Voodoo PC Rage F-50 - XP 3400, R 9800 Pro, but with no FANS!

Info & chat about quiet prebuilt, small form factor and barebones systems, people's experiences with vendors thereof, etc.

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Artagra
Posts: 53
Joined: Fri Mar 26, 2004 12:35 pm
Location: Johannesburg, South Africa
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Voodoo PC Rage F-50 - XP 3400, R 9800 Pro, but with no FANS!

Post by Artagra » Fri Mar 26, 2004 12:53 pm

Hi all

I've been lurking on the SPCR forum for a while, ever since somebody commented (over the phone!) that my PC sounded like a turbine :P

When I saw this though, I realised that I had to register to post this.

http://www.voodoopc.com/systems/f50.aspx

It's a high end, prebuilt system with zero fans - not watercooling with a rad fan, not low speed fans, not ducting or anything else - ZERO FANS.

How do they do it? Well, with the mother-of-all heatsinks masquerading as a case, a small flock of heatpipes and a serious amount of planning, engineering and ingenuity (and no doubt R&D Dollars)

So far I haven't found a review of it with any really good internal pictures, but I've linked below what I have found. That I can see the key to the amazing silent cooling is the number of heatpipes used for each component (I count 7 heatpipes on the CPU in one photo, and it doesn't even show the whole CPU!).

The only potential problem with this system (besides size, weight and cost) is the noise of the hdd's - they do not seem to be in any kind of enclosure besides the case, and the choice of drive could be better from a noise point of view. But an enthusiast could quite easily fix this minor problem (and it may not be a problem - we need a decent review of this machine, with some high res photos! I'm guessing in the dark here).

So yeah, it's the ultimate silent machine - at a price.

Artagra

---------

Reviews:

http://reviews-zdnet.com.com/Voodoo_Rag ... 90114.html

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,4149,1531565,00.asp

http://ecoustics-cnet.com.com/Voodoo_Ra ... tag=review

Pictures:

http://resource.voodoopc.com/gallery/im ... 0x1024.jpg

http://resource.voodoopc.com/gallery/im ... 0x1680.jpg

(Edit - Realise it's based on te TNN500A case, and that that's been on the forum before. Still, I think what I've posted is still useful to people who want a silent prebuilt system. Searched the forum and not once was Rage F:50 listed, but TNN500A is all over the place :P Artagra)
Last edited by Artagra on Fri Mar 26, 2004 1:35 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Artagra
Posts: 53
Joined: Fri Mar 26, 2004 12:35 pm
Location: Johannesburg, South Africa
Contact:

Post by Artagra » Fri Mar 26, 2004 1:03 pm

Well, been looking more and I see the CNet and ZDNet reviews where the same, and that that same review is used in tons of other sites aswell.

Did find some better pics in the following interview at tweaktown: http://www.tweaktown.com/document.php?d ... age=2&2857

Seems the Case is built by Zalman:

"As for the Rage f:50 (pictured in the images above), this Desktop utilizes a fanless design and a case specially designed for fanless computing. We were the first and the only OEM to qualify for the case [from Zalman]. Special changes to system components such as the use of a heat pipe cooler for the processor and a very powerful, fanless power supply were required to give buyers the quietest PC on the market."
Rahul Sood, CTO VoodooPC


Artagra

Beerhunter
Posts: 55
Joined: Wed Feb 25, 2004 3:10 pm

Post by Beerhunter » Thu Apr 01, 2004 3:03 am

When a real review comes out, ie temps/loads/times from a real review site like this one or procooling.com or overclockers.com and if it performs I'm on it. They have been floating this case around since comdex at least...almost a year and it's still not available at any retailer... this makes me very suspious.

PretzelB
Posts: 513
Joined: Tue Feb 11, 2003 6:53 am
Location: Frisco, TX

Post by PretzelB » Thu Apr 01, 2004 5:07 am

I read a review on it in some game magazine. Look for something on the pcgamer or computergamingworld websites if you want something now.

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