Hi all, I performed a search on the forum to see whether Aleutia machines had already been discussed.

Has anyone any feedback or advice about those machines ; the first 2 are quad core PCs with a big heatsink and a big fan, the 3rd is fanless.

I unfortunately cannot post any link so the website is aleutia dot com and the products are the : B2, H2 and P1.

Thanks in advance,
Antoine

I don't see a B2, I guess you meant D2.

They actually don't say anything on their site about the quantity, size, or quality of the fans in their systems, unless I'm missing it. They don't really back up any of their claims that their systems are quiet.

I don't know where you got the idea that the D2 and H2 have "big" heatsinks and fans - there's no room in those cases for anything big. I'll bet they have stock Intel cpu coolers and the little 60mm screamer case fans that typically come with slim cases.

I meant both D2 and B2 (and H2). The B2 page doesn't seem reachable from the products page but is reachable from :

1. homepage
2. products > drop down menu > B2

The features tab shows the fan used in this machine.


Strangely there aren't any online reviews of B2/H2/D2 or even D1 that's why I posted here. I am looking for a prebuilt mini PC as quiet and as fast as possible for $600-$700.


Thank you. Generally speaking, does this mean the device is rather silent / quiet / not_that_quiet / as_noisy_as_an_ordinary_pc ?

Thanks in advance.

The B2 uses the Scythe Big Shuriken CPU cooler, and probably the stock fan that comes with that heatsink. It has been reviewed recently by SPCR here. On a 65W processor, this heatsink/fan/case combination will indeed be pretty quiet if the fan control is adequate - the WD drive used in the system will likely make more noise. The scorpio blue and scorpio black series drives have both been discussed on these forums. I'm sure you could find people's opinions of them by a search.

The B2 and H2 have no disk or CD drives. I've never used a computer without a CD drive, and I don't know how you'd install an OS on one - can you do that from an external drive via USB?

The D2 looks like the case has a 60 or 80mm fan on the side which probably cools the internal PSU, in addition to an unknown CPU fan - which I suspect will be a stock Intel cooler because it isn't named or pictured like the B2's HSF is. There will be no guarantee that either of these two fans will be quiet at all.

There is also no fan or heatsink information listed at all for the H2, however it seems to include the Q8200 CPU, rather than the more power efficient Q8200S, so this system will have a harder task to accomplish when it comes to expelling heat.

Thanks a lot for all that information.


The B2 page on Aleutia's website indicates a noise level of 10.5 dBA, which is lower than the sound levels measured by SPCR during the Big Shuriken CPU cooler, even with the lowest voltage (8 V -> 11 dBA), which looks strange since, with the WD drive, the global noise production should even be higher than 11 dBA. Of course, it can depend on the distance machine<->microphone used in both situations.

Concerning the hard disk, I already have a SSD disk so this would mean no noise for this part.


Indeed, generally speaking, one needs :
- an external USB CD drive
and
- a machine with a BIOS enabling to boot on a USB port (which is very frequent nowadays)

Another possibility is to install the OS with a usb key : such a trick is possible with several linux distributions including Ubuntu but not with MS Windows XP/Vista/7.


Giving the D2 height in the specs (70 mm), the fan is probably a 60 mm one which may not remain quiet while exhausting heat under peak CPU usage.

Concerning the P1 (totally fanless machine), I fear its components are a bit outdated.

May I know which one of the following machines you would recommend for the better compromise power / noise (price put aside) :
- Aleutia P1
- Aleutia B2
- Capuccino PC x4501

Again thanks in advance.

Hi Antoine,I wanted something similar to you and was attracted to Aleutia website,they seem to have near to what I wanted but took a week to answer my e-mail,this worried me because if I had a problem with a purchase from them I would not want to wait a week for a reply.
I went to lin-itx .com and they are building a fanless computer for me to my spec,as follows:- Intel D945GSEJT fanless mobo
Fanless power supply
2 gig of ram
Mini box M350 case
30 gig OCZ vertex Solid State hard drive

This gives me a totally silent PC with no moving parts,no case fan no processor or mobo fan,no power supply fan and no traditional hard drive noise.
Total cost around £325.00,built and delivered,not extra cheap but OCZ vertex is over £100.00 alone.
lin-itx have a great website and are extremely help full and you can phone or e-mail them,nothing is too much trouble and its good value,with their advice you know that what you order will do what you want !
The other thing which bothered me about Aleutia is that there is VAT on top of their prices which is not obvious until you go to checkout !