Quietest SFF computer?

wumpus · **Posted:** Sat Sep 13, 2003 9:44 am

Yeah, those 40mm fans are brutally loud. See my thread here:

http://forums.silentpcreview.com/viewtopic.php?t=7038

NeilBlanchard · **Posted:** Sat Sep 13, 2003 5:38 pm

Hello:

From this review at Dan's Data:

http://www.dansdata.com/m10000.htm

is the Skyhawk IMC-6261

and this is the back of the unit:

NeilBlanchard · **Posted:** Sun Sep 14, 2003 5:25 pm

Hello:

tywen wrote:

I stumbled upon this Aopen SFF using the SilentTek and a 80MM fan.

http://solution.aopen.com.tw/xc/simplicity_silence/default.htm

Also, it comes in either Nforce or 865G chipsets with an AGP and PCI.

Hoping this will be a quiet SFF.

Hey! Did you read the "Silent Tek" section? It quotes *this site*!

I hope this is with SPRC's permission...

MikeC · **Posted:** Mon Sep 15, 2003 6:15 pm

Yeah, I did give them permission. That XC Cube looks interesting. Dropped those guys a line about a sample.

jojo4u · **Posted:** Tue Sep 16, 2003 12:54 pm

German magazine C't checked a hudge number of barebones: Shuttle, MSI, Gigabyte, Asus, Elitegroup, Freetech, Lex Systems, Iwill, Noise Control A Conto, Soltek, Alternate, Gigabyte.
What brands you are interested in? I can say some words about 2-3.

illroot · **Joined:** Sun May 25, 2003 9:43 pm **Posts:** 13

Does anyone know if that XC Cube comes with an AGP. This box looks really interesting.

I had my hopes up with the Shuttle, but after seeing the reviews about the noise that this box creates, I decided not to get it.

I'm sure, like most people here, are waiting for an SFF that has power both in CPU and Graphics, and the only way that's going to happen is with the AGP slot.

mrzed · **Posted:** Wed Sep 17, 2003 1:41 pm

The MSI Mega uses an 80mm PSU fan (from the looks of it) and comes with AGP and PCI. It has the ability to use radio/CD/DVD devices without powering on the computer too. Probably quite expensive, but looks to be a good candidate for quiet mods.

http://www.msi.com.tw/program/products/slim_pc/slm/pro_slm_detail.php?UID=431

ez2remember · **Posted:** Fri Nov 21, 2003 5:01 pm

I posted this a long time ago, but this could be a quiet SFF by SPCR standards.

http://forums.silentpcreview.com/viewto ... terminator

canthearyou · **Posted:** Fri Nov 21, 2003 7:46 pm

I would like one of these small systems if it were quiet and powerful as my PC is now. That XCube is atractive. It would be great for Mike to review it. The fan configuration sounds interesting. I would like at least on AGP slot and one PCI slot for my Radeon VE and my sound card (unless I could fit a USB sound card).

Steve

sklim1 · **Joined:** Fri Nov 21, 2003 4:33 pm **Posts:** 4

Both the XCube and MSI look good. I hope the manufacturers are paying attention to this site. I think the all the posts are screaming QUIET SFF! So far I've had the shuttles and Chyang Fun's E-Cube and they all suck as far as noise. I'm afraid to buy anymore SFF's it gets reviewed here. I don't want anymore surprise. Mike, hope you get review both of those. I hate the towers and would like to get something out of the box quiet.

halcyon · **Posted:** Thu Dec 18, 2003 8:26 am

My guess is that Soldam will come out with the first one or offer a cooling for the first that is clearly less noisy than others.

They have just released Soldam AquaGizmo liquid cooling kit which sould cool up to 150W and should fit SFF PCs as well.

http://www3.soldam.co.jp/AG/feat.html

As soon as somebody puts that into an Athlon 64 + hi perf GPU system, then I think we have a contender.

SOldam has their own SFF PCs, but they don't contain the liquid cooling kit (at least not yet).

the_smell · **Posted:** Thu Dec 18, 2003 4:04 pm

Just incase you didn't know, this looks like a good SFF discussed in...
http://forums.silentpcreview.com/viewtopic.php?t=8727
...the whole system (PSU included) is cooled by a single 92mm fan, and there are athlon and P4 versions...

halcyon · **Posted:** Tue Jan 27, 2004 1:18 am

Latest c't magazine 3/2004 tested 35 mini-pc's on the European market and they measured their noise as well.

Code:

SFF maker / model          dBA         sone
Abit DigiDice AB-2003      46,1        3,7
AOpen XC Cube EZ18         32,2        1,4
AOpen XC Cube EZ 65        29,4        0,8
Asus DigiMatrix AB-V10     25,9        0,5
Asus Pundit AB-P 2600      46,6        2,9
Biostar iDEQ 200N          43,5        3,1
Biostar iDEQ 200P          39,1        2,2
Biostar iDEQ 200S          32,1        1,0
Biostar iDEC 200T          36,9        1,5
Biostar iDEQ 200V          30,3        0,8
Chenming Fusion H865G      41,7        2,8
Chenming Fusion 845E       32,6        1,0
Chenming Fusioni HK7N      37,7        1,6
ECS EZ-Buddie D1V7-2       36,2        1,5
ECS EZ-Buddie D4I4-1       35,5        1,0
Gigabyte G-Max Sa4 LB v2.0 36,8        1,8
Gigabyte G-Max TA4 V2.0    39,0        1,7
IWill XP4 EVO              42,8        2,5
IWill ZPC                  35,2        1,6
MSI Hetis 865GV            33,8        1,2
Mega 180                   34,6        1,4
Mega 651                   36,7        1,2
QDI-S9881                  43,3        3,3
Shuttle XPC SB62G2         39,9        2,1
Shuttle XPC SB65G2         36,6        2,0
Shuttle XPC SB75G2         36,2        1,7
Shuttle XPC SK43G          37,5        1,9
Shuttle XPC SN45G          32,8        1,2
Shuttle XPC SN85G4         29,1        0,8
Shuttle XPC SS56G          34,3        1,4
Shuttle XPC ST61G4         35,2        1,6
Shuttle XPC ST6K[Zen]      29,6        0,8
Soltek Qbic EQ-3401A       27,1        0,6
Soltek Qbic EQ-3402M       36,1        1,7
Soltek Qbic EQ-3702A       37,7        2,0

I'm not sure I understand their dBA measurement technique from their German description (I use mostly babelfish as my German is next to non-existent).

However, I think they used four parallel microphones at 50 cm from the computer and computed the dBA figure from them (?).

I think the dbA figures are maximum figures achieved when playing back DivX movie from the hard disk.

The magazine gives more weight to sone values as they reflect more accurately how human hearing scales loudness (1,0 being baseline, then 0,5 if half as loud and 2,0 twice as loud).

They give excellent mark in terms of acoustic performance to Asus DigiMatrix AB-V10 (sone rating 0,5).

I'm hoping the German speaking readers of the forum can fill in the details about the test methodology and other issues.

regards,
Halcyon

Quietest SFF computer?

Who is online