[NBLUG/talk] Quiet SFF reccommendations/opinions?

thiessen at sonic.net thiessen at sonic.net
Wed Jul 20 10:48:07 PDT 2005


>> Summary:  I'm looking for personal impressions of whatever SFF systems
>> NBLUG members have used, especially with respect to noise levels.
>
> (For those who don't know SFF stands for Small Form Factor)
>
> Generally speaking, for the same airflow, small fans are noisier.

Yep.  And if I end up building a bog-standard tower system I will
cherry-pick quiet fans from the list on www.silentpcreview.com.  But if
I end up with a SFF system, I don't want to have to do much in the way of
parts replacement.  And the power supplies for such, which apparently
are usually the noisiest components, typically have small, high RPM fans.
I'd really prefer not to have to do PS mods on the system I'm setting up
for my wife.  Less tinkering = less possible future annoyances.

> I have bought a few Dells in the last year, and they all have
> thermostatically controlled fans and unified cooling. So if you can deal
> with a full size case, they tend to be quiet(except when you compile a
> kernel, then the fan picks up). Thay also came with Seagate hard disks,
> which are also quiet and cool running. Of couse they are an Intel-only
> shop(no AMD).

She used to have a Dell.  It was ok.  My parents have a Dell.  It's fine
for them.  I have no problem buying something pre-assembled, as long as
the price is ok and the parts quality is tolerable.  The thrill of
building PCs and doing post-build technical support vanished shortly after
I got an actual job solving computer problems.  I just still build 'em
because I can never get exactly what I want w/o paying a serious premium
or suffering questionable build quality.

We'd still like a system smaller than a conventional tower if possible,
which is why I haven't really looked at Dell.  If I give up on the SFF
idea, I'll run a price comparison on anything I spec out with a
similarly-equipped Dell.

> <sarcasm>
> And you can't beat the reliability and tech support quality of Dell.
> </sarcasm>

*cough*

> gotapex.com tracks the Dell special prices. Sometimes the deals are
> unbeatable.

Thanks for the heads-up.  That'll be useful.

Justin




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