A silent SFF, a contradiction in terms?

[10]

Is it possible to make an SFF (Shuttle et al) silent? Has anyone on these forums pulled it off? I'd really like to have one, and seeing that I don't crave a high end processor and that I probably would use the integrated graphics, I feel this should be possible.

Does anyone have any success (or failure) stories to share? Thanks in advance.

[Bluefront]

Well it depends.....Here's the one I'm working on. Not as small as the Shuttles, but still really small. It's half the size of a Lanboy.

http://forums.silentpcreview.com/viewtopic.php?t=4494

Your success with these things depends on many factors...the CPU and the amt of heat it produces, the airflow through the case, how high are the temps you will tolerate, etc.

The setup I'm using works off an external PSU, no fan, no noise. The CPU is a K6III-333 @400....not a lot of heat, undervolted 70mm fan, quiet at 2000rpm. One foam de-coupled case fan blowing in @1750rpm, quiet. One 5400rpm Maxtor, mounted with rubber grommets, reasonably quiet, runs cool.

All these SFF computers are slightly different, but most run hot and/or noisy. This case/board combo runs cool, around 32C idle and 40C at full power.

[10]

Thanks for the reply, Bluefront! I like your project and I wish something similar would do for me. As it stands right now, I'm very tempted to get a Shuttle SN41G2 and pair it with an Athlon 1800+ (T-bred B), but I need to do some more research to see if it's the best option for me.

[NeilBlanchard]

Hello:

The problem with most SSF cases is the small PS fans -- they just have to spin fast to push enough air. Here's one with a standard 80mm fan, though; it's a Skyhawk IMC-6261:





The last picture shows that it is not a standard PS -- it is quite shallow, but it does have an 80mm fan, which can be replaced if it's a noisy one.

[Tom P]

Only from reading reviews, the Asus Pundit is supposed to be quieter than the Shuttles. It has a 70mm fan in the power supply and the CPU fan, so you would still have those noises and it wouldn't be completely silent. Wish I could give you first-hand experience but I've been only thinking about getting one for a couple months or so and haven't taken the plunge (yet). Sudhian and a couple other sites have done stories on it.

[rpc180]

There's the HUSH PC, which is aimed at the mainstream market. Its mainstream systems are completely fanless including the CPU and it has an external power brick. Aluminum case design that acts as a heatsink (for real).

Review:
http://www.hexus.net/review.php?review=540

[10]

Only from reading reviews, the Asus Pundit is supposed to be quieter than the Shuttles.

Yes, I've read about it. Two problems for me are that they're quite hard to come by in Sweden, and that I'm too poor for a P4 and don't want a Celeron. If Intel could ever drop the P4 prices to a somewhat realistic level, it could be an interesting option, though.

There's the HUSH PC, which is aimed at the mainstream market.

The Hush is really cool (no pun intended), but have two "features" that disqualifies it: first, it's stupid expensive, and second, it's mini-ITX only. The Via processors are even slower than my current, so I really can't use them. The do make for silent computers, though, so when/if Via can make them faster and not so much warmer, they might be useful for me as well.

[MrMajestic]

Only from reading reviews, the Asus Pundit is supposed to be quieter than the Shuttles.

Yes, I've read about it. Two problems for me are that they're quite hard to come by in Sweden, and that I'm too poor for a P4 and don't want a Celeron. If Intel could ever drop the P4 prices to a somewhat realistic level, it could be an interesting option, though.

There's the HUSH PC, which is aimed at the mainstream market.

The Hush is really cool (no pun intended), but have two "features" that disqualifies it: first, it's stupid expensive, and second, it's mini-ITX only. The Via processors are even slower than my current, so I really can't use them. The do make for silent computers, though, so when/if Via can make them faster and not so much warmer, they might be useful for me as well.

This might be too late to respond but anyway. I'm looking at the Pundit too. A couple of retailers sell it here in Sweden. The cheapest being Datorbutiken.com. If you get it there, it will set you back 2099SEK for the Pundit. I was thinking a Celeron 2Ghz would be good, it costs 599SEK and then you'll need some RAM, 512Mb DDR is 548SEK. A CD-Rom player costs 279SEK for a Samsung. Total cost = 3525SEK.

[IceFire]

I put together couple Shuttle SFF before. The first one I put together was loud when it got hot because the PS fan would go into full speed. On the secound, I cut out the PS fan grill and didn't have that problem anymore. It would have been quieter if I have cut the 80 mm fan grill out too, but it wasn't my case so I left it along. It should be reasonable quiet if you cut the grills out and get a low power cpu (like the AMD 1700+ @ 1.5v .13u). You could also can out the Sunon 80 mm w/ something quieter, but I don't know if the heat management will like that.

I'm waiting for the new NForce2 400 on the shuttle to be available in the US and might try to water cool that baby.

[DryFire]

with the 1.5 volt 1700+ (which are basically moble chips) you could probably get away with passive cooling (somthing like an slk900u)

[10]

This might be too late to respond but anyway. I'm looking at the Pundit too. A couple of retailers sell it here in Sweden. The cheapest being Datorbutiken.com. If you get it there, it will set you back 2099SEK for the Pundit. I was thinking a Celeron 2Ghz would be good, it costs 599SEK and then you'll need some RAM, 512Mb DDR is 548SEK. A CD-Rom player costs 279SEK for a Samsung. Total cost = 3525SEK.

I'm actually contemplating that exact set up (well, minus the CD-ROM). The only thing I need to find out now is if a Pundit is more quiet than a fan moded Shuttle SK41G. I would love to have a SN41G2, mainly for the looks, but it's too expensive, especially when you count in all the memory related problems people have been getting. I'm also a bit worried about the Pundit's integrated graphics. I never play games, though, so my concerns are probably ill-founded.

Thanks for your ansver, MrMajestic!

[MrMajestic]

This might be too late to respond but anyway. I'm looking at the Pundit too. A couple of retailers sell it here in Sweden. The cheapest being Datorbutiken.com. If you get it there, it will set you back 2099SEK for the Pundit. I was thinking a Celeron 2Ghz would be good, it costs 599SEK and then you'll need some RAM, 512Mb DDR is 548SEK. A CD-Rom player costs 279SEK for a Samsung. Total cost = 3525SEK.

I'm actually contemplating that exact set up (well, minus the CD-ROM). The only thing I need to find out now is if a Pundit is more quiet than a fan moded Shuttle SK41G. I would love to have a SN41G2, mainly for the looks, but it's too expensive, especially when you count in all the memory related problems people have been getting. I'm also a bit worried about the Pundit's integrated graphics. I never play games, though, so my concerns are probably ill-founded.

Thanks for your ansver, MrMajestic!

If you put a TV Card and a Soundblaster Audigy 2 in it, you have a fully equipped Multimedia station that will even play DVD-Audio. Really cool for such a small package. Would be nice to know how good the TV output is.

[lenny]

Does anyone have any success (or failure) stories to share? Thanks in advance.

Here's a failure story that I still hope to rectify.

I got a Casetronic CheckerCube 1215 for a EPIA 800 not too long ago. It has two 5 1/4" bays and one external 3 1/2" bay, and another internal 3 1/2" bay. It also has a 200W internal power supply.

When everything is all installed and I turned it on, to my surprise, it is noisy! Of course, this was in the middle of the night, but I was hoping to use this as a home server, and it wasn't acceptable. At first I thought the culprit was the dual mini exhaust fan, but unplugging them did not do much. CPU fan is a little noisy (sorry, I don't know how to estimate level better than that) but the main culprit seems to be the fan in the power supply.

Now the best part : apparently there is no way of removing the power supply from the case! I kid you not. While I'm not an expert in those 3D puzzle thingies, I'm fairly persistent when it comes to these things, and there is no way I can rotate, shift, push or pull the power supply out from its cage without violating some laws of physics. It looks like it is placed into its final resting spot and the case riveted around it.

The PSU fan does not exhaust out of the case. It's immediately above the case exhaust fans, on the bottom of the power supply, and looks like it is meant to suck air into the power supply (did not test it thoroughly though). It doesn't look like a very good airflow design to me. But since I'm not a smoker, I did not do the Tom's Hardware Lung Cancer Airflow Test.

If anyone knows how to teleport a power supply out from inside an aluminum cage, please let me know. Failing that, I guess I have to get my hands on a Dremel...

[zopeka]

The only thing I need to find out now is if a Pundit is more quiet than a fan moded Shuttle SK41G. I would love to have a SN41G2, mainly for the looks, but it's too expensive, especially when you count in all the memory related problems people have been getting. I'm also a bit worried about the Pundit's integrated graphics. I never play games, though, so my concerns are probably ill-founded.

Well, I'm sorry to say that my brand new Asus Pundit isn't as quiet as I had hoped. (This is w/ 2.4GHz P4, 120GB Seagate BCV, 512MB, Aopen CDRW.)

Even with the BIOS Q-fan setting enabled, the single fan (?) runs at 1700 rpm minimum, according to Asusprobe. And this means that even when idle, I can easily hear the system across the living room.

Don't get me wrong, I'm quite happy with the system: it looks great, XP runs like clockwork and the integrated graphics are plenty fast for my day to day use. But I could have been quietly happier... Anyone for a Pundit fan mod?

-zopeka

[VTEC]

The new Gigabyte TA4 looks very promising, and it is running on DC power.
Here is a picture of it.