6 ms·

I would pay for a silent PC. I paid a lot for a quiet Apple PowerPC Mac pro back in the day and built a quiet PC but they are not silent and I have moved to a q

I would pay for a silent PC. I paid a lot for a quiet Apple PowerPC Mac pro back in the day and built a quiet PC but they are not silent and I have moved to a quieter place and I can hear them (yes the Mac runs Fedora now). I have some silent ARM machines but they don't quite cut it yet though maybe the new quad core one will.

maxmem 13y ago
There are passive coolers for i7s out there. You can even find passively cooled GPUs and PSUs. It's pretty cheap to build a silent pc.
- mcv 13y ago
  Those passive coolers generally still rely on some airflow. With no case fans at all, I'm told they won't be able to hold up under any decent load.
- bcoates 13y ago
  It's tricky getting a passive GPU to actually work, mine has a tendency to overheat and halt the system rather than throttle down under load. It required a fair bit of tweaking to case fans and driver underclock settings to get it stable.
Jakub77 13y ago
https://store.tinygreenpc.com/tiny-green-pcs/intense-pc.html https://store.tinygreenpc.com/tiny-green-pcs/intense-pc.html Very silent fanless pc. I have one and I am glad.
fredsted 13y ago
Mac mini has fans but is basically silent.
- justincormack 13y ago
  things with fans are not silent enough - the mac pro seemed ok but now it seems too noisy
  - fredsted 13y ago
    I guess that's what I get for living in the city...
solnyshok 13y ago
my silent PC solution from 2008. Still the best value for money if architecture of your house supports it :) http://solnyshok.blogspot.com/2008/03/my-silent-pc-solution.html http://solnyshok.blogspot.com/2008/03/my-silent-pc-solution....
x0054 13y ago
I have seen full size ATX cases from Silverstone with passive cooling, where the entire case is machine out of aluminum and acts like an enormous heat sync. Have yet to find a good fanless power supply. The new Mac Pro supposed to be only 12DB. It's hard to beat that, most rooms have ambient noise of at least 18db.
- Havoc 13y ago
  > The new Mac Pro supposed to be only 12DB. Until the dust hits it...
  - x0054 13y ago
    Solution: clean it once in a while :)
    - Havoc 13y ago
      >Solution: clean it once in a while :) Teach me oh great one. Honestly I've never managed to clean a fan. You can brush off the obvious dust but the noise comes from dust getting into the fan itself.
      - x0054 13y ago
        Spray it with compressed air inside and out. You can get into the slit between the fan housing and the motor and blow it out there as well. Most fans start making noise due to bearing failure / wobble, not the dust. I have a small home server with 4 fans. After almost 10 years now 3 out of the 4 fans are as quite as they were on day one, the 4th has developed a bearing issue and needs to be swapped out eventually. I am assuming that Apple will use hire quality fans then the $3 crap fans I am using.
        Havoc 13y ago
        >Most fans start making noise due to bearing failure / wobble, not the dust. That exactly is the issue. They don't just mysteriously develop bearing failure / wobble...they do so because dust gets into the bearings. And that exactly is my point...no amount of compressed air can fix dust in the ball bearing grease. I just end up replacing all the fans after a few years...
kderbe 13y ago
Silent PC Review ( http://www.silentpcreview.com http://www.silentpcreview.com ) occasionally reviews complete systems. Last year they measured an i7 machine from Puget Systems at 11dB in their anechoic room ( http://www.silentpcreview.com/Puget_Serenity_Pro http://www.silentpcreview.com/Puget_Serenity_Pro ) which is the best I've seen for an off-the-shelf PC. I haven't used a Puget machine myself, but I've relied on Silent PC Review's component recommendations for nearly a decade, and never been disappointed.
lgieron 13y ago
I have one, from http://www.quietpc.com/ http://www.quietpc.com/ It's completely silent, you can only tell that it's on by looking at LEDs.
rythie 13y ago
My MacBook Air (2012) is completely silent most of time (except viewing videos in Flash or Silverlight). Given is silent, I can actually hear the power supply of my monitor buzzing! (actually it's very quiet buzzing) - be careful what you wish for I guess.
- taigeair 13y ago
  but the video is so loud!
  - rythie 13y ago
    Yeah I know it's awful, if my Celeron 450Mhz could play DVDs at no effort, I don't know why this can't play videos on 5-10% CPU and not spin up the fan.
    - voltagex_ 13y ago
      The older Mac laptops had (SMCUtil?) a utility to change the threshold for the fan - I know lots of Wintel systems have this in BIOS/EFI.
    - felixfurtak 13y ago
      Most video encoding is mp4-type now (rather than the mp2-type used by dvds). Mp4 is typically a lot more processor intensive.
      - ZoFreX 13y ago
        Any even vaguely modern laptop offloads mpeg 4 part 10 decoding onto a decoder chip or the GPU.
pepijndevos 13y ago
In the Netherlands there is https://ikbenstilcomputers.nl https://ikbenstilcomputers.nl selling high-end fanless computers.
tracker1 13y ago
If an i3 is fast enough for you, and you don't need high end graphics, you might want to consider an Intel "Next unit of computing" system... You'll need to get laptop components for it though. I've considered it, but not that into quiet, and want a bit more power. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16856102001 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16856102...
lttlrck 13y ago
Intel NUCs [1] are well engineered and extremely quiet. [1] http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/nuc/nuc-kit-d54250wyk.html http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/nuc/nuc-kit-d54250wyk...

maxmem 13y ago

There are passive coolers for i7s out there. You can even find passively cooled GPUs and PSUs. It's pretty cheap to build a silent pc.

mcv 13y ago
Those passive coolers generally still rely on some airflow. With no case fans at all, I'm told they won't be able to hold up under any decent load.
bcoates 13y ago
It's tricky getting a passive GPU to actually work, mine has a tendency to overheat and halt the system rather than throttle down under load. It required a fair bit of tweaking to case fans and driver underclock settings to get it stable.

Jakub77 13y ago

https://store.tinygreenpc.com/tiny-green-pcs/intense-pc.html https://store.tinygreenpc.com/tiny-green-pcs/intense-pc.html Very silent fanless pc. I have one and I am glad.

fredsted 13y ago

Mac mini has fans but is basically silent.

justincormack 13y ago
things with fans are not silent enough - the mac pro seemed ok but now it seems too noisy
- fredsted 13y ago
  I guess that's what I get for living in the city...

solnyshok 13y ago

my silent PC solution from 2008. Still the best value for money if architecture of your house supports it :) http://solnyshok.blogspot.com/2008/03/my-silent-pc-solution.html http://solnyshok.blogspot.com/2008/03/my-silent-pc-solution....

x0054 13y ago

I have seen full size ATX cases from Silverstone with passive cooling, where the entire case is machine out of aluminum and acts like an enormous heat sync. Have yet to find a good fanless power supply. The new Mac Pro supposed to be only 12DB. It's hard to beat that, most rooms have ambient noise of at least 18db.

Havoc 13y ago
> The new Mac Pro supposed to be only 12DB. Until the dust hits it...
- x0054 13y ago
  Solution: clean it once in a while :)
  - Havoc 13y ago
    >Solution: clean it once in a while :) Teach me oh great one. Honestly I've never managed to clean a fan. You can brush off the obvious dust but the noise comes from dust getting into the fan itself.
    - x0054 13y ago
      Spray it with compressed air inside and out. You can get into the slit between the fan housing and the motor and blow it out there as well. Most fans start making noise due to bearing failure / wobble, not the dust. I have a small home server with 4 fans. After almost 10 years now 3 out of the 4 fans are as quite as they were on day one, the 4th has developed a bearing issue and needs to be swapped out eventually. I am assuming that Apple will use hire quality fans then the $3 crap fans I am using.
      - Havoc 13y ago
        >Most fans start making noise due to bearing failure / wobble, not the dust. That exactly is the issue. They don't just mysteriously develop bearing failure / wobble...they do so because dust gets into the bearings. And that exactly is my point...no amount of compressed air can fix dust in the ball bearing grease. I just end up replacing all the fans after a few years...

kderbe 13y ago

Silent PC Review ( http://www.silentpcreview.com http://www.silentpcreview.com ) occasionally reviews complete systems. Last year they measured an i7 machine from Puget Systems at 11dB in their anechoic room ( http://www.silentpcreview.com/Puget_Serenity_Pro http://www.silentpcreview.com/Puget_Serenity_Pro ) which is the best I've seen for an off-the-shelf PC. I haven't used a Puget machine myself, but I've relied on Silent PC Review's component recommendations for nearly a decade, and never been disappointed.

lgieron 13y ago

I have one, from http://www.quietpc.com/ http://www.quietpc.com/ It's completely silent, you can only tell that it's on by looking at LEDs.

rythie 13y ago

My MacBook Air (2012) is completely silent most of time (except viewing videos in Flash or Silverlight). Given is silent, I can actually hear the power supply of my monitor buzzing! (actually it's very quiet buzzing) - be careful what you wish for I guess.

taigeair 13y ago
but the video is so loud!
- rythie 13y ago
  Yeah I know it's awful, if my Celeron 450Mhz could play DVDs at no effort, I don't know why this can't play videos on 5-10% CPU and not spin up the fan.
  - voltagex_ 13y ago
    The older Mac laptops had (SMCUtil?) a utility to change the threshold for the fan - I know lots of Wintel systems have this in BIOS/EFI.
  - felixfurtak 13y ago
    Most video encoding is mp4-type now (rather than the mp2-type used by dvds). Mp4 is typically a lot more processor intensive.
    - ZoFreX 13y ago
      Any even vaguely modern laptop offloads mpeg 4 part 10 decoding onto a decoder chip or the GPU.

pepijndevos 13y ago

In the Netherlands there is https://ikbenstilcomputers.nl https://ikbenstilcomputers.nl selling high-end fanless computers.

tracker1 13y ago

If an i3 is fast enough for you, and you don't need high end graphics, you might want to consider an Intel "Next unit of computing" system... You'll need to get laptop components for it though. I've considered it, but not that into quiet, and want a bit more power. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16856102001 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16856102...

lttlrck 13y ago

Intel NUCs [1] are well engineered and extremely quiet. [1] http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/nuc/nuc-kit-d54250wyk.html http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/nuc/nuc-kit-d54250wyk...