[Genez]

Fans are at least 20 dB, my HDDs are not audible unless your ear is up to the case. Some high speed HDDs can be noisy but the slow-spinning ones I have are not. I seriously doubt it'll be an issue, if it is I'll get rid of it or put in in a case and use it as an external that I'd only plug in when needed. I'm thinking a 500 GB SSD + 2 TB HDD will be all I'll need and external drives will just be used as backup drives.

Fans and hard drives add electronic noise into the music.. Its worse to hear than simply hearing a fan working in the background. Here is what I got.  Fan-less, and SSD,




Found here:  https://www.endpcnoise.com/cgi-bin/e/fanless-tower.html

[srb]

I can't believe how small the mSATA SSDs are!

It's all relative, they look large compared to the M.2 SSDs ! 

 

[ctviggen]

In my opinion, fans are always bad.  I bought a slim computer for my HT computer.  The only fan it has is to cool the CPU.  It was pretty quiet when I got it.  Now, it's freaking loud and annoying.  If you have things paused or you are at a very low noise/sound part of a movie/show, you can easily hear it, and it's 10+ feet away in an open cabinet. 

On the other hand, to get something that's fanless can be very expensive.  I paid more for my fanless case than I paid for my HT computer.

[Genez]

It can become very expensive. It does not have to be VERY.  But, keep in mind its to be the heart of your media center for hi-end listening.  It can make or break all the effort you put into getting the best audio components for your needs.

It does not have to be VERY expensive.  Mine cost s few hundred more than the souped up media PC's that were loaded down with hard drives and fans all over the place. Keep in mind. If done right. Its a long term investment.  My case allows for easy access and swaps of hardware.

This is where I got mine. So quite! I was listening to a DVD the other night and could hear the unavoidable noise from the spinning DVD. To me that was loud!  Gotten used to the quite. Its like a library.

Its just quiet as your audio equipment in idle is. Not to mention all the electrical ripple noise that gets mixed into the audio signal when you have spinning fans and spinning hard drives.  The PSU is also designed for low ripple. https://www.endpcnoise.com/cgi-bin/e/fanless-tower.html   

[kgturner]

I built my music server with a H5.S case from:

http://www.hd-plex.com/

Totally passive and totally silent.

Kevin T

[DaveC113]

My solution is fairly inexpensive, the barebones Beebox is only $130 and Newegg gives you one 4 mB memory stick for free with purchase. The CPU only uses 4 watts but it's performance is fairly limited. If you want a powerful processor in a fanless case it'll cost a ton of cash. So far the Beebox N3000 does fine for most things, with fast RAM and SSD it can do a lot of things very quickly. If you want to crunch numbers in a huge spreadsheet, do photo rendering or gaming I'm sure it would be a disappointment but for a HTPC that also does mail, browsing, etc. it's more than enough.

[srb]

So far the Beebox N3000 does fine for most things, with fast RAM and SSD it can do a lot of things very quickly.

So you have already installed an OS and are using it?  I have a friend that this may be perfect for.  He would be using it for email, web browsing, YouTube and Netflix streaming, iTunes, iPhone sync and Picasa.

Several other features it has are desirable beyond silent operation, including fast charging USB Type C port and 802.11ac WiFi hotspot available in sleep (?) mode (he doesn't have a WiFi router and would probably only use it for iPhone WiFi access).

I had read that there were some challenges installing an OS using USB keyboard, mouse, DVD drive as the USB 3.0 ports did not work after BIOS handed over to Windows installation.  Was this just a Windows 7 problem?  Which OS did you install and with what media and method?

Thanks!

Steve

[DaveC113]

A couple of nice features makes the Beebox the one to get imo... the type-C USB port, 2 HDMI + Display Port outs, dual channel RAM and ability to use a SSD + a normal 2.5" HDD.

I was using a Logitech wireless USB KB + Mouse, no issues at all.

See my post at the bottom of pg 2 for your other questions... it's hard to say what the best way to go with the OS right now is. Seems like Win 10 OEM or Win 7 then get the upgrade.


edit: I have not made the transition to this being my main computer yet, I am copying files and preparing to do a clean install of Win10 from the free upgrade on my laptop. I can't wait to stop using this laptop though...   When I get some time using the Beebox as my main computer I'll report back. But I'm not a demanding user, I'm not a huge stickler on video quality and I use a Sony HAP to play music.

[Odal3]

Dave - curious to hear how you like the computer so far.

[DaveC113]

Great so far, no complaints. For what I use it for the slower CPU isn't noticeable most of the time. It automatically doubles clock speed when needed to 2 GHz and the SSD is very fast. It has no problem playing 1080P video and Windows 10 seems fine after having 7 on my last computer.

The lack of fan is AWESOME! 

[Genez]

The lack of fan is AWESOME! 

There goes another fanless fan!   

[Odal3]

Thanks for the update! I have started to look into another low-power computer solution as well - fan less is nice. Not in a hurry so will start looking for deals.

[DaveC113]

Well, I just got an error message.... disc read fail during boot... PC is down 

The setup menus work so it looks like I need to make a bootable USB drive and see if the SSD that it normally boots from is operational? Any advice?