A client of mine has just asked me to upgrade all of their office PCs; their current equipment is 5+ years old. The users are noise-sensitive and non-tech-savvy. As their consultant, my primary concerns are:

1) Stability and reliability (They are an hour away, I want a very good MTBF for their equipment)

2) Ease, quality, and speed of service, either by myself or the manufacturer

3) Quietness (doesn't need to be totally silent, but definitely needs to be quieter than my Shuttle SN45! The quieter the better, but not at the expense of other considerations.)

4) Performance (Needs to be good for MS Office and web, but graphics/games/video editing are not concerns.)

Size is NOT a consideration - they have plenty of under-desk room for minitowers at least, maybe full towers.

So obviously I'm not looking for a DIY solution, even though that's what I do for myself. I want something that's quiet and solid off-the-shelf, and preferably well-supported by the manufacturer.

I've looked around this site, but the reviews of full systems are mostly from circa 2002, so...

So far I've considered:
* Dell Optiplex ~$1200 (3year onsite warranty is great, but they don't publish specs on noise)

* Endpcnoise.com hushed AMD 939 ~$1000 (sounds good, price affordable, but I don't know anything about the company and the warranty is short)

* eRacks/SILENCE ~$1600 (I used eRacks celeron boxes for the linux database cluster for this client, but the SILENCE is getting a bit expensive for their office workstations, and again their warranty is not as good as Dell).

If anyone can offer thoughts or clarifications, or observations on the comparable noise level of Dells, or observations on the reliability and service from places like Endpcnoise.com and eRacks, I would much appreciate it.

Many thanks, and thanks also for maintaining this useful site and forum!

Regards,
Evan

One of my client ordered a bunch of HPs based on a straight BTX design. The samples we tested with 2.8ghz PIVs and they were virtually silent, not up to my standards buy tolerable in an office environment with minor ambient noise. When it came time to place the order they were offering the 3.4ghz PIVs for the same price, so the customers purchasing guy thought this was a great deal, until they arrived. They sound like blow dryers when anything is asked of the processor, even doing a mailbox search with Lookout will ramp up the CPU fan, it is really bad.

So after several BIOS updates and a couple motherboard revisions they shipped to us we were about to return the whole bunch, but last week I called and asked if we could get the same config with 2.8ghz Celeron Ds. I am pleased to say they are virtually silent, even the SFF test box that sits under my monitor. HP uses a heatpipe cooler and actually ships with ShinEtsu (SP?), and combined with the lower heat (and a much more linear heat signature as load ramps up) of the Celeron D and the airflow characteristics of the BTX cases they really do run cool and quiet. And of course, with a gig of RAM, a DVI/ADD2 card for the onboard GMA900 grpahics (which are amazingly better than any past graphics effort from Intel), these have turned out ot be nice boxes. The noise level is signifigantly lower and is close to my home office PC that sits just outside of my living room (and computer noise makes me nuts, good line of work I picked).

Even if you weren't after the HPs, I would take a serious look at Celeron Ds, they provie nice performance at a great price with decent heat characterisitics.

We have installed a lot of Fujitsu-Siemens Scenic P computers to our customers, they seem to rather good machines. Everything works fine and computers are almost silent.

Dell computers are fairly quiet as well. They are one of the first (if not the first) high-volume manufacturer to use grommets on their hard drives and design custom ducting of the CPU/PSU.

My own experience working in a corporate office with a Dell bears that out. However, I would not be surprised if the latest most powerful systems have heat problems that ramp up the fans, just like the HP machines mentioned above. But if you get one of lower or mid power machines, you should be OK.

While Dell is the cheapest (if that includes warranty), that is the last option I would go with. I had horrible experience with Dells in the past and there computers are a pain to work with.

As for the AMD 939, thats an older socket so it might not be the best solution as the parts get EOL'ed. Though the price is ok, you could probably find something similar for a tiny bit cheaper.

The eRacks box looks pretty nice, and I have ordered from both them and Dell in the past for corporate customers wanting Linux, but it is a bit costly. However I am sure if you called them they would work out a deal for you (They did for me in the past on a single box that was just outside my price range). Though I don't know if they will its worth a shot, and if they won't then I would maybe go with the AMD, though it is like I said an older socket and that could cause issue in the future with upgrades or what not.

Get the mid-tower optiplex. They usually have a single 120mm buried inside the case and ducted to the CPU HS and is very quiet. The PSU has it's own 80mm fan which cannot be heard.

I've had a couple SFF Optiplexes which are a bit louder due to the poor airflow and smaller fans. My Optiplex 745 is very quiet with the HDD being the loudest thing when it's seeking (still not "loud").

Good question. The very reason this site exists is because there are hardly any off-the-shelf quiet or silent systems.

Dell is probably your best bet in terms of service and warranty, it's just a matter of trying to find a relatively quiet model that suits your needs amidst their vast product line.

If you don't want to go the Dell route, I would contact Endpcnoise and see if they might be able to offer you some kind of extended service or warranty for a commercial account. I agree with thoughtsone about the AMD 939. It'd be better to go with an Intel chip in that same value line of theirs. Endpcnoise are good folks and I'm sure would love to try and accomodate you.

The Anitec SilenT3 would have been a competent office performer had it not gotten discontinued just after I bought mine for some reason.