cobby
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For more serious server stuff i use a Ryzen 7 5825u mini PC idling at about 8-10W at the wall, incl. SSD, HDD and 32GB DDR4, quite nice unit have to say.
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Fan-less silent PC
- Thread starter rwortman
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Yeah, definitely a great component! If I had to build something, I'd definitely look extremely closely (and right now would pick) something like a AMD Ryzen 8700G or so (announced but not yet avail, last I checked.
In a company technology townhall today, our CISO mentioned the primary target is actually Google Chrome with it's 3 billion active users - I haven't looked into this, but he quoted some pretty alarming statistics regarding the number of critical patches being released for Chrome in the last couple of months. As Engineers, we are being actively encouraged to use the same AI tools the hackers are using to identify and fix vulnerabilities in our own software and systems. We have pretty much unlimited access to AI tools (Claude Code and others) and very high quality training available to help us learn how to use it. I'm 55 and have been working in IT for global financial companies since my early 20's, i've never seen things moving this fast from a security perspective.
JustAnandaDourEyedDude
Addicted to Fun and Learning
Where I went to engineering school in the 1980s, 500 level and below were undergrad courses, and 700 level and above were graduate courses. 600 level were dual-level courses; they could be taken by undergrad seniors, and were considered beginning graduate courses that were required for starting graduate students. 900 level were Special Topics in sub-areas of the Department, and the lecturer had practically free choice over what he/she wished to teach that term. With these levels, I think Floyd Toole's depth of Acoustics knowledge and understanding lets him lecture authoritatively at the 800 and 900 level in this area.
PristineSound
Major Contributor
I agree. And I'm glad someone here understood the reference to hundred level courses, despite I may have gotten some details wrong on the levels.
Even one PhD here didn't understand this reference.
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Edit: adding more to this so I do not to flood the chat, also using a 4700u mini PC and it has been great, definitely fast enough for all basic tasks one can imagine.
Sadly ram and storage has gotten rather expensive, but it really feels like computers are fast enough, at least to me.
Only the n100 is a bit slow at times which might just be the single memory channel but it's totally usable to me
Not much else to add but hoping to see more software/audio stacks and full silent PC builds!
My N4200 runs 4K flawlessly but it is in a 10 year old laptop, so would not recommend.
Edit: adding more to this so I do not to flood the chat, also using a 4700u mini PC and it has been great, definitely fast enough for all basic tasks one can imagine.
Sadly ram and storage has gotten rather expensive, but it really feels like computers are fast enough, at least to me.
Only the n100 is a bit slow at times which might just be the single memory channel but it's totally usable to me
Not much else to add but hoping to see more software/audio stacks and full silent PC builds!
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beeface
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agreed, I don't understand the hardline fanless approach when modern PCs are as quiet as they are. I think fanless systems might have made sense once upon a time, but fans and airflow-focused case designs have improved
A quiet fan-cooled system will not be detectable in a room with a typical ambient noise floor. To those who say otherwise, I'd say you should back it up with a blind test
On a related note, this is a really interesting technical discussion with Noctua's chief product officer.
A few products are discussed here. The acoustic design of the traditional all-in-one liquid cooler is interesting, but the headline is the prototype pumpless thermosiphon cooler. Really interesting stuff
Keith_W
Master Contributor
There are other concerns as well, such as dust. My house is pretty clean, but the filters get clogged up with dust and some of it still ends up inside the case.
Chr1
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Personally I like the simplicity of no moving parts. Mine are nice compact alloy boxes with minimal venting. Hence minimal dust. Maximum reliability. Super low power usage. Can mount to your monitor and leave on 24/7. Etc etc.
Obviously if you need more power, there are better options. If not, they're a damn good choice...And they're cheap.
(Whether using Windows, Linux... or even both!)
Obviously if you need more power, there are better options. If not, they're a damn good choice...And they're cheap.
(Whether using Windows, Linux... or even both!)
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There are places where the air conditioner runs for only a few months or two a year
. My listening room is very quiet. I had to move the NAS to another room because the whirring of the hard drives was distracting. That's why I try to use fans as little as possible and avoid them whenever possible.
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And we never even got to M$Windo$ LOL
Here in Central Florida the air conditioner only doesn't run for 1-2 months a year.There are places where the air conditioner works for 1-2 months a year
There are places where the air conditioner runs for only a few months or two a year
There are places where almost no-one has air conditioning. Probably covers the majority of the readership.
Really? I find that surprising.
Studios also tend to be low background noise environments, it's what I helped build PC's for in the past.
One can argue they should not be in the room, but some prefer it that way.
Currently enjoy my air conditioner in South East Asia, but I only have a movable air conditioning unit in Europe that is used perhaps twice a year.
Which, together with living in a village, leaves me with a very low noise environment most of the time.
I even picked out my active studio monitors for low noise, Neumanns where I cannot hear the speaker hiss at listening position during the day.
However, coil whine is also a concern, even with passively cooled devices and of course low running fans are definitely an option.
They are audible to me though, even though it's only slightly above the noise floor in my room in Europe.
One can argue they should not be in the room, but some prefer it that way.
Currently enjoy my air conditioner in South East Asia, but I only have a movable air conditioning unit in Europe that is used perhaps twice a year.
Which, together with living in a village, leaves me with a very low noise environment most of the time.
I even picked out my active studio monitors for low noise, Neumanns where I cannot hear the speaker hiss at listening position during the day.
However, coil whine is also a concern, even with passively cooled devices and of course low running fans are definitely an option.
They are audible to me though, even though it's only slightly above the noise floor in my room in Europe.
Uk - almost no-one has it in private residences. We just sweat through the (increasingly less) rare heatwaves.
My experience of mainland (and some island) EU is limited to a few places I've visited which achieved cool homes through intelligent building regs and urban shade.
The "majority" in my statement is pure guesswork.
I live in the South of the UK. I bought my first aircon, a portable unit, a couple of weeks ago. As far as I can tell, there is only one property in our cul-de sac which has aircon installed and that guy runs a commercial HVAC company. Up to now, keeping a house warm in the UK has been much more of a concern than keeping it cool.
somebodyelse
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Like many others no aircon here. The problem is what you individually are aware of and annoyed by vs. what becomes an accepted part of 'normal'. It's a bit like vinyl surface noise, active monitor hiss, or gaps between tracks that should transition seamlessly - pretty much everyone can identify them once it's pointed out, but for some people they're mentally filtered as 'normal' when not concentrating on them, while for others they're a disturbance that shouldn't be there, and that becomes increasingly annoying. If you don't notice it then consider yourself lucky. Another example in a different field - a graphic designer I used to work with got annoyed by font details I could identify when he pointed them out, but wasn't generally aware of, let alone bothered by. Some here have a similar reaction, usually with mismatched fonts on displays and front panels, or with the allignment of knobs, sockets etc.
For me the annoyance is in an identifiable part of the background noise that I can do something about. The character of the noise matters here, not just the level, which doesn't show in the dB noise rating most fan and HDD manufacturers provide. White or pink noise will be less identifiable at the same level than specific frequencies - hum/buzz vs. hiss. Another aspect is whether it's constant or variable - a step transition will be clear whereas a slow transition may go unnoticed. As for being able to do something about it, if it needs a fan then it needs a fan, and it won't be annoying if I've used the least intrusive fan practicable. Like I said, it's a weird personal thing.
The one that I've put particular effort into is the HTPC in the living room that runs mythtv, so powers up to record things then powers down when it's done - assuming I'm not watching something on it. That state change draws attention to it, especially if I'm doing something quiet like reading late at night (so lower background noise). It's effectively a blind test in that I'm not looking at it while I'm reading, and not aware enough of the time or the recording schedule to know when it'll power up or down. It's now fanless with SSD so nominally no moving parts, and I'm hearing the change in noise that's presumably from the PSU coils - oddly the 12V power brick is noisier when it's in standby, and sometimes has me wonder whether another one would be quieter. There's also an audible change when the TV changes standby state - something I didn't know it did until I was trying to work out what the noise change was caused by and stuck a power meter on it.
Some people are very sensitive to certain types of noise, for me even a fridge can be maddening, much less fans in general and no way I could stand aircon.
Personally I hate aircon, twenty years in Bangkok I proudly did without. Same reasons AI is such a scourge threatens our survival even shorter term.
Humans should not have settled in places where they think it's "necessary".
Fortunately the only regular noise in most of my living spaces are those coming from outdoors.
I usually try to stay away from roads that have more than a few cars per day.
I love hearing birds and other natural sounds.
Personally I hate aircon, twenty years in Bangkok I proudly did without. Same reasons AI is such a scourge threatens our survival even shorter term.
Humans should not have settled in places where they think it's "necessary".
Fortunately the only regular noise in most of my living spaces are those coming from outdoors.
I usually try to stay away from roads that have more than a few cars per day.
I love hearing birds and other natural sounds.
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