Help Putting Together a Fanless PC

[LarsMarkelson]

Agree with everyone else that said use slow running fans. The best fan for this purpose imo is the Zalman ZM-F3 (120mm), undervolted with a fan controller. It comes with undervolting wires that you can use but they don't go low enough for me. On a fan controller undervolted, I literally cannot hear them at all and they still push a good amount of air. I'm really sensitive about this and love the ZM-F3 for this. It also sounds reasonably great sound signature wise at full speed. I've tried lots of fans, Yate Loons, S-Flex, Panaflo, San Ace, Thermalright X-Silent, Gentle Typhoon... ZM-F3 is still my favorite price/performance wise as it gets dead silent, pushes a good amount of air when silent, and is relatively cheap at $7-10 a fan.

Which form factor do you want? I don't know much about ITX but if it's ATX or Micro-ATX I can help ya out with picking out components. The best bang for your buck in that case would be to get an AMD AM2+ or AM3 board with onboard graphics, something like a Radeon 3300 (was powerful enough to play Warcraft 3 with decent settings). Then you could pick up a cheap used processor, like a 940BE (AM2+) or Athlon II 620 Propus (AM3). Cooler Master Hyper 212+ is a great budget heatsink, or you could get something fancier for cheap used. I would suggest possibly using the TIM paste that's included the 212+ (not sure what it is though) or getting some AS Ceramique, which is cheap.

Another thing to be weary about is the PSU (power supply). Most PSUs have a fan in them, so that'll be noise right there. You could opt for a fanless one but they are more expensive, and you should buy a quality brand (Antec, Seasonic, Corsair, Enermax, probably more but I wouldn't get a Cooler Master PSU or Kingmax or whatever, there are a ton of crappy PSU brands out there). Corsair 400CX is a pretty great PSU that I've owned, should be plenty of power for your needs, the only thing is I don't recall how loud the fan was. Jonnyguru.com is a really good site for PSU reviews.

For hard drives I highly recommend getting a Samsung Spinpoint F3. It's one of the most reliable (from what I've read on a few tech forums) and is in my experience, the quietest. Don't get a Hitachi, they're very cheap and fast but pretty loud.

Also, what's your budget?

edit: lol I somehow missed pages 2 and 3 of this. Looks like some of what I've said has already been said... but yeah I agree with them!

[Iron_Dreamer]

The fan in the Corsair 400CX is definitely not the quietest in the 120mm PSU realm, but far from the worst. The Corsair HX models, and the Seasonic S12-II's are a bit quieter, though still not quiet enough for me. I've always done a fan swap to an S-Flex "F" in my Corsair and Seasonic PSU's. Since they use traditional voltage van speed control, rather than PWM, it works perfectly.

The Seasonic X650 is silent (no fan spinning) unless your system draws over 200-250w continuously, and the fan is very quiet even when it kicks in. This, and its' 750w big brother, are the best PSU's on the market right now for those of us who want quiet and efficient, but it'll cost ya, about $160.

[LarsMarkelson]

Yep I have the Seasonic X750 on my computer, it's so awesome, but the 650 would be way overkill power wise for his purposes. Though it will be pretty much silent.

S-Flex fans are pretty good, though they have a bit too high pitched of a tone for me. I prefer Gentle Typhoons but they also have a bit of a high pitch, though I would say less than the S-Flex. ZM-F3 is generally not good for a PSU fan since most PSU fans are oriented horizontally (blowing up or down) and as a sleeve bearing fan the ZM-F3 is at risk for earlier failure.

[manaox2]

Reviving this thread as I want a media pc to take over serving 1080p MKV with styled soft subs and VC-1 files uncompressed with FLAC audio and 5.1 channels on the cheap. Usual rules apply, silent and cheap as possible to get the job done and be reasonably upgradeable. My ideas so far:

Out of stock on newegg but available other places: Newegg.com - ASUS AT3IONT-I Intel Atom 330 PBGA437 NVIDIA ION Mini ITX Motherboard/CPU Combo

Newegg.com - APEX MI-008 Black Steel Mini-ITX Tower Computer Case 250W Power Supply

Newegg.com - Kingston 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1066 (PC3 8500) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model KVR1066D3N7K2/4G

Newegg.com - OCZ Vertex 2 OCZSSD2-2VTXE60G 2.5" 60GB SATA II MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)

Newegg.com - Scythe S-FLEX SFF21E 120mm Case Fan

Total comes out to be roughly $400 for something that hasn't changed a lot in a year. Decided not to try to go with ION 2 because of it has some well documented issues the ION does not. It would be even nicer to find a netbook PC that could do the same and still be used on the go, sadly not much luck there. Ideas on this build? I already have Win7 64 professional, a lenova multimedia remote with trackball/keyboard and an external drive with 2TB with an extra bay open for another 2TB in the future. I may add an LG Black BD-Rom drive in the future as I really enjoy the one I have in my main PC right now.

[manaox2]

Yeah, so far I have been addicted to the media features of my Samsung LN46B50 TV. It has pretty great media functions, but VC-1, soft subs, and MKV with Flac are its major downfalls. I've gotten tired of OCRing the .srt files and dealing with the its specifics about supported format in such and such container when its supported in others (wtf?). Its also a little slow and can only jump forward and back on MKV insteak of forward and rewind and its widgets are also utter crap. I want a power efficient PC, because I don't have to deal with such bullshit.

[dsavitsk]

Revisiting an old thread -- after starting this, I ended up with an Atom/ION based PC and it has been overall underwhelming. I know people claim it can work, but I cannot get Netflix to play HD content, even on a 780P TV. Maybe my cable connection is the issue, but I don't think so. So, I am starting the process all over again.

Goal is still a living room PC, though overall requirements have changed a bit. First, silent is probably not worth the effort -- very quiet is good enough. Second, this system will need a big internal drive (2T or so) as it will double as a file server. It will also need a DVD burner for ripping cd's.

What I would like for this computer to be capable of doing is storing and ripping music files, playing them back via an optical output and being controlled by an Android phone and/or tablet, acting as a squeezebox server, being a file server, and playing Netflix, both on demand and on dvd. I would also, for unrelated reasons, like to run a local BIND server (catching and locally authoritative) and a DHCP server. I don't think there is really a simple solution for all of this.

So, here's the plan as I see it -- I am thinking I'll run a VMWare Hypervisor (or a Linux KVM, though the VMWare option looks a lot easier to get running) with both Vortexbox and XP as guests. VB will run full time and basically do everything except play Netflix, and XP will be booted up when that is needed. I also may just put a small FreeBSD guest for DNS and DHCP as I find BSD easier to use, and I don't want to mess with a working VB install too much.

So, for hardware, I am still thinking small -- just a case that fits a miniITX, a single drive, and a DVD. It looks like there are a few MOBOs that fit the form factor, have HDMI and optical out, and that use a processor that can act as the video processor. Anyhow, the lowest power processor for that board seems to be 73W. There might be others, perhaps newer generation stuff.

Any other suggestions for the latest iteration of this? Something AMD? Different software solutions?

[tkam]

One option with the processor is to get something that's got an unlocked multiplier - then just clock it down a bunch and drop the voltage - less heat and less power.

[Nebby]

The 2nd generation Core processors may be worth a look:

Intel BOXDH67CFB3 - $129.99 mini-ITX H67 Motherboard

Intel Core i3-2100T 35W 2nd Gen Core i3

A better performance 35W model does exist, but I can't find that one in stock anywhere.

This should be a fairly cool running machine, with a good amount of performance. For virtualization purposes the i3-2100T does have VT-x, but not VT-d.

Edited June 30, 2011 by Nebby

[dsavitsk]

That looks like a good processor option -- I had been looking at the M versions, but I cannot find a MoBo to work with them, and they seem to cost a bunch more.

But, after a weekend spend trying to make a FreeBSD guest on my laptop mount a Windows 7 directory on the laptop and then getting Apache to serve files from it, I am not sure that I have the stomach for such a complicated setup Instead, I picked up a cheap refurb blu-ray that plays Netflix way better than the Atom (and the dvd remote is a ton easier to use than the wireless keyboard on the computer that eats a new set a batteries every 4 weeks) and that should handle that end of things. So, now I just need hardware for a VortexBox. And, my gut says that 35W i3 is a good option, and to avoid the Atoms if I can. I do still want the video capabilities as I want the capability to install X.

[manaox2]

I'm looking forward to the AMD llano line-up for an HTPC. Although theoretically an E-350 brazos processor should do a decent job, especially with a discrete GPU added on top of the internal. I hesitate though, because flash and some games are so cpu intensive that the llano is probably the best compromise coming down the pipes I can think of ATM.

[crappyjones123]

sorry to revive an old thread but some of my requirements matched dougs so i figured i would ask here.

i am looking to cancel the cable subscription with dish network at home and just use the internet/amazon prime/netflix/hulu for tv/news purposes. would like something that could play 1080p mkv files off of a hard drive without issue. Most content is 720p but I'd like for 1080p to be playable without issue. something with an hdmi to get away from a bunch of cables. the web streams would be limited to 360/480p due to a 3 mbit line at home. low noise is a priority. id like to stay away from a whole lot of configuration so windows might be favored over mythtv or whatever is out now in terms of linux but if it offers better support i will go with linux.

am i better off picking something off the shelf/amazon or building something? budget is fairly low. the speakers are the inbuilt ones on the tv so no need for crazy sound cards. no games. no blu ray. just hard drive files and streaming and maybe the occasional dvd but already have a dvd player so that is optional too.

any thoughts? suggestions for hardware? would prefer it be rather small as it will be used for a very limited function.

Edited April 4, 2012 by crappyjones123

[dsavitsk]

I am still fighting this battle -- my issue is that I can't find a case that is not horrible. And, the new mac mini has no cd slot.

If you can do an Atom, which is probably enough, actually, the Lenovo Q180 does not look too bad.

Building it yourself, I would go with a Intel i3 2120-T (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115094) By all accounts has enough power that it will do what you want. The built in video is sufficient as well. With a sufficienty sized heatsink, you can set the fan to turn on at 45 degrees or so, and it will probably never actually do so (my 65W AMD's fan almost never does.)

Put it in a mini-ITX (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813138327), use a laptop style (fanless) PS, and spend the money you would have spent on a videocard toward a small SSD.

[crappyjones123]

a search of htpc on amazon popped this up.

http://www.amazon.com/Media-Center-Gigabit-Network-Reader/dp/B005M1QP7O/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1333564562&sr=8-1

i know nothing about this stuff. is there any reason ^ wouldn't do what I want it to?

perhaps a netbook that does 1080p smooth via hdmi? starting to read about this stuff now.

[deepak]

sorry to revive an old thread but some of my requirements matched dougs so i figured i would ask here.

i am looking to cancel the cable subscription with dish network at home and just use the internet/amazon prime/netflix/hulu for tv/news purposes. would like something that could play 1080p mkv files off of a hard drive without issue. Most content is 720p but I'd like for 1080p to be playable without issue. something with an hdmi to get away from a bunch of cables. the web streams would be limited to 360/480p due to a 3 mbit line at home. low noise is a priority. id like to stay away from a whole lot of configuration so windows might be favored over mythtv or whatever is out now in terms of linux but if it offers better support i will go with linux.

am i better off picking something off the shelf/amazon or building something? budget is fairly low. the speakers are the inbuilt ones on the tv so no need for crazy sound cards. no games. no blu ray. just hard drive files and streaming and maybe the occasional dvd but already have a dvd player so that is optional too.

any thoughts? suggestions for hardware? would prefer it be rather small as it will be used for a very limited function.

IMO your best bet is a Boxee. It plays all the stuff you mentioned, except for the occasional weirdly encoded 1080p files.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0038JE07O

IMO HTPCs are a thing of the past now that HD video is all decoded in the same manner and there is no FFDShow and other such upscaling tweakery.

[crappyjones123]

looks like it has trouble with 720p stuff =/

http://forums.boxee.tv/showthread.php?t=663

[deepak]

looks like it has trouble with 720p stuff =/

http://forums.boxee....hread.php?t=663

That thread is very old. There have been a lot of firmware updates since then. I only play xvid or H264/x264 720p/1080p and it has played every file perfectly.

[Grahame]

If its any help , I use a WD TV Live as the client box, and can use an external USB Hard drive, or a network share from the in another room as the source for media.

[mikeymad]

I am a big fan of the WD TV box I got a few months ago. It plays every format that I have thrown at it. It also plays ISO files - so now I am looking at ripping my DVD's to the NAS.

[crappyjones123]

problem is i don't have a dedicated computer like yours grahame. If i did it would just go straight to the tv via hdmi. might try the wd tv live at home and get dad a tv that supports amazon prime natively. He doesn't have a tv right now, not that he watches much to begin with but we would like to get him something as he is alone in ny and i am sure he wouldn't mind watching random tv every once in a while. Native support for amazon/netflix would be nice.

[eugenius]

Hfx micro case and heatpipe cooler, cheapest itx lga1155 motherboard that has the ports you want and an i3 2120t, corsair m4 ssd, 8gb ddr3

or if you want to spend wait for ivy and you can run a quad core fanless with the asus z77 itx deluxe with wifi, bluetooth, msata ssd and 2.5“ storage hdd in the same fanless case

[crappyjones123]

Who is that suggestion for? I hope not me.

Quite certain I don't need 8gb ram to watch a 1080p movie.

[deepak]

I have read a couple of reports on a private HD tracker that the processor in the WDTV can get cooking hot since there is no heatsinking and the top ventilation isn't so great.