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Ask Slashdot: Passively Cooled Hardware For Game Emulation?
akutz writes "I recently sold a 2011 Mac mini on Craigslist because after using it to rip my Blu-ray collection, I tried to use it as an emulation station connected to my TV. However, emulators like Dolphin, BSNES, etc. would cause the Mac mini's fans to spin up like turbine engines — much too loud for my liking. I ask, therefore: What hardware would you recommend for building a passively cooled mini-system that will serve as a media center's emulation station?"
i've ried to go fully fanless, with very low-power CPUs (atom, E-350) and no graphics card. The T climbs quickly. OTOH, a low-power CPU (i3 2100T with the included 600 RPM fan, a PSU with a quiet FAN and an 80+ gold rating, and probably no graphics card, will make no audible noise, less than the hard disk. silentpcreview.com has lists and reviews of components.
The Cloud - because you don't care if your apps and data are up in the air.
http://www.silentpcreview.com/
Or a complete solution from Zotac for330 USD:
http://techreport.com/articles.x/21556
Right; the next jump from "the Mac Mini fans are too loud" doesn't have to be fanless, which is particularly troublesome in an emulator situation where the CPU will always be running. The key to low noise fans is to get big ones that move air even at lower speeds, which right now means 120mm. Using fans that are too small, in order to make the case really tiny, is what the Mac Mini does wrong for this application. A case like the Sugo SG05-B will give you those in a reasonable form factor. It won't be tiny, but there's a fundamental trade-off here: you can either make your fans cool well, be small, or be quiet--never all three at once. I have done here on past emulator boxes is to use a case with a larger fan like that, combined with one of the Zotac Mini ITX boards using an Intel Atom processor.
E-350's have decent graphics capabilities and you can pick up CPU+MOBO combo's for a very nice price
and then a CASE+PSU combo's for
The bare-bones system will thus cost as little as $130, and will kick the snot out of Atom solutions.
"His name was James Damore."
However if you insist on fanless, the answer is to go large, not small. A tiny system like a mini has to have fans since there isn't much room for heat sinks. In terms of moving heat you can have surface area or airflow, and tradeoff between the two, but you have to have one or the other.
So you get a large case, for full sized ATX parts. Then look at graphics cards that you can get fanless, or get an aftermarket fanless cooler from someone like Arctic Cooling. It is expensive and you don't get high end, but so long as you get a big ole' block of aluminium, you can have a mid range or lower end GPU with no fans.
For CPUs stick with a dual core Sandy Bridge. Emulators don't tend to use more than 2 cores (many only use 1) and moar cores = moar powers. The Core i3-2100T is what you should look at. Extremely low power dissipation, like 35watts TDP. You probably can't find a fanless processor heatsink, but just buy a really overkill one and take the fan off. Something like an Arctic Cooling Freezer 13, which is stupid massive. It is rated for 200 watts with its fan so 35 watts without should work.
For PSUs you want them efficient. You can find some that are fanless, and also some that have fans, but will turn them off under a light load. The Corsair AX750 is such a PSU. It has a fan but can provide perhaps 20% of its power with the fan off. That would probably do it, given that your system will not need much power.
Stick with non overclocked RAM and don't put too much in the system, it generates heat too. That means 1333MHz standard "value" RAM for Sandy Bridge.
That leaves just the harddrive. These make more noise than you'd think. Getting a 5400rpm drive helps, as slower speed means less noise, and heat. Also getting a case that has silicone isolator pads helps. However the real answer is an SSD. No moving parts, very little noise (all electronics make a tiny bit of noise). Expensive, but if you demand no noise, that is what you need.
Ultimately the GP has the right of it though. For less money you can just get a more powerful system with large, slow fans. Unless you have a really quiet room, you aren't likely to hear it, and you sure won't when you are emulating as the sound from the games will drown it out.
However if you want real fanless, it is a real option. Just remember you have to spend more, and settle for lower end parts. It'll still be powerful, but not as powerful as the amount of money you spend would imply.
Oh, and use snes9x or some other reasonably speedy emulator rather than bsnes unless you're playing a game that snes9x etc can't handle well. bsnes is more accurate than other emulators but that comes at a tremendous performance cost. Your mac mini likely wouldn't ramp up fan speeds doing snes9x.
The AC parent makes a good point, in case it's lost in moderation:
Why do you want to emulate the Wii? It's likely cheaper to just BUY one, and then put some Wii-specific NES/SNES emulators on it. Substantially cheaper than building your own silent gaming(emulation) PC.
Simple solution:
Buy several large 4 liter cans of shop grade mineral oil (It doesnt have the "perfume" normally found in baby oil, which is also mineral oil), and a small aquarium. Put some shiny black light aquarium rocks in the bottom.
Put the systemboard, including the heatsink and fan, directly into the aquarium. (I would suggest something in a tiny form factor, like a mini ITX, since you can use a beefy wall wart to power it, rather than a full blown PSU.)
Route cables up and out the top through a repurposed aquarium filter tube. Where the charcoal filter would be in the tank filter, use wireties to control the cabling. You can put a cable switch box in there to serve as the port end connect point, so your normal AV and HID cables arent hanging out of the "water".
Populate the tank with those mechanical bobbing fish, and some bubbler toys.
Fill the tank with the mineral oil, drop in some aquarium bubbler stones for dramatic effect, and place a blacklight in the aquarium tank light of the cover.
VOILA. Something that wont sound like a jet engine, has heavy thermal mass to dissipate the heat of the system, has a continual supply of lubricant for the ball-bearing CPU fan, and makes an interesting accent to the room all in one go.
The fish arent real, and the mineral oil doesnt evaporate, so you never have to clean the tank, assuming you keep ambient dust out.
Uhhh...it sounds like an F16 taking off?
Anyway let old Hairyfeet set you up and show you how its done. First I'd start with this box, while personally i like a little more elbow room he said little so little it is. Next up for a nice powerful but cheap CPU I'd go with this Phenom triple if he has a tight budget or this Phenom II quad if he has a little more to spare. I have this Phenom II chip in my own system and it is easy to under and over clock, and I have built plenty with the first Phenom triple chip, both are great.
Then you'll have to measure the depth to know how big a HSF you can go for, bigger is of course quieter so if it has enough room (haven't used a shuttle in awhile so I can't remember the depth offhand) I'd use something like this which if you turn on C&Q when you aren't slamming the Deneb this will be pretty quiet. Then for GPU something like this HD6570 which IIRC is the largest AMD makes that will still go low profile and passively cooled.
Finally slap in a 1Tb Samsung EcoDrive (quiet as a church mouse) and 4Gb of RAM along with Win 7 HP X64 (or the OS of your choice) and voila! You are good to go friend! Enjoy!
I could make it a hell of a lot more powerful and silent cooling BTW, but that would increase size. You can't beat the laws of physics, if it is powerful it is either gonna need fans or a big ass heatsink to cool the sucker. I've found most liquid cooling to be just as noisy if not more than regular HSFs, it just moves the fans from the CPU to the radiator. But this should give you a nice combination of speed and quiet and when you aren't slamming the living hell out of the Deneb all you will hear is the quiet hum of the PSU, that's it. With mine I hear the AC on the far side of the room more than I do the PC not 3 feet away from me, its nice.
ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.
"I recently sold a 2011 Mac mini on Craigslist because after using it to rip my Blu-ray collection I tried to use it as a emulation station connected to my TV. However, emulators like Dolphin, BSNES, etc. would cause the Mac mini's fans to spin up like turbine engines — much to[sic] loud for my liking. I ask, therefore: What hardware would you recommend for building a passively cooled mini-system that will serve as a media center's emulation station?"
Having a small fan doesn't need to be a hinderance.... I have a mini ITX-based HTPC system with a 1.5" fan on the CPU, and it's still damned near silent, even when watching h.264 full screen 1080p video. If you have sufficient air flow around the CPU, then you don't need the CPU fan to move much air specifically over the CPU. Put it in a case like this one, and minimize the number of moving parts (in my case, no moving parts aside from the CPU fan), and you can do quite nicely with a small fan keeping the CPU cool and still being quiet.
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
Interesting, you highlighted the OP's question, while I would highlight his *reason for asking* the question.
...would cause the Mac mini's fans to spin up like turbine engines — much too loud for my liking. I ask, therefore: What hardware would you recommend for building a...?"
The answer to controlling how loud your Mac is, something which Macs are infamous for, is to install a 1.3MB utility that gives you control over the various fan speed presets. Sometimes the Mac's fan controller goes too fast or too slow for the heat generated. Sometimes the sensor gets crammed in the wrong place. It's important to monitor and control it. Meanwhile, the Mini will sit happily on a netbook cooling stand, and you can buy whatever size fan you want for that. Problem (potentially) solved for $40.
http://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/23049/smcfancontrol
http://www.123macmini.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=196467&sid=94a8929424920b9e36f8bb2131c58d48#196467
Sometimes the engineer way to solve a problem solves the wrong problem. But it sure does use up a lot of energy, time and money. Which young men seem to have rather a lot of. ;)
OP: Try cooling off yourself before you decide to throw out the problem before even finding a solution.