http://www.tomshardware.com/news/Tranqu ... 20731.html

I am very interesting in this. If it was a core i5 I would not even hesitate.

I may be building this just to have silence and small and fairly powerful all in the same space

Pretty case. But, you may still be stuck with the existing thermal issue until they adjust the layout of the mobo where the Wi-fi NIC isn't up against the SSD. Intel's current fix is to adjust the SSD controller's thermal limit upward and to speed up the fan

Excellent point. I was just reading about that. And must say that the possibility of that occurred to me when I first saw the layout. Too may chips in too small an area equals overheating. I could circumvent that easily as I like to use Ethernet. May be the last person who does

That might work...and you aren't the last

Good to know there are at least two of us left

How is that the Holy Grail? There have been quite a few passive cases before.

I am not sure that it is as I have not seen/used one.

A. It is SMALL.

B. Which is really A, it is cool according to specs.

C. It takes advantage of the brand new Intel mainboard.

D. They say a Core i5 is coming, which would give it very excellent power.

I like it. Any news on it?

Last I heard was that a new version with USB 3 was coming in April. Hopefully they have solved any and all heat issues by then too Its always about the heat. There have been some excellent after market cases for it, do not have links at this time. I think one was Lian-Li.

Is this the same case? It has a fan.
http://hexus.net/tech/news/chassis/5270 ... c-chassis/

Edit: My bad, that's a different case. Duh.

That is the one I saw. SilverStone is correct. Looks awesome. Stock case has a fan too. But still had heat issues. At least one of the versions did.

I would be more interested in the fanless Tranquil PC case over the SilverStone one with the fan. Even though the Silverstone one acts as an external heatsink, it has a fan.

I actually didn't realize the NUC was already on sale. I'm glad they went with an external PSU brick, though I'm not sure how Apple fits a PSU inside the Mac Mini.
Also nice that it has VESA compatibility, however, using the VESA mount to attach it to the rear of the monitor means you wont be able to VESA-mount the monitor anymore (as in onto an Ergotron arm for example), right?

http://www.geek.com/articles/chips/tran ... -20130129/

Yes, that does look awesome. Will it run the i5 though? Time will tell all here. Which will run cooler? Fan or no fan? That is always the question here at SilentPCreview!

I'm not even sure the CPU is removable. Though I don't see why it couldn't support i5 if they decided to offer that. I'd probably prefer they go the other direction and put an Atom SoC (such as Z2670) on it. Those are already known to run fanless, so probably already a lot cooler than any core-i series CPU.

It is not removable but there is a version supposed to come out next month with i5.

I am looking for a desktop (power desktop) replacement, so no Atom for me!

Current i5 are producing to much heat to go within NUC specifications afaik. So atm you're either happy with what an i3 offers or you'd have to look for a different solution.

Good to know. I didn't realize there was that much heat difference between i3 and i5.

A desktop i3 is actually very powerful. But I guess they are using a laptop i3 in the NUC?

This month's issue of Maximum PC has a two-page story about the NUC. Much of the same is mentioned, great concept, but runs extremely hot.

"extremely hot" would suck no doubt. I just noticed Intel also makes a 1.1GHz Celeron 847 NUC. Would that one run cooler? It certainly is a lot less expensive (and a lot slower).

I have had a NUC for around 2 months. I have the Ethernet model with the i3. I mainly use it to run XBMC, Netflix, Hulu+ under windows 8. It's a great system For 1.5 months it was completely silent but recently I have been hearing the fan occasionally and it's whiny. I will probably order a TranquilPC case for it. Small fans just don't work we'll. I have an i7 Mac Mini hooked up to the same HDTV and I never hear it, except when I transcode video and even then it is not whiny.

Love the NUC though. Shuttle is shipping the DS47 fanless system based on the Celeron 847 which is similar to the Celeron NUC. That would have been my preference had it been available.

Philip

The DS47 seems interesting.

I wonder what caused your NUC to suddenly start making noise after being silent. Perhaps that could be reversed.

So your MacMini is pretty quiet, eh? Which generation is it?

I think the fan probably just wears out over time. Small inexpensive fans often do that. My main Mini is a 2012 ( most recent) with an i7. I also have a 2010 server Mini which is silent and an older 2007 one, also silent. Of course the Mini is larger than the NUC but it does have an internal power supply.

The DS47 seems really interesting. I really like Shuttle products and their fanless systems are meant to be on 24/7. I have gotten spoiled with the i3 NUC though. Don't know much about the Celeron 847 but it should easily handle XBMC and win 8.

philip

OK. I was going to ask if you noticed any difference or improvement in fan noise with the 2012 model with the new fan design (left). However, if all your minis are equally silent for your applications and usage, then I suppose it wouldn't matter.

I'm waiting for the Haswell NUC - that should alleviate the heat issue somewhat, and bring better graphics. The IVB NUC struck me as a stop-gap.

@toronado455

My i7 Mini is a 2.6GHz with Fusion drive model. It has 8 gigs of RAm. I only hear it when I transcode video and it is not a whiny noise like the NUC fan (when I hear that). Is there a newer fan for the Mini?

The i7 Mini to me seems a bit quieter that my dual core 2010 Mini server running a transcoding app but really they are both quiet.

There is a Tranquil PC passive case for the NUC but it ends up being almost as expensive as the NUC because of shipping, and then I suppose there might be duty on top of that. Sigh ...

philip

I've considered Ivy Bridge (in general) as a stop-gap ever since the whole thermal paste gate thing. Not that it matters for my usage.

They will still use a fan if they continue with the same case though perhaps other vendors will then be able to do passive cooling. In any case, a Haswell NUC is futureware. Who knows what that will bring.

Philip

FanlessTech has posted some pictures of the DS47:
http://www.fanlesstech.com/2013/04/shut ... tures.html

Interesting computer. Though, with the ugly COM ports on the front and looking more like a piece of equipment you would want hidden away inside a kiosk or something, it is completely the opposite of Apple's elegant Mac Mini from a design philosophy perspective.

You are right. Those serial ports must be a mistake. This is one of the ugliest Shuttles I have ever seen.

Philip

Fixed