Fan-less silent PC

[rwortman]

Noctua fans are quiet, not silent. There's a small but appreciable difference between the two.

My point exactly, and they get less quiet as they age. I keep saying this, over and over, I have not had one fail, they just started making themselves slightly audible in a dead quiet room. I about to decommission a PC with two three year old Noctua case fans in it. If you can unplug them and plug them in and not hear a thing, you might have more hearing loss than me.

just build the computer you like and -like audio gear- stop telling the world "yours is better" :-D

I don’t recall saying that one time in this thread. I was defending my build choice against hordes who were insisting that fans and no fans were audibly the same thing, why bother? If this was true ( and in my experience it isn’t) why aren’t home audio amplifier designers saving money buy using much smaller heat sinking and cases and putting in a relatively cheap Noctua fan?

 

[AdamG]

Just by way of an alternative:

Here is a fanless, totally silent streamer I built for around £130, including touch screen display.

View attachment 264559

Hi Tony,

Please do share more details and pictures. If you would be so kind. You have peaked my interest and I just have to know and see more Sir.

 

[antcollinet]

Hi Tony,

Please do share more details and pictures. If you would be so kind. You have peaked my interest and I just have to know and see more Sir.

Will do ... I'll post a separate thread for it to avoid pollluting this one though.

 

[Jimster480]

Here is the the rest of of the BOM. Streacon FC5 case, Streacom 240w fanless power supply and this. https://newegg.io/5ac3ad9

Core i5 12400 65w
16gb RAM
500gb m.2 for OS
1tb m.2 for music files
2 4tb SSD for network file storage.

Duno why you would waste money on Intel.
Just for all the people in this thread; Intel is a steaming pile of shit the past 5 years.. It blows tons of heat out and TDP has no relation at all to actual wattage. Since Intel is incapable of making anything efficient they just lie about TDP numbers.

AMD has leapfrogged them with Ryzen after they spent half a decade milking revisions of Sandy Bridge rather than developing anything useful. The best thing to build a silent pc with is AMD. Either a mobile based mini Pc (4600h, 5600h, 6600h) or u series variants... There is v1505 Ryzen as well.

In total desktop parts you can build a 5600G + some cheap A320 or B450/550 board. This has no problem running full speed in 65w or less (I've used these in various servers I colocate around the world) and they run circles around the Xeons from even a couple years ago. Nevermind that the sustained clock speeds and single thread performance is overall better than anything Intel makes In power constrained scenarios. A single Intel core can use 65w to reach these huge clockspeeds needed to stay competitive while a single AMD core is hard pressed to reach 20w even at 4.7GHz+ for example.

Anyway just wanted to share some insight since I build plenty of PCs for people as well as my own stuff for home and business for a couple decades already.

 

[F1308]

Mine is also fanless, and sealed to avoid any dust.
Ordered on early February from Cirrus7 Computing and built according to my specifications, have just left Germany fours ago and hopefully getting home by... next Friday ?

cirrus7 - fanless mini-PCs - made in Germany

Fanless mini-PCs made in Germany. Our PCs are operating completely silent due to CNC milled aluminium enclosures working as heat sink.

www.cirrus7.com

Couldn't resist adding the very best I found...

Intel Core i9-13900T.
8+16C/32T, 1.1 - 5.3GHz - UHD 770.
At first I was going AMD, but saw only two monitors were supported while Intel is happy with four !!!!

Intel Core i9-13900T Benchmark

128 GB DDR4 (4x32GB) CL14 3200MHz.

2x Corsair Force Series MP600 Pro NH 8TB, M.2.


LG 40WP95C-W
5120 x 2160 using DP 1.4.
3840 x 2160 using HDMI.

39.7" LG 40WP95C - Specifications

Specifications of LG 40WP95C. Display: 39.7 in, IPS, W-LED, 5120 x 2160 pixels, Viewing angles (H/V): 178 ° / 178 °, Brightness: 300 cd/m², Static contrast: 1000 : 1, Refresh rate: 48 Hz - 72 Hz, sRGB: 100 %, Dimensions: 947.2 x 419.2 x 114.8 mm, Weight: 10.2 kg. LG 40WP95C is also known as LG...

www.displayspecifications.com

Windows 11 Pro.


REAPER DAW (astounding performance and lovely people attending the forum) and tons of VSTs from every maker out there.

 

[rwortman]

Duno why you would waste money on Intel.

Because AMD doesn’t have a Thunderbolt license? Because the motherboard I wanted to use was an Intel board.

 

[kemmler3D]

Mine is also fanless, and sealed to avoid any dust.
Ordered on early February from Cirrus7 Computing and built according to my specifications, have just left Germany fours ago and hopefully getting home by... next Friday ?

cirrus7 - fanless mini-PCs - made in Germany

Fanless mini-PCs made in Germany. Our PCs are operating completely silent due to CNC milled aluminium enclosures working as heat sink.

www.cirrus7.com

Couldn't resist adding the very best I found...

Intel Core i9-13900T.
8+16C/32T, 1.1 - 5.3GHz - UHD 770.

Intel Core i9-13900T Benchmark

128 GB DDR4 (4x32GB) CL14 3200MHz.

2x Corsair Force Series MP600 Pro NH 8TB, M.2.


LG 40WP95C-W
5120 x 2160 using DP 1.4.
3840 x 2160 using HDMI.

39.7" LG 40WP95C - Specifications

Specifications of LG 40WP95C. Display: 39.7 in, IPS, W-LED, 5120 x 2160 pixels, Viewing angles (H/V): 178 ° / 178 °, Brightness: 300 cd/m², Static contrast: 1000 : 1, Refresh rate: 48 Hz - 72 Hz, sRGB: 100 %, Dimensions: 947.2 x 419.2 x 114.8 mm, Weight: 10.2 kg. LG 40WP95C is also known as LG...

www.displayspecifications.com

Windows 11 Pro.


REAPER DAW (astounding performance and lovely people attending the forum) and tons of VSTs from every maker out there.

Very cool (ha), the whole case is a heat sink... but I'll be interested in what happens when you do a Prime95 session with a rig like this...

 

[F1308]

Very cool (ha), the whole case is a heat sink... but I'll be interested in what happens when you do a Prime95 session with a rig like this...

What is a Prime95 session ?

 

[charlielaub]

I thought I would take this journey myself about a year ago so I bought an ASUS ROG-STRIX B460i motherboard and Intel i5-10400 CPU. The latter is because the TDP is low enough that I can use a passive heatsink. I was also interested in the performance of the onboard audio codec (ALC1220) and did some measurements to see if I could use its output as a DSP crossover. I built up the system using a fanless DC pico PS running off of a meanwell SMPS, and SSD. The performance is pretty good! But in the end I didn't put it in a case and now I am looking part it out. Since that time I bought a Ryzen 9 5900HX based min PC and love it. But it has a fan and will not be suitable for an HTPC.

 

[Jimster480]

Because AMD doesn’t have a Thunderbolt license? Because the motherboard I wanted to use was an Intel board.

What could anyone possibly need thunderbolt for? The only actual use case of this that AMD didn't have (until recently) was E-Gpu.
There have been motherboards though since x370 that have thunderbolt on them. You just have to buy one that has the chip + license.
However USB 4 is thunderbolt 3 without the name so there is even eGPU for over a year now.

 

[charlielaub]

What is a Prime95 session ?

Its a CPU stress test:

GIMPS - Free Prime95 software downloads - PrimeNet

GIMPS has free software available for Windows, Linux, FreeBSD, Mac OSX. Contribute to the effort by using your computer's spare processing power.

www.mersenne.org

 

[F1308]

I thought I would take this journey myself about a year ago so I bought an ASUS ROG-STRIX B460i motherboard and Intel i5-10400 CPU. The latter is because the TDP is low enough that I can use a passive heatsink. I was also interested in the performance of the onboard audio codec (ALC1220) and did some measurements to see if I could use its output as a DSP crossover. I built up the system using a fanless DC pico PS running off of a meanwell SMPS, and SSD. The performance is pretty good! But in the end I didn't put it in a case and now I am looking part it out. Since that time I bought a Ryzen 9 5900HX based min PC and love it. But it has a fan and will not be suitable for an HTPC.

I always thought a case was necessary to protect people around from radiation...

 

[Jimster480]

I thought I would take this journey myself about a year ago so I bought an ASUS ROG-STRIX B460i motherboard and Intel i5-10400 CPU. The latter is because the TDP is low enough that I can use a passive heatsink. I was also interested in the performance of the onboard audio codec (ALC1220) and did some measurements to see if I could use its output as a DSP crossover. I built up the system using a fanless DC pico PS running off of a meanwell SMPS, and SSD. The performance is pretty good! But in the end I didn't put it in a case and now I am looking part it out. Since that time I bought a Ryzen 9 5900HX based min PC and love it. But it has a fan and will not be suitable for an HTPC.

Yea the 5900HX mini PCs are not fan less that is for sure. Especially since those units specifically have big iGPUs for gaming that creates heat running at high wattages.
They are really fast in small packages though.

 

[F1308]

Its a CPU stress test:

GIMPS - Free Prime95 software downloads - PrimeNet

GIMPS has free software available for Windows, Linux, FreeBSD, Mac OSX. Contribute to the effort by using your computer's spare processing power.

www.mersenne.org

Oh....no, no.
I make music to relax, far from trying to stress my beloved fanless computer.
Also no dropping tests from the ceiling, no bending and no time under water.
Just music.

 

[Open Mind Audio]

I'd prolly build something around these lines today. only doubt here is the CPU cooler, I'd check if there is something better. A build like this has always been completely satisfying to utterly noise allergic me. I think with all the parts it comes in at less than 1.2k and it's enough CPU power for many years. Probably over 10 years if you eventually install Linux on it (and save yourself the Windows $). Music and even streaming 4k video poses zero challenge to a CPU like this, it'll prolly run at barely 10-20% utilization even with 4k video and 192/24 audio running simultaneously for several end devices.

• Case: Silverstone SG11B Quiet Cube Case
• Motherboard: Asus PRIME B560M-A
• CPU: Intel i9-11900T 11th Gen Comet Lake (35W) <- updated
• CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-L12S Low Profile CPU Cooler
• RAM: 32GB Kingston DDR4 2666MHz (2x16GB KVR26N19S8/16)
• Video: Use Onboard Video (CPU Determines Video Series)
• Operating System: Windows 10 Pro (Install Disk Provided)
• System Storage: Samsung 970 Evo Plus 1TB M.2 PCIe 3.0 (3500/3200 MBps R/W)
• Additional Storage 1: Seagate IronWolf 8TB NAS Hard Drive (210 MBps R/W)
• Power Supply: Corsair Platinum HX850 850W Modular PSU (0-21dB)
• Optical: LG DVD-RW
• Wireless: No Wireless Installed
• Sound: Use Onboard Sound
• TPM: Use Onboard Firmware TPM
• Keyboard: No Keyboard and Mouse
• Warranty: One Year Parts & Labor Warranty
• Processing: Standard Processing- Ships 6-10 Business Days

What about noise from the Seagate IronWolf NAS? I have my music on an 8TB 7200 RPM internal HD now, and it does make some noise now and then. When I get a new, quieter PC, I'd love to swap in an 8TB SSD - but prices are still quite high on that.

 

[Jimster480]

I always thought a case was necessary to protect people around from radiation...

Nope, computers don't make radiation like that.

 

[charlielaub]

I always thought a case was necessary to protect people around from radiation...

Um, no. It's not a nuclear reactor. Electromagnetic emissions from consumer electronics is not an issue for human health. Other electronics can pick up computer electrical noise, but that has nothing to do with a health hazard...

 

[F1308]

Nope, computers don't make radiation like that.

They do.
Check it out, please.

Do Graphics Cards Produce Radiation? - Gaming On Point

Do you know your laptop alone can emit a radiation of around 400 to 800 THz? Even I was shocked to know this at first. Like this much huge radiation we get to experience daily! This is literally hazardous! But has other components of a PC or laptop emits the same radiation? What about the […]

gamingonpoint.com

 

[antcollinet]

Hi Tony,

Please do share more details and pictures. If you would be so kind. You have peaked my interest and I just have to know and see more Sir.

Done, here:

Brief description (with pictures) of my Touchscreen Pi based PicorePlayer streamer...

At the request of Adam, here: https://audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/fan-less-silent-pc.41114/post-1487232 here is a short description of the Pi based streamer I built. Components:
 Raspberry PI 3b (Made redundant when I upgraded my media player to a PI4. Official power supply...

www.audiosciencereview.com

 

[charlielaub]

They do.
Check it out, please.

Do Graphics Cards Produce Radiation? - Gaming On Point

Do you know your laptop alone can emit a radiation of around 400 to 800 THz? Even I was shocked to know this at first. Like this much huge radiation we get to experience daily! This is literally hazardous! But has other components of a PC or laptop emits the same radiation? What about the […]

gamingonpoint.com

Sorry, that link is stating some complete bull shiiite!!! The author who is "Shaheer Ali, a passionate gamer who loves to write about all things tech" starts off by saying:
Graphics card does produce alpha and beta radiation because of the Ghz frequencies and proton emission. Let’s be real guys, anything that emits heat, radio waves, or even light is able to produce radiation.
Person has no clue about how dumb that statement is!

Later on they mention EM radiation from consumer devices, which is true but has no effect on human health. Geez people stop believing random internet posts by gamers and get a real education. Real information here:

α, β, γ, n Sources and Detection

What it shows: Radiations originating from atomic and nuclear processes are classified into four types:charged particulate radiation consisting of 1. heavy charged particles (α) 2. fast electrons (β)uncharged radiation consisting of 3. electromagnetic radiation (γ, x-ray) 4. neutrons (n)

sciencedemonstrations.fas.harvard.edu