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Fan-less silent PC

mike70

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How about a Mele Quieter 3. Fanless. J5105 processsor, 8 gig ram, has Emmc memory, but can take up to 4 TB of NVME. I run one as my HTPC. Works just fine, streams Netflix in 4K, HDR 10, runs JRiver w Dirac with zero lip sync issues. Just does the job, completely quiet, works off the shelf, has Windows 11 built in. All for around $260, and there are ususally $20-40 discount coupons out there. Available on Amazon.

Not as powerful or fast as some of the other rigs mention in the thread, but it's powerful and fast enough. Plenty snappy enough as a browser as well. Just don't try to run Final Cut Pro with it.

What % of CPU do you have with JRiver + Dirac Live? I want that and a Focusrite Scarlett ADC with a turntable.

Maybe is too much for that machine.
 

phoenixdogfan

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What % of CPU do you have with JRiver + Dirac Live? I want that and a Focusrite Scarlett ADC with a turntable.

Maybe is too much for that machine.
Don't see how the Scarlett or the TT will add to the processing overhead of the PC. CPU utilization varies, it's complicated b/c processes happen automatically in the background. Machine does not crap out on me if I keep its rendering at 23.96 fps which is the Native processing rate for Netflix. I also use it as my principal browser. In fact I'm using it right now with zero problems. It has no problem driving an 8 channel dac with JRiver, don't see that you would be doing anything that would crash it. I do hear, however, it doe not have enough processing power for Roon. Equally certain you would be unable to run Final Cut Pro on it for 8K video editing, or play the latest generation of games. But running Netflix with Dirac? Should be absolutely fine.

In any case, if you buy from Amazon and find it's not to your liking, you can return for a full refund, no questions asked. And if it works out, you've saved quite a bit over a Nuc or a Mac 1 Mini.
 

MaxBuck

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I'd be interested in whether a Surface Go tablet would be sufficient. Built-in monitor, lightweight, compact.
 

mike70

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I'd be interested in whether a Surface Go tablet would be sufficient. Built-in monitor, lightweight, compact.

I hate batteries :)
 

charlielaub

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A Beelink SER5 vs MeLE Quiter HD3 is about $40. I'm not up of CPU and graphic performance. Is the Beelink a better performer for graphics, audio and games?

I'm looking for a new mini and audio interface too.

Thanks,

Scott

The Ryzen 5560u does not have gaming level graphics or anything. But the computing power is several times greater than the N5105 I mentioned while having a low TDP of IIRC 15W. The same SER 5 chassis is used for chip with much higher TDP, so I would expect that the fan will not run much or at all.
 

mike70

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It would be useful that technical specs includes the fan noise in dBs with some "standard" method (1meter/blah blah).

A low noise fan surely will stay under the room noise floor (as HTPC, normally you're not close to the PC).

Another caveat with fans is the dust problem ... and more noise in time. That's why with comparable machines, I always prefer fanless.
 

charlielaub

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It would be useful that technical specs includes the fan noise in dBs with some "standard" method (1meter/blah blah).

A low noise fan surely will stay under the room noise floor (as HTPC, normally you're not close to the PC).

Another caveat with fans is the dust problem ... and more noise in time. That's why with comparable machines, I always prefer fanless.
A standardized fan noise test would be useful, but how to make such a standard? The fan is not running at constant speed but varies with load or via a temp sensor in the PC. Making a real apples-to-apples comparison would be challenging IMHO.
 

beeface

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A standardized fan noise test would be useful, but how to make such a standard? The fan is not running at constant speed but varies with load or via a temp sensor in the PC. Making a real apples-to-apples comparison would be challenging IMHO.
someone with some coding skills could probably make a program to test a fan at different voltages over time, so that the fan speed ramps up and down. would just need a USB to DC cable of some sort
 

charlielaub

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I think you are assuming you can access the fan or whatever. That is not the case with some mini PCs, include a couple I own.
 

mike70

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The new Intel N100 processor is something like 25% faster than N5105, so ... I think a mini PC with that processor surely will work easily with 4 channels DSP and live analog input from an audio interface.

I only know about the Morefine M9, but it isn't fanless ... waiting for something from MeLE Quieter with the N100.
 

charlielaub

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The Intel N100 is very new but looks interesting. I will keep my eyes open for a fanless offering using it.
 

mike70

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Intel N95 also.

Performance difference with N100 is very tiny but ... more than double energy consumption.

I prefer N100 night and day.
 

mike70

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Yes, that's why the video performance is better...;)

Well, I want it for audio ... and headless. For me is much more important CPU and power consumption than video capability.

Also, I think for htpc you need a higher processor.
 
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Matias

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The Intel N100 is very new but looks interesting. I will keep my eyes open for a fanless offering using it.
I am also looking forward to more N100 offerings, as performance-wise it is more or less similar to my 9 year old i5 4690S but using 1/10th of the TDP!

And yesterday I saw this announcement from ASRock:

The ITX version would be the perfect drop in replacement in my HTPC. Prices yet to be announced.

ASRock-N100DC-ITX-motherboard.jpg
 
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Lew3vans

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I am going to build a completely silent PC to act as a music server. These folks will build you one for not much more than parts cost. https://www.quietpc.com/sys-sidewinder-i17
Decided to build my own because it will be fun and I am temporarily grounded by leg surgery. Yes, NUC’s are cheaper but they have fans and I want to retire the standard desktop I have in another room running Roon server for a cool looking one sitting in my audio rack. Gonna stick a couple of big SSD’s in it and use it as a file server too. I’ll take some pictures when I’m done.
I just bought one of these with 8gb RAM and 512gb HDD to act as a ROON core - works a treat.

 

charlielaub

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I purchased an N100 PC from Beelink (S12 Pro I think) to try it. I liked it very much but unlike the N4100,J4105,etc does not have WiFi included in the SOC. The Beelink used an Intel AX101 which was only released last year and I could not get it to work under Linux. I needed WiFi, so I put the machine on the shelf for now. Otherwise it seemed good and cost less than $200.
 

dasdoing

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I am creating a "fanless" (*) PC with rather simple parts; no special case and stuff. But I must say it's kind of strange to understand CPU usage on Windows sometimes. Some apps or webpages seam to force CPU with no aparent reason.

(*) case has fans, but the goal is to leave them at 0 rpm 99% of the time
 
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