Silent PC

[LilY0da]

Hey y'all...
I was hoping to build a PC based on a fanless VIA mobo, but considering what I saw on various posts here, it looks like the CPUs are going to be too weak to handle 2 or 3 tuners, as well as serve AVI files to my MVP, etc...

So my question is 2 fold. First, what do you think is a good CPU to play AVIs on the PVR + the MVP (possibly simultaneously) and handle 2 or 3 tuners

Also, what solutions do you know to make a silent PC... I read about fanless power supplies, but have no feedback on those.... I know I could buy a koolance case and go liquid cooling, but do you know of cheaper alternatives that would also be very silent?

All ideas and input welcome. The goal is silent, and powerful enough. Small size would be a plus, but not a major requirement

[Cepheus]

First of all, love your userpic.

Personally, I find the whole "silent" HTPC thing rather overrated, to be honest. Quiet is always good, but don't sacrifice computing power and cash for silence, in a large room with (more than likely) a TV or radio playing (plus other household noises such as AC, etc).

That said, I've used fanless power supplies in the past, and while they typically do a good job powering the system, they can also double as a stove-top burner. Now I have seen reviews of fanless ps's that do run quite cool, but I don't have personal experience with those.

Other than that, if you really must have silent, then liquid cooling is probably your best bet, although I will admit it is somewhat cost prohibitive. If you find something workable, please share.

[elite]

How about you stick the noisy PC under the stairs/in the loft/cupboard and have an mvp where you want a silent front end?

[LilY0da]

I thought about that but I'm planning on having 2 TVs, and probably reencoding all videos to AVI to save space (not to mention my ton of DVD that I AVI'fied)... So in at least one of the rooms, I'll need to have the PC, since you can only have 1 MVP running an AVI at a time, IIRC.

I currently have a MVP (well, my wife does, since she stole it), but it doesn't play closed captionning yet (although I'm fumbling with a solution), and the wife is nagging me for her CC...

[LilY0da]

First of all, love your userpic.

Personally, I find the whole "silent" HTPC thing rather overrated, to be honest. Quiet is always good, but don't sacrifice computing power and cash for silence, in a large room with (more than likely) a TV or radio playing (plus other household noises such as AC, etc).

I like the pic too

Well, in the same room, I don't always watch TV... I also play with the kid, read books, and sleep on the couch every once in a while, when work requires me to get up 5 times a night. Plus, I can hear very faint noises, so silence is something I really enjoy. It doesn't have to be 100% silent, but I wouldn't tolerate any of my current PC in the living room. Too noisy for me when the TV is turned off

[Cepheus]

Ahh, good point.

*sigh* in my house, the TV is *always* on. There's always someone watching something, so it's much less of an issue for me. In your case, I understand wanting silence. In that case, going with water cooling might be your best option if you want silent + a powerful computer. Although bear in mind that water cooling still isn't "silent" -- there's a pump, there's a radiator fan (unless you have a really big radiator which would totally look out of place in an HTPC)... Though you can get quiet pumps and fans for this purpose, which means it would still be much more quiet than traditional air-cooling.

[vitesse pilot]

I saw this passive ATX case advertised on kustomPCs site and http://www.hifiatx.com/ . Looks very cool but sadly with all things passively cooled, is very expensive.

[nitrogen_widget]

How about you stick the noisy PC under the stairs/in the loft/cupboard and have an mvp where you want a silent front end?

Hey now, that's not a bad idea.
Except I don't need an MVP.
I can mount a PC in my basement stairwell or between the first floor ceiling joists then run a S-video cable & an IR extension cable to the TV.

I just need a front-end PC to play off a server.
Thanks.
Now I don't have to come up with a custom case or gut a VCR so the PC doesn't look out of place.

an MVP would work for my bedroom though.
Using what I allready have is key for me right now.

[Paulp33]

Some basic things. Keeping the PC quiet is all about minimising heat production and efficiently removing the heat that is produced.

I think a tower case will generally give you better airflow than a desktop because the heat can rise allowing you to make better use of passive air movement (unfortunately desktops generally fit better in a HTPC requirement).

Fan noise generally comes from the speed that the blades move through the air so the bigger the fan the slower it can run for a given airflow. This means that generally bigger fans make for quieter power supplies and quieter case fans. Quality of fans also counts as the bearings and vibration also contribute noise. You can slow down the speed of a noisy fan to make it quieter with various devices.

Northbridge P4 CPUs have good speed to heat production. My pick would be the 2.4GHz northbridge P4 if you can find one. I have an arctic cooling heatsink/fan on mine that does not seem to make any appreciable noise at all.

[MaBo]

Hi,
My setup is quiet, but not 100%. In a normal household environment (no A/C; not needed in the Netherlands ;-) it is mostly very quiet. Only when it has to do more intense jobs (running comskip at full thorttle) it gets louder.

Setup: see sig.
Extra: speedfan (version 4.18 or 4.19; later ones did not run on my pundit)
In particular the choice of HDD is important. I ordered the samsung one, but they first put in another one. I complained and they changed it. It made a recogniseable difference (didn't have speedfan then, so the difference was hearable above the fan noise).

And don't put in CPU Horsepower you don't need. A pentium in general gets hotter dan a celeron.

I don't know about the more modern pundit variants though...

Maybe it helps.