Re: Buying recommendation for silent router/fileserver

On Fri, 12 Oct 2012 13:51:06 +0200 Ulrich Spörlein <uqs_at_FreeBSD.org>
wrote:

> For longevity, I'd have a bit more confidence if this was an IvyBridge
> system ... Now that FreeBSD somewhat supports the Intel HD graphics, I
> might even slap on XBMC. And yes, living room + low noise is key, aka
> Wife Acceptance Factor
> (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wife_acceptance_factor)

Fans are not evil. The trick is to use very big ones which run slowly
and quiet.

Have a look for:
 - big/normal but nice case (for air-flow reasons with the benefit of
   space for hard drives and you can change parts inside later at will
   without space problems), let your significant other chose it
 - biiiig CPU cooler (Scyte, Noctua, Thermalright, ...)
 - big CPU fan (12cm / 14cm... big ones can run slow and silent)
 - low power CPU
 - at leat one big case fan (12cm)
 - 40 EUR fan-less Nvidia card
 - 80 Plus Platinum PSU

I have a system which is like this, big case with 5 harddisks and a
ssd, a big case fan blowing on it (speed adjustable, but already with a
very slow and quiet setting the disks don't heat up) in direction of
the CPU, the fan of the CPU more or less not turning (the CPU coolers
which come with big CPU fans have a temperature controlled fan most of
the time), and a second big case fan sucking out the air on the top of
the case. The fan of the PSU is also temperature controlled, and very
quiet (in case the fan should turn at all).

With this you can put inside whatever you want. For your use case
maybe a Core i3/5 CPU with a low max-TDP (30-40W instead of the usual
95). Together with a fan-less NVidia GeForce GT 520 card (40 EUR)
you can have plenty of horse power (for your envisioned use-case) but
you don't hear it (except you put your ear directly beneath the case).

Such a system may be not as flexible to hide as the one you talked
about initially, but you have the possibility to upgrade easily and as
necessary.

Bye,
Alexander.

-- 
http://www.Leidinger.net    Alexander _at_ Leidinger.net: PGP ID = B0063FE7
http://www.FreeBSD.org       netchild _at_ FreeBSD.org  : PGP ID = 72077137