Fanless or near fanless PC 2014 ? (sub 5 watts)

On Sun, 14 Sep 2014 10:03:29 +0100, Paul E Bennett Gave us:

Not fanless, and not sub 5 Watts. What a stupid requisite, considering the application.

Straight HTPC, sure, but all this talk about expansion, etc.

This PC is NOT sub 5W, NOT fanless, but IS a real computer and IS the type and class of machine needed for this application.

I have a few.

I also have a 4 watt fanless Cubox-i4Pro, ARM CPU based machine.

This person seems to want a machine that does what a specific, single use solution provides, but wants some kind of regular PC utilization from it. Adding things not already incorporated typically uses more power than the pre-integrated solution will.

So, the more you get on the thing at buy time, the less you will have to add, and the better it *should be* integrated into the device.

Acer and Asus make good machines.

From what I could tell, the Intel NUC was a good concept and idea, but made the mistake of using USB 2.0 and other, older feature choices which made the entire line a no-go for me. They MIGHT be able to catch up with hard tech type consumer demands, if that is even in their goal playbook. They may have written them off as a failure, but I do not know how well they sold.

Americans (all consumers in general) are completely uninformed about true product quality and efficacy these days. Even the consumer rags do not keep up.

Asus makes:

Acer offers:

Ok, there is our asymmetry. In effect the heat source is at the bottom of one pipe and the cold sink is at the top of the other pipe. See my post at the top of the quotes. We have come full circle. :)

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Rick

On Sun, 14 Sep 2014 15:44:20 -0400, rickman Gave us:

. ^^ . IFYPFY!

Agreed the Intel NUC DN2820FYKH is not sub 5W (power stated as 36W but it seems that may include a margin for the additional bits you add to the barebones). It seems, though, to be totally fanless. I am using the SanDisk

256Gb SSD (6GB/s) and have 8Gb of DDR3 RAM fitted. Datasheet for my NUC is .

I also have two Gigabyte Brixs GB-BXCEH-2955 each with

8Gb of DDR3 RAM and 256Gb SanDisk SSD. This also seems to be fanless.

When I say that these PC's seem to be fanless, short of hooking out the board to look closely underneath it, there has been no fan sound from the units that have all been running continuously for the past 100 hours or so without raising their temperature much. So, if they have fans they are extremely quiet (it was not on my list of requirements for purchase that they be fanless).

I went back to read the original post on this and the OP seems to have not clearly stated what he was really after except for the PC functionality and that the solution is fanless and sub 5W. I am not sure the 5W limit would yield any useful speed of PC functionality. The OP was also not clear whether or not he needed expansion facilities or not. I just suggested that the NUC and Gigabyte Brix solutions, although seemingly busting his power limit, might have been worth the consideration.

All my three NUC-like devices have USB 3.0 in place (see datasheets at links above).

Interesting machines but I noted the dollar prices. My boxes, even when I

using two for building up a multi-screen CAD Station with a back-up server. The third box was for a contracted task that required me to run a real Windows 7 machine (usually I am all Linux).

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I got one for "free" as they were part of the swag at a recent trade show (also a Samsung Gear 2 watch) that cost $50. This is not something to use for gaming.

The normal price is around $150 but that's without memory or storage.

5W TDP processor, nice. I was waiting for this one to hit in Australia, seems suppliers are running out the predecessor model.

I ended up buying a Mini-ITX Gigabyte GA-J1900N-3V MoBo for AU$125, add memory, hard drive and case, still a good buy.

More info on measured power use in another post soon.

Grant.

I nearly bought this small Intel NUC you mention, the 36W is the 12V @ 3A power supply for the thing, the NUC power consumption.

I ended up with a Gigabyte GA-J1900N-D3V, which has a 10W fanless Intel J1900 Celeron Quad Core 2GHz (2.4GHz boost) CPU, I added 2 x 2 GB DDR3L memory, and a small 2.5" hard drive. All that runs off a 12V @ 4A power supply via a 12V DC to 24pin ATX power converter.

Photos here:

I'll hope to buy a case for it this coming week.

This little PC is intended for 24/7 operation as my Internet facing box. What decided me was the MoBo having two Ethernet ports, perfect for firewall duty where one goes the (bridged) modem, the other to localnet.

Power usage from 12V to DC-DC converter is measured at around 1.4A (+/- 50mA moving around) on CPU intensive task (compile linux kernel: 'make clean; make -j5') and around 1.02A (steady) idle.

Connected are one Ethernet port, one VGA monitor, ps/2 mouse & keyboard.

I've yet to get the CPU to idle down to proper low power idle, the kernel is a bit slow to catch up with new hardware. I may have to dabble with cpu-freq code.

All up cost will be around AU$332: - $125 Gigabyte GA-J1900N-D3V Motherboard (now $119) - $50 2 x 2GB DDR3L SODIMM memory - $62 WD Black 320GB, WD3200BEKX - $95 Antec ISK 110 VESA Mini-ITX Case with 90W Adapter

Still deciding if I'll put in a small SSD to let the hard drive spin down.

I'll probably use the 12V adapter the thing is running on now, rather than the 90W power supply the case comes with.

Grant.

I got one for "free" as they were part of the swag at a recent trade show (also a Samsung Gear 2 watch) that cost $50. This is not something to use for gaming.

The normal price is around $150 but that's without memory or storage. "

Swag ? Like a give away ? Or like an extra ? Or what is swag ? :):):)

Bye, Skybuck.

From Wiki...

"Swag, promotional items given away at trade fairs and events"

Probably originated from:

"Swag, slang originating in the early 1800s for stolen goods or booty."

What if it's a hanging lamp you got for free?

Best regards, Spehro Pefhany

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Never heard of anyone being hanged by a lamp.

It was specially made for Spehro... :-*

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Rick

" From Wiki...

"Swag, promotional items given away at trade fairs and events"

Probably originated from:

"Swag, slang originating in the early 1800s for stolen goods or booty." "

But is swag free ? Or a product sold for a big discount ? Or can it be bought ? :)

Bye, Skybuck.

Another popular meaning for SWAG is "scientific wild ass guess".

It's generally free, included in a "kit" given away as promotional material. Someone bought it. There are companies that specialize in making "swag". Some booty I've been given include, pens (usually go in the trash), laser pointers, and USB sticks.