Fan-less silent PC

[dasdoing]

If by tropical you mean 90+F (and 85+% humidity), SoFL would be a fine dig.
If - however - one's real desire is a temperate climate, where the temperatures change no more than 35F (winter/summer or day/night), which to choose?
View attachment 308071
For yourself?
For your (fanless) equipment?
Everything else will cost you more in many other and some unimaginable ways.

wow, this is still way to unstable for me.
see Tampa vs my city (note the months on top and bottom):

I used to live in Vila Velha and found the winter being just a little on the cold side

it also felt "unstable"

 

[Berwhale]

what I do now, after my first semi-fanless project failed after an alcohol-caused accident lol (I don't want to tell the story), is that I leave my man-cave windows closed at all times. the door stays open so I still get fresh air from all the open windows in the apartment. I think I am 4 months in on this build now, and 2 weeks ago I opened the case and I didn't find a single evidence of sea spray inside. the worst is the direct contact with the breeze, if you avoid it the salt will already have settled since it is heavier than air.

It's not just salt in the sea air; hydrogen sulphide from rotting seaweed can precipitate on metals and corrode them.

This was mentioned in an article published in the Guardian UK yesterday...

Florida-based researcher Dr Brian Lapointe has, since 1973, been studying seaweed blooms like those found on the Kent coast and their relationship to wastewater He says the smell caused by hydrogen sulphide is a “real issue” and “people need to take precautions if they’re living in an area with those odours”.

“[The gas] can affect the electronics in your house because it forms sulphuric acid,” he says. “In the Caribbean, where Sargassum seaweed has been such a problem, people have lost electronic appliances: air conditioners, all kinds of things.”

Source: https://www.theguardian.com/environ...-of-rotting-seaweed-chokes-uk-holiday-beaches

I found this academic article investigating the effects on various metals...

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0010938X22006448

 

[dasdoing]

It's not just salt in the sea air; hydrogen sulphide from rotting seaweed can precipitate on metals and corrode them.

This was mentioned in an article published in the Guardian UK yesterday...



Source: https://www.theguardian.com/environ...-of-rotting-seaweed-chokes-uk-holiday-beaches

I found this academic article investigating the effects on various metals...

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0010938X22006448

good one. we sometimes have lots of seaweed and it stinks even into my apartment. But it's not regular. 2 or 3 times a year for 1 or 2 days

 

[pseudoid]

...after my first semi-fanless project failed after an alcohol-caused accident lol (I don't want to tell the story),

Oy! That is a dang cop-out!
If you start a story; it is not fair to not finish it. We would have learned nothing of what you learned.
Don't force me to press the 'Unlike' button on your post!

 

[Digby]

We would have learned nothing of what you learned.

I imagine the main takeaway was that alcohol and electronics don't mix.

 

[A Surfer]

I have my own completely silent solution. Bluetooth from my phone. Hopefully in a community like this enough people will realize that Bluetooth is now quite good and capable of 100% audible transparency.

I kept my LG G8 when I picked up my Google Pixel 7 Pro as a phone so now the G8 is my streamer. Another silent option.

 

[Philbo King]

Regarding salt air corrosion: There are conformal coatings that can protect PCBs against this, at the expense of higher heat buildup. It does add steps to repair work, and there are places (connectors for example) where you *don't* want to use it.
Here is one often used in military/aerospace gear.

HumiSeal® 1B73 Clear MIL-I-46058 Type AR Spec Acrylic Conformal Coating - 11.5 oz Aerosol Can

HumiSeal® 1B73 Clear MIL-I-46058 Type AR Spec Acrylic Conformal Coating - 340 mL (11.5 oz) Aerosol Can - Visit and view our entire SkyGeek, Electrical, Conformal Coatings, section at SkyGeek!

skygeek.com

This particular one is fairly nasty stuff till it's applied. Read the MSDS.

 

[pseudoid]

I have my own completely silent solution. Bluetooth from my phone. Hopefully in a community like this enough people will realize that Bluetooth is now quite good and capable of 100% audible transparency..

"What's the Frequency Kenneth?" [either DanRather or MichealStipe version].

BlueTooth bandwidth restriction for audio is passable but even then, aren't there some issues none-the-less? Like latency, etc.
Wouldn't you be better off using WiFi, for a similar purpose and possibly also be able to 'stream' video as well?

 

[napfkuchen]

Me too.

There are also a bunch of fanless cases available for Intel NUC and AMD Mini PCs at Akasa.
I got this one for an ASUS PN51 with Ryzen 7 5700u CPU. For better cooling performance I placed a 12cm pc case fan on top. It's powered by USB which makes it inaudible but helps keep CPU temperatures between 45 and 60°C.

 

[A Surfer]

"What's the Frequency Kenneth?" [either DanRather or MichealStipe version].

BlueTooth bandwidth restriction for audio is passable but even then, aren't there some issues none-the-less? Like latency, etc.
Wouldn't you be better off using WiFi, for a similar purpose and possibly also be able to 'stream' video as well?

Nah, Bluetooth is totally. Fine. People who report hearing a difference you can bet are comparing sighted. I haven't had latency issues in years. I was speaking for basic audio playback, but for Bluetooth for audio alone won't satisfy many users who as I think you are suggesting are likely to want video.

Saying that, I watch videos on my G8 all the time actually and stream the audio to my system and I'm always happy with the results. Small screen though so there's that to consider. I had a computer loaded up with all my albums ripped to Flac and with JRiver as my player and I stopped using that at least three years ago now and just stream from my phone. I'm happy with that.

 

[dasdoing]

Oy! That is a dang cop-out!
If you start a story; it is not fair to not finish it. We would have learned nothing of what you learned.
Don't force me to press the 'Unlike' button on your post!

It was Carnival, came home in the early morning of the first day, took a meal in my man cave, and somehow managed to kick my case so hard the cooler partly detached from the CPU which caused the fan cases to max out. But I would only realize some 60h later (I wasn't home). Initially it would still boot, but 60h of strong salty airflow ended up destroying the board.

 

[pseudoid]

It was Carnival, came home in the early morning of the first day, took a meal in my man cave, and somehow managed to kick my case so hard the cooler partly detached from the CPU which caused the fan cases to max out. But I would only realize some 60h later (I wasn't home). Initially it would still boot, but 60h of strong salty airflow ended up destroying the board.

While reading your (above) episode, it reminded me of the following:

...We almost certainly owe the popularity of the expression to Tom Wolfe’s 1979 book The Right Stuff, which is about the Mercury space program, and its 1983 film adaptation.
In the movie, when Gus Grissom (played by Fred Ward) is about to become the second American in space, his fellow astronaut Gordon Cooper (Dennis Quaid) presciently warns him:
"Just make sure you don’t screw the pooch, Gus."

Movie implies that Gus did, and seems like so did @dasdoing!

 

[Matias]

wow, this is still way to unstable for me.
see Tampa vs my city (note the months on top and bottom):

View attachment 308080

I used to live in Vila Velha and found the winter being just a little on the cold side

View attachment 308081

it also felt "unstable"

What is the source of those graphs (link)? Tks

 

[pseudoid]

What is the source of those graphs (link)? Tks

I don't know how @dasdoing figured out the link for my original comparo graph but I think this was the link I used.
My bad: I usually provide links for my posts. I am sorry.

 

[CleanSound]

@Keith_W @amirm

Question for you the two of you.

I noticed that the PCI-E cards needs to be mounted horizontally with this case. And looking at the picture here, there seems to be some sort of adaptor bus cable that lets the PCI-E be mounted horizontally.

Does this adaptor bus cable come with the case? If so, how many of these adaptor bus cable comes with the case? 2?

Thanks in advance.

 

[Keith_W]

It was such a long time ago that I do not remember if the PCI-E riser cable came with the case! I think it didn't, and I had to source it separately. You can easily find it on Amazon (do a search for PCI-E riser cable) but they are surprisingly expensive.

 

[Stokdoof]

Mac mini m1, i never hear the fan going on. No fun building it that is true.

 

[dualazmak]

It was such a long time ago that I do not remember if the PCI-E riser cable came with the case! I think it didn't, and I had to source it separately. You can easily find it on Amazon (do a search for PCI-E riser cable) but they are surprisingly expensive.

At least at Amazon Japan, I can find rather affordable ones.

 

[Keith_W]

At least at Amazon Japan, I can find rather affordable ones.

I suppose I didn't look hard enough Actually, now that I think about it, I DID have to source my own riser cable because I was stung by how much it cost. I don't expect to spent >$100 for a computer cable, especially one that is from a regular PC store and "non audiophile"!

Mac mini m1, i never hear the fan going on. No fun building it that is true.

And also non upgradeable, extortionate prices for storage and RAM upgrades, and the fact that it's Apple.

 

[CleanSound]

I DID have to source my own riser cable because I was stung by how much it cost. I don't expect to spent >$100 for a computer cable, especially one that is from a regular PC store and "non audiophile"!

I just checked on Amazon, those cables are expensive.

Did the case come with any other accessories, such as the heatsink and pipes? Or did you have to buy them separately too?