Fan-less silent PC

[pablolie]

As I mentioned I can't hear the fans at all accept for a few seconds during POST. If it should give me any issue I'll just swap it for a Noctua.
..

Noctua is my go-to as well, can't hear a thing, and I live in a very quiet place. I also use the i7 "T" editions, which only use 35W, on my home workstation builds... and that does everything, from photo and video editing to being my always-on media server.

 

[Sernyl]

Got a N150 for my ham radio station, but could be on the Hifi with Foobar and a 4 TB disk.
~200€ with W11 : less consumption means less heat, practically fanless, and (for my purpose) less RFI.

Air12 – Geekom

service.geekompc.com

BTW, close to it, an external USB hub looks enormous.

 

[cobby]

Got a N150 for my ham radio station, but could be on the Hifi with Foobar and a 4 TB disk.
~200€ with W11 : less consumption means less heat, practically fanless, and (for my purpose) less RFI.

Air12 – Geekom

service.geekompc.com

BTW, close to it, an external USB hub looks enormous.

true, some like this would also do very well.

https://de.aliexpress.com/item/1005011734339137.html?spm=a2g0o.detail.pcDetailTopMoreOtherSeller.3.3badCbNQCbNQTL&gps-id=pcDetailTopMoreOtherSeller&scm=1007.40050.354490.0&scm_id=1007.40050.354490.0&scm-url=1007.40050.354490.0&pvid=6c6f23a7-9529-4733-8297-ffd94e515b52&_t=gps-id%3ApcDetailTopMoreOtherSeller%2Cscm-url%3A1007.40050.354490.0%2Cpvid%3A6c6f23a7-9529-4733-8297-ffd94e515b52%2Ctpp_buckets%3A668%232846%238112%231997&pdp_ext_f=%7B%22order%22%3A%22156%22%2C%22eval%22%3A%221%22%2C%22sceneId%22%3A%2230050%22%2C%22fromPage%22%3A%22recommend%22%7D&utparam-url=scene%3ApcDetailTopMoreOtherSeller%7Cquery_from%3A%7Cx_object_id%3A1005011734339137%7C_p_origin_prod%3A

likely will idle about 6W, my guess.

fanless is also an option, while the older N4000 wont do 4k video well for sure its a ok price for these days and still way faster then a raspi 4 at may a even lower power consumption <5W idle, incl. a SSD.
https://de.aliexpress.com/item/1005007545287819.html?spm=a2g0o.productlist.main.8.7bc9YWszYWszdQ&algo_pvid=2b023605-f401-45e0-b1ac-52eaa580bbca&pdp_ext_f={"order":"221","eval":"1","fromPage":"search"}&utparam-url=scene:search|query_from:|x_object_id:1005007545287819|_p_origin_prod:

last but not least, i calc the power consumption in to the bill. Power is expensive ROI of some newer tech can be shockingly fast.

 

[antcollinet]

Not relevant but FYI "render video" = play video

Not in my world. Rendering video is the final step of editing video when you create the output file from the edited and assmbled clips, effects, and audio. Since it requires creating compressed video it is highly processor intensive.

 

[john61ct]

interesting. but even just the rendering process in playback mode is usually the most intensive process for my multimedia compute nodes, except maybe ripping or format / codec conversion - video of course much more so than audio.

I don't do either with the music nodes dedicated to just doing audio DSP, so it's much easier and cheaper for them to be truly silent.

Although your DP above about RPi4B handling both was interesting, support for 4+ ADC/DAC ports requires RPi5

 

[Roland68]

interesting. but even just the rendering process in playback mode is usually the most intensive process for my multimedia compute nodes, except maybe ripping or format / codec conversion - video of course much more so than audio.

I don't do either with the music nodes dedicated to just doing audio DSP, so it's much easier and cheaper for them to be truly silent.

Although your DP above about RPi4B handling both was interesting, support for 4+ ADC/DAC ports requires RPi5

Rendering is a term used in animation, video editing, and video production; it is an extremely computationally intensive process, especially with 4K or 3D content. It has nothing to do with playing back a video.
It is also not suitable for fanless PCs.

 

[phofman]

IMO rendering has a different meaning for video and audio. Some technologies (i.e. the audio network protocols) call the device where digital stream is actually converted to audio a "renderer". But IMO for video the renderer is always meant as the part which generates the final video stream, not playback.

 

[somebodyelse]

Rendering is a term used in animation, video editing, and video production; it is an extremely computationally intensive process, especially with 4K or 3D content. It has nothing to do with playing back a video.
It is also not suitable for fanless PCs.

It's a "term of art" that's been used in different ways by different subsections of technology, which makes life difficult when people familiar with a different subsection try to talk to each other.

 

[Sernyl]

true, some like this would also do very well.

https://de.aliexpress.com/item/1005011734339137.html?spm=a2g0o.detail.pcDetailTopMoreOtherSeller.3.3badCbNQCbNQTL&gps-id=pcDetailTopMoreOtherSeller&scm=1007.40050.354490.0&scm_id=1007.40050.354490.0&scm-url=1007.40050.354490.0&pvid=6c6f23a7-9529-4733-8297-ffd94e515b52&_t=gps-id%3ApcDetailTopMoreOtherSeller%2Cscm-url%3A1007.40050.354490.0%2Cpvid%3A6c6f23a7-9529-4733-8297-ffd94e515b52%2Ctpp_buckets%3A668%232846%238112%231997&pdp_ext_f=%7B%22order%22%3A%22156%22%2C%22eval%22%3A%221%22%2C%22sceneId%22%3A%2230050%22%2C%22fromPage%22%3A%22recommend%22%7D&utparam-url=scene%3ApcDetailTopMoreOtherSeller%7Cquery_from%3A%7Cx_object_id%3A1005011734339137%7C_p_origin_prod%3A

likely will idle about 6W, my guess.

fanless is also an option, while the older N4000 wont do 4k video well for sure its a ok price for these days and still way faster then a raspi 4 at may a even lower power consumption <5W idle, incl. a SSD.
https://de.aliexpress.com/item/1005007545287819.html?spm=a2g0o.productlist.main.8.7bc9YWszYWszdQ&algo_pvid=2b023605-f401-45e0-b1ac-52eaa580bbca&pdp_ext_f={"order":"221","eval":"1","fromPage":"search"}&utparam-url=scene:search|query_from:|x_object_id:1005007545287819|_p_origin_prod:

last but not least, i calc the power consumption in to the bill. Power is expensive ROI of some newer tech can be shockingly fast.

when replacing my modest DIY PCI with a N150, I have been surprised how much garbage (and HF dB) disappeared from my ears (and panoramic display).
Years ago, the "computeraudiophiles" had been very concerned by PC EMC (and put ferrites of any [wrong] sort everywhere...). That time is gone...

Not bad for audio, too.

BTW, NAS power idle = ???

 

[cobby]

when replacing my modest DIY PCI with a N150, I have been surprised how much garbage (and HF dB) disappeared from my ears (and panoramic display).
Years ago, the "computeraudiophiles" had been very concerned by PC EMC (and put ferrites of any [wrong] sort everywhere...). That time is gone...

Not bad for audio, too.

BTW, NAS power idle = ???

Yes, that makes sense to me. I never measured the actual noise/EMI, but these low-power Mini-PCs simply don’t move huge currents, and are highly integrated, short traces, many layers etc., so there is less opportunity to inject garbage everywhere compared to a normal desktop PC.

My old Celeron N3350 box was below 5 W idle, and my N150 seems to be around 6 W idle, but that was only measured with a simple plug-in power meter, so not lab-grade. Still, the general range is very low.

As a NAS I’d expect roughly the same base idle power, but of course SSDs/HDDs and USB devices can easily dominate. With only an SSD it should stay very low.

 

[antcollinet]

BTW, NAS power idle = ???

My four drive nas (Synology) idles at about 30w. Nearly 20 of these seem to be the drives which I've never managed to get to power down.

 

[Chr1]

They should though surely? Thought this was one of the most important features of a NAS. Should be in the settings somewhere.

Don't actually use mine anymore as it uses more power than my MiniPCs.

 

[pablolie]

....

My old Celeron N3350 box was below 5 W idle, and my N150 seems to be around 6 W idle, but that was only measured with a simple plug-in power meter, so not lab-grade. Still, the general range is very low.
...

That's why I like the T in Intel CPUs (although the seem to be doing away with it). The i7-7700T goes down to 2-4W at idle, and 10W or so when doing light desktop stuff. That's why it's always on. I also have a fanless GT 1030 in there, which idles around the same, but since I do photography and occasional video editing it's worthwhile leaving the integrated Intel graphics unused. Because it's on all the time, I wanted to get the optimal balance between power efficiency and performance, and nearly 9 years later it still delivers what I need.

 

[pablolie]

...
On the other hand I used to be expert in fixing config.sys, autoexec.bat and optimising extended memory with EMM386.exe, and all sorts of other windows batch file goodness.
...

Haha, that's CLASSIC! :-D I also remember HIMEM.SYS...

 

[Keith_W]

autoexec.bat

Here is a 1980's joke: What do you get when you cross Lee Iacocca with a vampire?

(And yes I know you hate it when cars get randomly injected into discussions. I couldn't pass up the opportunity!!!).

 

[antcollinet]

Here is a 1980's joke: What do you get when you cross Lee Iacocca with a vampire?

(And yes I know you hate it when cars get randomly injected into discussions. I couldn't pass up the opportunity!!!).

Not an analogy though - that's fine. And unbelievably, never heard that one.

 

[Redacted]

My new refurbished file server is behind a firewall as well.

/Rant/

In this world, generally speaking, everything and anything has 5 levels of expertise/knowledge. It's kind of like college courses, you have the 100, 200, 300, 400 and 500 level course.

In 2026, if you have a half decent brain, you can get to 100 level knowledge in anything and everything with very little effort, you can even get to 200 level with mild to moderate effort.

So when I hear people say, I'm afraid to learn Linux or messing around with a firewall is too complicated or this and that. God, I just think very lowly of these people.

Nothing is hard nor difficult in 2026.

/Rant over/

Have you met many people?

The flip side is that there are people out there that may not know much about Linux but who have different knowledge and skills that may leave you looking left behind.

 

[Barrelhouse Solly]

Haha, that's CLASSIC! :-D I also remember HIMEM.SYS...

My job used to include configuring extended and expanded memory.

 

[cobby]

That's why I like the T in Intel CPUs (although the seem to be doing away with it). The i7-7700T goes down to 2-4W at idle, and 10W or so when doing light desktop stuff. That's why it's always on. I also have a fanless GT 1030 in there, which idles around the same, but since I do photography and occasional video editing it's worthwhile leaving the integrated Intel graphics unused. Because it's on all the time, I wanted to get the optimal balance between power efficiency and performance, and nearly 9 years later it still delivers what I need.

Sounds good. Just to clarify: are the 2–4 W measured at the wall for the entire system, including the GT 1030, or is that CPU package power? I’ve seen well-optimized HP/Lenovo/Dell business minis idle impressively low, sometimes even around 4–8 W.

 

[pablolie]

Sounds good. Just to clarify: are the 2–4 W measured at the wall for the entire system, including the GT 1030, or is that CPU package power? I’ve seen well-optimized HP/Lenovo/Dell business minis idle impressively low, sometimes even around 4–8 W.

No, that was just the CPU. I've measured the system with a Killawatt, and it idles at around 27W. Some prefer bunch of small devices, I like that workstation to do anything. Runs VMware workstation to run functions I can easily move onto other dedicated computers if I need to.