I purchased my boxee box only few days ago and the noise was absolutely bearable when watching a movie ... but still, I had to open it to see if I could make it REALLY SILENT.

Well guess what, you can make it DEAD silent, here's how:

unplug or remove the fan, that's right. (you don't need it anyway)

My Boxee Box has been playing 1080p movies without a fan for 24h, without a glitch, nothing as changed, except that now I could sleep on it.

Just so you know the main noise comes from the 12v DC converter and not the fan BUT ... as soon as you unplug the fan, the DC converter doesn't produce that high pitch annoying sound anymore. don't ask me why, it just doesn't. (I'm sure more qualified readers have their idea on the question, hey hey ..)

Tip: do not fit the square aluminium protection back (originaly covers most of the heatsink), without a fan it will prevent the heat dissipation.

Original Fan Spec:
Sunon HA40101V4-0000-C99
FAN; 12V; 5.3CFM; 0.8W; 4500RPM; 18.2DBA; VAPO BEARING; 40X40X10MM





- QUIET BOXEE BOX
- BOXEE BOX FAN REMOVAL
- BOXEE BOX FAN SWAP
- MAKE THE BOXEE BOX SILENT
- NOISY BOXEE BOX SOLUTION

I recently had some experience with those Sunon Vapo fans when I was doing my Mini-ITX in Shuttle G5 chassis build. I found they had a higher-pitched whine that was especially noticeable when cramped in a tight space. It's great that the Boxee will run fanless, but maybe hot summers could be an issue. For an alternative fan you might try the Scythe Mini Kaze.

No idea about the DC converter whine.

Did you mean absolutely unbearable? Was it noisy or quiet? Just want to make absolutely sure.

Let's be clear about this, when watching a movie ... you can't hear a thing (at least ... I couldn't, but we are all different and some people might notice it).

If you stick your hear on the box, then yes ... even when playing a movie you'll notice the "electric noise" coming out of it.

My "problem/auditive discomfort" appeared when I wasn't listening or watching anything on the Boxee box. The damn DC converter makes all the noise, not the fan ... but as stated before, as soon as you unplug/remove the fan ... the electric-ish noise disappear.

Weird I know, but true.

Did anyone notice the same thing? Did anyone run the Boxee box fan-less?

Mine has been running for a couple of weeks without one and I couldn't be happier

Thanks for reading ...

I tried to take out the fan out of my boxee box as well after i saw this
But after i left the box on standby for a day i thought it got quite hot so i coward and put the fan back in. Im ordered a (dont know english name) voltage lower so it changes the fan to 7 volts or something instead of 12, gonna see how that works out... hope it will get more quiet, But its really strange that the sound as you say is mostly NOT from the fan.

Did you notice the "noise" difference when you unplugged the FAN? The one coming out of the DC converter?

You're right, maybe you could achieve the same thing by lowering the voltage ... but I didn't have a "converter thingy" a the time, and since it worked just fine ... I didn't bother to try anything else

Good luck to you and please let us know how it went.

Looks like a standard 3 pin why not just plug in a slow rpm 120mm and leave it open.

I went through three of these before giving up due to the noise the AC/DC wall wart made. It is nice to see a solution for that noise... the system will not last long without some airflow no?

I had 2 Boxee Boxes. The whine from the tiny fan drove me crazy. I could hear it during movies ( basic drams) and once you notice it it is simply unbearable. Not as bas as the Patriot Box Office fan or the PCH-A200, but enough to make me return them ( and I am very partial to XBMC, Plex and Boxee to a lesser degree).

Now, I had an MViX Ultio where I disconnected the fan and all was fine. I asked about doing this with the Boxee Box and was advised against it. Don't know why as it is diskless. Maybe I will get another one now that someone has disabled the fan. In the meantime I have a 2010 Mini (server version) which is totally silent. It's great. Still would like another silent box to play with. Was thinking of an Asus 1012P untill I saw the review. Sounds loud.

philip

Nice approach removing that fan but I have managed to get rid of the noise without any tinkering at all: I just took the box and put it behind my tv table on the floor, hiding it from sight which effectively stopped the noise from being so easily audible. The box reportedly sports a powerful radio operated remote, so it didn't even "notice". Yeah, for me it's solved!

Try it before using that screwdriver.

--
Martin

Hi Martin,

Thanks for sharing your solution with us unfortunately hiding the BBox was not an option for me.

Just to give an update, it's been runing fanless (and I always leave it on 24/7) since my first post so I guess it gives you an idea of why you don't need a fan in that box ...

Keep it cool

I'll wait for the late August post. lol

So NixNix, does your Boxee box still run without fan? Tepmerature for CPU?

It's been 2 and half year since I removed the fan .... nothing to report on the temperature front, it's working like on day one (I use it everyday).

D-Link: Don't bother with fans next time you build Boxee Boxes

Hi everyone,

First: I'm really sorry for digging out this ancient thread, but I'd like to share my experiences on this topic with you so people won't do same mistakes as I did.

NixNix, I don't know if you did some special trick to get this work, but I can most definitely say that using the Boxee Box fanless will NOT work. I removed the fan completely and even left the case open during testing it with a 1080p MKV file with DTS. The temperature started to rise and seemed to be stable at 74°C after about 40 minutes. But when I tried to turn the Boxee around (the normal position, case still open) the temperature climbed up to 76°C within a few minutes. Shortly after, the box showed the first glitches and eventually froze. I had to pull the power cord as it was not responding anymore. Considering that I left my case open and it's still pretty cold here (-7° outside and only 19° in my room right now) I have to say that it seems absolutely impossible to me that you can use the Boxee Box fanless. Luckily it started up all normally after I reinstalled the fan. I would not recommend anyone to remove the fan!

Kind regards
NeoCortex

My parents have a boxee that I gave them and I too find the fan noisy. Has anybody tried retrofitting the 40mm Noctua fan? I assume it must be better than the stock fan in every way other than price.

I just bought and installed the 40 mm Noctua fan. It's really amazingly silent, but I was not able to eliminate the annoying resonances between the mainboard and the case which produce most of the noise. I installed the fan with the included low noise adaptor. After an hour of watching a 1080p MKV with closed case the temperature peaked at 65°C. I experienced no glitches and the Boxee Box remained perfectly stable. I think 65°C is acceptable and I will use this setup with the option in mind to remove the low noise adaptor. I'll keep you posted how this works out during summer.

Edit: So I was not really pleased with the results I mentioned above. I decided to replace the original thermal pad with a Phobya Thermalpad XT. And I was actually able to achieve some pretty good results. Even after watching a 1080p MKV the temperature did not exceed 60°C (same setup: closed case and Noctua fan with low noise adaptor)! I'm really pleased with the new fan now and I'm enjoying my Boxee Box more than ever as it is almost impossible to hear it now even in a quiet room.