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Completely Silent Media PC
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.'"
With a silent media PC would you at least be able to use closed captioning so you know what is going on?
Sometimes, when the lights goes out, you can really hear what it is like to be in total silence. The refrigerator stops running, the air conditioners stop running. The computer fans and drives stop spinning, and suddenly you're thrust into this silence that is eerily uncomfortable.
When the power comes on and all those once-dead appliances roar to life, it is like stepping back to reality.
I personally can't stand to be somewhere without sound. I can appreciate sound kept to a minimum, but there has to be some indication that things are running, in my opinion. So that when things do eventually expire, that it's not until days later when the CPU has melted itself into the motherboard that I find out the cooling system broke just as silently as it ran.
Jesus saved me from my past. He can save you as well.
This is wonderful. I have an HTPC in my living room, but it is enclosed in a cheap MATX case with 3 small case fans, plus the CPU fan. Since I don't like turning it off (thus preventing me from recording TV programs), the sound of the fans is just something I've learned to live with. However, with a case like this, I could enjoy my expensive home theatre setup just that much more.
A slashdotter who didn't build his own computer is like a Jedi who didn't build his own lightsaber.
...you can hear their servers grinding to halt!
Another selling point is that the dust collection is kept to a minimum, and there's no need to worry about dust getting stuck in the most crucial areas like the fans or heat sinks.
My first attempt was to build a stylish case with large fans, quiet hard drives, and a massive heat sink for the CPU. It worked fairly well, though the CD drive was incredibly loud in comparison.
My second attempt was far more successful. The CPU is in another room, with a hole in the wall for cables. This is a far better approach as the only noise I hear is the quiet hum of the monitor.
There's one down side, of course. I have to walk through a couple doorways to put in a CD, though that's a fairly rare occurrence these days. If I was really hardcore I'd have a USB CD-ROM drive next to the monitor to solve that problem. Still, it's probably good to get me out of my chair from time to time.
A not-direct quote FTFS:
It's a product that will appeal to a select bunch of users that value silence above all else. If you happen to be one of them, it will appeal to you."
Yes, if you happen to be one of the people to whom it will appeal, then it will appeal to you.
There is a good reason to look for high quality cooled and silent PC's, quite the same as it is for better looking cases. People who use studio's will be really glad not to bistracted by a noisy computer, and require ultimate background noise. Some small office or home office users want can now use fileservers using very noisy scsi disks arrays and don't need a special room to place the severs in. Especially for high spec workstations (not to mention high spec gaming gear) need rubust cooling. People who spend many many ours behind their machine, like the idea of a silent pc, which is optimally cooled. If the article is tedious to you, it doesn't mean it is tedious to others. There are many types of users, and these kind of articles are not only meant to a niche. To me it is not tedious at all, I wish more of these products were available and I happily see the articles coming.. "Happy computing!"
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
My other Sig is very funny.
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.
Fanless PCs. Hmmm....
Apple II, Mac, Mac 512, Mac +, Mac Cube, and the iMac (G3). None of them had fans.
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.
Our audio environments are so suffused with fans and other hums that our bodies are adapted to these sounds. Without them the soundscape feels empty and eerie. Think of it as an extension of chronic industrial disease, however. Case studies in the Sahel discovered that 70 year-olds showed no significant hearing loss, due to typically healthy blood and an extremely quiet environment.
Some of that deep discomfort people feel when they're camping away from honking traffic is also due to ideology that's sunk down into the bones over a few industrial generations. Silence, not just quiet but really quiet, is deathlike, an absence of life, an absence of civilization. It's dangerous.
Interesting how I can always hear these "silent" computers. It really is relative.
Damn those pesky terrorists
I have a Cube sitting here from years ago with not a fan in it, and with a barracuda hard drive, the thing is silent.
There were hundreds of computers with one or no fans back in "the day" where megahertz was what really counted, not gigahertz. Hard drives WERE the loudest part.
Now we seem to have left all that behind in the name of going faster. My LCIII can still check mail, and I can still do graphic design on my cube.
I like my lower power bill and quieter room.
My media PC has been stone silent ever since I switched from oss to alsa.
when you can get a silent Athlon 64 in a tiny Shuttle XPC SN85G4. I bought one bundled with an Athlon 64 3000+ and it's quietest, fastest desktop I've ever owned. Suse justs hums along silently on this thing. The proprietary Shuttle cooling system is silent and effective. The DVDRW is the loudest thing on this system. Outpost.com is selling the deal I got for $379 Add memory, hard drive, CDROM, and the 64 bit OS of your choice (Suse is flawless) and you're in business.
This guy is way out there
Wouldn't that make it hard to hear the dialog from the movies?
Of course given the quality of most movies these days you may be on to something.
the major advances in civilization are processes which all but wreck the societies in which they occur - A.N. White
According to the article, the PC generates "literally no noise" and you have to put your ear right up next to the case to hear it.
This is apparently the Orwellian definition of "literally", where it is used with the meaning of "not literally".