<i>This computer makes no noise when it starts up. It makes no noise when it shuts down. It makes no noise when it idles. It makes no noise when it’s under heavy load. It makes no noise when it’s reading or writing data.</i><p>I've used completely silent computers before --- some laptops --- and actually found the experience rather unsettling --- to me the fans, the soft humming/whining of the CPU voltage regulators, and the grunting of the hard drive all give subtle cues as to what's happening with the system at any given moment. Without them, I have to spend extra effort looking at the indicators (if any) or monitoring apps. The white noise is somewhat comforting too.<p>There are certainly people who like the silence, but I prefer the extra feedback; I wonder if it's related to how I'll easily get nauseous in a car that's too quiet and has a very soft suspension, but have no problems if I can hear the engine and "feel" the road.
Tips on getting rid of coil whine?<p>Because that's literally the only sound I hear from my computer unless it's heavily loaded. Most annoying is an intermittent whine when it's idle. Loud enough to hear from the other end of my - admittedly small - apartment.
hey isn't there some kind of inert (non-conductive) oil you could fill the whole thing with that transfers heat better than air does? if nothing needs to be moving in there then viscosity etc shouldn't matter.<p>it just shoudn't leech into or out of anything and be chemically inert in the relevant ways. most oils are pretty cheap and probably every little bit matters in this kind of setup. removing components would be pain though. (everything oily).
5 years ago I built the highest performance gaming rig I could using entirely fanless parts.<p>It got very hot to the touch and probably was rather bad for the chips long term.<p>The electrical whining was terrible! You could hear all CPU and GPU activity depending on load.<p>Now I use a macbook and it's far less irritating...
Original discussion: <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17075489" rel="nofollow">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17075489</a>
About 10 years ago I purchased a Dell mini 10 laptop that has no fan and SSD. I was satisfied with the silence. Now the closest I could find is intel NUC. With Linux and proper fan control it is quiet (no fan turning) most of the time - almost all times. And I kind ma like the fact that the fan is there just in case. The noise from the environment is the major issue for me now.
> It’s totally silent — 0dB.<p>Sigh. Totally silent is -∞dB. 0dB just means that it matches the reference volume, which is nominally the threshold of human hearing. (And the definitions vary depending on whether it's dbA, dbC, or something else.)