Fan-less silent PC

[Oldson]

just been reading i may have a problem using a Mac Mini with my 27" 4k monitor.
so this may mean i stick with windows pc

 

[voodooless]

just been reading i may have a problem using a Mac Mini with my 27" 4k monitor.
so this may mean i stick with windows pc

What problem?

 

[Roland68]

just been reading i may have a problem using a Mac Mini with my 27" 4k monitor.
so this may mean i stick with windows pc

I work a lot in the photography and film industry. They use dozens of Mac Mini M2s and M4s with 27" 4K monitors.
Why should that be a problem?

 

[Oldson]

i have been mislead .
read somewhere that the resolution scaling for desktop screen had a noticable negative impact on the igpu performance.
have since learned elsewhere that this is not the case.

 

[rwortman]

I’m using late 2012 Mac Minis with 1TB SSDs .. no fans, stable & quiet, optical out to the DACs… $250 or so used.

How I stream Qobuz & my ripped media..

As far as I know a Mac Mini still has a cpu fan. I’ve changed a lot of fans both at home and at work. No fan is quiet forever. Heat pipes and a heat sink are. I am also using mine as a file server. It has a 1tb ssd for the OS, another 1tb ssd for music and 2 4tb ssd’s for storage. It sits in my rack and looks like an audio component.

Everybody seemed to want to tell me how it can be done cheaper. I’ve been working on computers since 1976. I built what I wanted. I had used and cheap before. There are no cheap used alternatives that have O fans and 10tb of storage sit on an audio rack shelf. My main PC today is a laptop attached to a dock. External storage is necessary to support photo and audio editing.

 

[blueone]

As far as I know a Mac Mini still has a cpu fan. I’ve changed a lot of fans both at home and at work. No fan is quiet forever. Heat pipes and a heat sink are. I am also using mine as a file server. It has a 1tb ssd for the OS, another 1tb ssd for music and 2 4tb ssd’s for storage. It sits in my rack and looks like an audio component.

Everybody seemed to want to tell me how it can be done cheaper. I’ve been working on computers since 1976. I built what I wanted. I had used and cheap before. There are no cheap used alternatives that have O fans and 10tb of storage sit on an audio rack shelf. My main PC today is a laptop attached to a dock. External storage is necessary to support photo and audio editing.

The M4 Mini has a fan, and it runs continuously, but it is completely silent. Amazingly so.

 

[sonitus mirus]

The M4 Mini has a fan, and it runs continuously, but it is completely silent. Amazingly so.

If a fan is running, it may be completely silent, but there is still some mechanical noise present. We need measurements that are controlled and objective to determine at which point the fan is silent.

 

[pablolie]

If a fan is running, it may be completely silent, but there is still some mechanical noise present. We need measurements that are controlled and objective to determine at which point the fan is silent.

Noctua "silent" fans range from 18 to 25dB, which is pretty inconsequential in real rooms -especially at the lower end. My workstation with a Noctua CPU fan is just under my desk in my home workstation... I have never ever heard it. My work-issued computer (Lenovo laptop) otoh I can hear under load, even though I put it away further and enclose it.

 

[dlaloum]

As far as I know a Mac Mini still has a cpu fan. I’ve changed a lot of fans both at home and at work. No fan is quiet forever. Heat pipes and a heat sink are. I am also using mine as a file server. It has a 1tb ssd for the OS, another 1tb ssd for music and 2 4tb ssd’s for storage. It sits in my rack and looks like an audio component.

Everybody seemed to want to tell me how it can be done cheaper. I’ve been working on computers since 1976. I built what I wanted. I had used and cheap before. There are no cheap used alternatives that have O fans and 10tb of storage sit on an audio rack shelf. My main PC today is a laptop attached to a dock. External storage is necessary to support photo and audio editing.

I run a Heatsink (with heatpipes) ATX case, with a compact MicroATX AM4 motherboard, and 5700G CPU/APU...

For mass storage I have a seperate server (NAS) running dual parity storage with 6x16tb drives - it hides away in the attic with its ups.

No moving parts in the HTPC... = no noise - peak APU temperature when gaming has reached 70 degrees C... which is still below performance throttling levels.

Under normal media usage (as opposed to gaming) - it cruises along at under 40 C

(I have been building PC's since the early 80's...)

 

[JRR]

Lol, mine sounds like a dump truck climbing a hill and the 8x12TB enterprise drives vibrate the walls.

 

[dlaloum]

Lol, mine sounds like a dump truck climbing a hill and the 8x12TB enterprise drives vibrate the walls.

I keep the enterprise drives in the server in the attic... and yes - they're loud.

 

[Berwhale]

Not fanless, but fun to watch...

 

[Petrushka]

Not fanless, but fun to watch...

That appears to be BeeLink. I use one of their cheaper models as an NAS for music storage. In six years I’ve replaced the C drive ($40) and had to disassemble it to clean the fan. Let’s hear it for image backups and usb recovery drives.

 

[CuteStudio]

There are a few laptops around that are fanless, so don't count them out. They can also be useful as they come complete with:

Built in UPS
Screen
Keyboard / trackpad.

I use a ASUS Chromebook Flip C434. Well, I removed the Chrome OS as it's useless, consulted MrChromebook to reflash the bios, and installed Linux - but if you get a Windows version is should be even easier to convert to a decent OS.

My ASUS now serves films via minidlna, and music using my own server, it's a real workhorse. Look for a modern fanless i3 and you'll be set.

Also the Raspberry Pi 4 with a Flirc metal case makes quite a nice silent PC too. For the better off, an Apple M1 airbook would also be perfect.