly very quiet. (I'll know how quiet shortly).

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    DNA is the ultimate spaghetti code.
  11. Re:fanless not silent by Rob+the+Bold · · Score: 2, Informative
    After all, it still has a harddrive right?

    You could boot from a solid-state drive, and store all your media files on a noisy server somewhere else. Then your only problem is the local optical drive. You could do without the optical drive if you've already got a stand-alone DVD/etc. player, and now you're silent. I haven't tried booting from a flash drive on a windows system, but it should be possible. One of these http://www.acscontrol.com/Pages/Products/CompactFl ash/IDE_To_CF_Adapter.htm will turn your CF card into an IDE drive, or use an all-in-one DiscOnChip http://www.tri-m.com/products/msystems/ffd35ideplu s.html. It doesn't require drivers, so one should be able to install any OS on it.

    You could even retrofit your Zalman PC, and poof! now your TiVo is the loudest thing in the living room.

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    I am not a crackpot.