[danielghofrani]

Quote:

For noiseless pc use.
 
Mini-ITX mobo with only heatsink. Also usually Mini-ITX PSU's are fanless.
 
There is Intel® Desktop Board D510MO with atom cpu integrated.
http://www.intel.com/products/desktop/motherboards/D510MO/D510MO-overview.htm
 
And there is newer model Intel® Desktop Board DH57JG
http://www.intel.com/products/desktop/motherboards/DH57JG/DH57JG-overview.htm
But i'm not shure if any of this cpu's can run only with heatsink. For only audio playback u can underclock cpu (if it gets hot, but it should not get hot).
And Xeon server boards use only heatsink sometimes for some cpu's and they work under constand non-stop load.
Xeon L3406 (30W)
i3-530 (73W)
i5-650 (73W)
 
Then there are Intel Atom netbooks:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=API0QnJ_QiA
 
I have one of the Nexus case fan (PWM SERIES) with Ultra soft fan mounts.
It's very very silent (almost noiseless). http://www.nexustek.nl/NXS-silentcasefans.htm

 Very informative thanks! it is getting interesting. 

 

[SDDL-UP]

EVERY source has a signature!

A PC is probably the perfect source for many reasons.

ENJOY!!!

 

[myinitialsaredac]

Just drop a makeshift faraday cage around your mobo on your desk. 
 
If you can use a substantially overclocked cpu you should be able to have it live with just a nice heatsink (passive). Integrated graphics will suit your needs if you are only running it for audio. I agree with the SSD. The PSU is probably going to be the biggest hurdle, if there are those low dB ones that you discussed earlier I would say get one of those. You can always look for one with a nice long cable system and put the PSU itself far away in a separate faraday cage or even a little case to keep its fan noise/transformer noise down. 
 
If you want it in a case you could always run it in a case without back and side panel. That may look a bit cleaner and should allow for a nice amount of passive flow. 
 
Dave

 

[TheKisho]

 
Quote:

Just drop a makeshift faraday cage around your mobo on your desk. 
 
If you can use a substantially overclocked cpu you should be able to have it live with just a nice heatsink (passive). Integrated graphics will suit your needs if you are only running it for audio. I agree with the SSD. The PSU is probably going to be the biggest hurdle, if there are those low dB ones that you discussed earlier I would say get one of those. You can always look for one with a nice long cable system and put the PSU itself far away in a separate faraday cage or even a little case to keep its fan noise/transformer noise down. 
 
If you want it in a case you could always run it in a case without back and side panel. That may look a bit cleaner and should allow for a nice amount of passive flow. 
 
Dave

He probably doesn't want an overclocked processor or to overclock his because it would need better cooling and if the computer is doing active cooling it will ramp up the fan speed so it'll be louder.  An underclocked processor is a different case.
 
As for running with the side off, you'll actually do a poorer job of cooling because the air you are trying to move with fans no long will go where you want and lose the point in having case fans.  The point of a fan at the front is to bring cool air into the case and the point for a fan at the back is to pull hot air out the back in a controlled fashion, this only really works if the box/case has no major flaws/leaks.  If you remove the fans and leave the case open it's not really passive airflow.  Air is the room moves a bit but is closer to stagnant then airflow.  If it's running cool enough with passive cooling I'd probably run without fans and have at least mesh screen over the open side to allow more air into the machine.  It'll keep out a lot of bigger dust and hair, and to keep out unwanted items ending the case that should fall off the desk or how ever it might end up in the case.  Making sure to keep and eye on the temperatures in the machine after doing this for a while to be safe and make sure you don't put it near any hot air heating vents.  If you can manage to build a totally passively cooled rig I'd like to see some pictures and thoughts, as well as the components you've used to make it.

 

[Trapper32]

Quote:

 
Quote:

Just drop a makeshift faraday cage around your mobo on your desk. 
 
If you can use a substantially overclocked cpu you should be able to have it live with just a nice heatsink (passive). Integrated graphics will suit your needs if you are only running it for audio. I agree with the SSD. The PSU is probably going to be the biggest hurdle, if there are those low dB ones that you discussed earlier I would say get one of those. You can always look for one with a nice long cable system and put the PSU itself far away in a separate faraday cage or even a little case to keep its fan noise/transformer noise down. 
 
If you want it in a case you could always run it in a case without back and side panel. That may look a bit cleaner and should allow for a nice amount of passive flow. 
 
Dave

He probably doesn't want an overclocked processor or to overclock his because it would need better cooling and if the computer is doing active cooling it will ramp up the fan speed so it'll be louder.  An underclocked processor is a different case.
 
As for running with the side off, you'll actually do a poorer job of cooling because the air you are trying to move with fans no long will go where you want and lose the point in having case fans.  The point of a fan at the front is to bring cool air into the case and the point for a fan at the back is to pull hot air out the back in a controlled fashion, this only really works if the box/case has no major flaws/leaks.  If you remove the fans and leave the case open it's not really passive airflow.  Air is the room moves a bit but is closer to stagnant then airflow.  If it's running cool enough with passive cooling I'd probably run without fans and have at least mesh screen over the open side to allow more air into the machine.  It'll keep out a lot of bigger dust and hair, and to keep out unwanted items ending the case that should fall off the desk or how ever it might end up in the case.  Making sure to keep and eye on the temperatures in the machine after doing this for a while to be safe and make sure you don't put it near any hot air heating vents.  If you can manage to build a totally passively cooled rig I'd like to see some pictures and thoughts, as well as the components you've used to make it.

This should help http://www.cicsmemoryplayer.com/index.php?n=CMP.05Components

 

[Currawong]

My suggestion, from experience: Save all the complexity and get a Mac Mini with an SSD drive and 4GB or more of RAM. Sure it's not as cheap as building one yourself, but you only have to take it out of the box and plug it in and, for the most part, there is no nonsense about software and drivers for playing music. 

 

[Procession]

Quote:

My suggestion, from experience: Save all the complexity and get a Mac Mini with an SSD drive and 4GB or more of RAM. Sure it's not as cheap as building one yourself, but you only have to take it out of the box and plug it in and, for the most part, there is no nonsense about software and drivers for playing music. 

Well there's messing around with iTunes, dealing with its incompetent sorting, poor quality downloads, over priced downloads, its habit of being a general system hog and the fact that it doesn't support many codecs at all.
 
To add to this, it's extremely expensive for what you get and often fault ridden.
 

 

[TheKisho]

.... How could I forget that!  Those are nice and quiet.  Plus incredible small and portable.  Is it still pretty easy to get into?  Apple charges and arm and a leg for RAM and it appears there is no SSD option.

 

[TheKisho]

Quote:

Well there's messing around with iTunes, dealing with its incompetent sorting, poor quality downloads, over priced downloads, its habit of being a general system hog and the fact that it doesn't support many codecs at all.
 
To add to this, it's extremely expensive for what you get and often fault ridden.
 

You don't have to use iTunes there is many other music software options.  iTunes runs better on Mac then it does on Windows but yes it doesn't support codecs like FLAC.  I don't get why people say iTunes is a system hog, there are other programs [...Songbird...] that is more of a pig.
 
It maybe be expensive but there are rarely problems with it [Macs].
 
You can run Windows on a Mac if Mac OS X is not your thing.

 

[Currawong]

If you end up getting higher-quality audio gear, something like Ayrewave, Amarra or Pure Music would help.
 
As for the complaints about iTunes, you aren't restricted to using the iTunes Store. It can even be completely disabled in the preferences along with any of the other major features that aren't wanted. There's nothing to mess around with using iTunes in Mac OS X (though I gather the Windows version leaves something to be desired).

 

[Procession]

 
Quote:

It maybe be expensive but there are rarely problems with it [Macs].

I beg to differ.
I went to a private school that fell for the Mac hype; we dealt with overheating laptops, a few cases of spontaneously combusting batteries, many, many crashes and the software left a lot to be desired when it came to education.
 
We actually used to leave the computers for up to half an hour whilst photoshop booted.
 
There was also no network security, to access anyone's files you simply had to open your home and go up a directory and then select their name.
I have no idea whether that was the failing of the OS, or the network admins, but it was a sure fault.

 

[Meelis]

Here is example what mini-ITX PSU's look like.
They are more like usual AC-DC power adapters. I don't think there is any noisy fan inside.
 
http://www.mini-box.com/picoPSU-120-102W-power-kit
 
http://www.mini-box.com/picoPSU-160-XT
 
Found an nice mobo. Asus AT3IONT-I http://usa.asus.com/product.aspx?P_ID=ZHofno9Kz03TkwXw&templete=2
* Intel® Atom 330 on board
* Nvidia ION Graphics Processors
* Passive cooling and no noise

 
Look at that AC power adapter plugs directly in the motherboard
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dwUFve3dIHM
 
Picture the combo of that with:
ASUS Xonar Essence STX or Onkyo Wavio SE-200PCI LTD Edition
And some small LED monitor for music track info.
 

 

[LeonvB]

There are a lot of ways to build a great sounding set around a computer. But to do this one should focus on the DAC. Although there are soundcards that will let you achieve good results, the best solution still is an external DAC. The interfaces available on the DAC of your choice should dictate how you'll feed it the signal.
 
Let's start with the most advanced ones, which have an ethernet connection: since the DAC simply connects to the network you often can use a NAS device, which if it isn't of the silent type you can simply put in another room or fi. the basement. A NAS often is nothing more than a very simple computer, often running Linux. So in this case, the "PC" is actually just a storage device.
 
If the DAC doesn't have LAN, but instead uses USB one could use something like a Beagleboard or Hawkboard. These are small ARM based boards, which are capable of running a whole range of operating systems, again mostly Linux based. This board type roughly uses 2W, so it doesn't need a fan for additional cooling. On the Beagleboard, the mini USB port could be used to connect the DAC, and one could read the music files from the network with either a NAS or a PC storing the files. On the Hawkboard, one could connect either SSDs or 2.5" drives to the SATA ports to directly stream the audio to the DAC.
 
If Linux is a big obstacle for you, going for a simple ITX based board indeed is a good idea. But I would recommend using a low power board meant for passive operation like the Intel D945GSEJT. Mount it in a case like the M350 from Minibox, and feed it using a simple brick type PSU. Use 2Gb and 2.5" drives for storage and you're set to go, totally silent. It doesn't have the graphics power of an ION based board, but uses much less power and still is more than fast enough to stream audio to multiple audio sets. Boards like the D510MO and D525MW are meant to be used in cases that provide enough airflow, meaning a fan should be used.
  
I'm currently using an even simpler Alix based server (http://www.pcengines.ch/), using a CF card to boot and a 1Tb drive to stream my audio and backup my PC.

 

[danielghofrani]

Quote:

Quote:

.  If you can manage to build a totally passively cooled rig I'd like to see some pictures and thoughts, as well as the components you've used to make it.

This should help http://www.cicsmemoryplayer.com/index.php?n=CMP.05Components

Oh I definately will let you know if I finish the project successfully!  
thanks for the link by the way it will help me a lot.
 
Quote:

My suggestion, from experience: Save all the complexity and get a Mac Mini with an SSD drive and 4GB or more of RAM. Sure it's not as cheap as building one yourself, but you only have to take it out of the box and plug it in and, for the most part, there is no nonsense about software and drivers for playing music. 

Thanks for your concert Currawong, but for me half of the fun is the engineering feat of making it myself, by the way (if I end up making it anytime soon), I will be using a lot of parts that I already have. 
 
 
 
 
on the side folks: the PSU noise is absolutely negligible. maybe you guys are thinking 700W power supplies, but adapters and low power PSUs have very little noise. 
in fact my laptop adapter makes no noise whatsoever from 20cm of distance. only when you stick it to your ear you can hear the transformer inside hum. 
 
I dont know if the 350W fanless power supplies are as quiet as my laptop adapter, but Its all about the power they deliver. 
for example I totally believe that this Aleutia computer is 0dB of noise. (it probably needs a little adapter for power)
http://www.aleutia.com/products/p1

 

[myinitialsaredac]

Quote:

 
Quote:

Just drop a makeshift faraday cage around your mobo on your desk. 
 
If you can use a substantially overclocked cpu you should be able to have it live with just a nice heatsink (passive). Integrated graphics will suit your needs if you are only running it for audio. I agree with the SSD. The PSU is probably going to be the biggest hurdle, if there are those low dB ones that you discussed earlier I would say get one of those. You can always look for one with a nice long cable system and put the PSU itself far away in a separate faraday cage or even a little case to keep its fan noise/transformer noise down. 
 
If you want it in a case you could always run it in a case without back and side panel. That may look a bit cleaner and should allow for a nice amount of passive flow. 
 
Dave

He probably doesn't want an overclocked processor or to overclock his because it would need better cooling and if the computer is doing active cooling it will ramp up the fan speed so it'll be louder.  An underclocked processor is a different case.
 
As for running with the side off, you'll actually do a poorer job of cooling because the air you are trying to move with fans no long will go where you want and lose the point in having case fans.  The point of a fan at the front is to bring cool air into the case and the point for a fan at the back is to pull hot air out the back in a controlled fashion, this only really works if the box/case has no major flaws/leaks.  If you remove the fans and leave the case open it's not really passive airflow.  Air is the room moves a bit but is closer to stagnant then airflow.  If it's running cool enough with passive cooling I'd probably run without fans and have at least mesh screen over the open side to allow more air into the machine.  It'll keep out a lot of bigger dust and hair, and to keep out unwanted items ending the case that should fall off the desk or how ever it might end up in the case.  Making sure to keep and eye on the temperatures in the machine after doing this for a while to be safe and make sure you don't put it near any hot air heating vents.  If you can manage to build a totally passively cooled rig I'd like to see some pictures and thoughts, as well as the components you've used to make it.

It must have been very early when I wrote that, I did indeed mean to write substantially underclocked.
 
The panel-less case design was actually an idea for full fanless which I think one could pull off with enough movement of air in the room, an underclocked cpu, and a hefty block of copper. 
 
Meshing might work, i think it depends on how much air is in the room and how cool you can get a cpu to run without a fan. 
 
Dave