Searching for a silent mini PC

Info & chat about quiet prebuilt, small form factor and barebones systems, people's experiences with vendors thereof, etc.

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tognaco
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Joined: Sun Jun 09, 2019 2:20 am

Searching for a silent mini PC

Post by tognaco » Sun Jun 09, 2019 2:37 am

For the last 12 years I've been working on a totally silent iMac which produced no noise at all (or at least I couldn't hear any). But now the moment to replace it has come, since it no longer meets my software requeriments. Problem is, I can't afford a new iMac with the hardware I would need (it goes to over 4000$), so I've been looking for something similar in the PC world. After a proper amount of research, I've come to a fanless mini PC for 1075€. The hardware is a follows:

- Box: ITX, from Akasa Euler TX, made out of alley and fanless
- CPU: Intel® Core™i7 8700T (2,4 GHz) 12 MB cache
- Motherboard: ASUS® H310T R2.0: (Mini-ITX, DDR4, USB 3.1, 6 Gb/s)
- Memory (RAM)32 GB Corsair 2133 MHz SODIMM DDR4 (2 x 16 GB)
- Graphic Board: INTEL® HD GRAPHICS - 1,7 GB de memoria RAM vídeo DDR4 máx. - DirectX® 121er
- Storage: 960 GB ADATA SU650 2,5" SSD, SATA 6 Gb (520 MB/R, 450 MB/W)
- GIGABIT LAN & WIRELESS INTEL® AC-9260 M.2 (1.73 Gbps, 802.11AC) + BT 5.0 USB/ThunderboltMÍN.
- 2 USB 3.0 and 2 USB 2.0
- OS: Windows 10 Professional 64 bits

I want to work with music software (Finale, Sibelius, ProTools), Office, Photoshop, InDesign and SketchUp . Do you think that this computer will be appropiate for it? Thanks in advance.

CA_Steve
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Joined: Thu Oct 06, 2005 4:36 am
Location: St. Louis, MO

Re: Searching for a silent mini PC

Post by CA_Steve » Sun Jun 09, 2019 4:53 am

Welcome to SPCR.

The Akasa Euler TX is a decent case. My primary concern if you are running orchestral levels of VSTs and require a lot of DSP horsepower in ProTools, the performance due to the 35W thermal limit on the i7-8700T might hamper your projects. Otherwise, probably not. And if your are just looking at a dozen or so VSTs, you could drop down to an i5.

If you do need to go big, then look at HDPlex. They have cases that will support 65-95W CPUs.

Have you considered a Hackintosh? In the past Gigabyte was the preferred vendor of the Hackintosh community for best compatibility..I don't know about now.

You might consider a 500GB class PCIe M2 SSD for OS/apps/scratch disk and a separate large 2.5" SSD or HDD for data storage.

tognaco
Posts: 2
Joined: Sun Jun 09, 2019 2:20 am

Re: Searching for a silent mini PC

Post by tognaco » Sun Jun 09, 2019 7:49 am

Thank you very much. I will look into both HDPlex and Macintosh, although I know nothing about how to build a PC on my own or to install a Macintosh. I think it will be worth it the time and effort to learn.

CA_Steve
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Joined: Thu Oct 06, 2005 4:36 am
Location: St. Louis, MO

Re: Searching for a silent mini PC

Post by CA_Steve » Sun Jun 09, 2019 10:21 am

There are a bunch of Hackintosh user groups/sites out there. TonyMacx86 is the granddaddy of them...not sure which is the best for a new DYIer. Just be aware of the trade offs...upside is staying with an OS you are familiar with, downside is getting that OS and drivers to work on a unauthorized hardware platform. <shrug>

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