4 ms·

They look nice, are pretty large. Very few specs, I couldn't for instance find anything mentioning the size of the fan. From what I can tell it's a bog standa

by sliken 8y ago

They look nice, are pretty large. Very few specs, I couldn't for instance find anything mentioning the size of the fan. From what I can tell it's a bog standard system, a thin piece of wood (or is it a veneer?), and a custom fan controller on a small daughter card. The integration is pretty nice, presumably all the driver related integration "just works", although I generally get that with dell desktops or newegg systems built from parts. They don't mention much about the actual quality though. How efficient is the power supply? How many fans does it have? Any sound insulation inside? Maybe a aluminum/plastic/aluminum sandwich for sound dampening? Why is the rear fan so far from the rear of the case? Why is the motherboard horizontal which makes the case very wide, especially for a machine with a max of 32GB ram. For $2,500 for a modest i7 system with 32GB ram, gtx-1070, and a 256GB SSD I was expecting more than a custom fan controller and limited ram.

deleted 8y ago
[deleted]
chendragon 8y ago
The rear fan appears to be shared with the CPU fan. This is actually not a bad design in my opinion, many Dell OptiPlexes from around 2002-2009 were built with a similar design. By putting the fan farther from the grille, they can reduce the effects of noise from the blades passing by the stationary grill. The fan appears to point inwards, which seems to make more sense for BTX Dells with the fan at the bottom than this with the fan on top. The site mentions the power supplies are 80plus certified or something with (iirc) 90% efficiency or so. Quality of the case wise it does look like quite some effort was put into it, given the top appears to be one piece and it certainly looks harder to manufacture than a standard PC case. With that said, as much as it is nice, I think it's just more of a standard PC with a nice case.
- wyclif 8y ago
  I'm curious about how much fan noise there really is. They talk about the Thelio looking nice enough to live on the desktop, but IMO the reason people put their Linux box under their desk isn't necessarily because it's ugly: it's to mitigate the fan noise. I don't care much about walnut or maple; I just want quiet fans.
cbsmith 8y ago
"They don't mention much about the actual quality though. How efficient is the power supply? How many fans does it have? Any sound insulation inside? Maybe a aluminum/plastic/aluminum sandwich for sound dampening?" You get that this is open hardware right? You can go to https://github.com/system76/thelio/ https://github.com/system76/thelio/ and see the whole story (there are separate projects for Thelio Io and the specifics for each model, but you get the idea). They even have a BOM: https://github.com/system76/thelio/blob/master/Thelio%20Common/Bill%20of%20Materials%20(BOM)/thelio-systems-bom.csv https://github.com/system76/thelio/blob/master/Thelio%20Comm... Here, for example, is all the detail you could hope for on the PSU for Thelio Main: https://github.com/system76/thelio/tree/master/Thelio%20Main/Thelio%20Main%20Power%20Supply https://github.com/system76/thelio/tree/master/Thelio%20Main...
- onli 8y ago
  https://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/fsp-dagger-600w-sfx-psu,5033-11.html https://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/fsp-dagger-600w-sfx-psu... is a review of SFX the psu used, I assume in the smaller case. Quiet, but not the best. The other psus in the BOM list are excellent EVGA units, oversized, and they picked the older G2 model - which is good, the G3 has (or had?) issues with the fan curve and can be loud. The G2 is reasonable quiet as well. The Arctic case fans are not the very best but very good for their price, reasonable choice as well. I use them myself, in my very quiet PC. I don't see sound insulation in the BOM, I might miss it. But the regular customer hardware used there I can judge seems very reasonable picked. Not the usual bad cost optimization you see in regular pre-builts.
- hlandau 8y ago
  I'm not seeing the schematics for the PSU here. There's plenty of detail I could hope for that's not there.
  - cbsmith 8y ago
    And if the schematics were there, you'd hope for a complete metallurgical breakdown of each of the wires inside. ;-) If went out and bought the PSU yourself, you wouldn't have any more information. I think that's a reasonable standard to hope for.

by sliken 8y ago

deleted 8y ago

[deleted]

chendragon 8y ago

The rear fan appears to be shared with the CPU fan. This is actually not a bad design in my opinion, many Dell OptiPlexes from around 2002-2009 were built with a similar design. By putting the fan farther from the grille, they can reduce the effects of noise from the blades passing by the stationary grill. The fan appears to point inwards, which seems to make more sense for BTX Dells with the fan at the bottom than this with the fan on top. The site mentions the power supplies are 80plus certified or something with (iirc) 90% efficiency or so. Quality of the case wise it does look like quite some effort was put into it, given the top appears to be one piece and it certainly looks harder to manufacture than a standard PC case. With that said, as much as it is nice, I think it's just more of a standard PC with a nice case.

wyclif 8y ago
I'm curious about how much fan noise there really is. They talk about the Thelio looking nice enough to live on the desktop, but IMO the reason people put their Linux box under their desk isn't necessarily because it's ugly: it's to mitigate the fan noise. I don't care much about walnut or maple; I just want quiet fans.

cbsmith 8y ago

"They don't mention much about the actual quality though. How efficient is the power supply? How many fans does it have? Any sound insulation inside? Maybe a aluminum/plastic/aluminum sandwich for sound dampening?" You get that this is open hardware right? You can go to https://github.com/system76/thelio/ https://github.com/system76/thelio/ and see the whole story (there are separate projects for Thelio Io and the specifics for each model, but you get the idea). They even have a BOM: https://github.com/system76/thelio/blob/master/Thelio%20Common/Bill%20of%20Materials%20(BOM)/thelio-systems-bom.csv https://github.com/system76/thelio/blob/master/Thelio%20Comm... Here, for example, is all the detail you could hope for on the PSU for Thelio Main: https://github.com/system76/thelio/tree/master/Thelio%20Main/Thelio%20Main%20Power%20Supply https://github.com/system76/thelio/tree/master/Thelio%20Main...

onli 8y ago
https://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/fsp-dagger-600w-sfx-psu,5033-11.html https://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/fsp-dagger-600w-sfx-psu... is a review of SFX the psu used, I assume in the smaller case. Quiet, but not the best. The other psus in the BOM list are excellent EVGA units, oversized, and they picked the older G2 model - which is good, the G3 has (or had?) issues with the fan curve and can be loud. The G2 is reasonable quiet as well. The Arctic case fans are not the very best but very good for their price, reasonable choice as well. I use them myself, in my very quiet PC. I don't see sound insulation in the BOM, I might miss it. But the regular customer hardware used there I can judge seems very reasonable picked. Not the usual bad cost optimization you see in regular pre-builts.
hlandau 8y ago
I'm not seeing the schematics for the PSU here. There's plenty of detail I could hope for that's not there.
- cbsmith 8y ago
  And if the schematics were there, you'd hope for a complete metallurgical breakdown of each of the wires inside. ;-) If went out and bought the PSU yourself, you wouldn't have any more information. I think that's a reasonable standard to hope for.