The Joys of Silence

02 March 2016 (3)

I recently took possession of new desktop PC. As a Pluralsight author one of the unique considerations when choosing a new machine was generated noise. After some research I settled on sourcing the computer from a UK company called QuietPC.com.

NoFan PC case from front

Initially when I started researching what to buy I had assumed that I would pay some performance penalty as I wanted a CPU with fan-less cooling and I didn’t want the additional complexity of something like water cooling.

As the following image shows, I was able to get a quad core Skylake (Core i7 6700K 4.0GHz) without requiring a fan:

Nofan CR-95C Pearl Black IcePipe 95W Fanless CPU Cooler

The humongous thing in the preceding image is a Nofan CR-95C Pearl Black IcePipe 95W Fanless CPU Cooler. This fan-less CPU cooler is based on thermal heatpipes that are able to transfer heat away from the processor, the heat then being dissipated by the huge surface area of the “fins”.

Nofan CR-95C Pearl Black IcePipe 95W Fanless CPU Cooler

The case itself is a Nofan CS-80 Fanless Computer Case coupled with a Nofan P-500A Silent 500W Fanless 80+ GOLD PSU. The case features a vent at the top of the case above the CPU cooler to aid in convection.

In use, the PC is completely silent, no fan noise or electrical hum – the only noise emitted is if you are used the optical drive.

Prior to this machine I was using and was very happy with a Lenovo laptop though under load the fan noise was becoming a little distracting – in all fairness it was an aging machine that had been an 8 hour a day workhorse for a few years.

It’s amazing that once you’ve experienced the joy of completely silent computing, going back to using machines with fans seems archaic. No doubt we’ll eventually have silent, high-performance, fan-less laptops – though the small form factor will present some hard thermal dissipation challenges.

Full hardware specs:

  • Nofan CS-80 Fanless Computer Case
  • Gigabyte GA-Z170XP-SLI LGA1151 ATX Motherboard
  • Intel 6th Gen Core i7 6700K 4.0GHz 91W HD 530 8MB Quad Core CPU
  • Corsair DDR4 Vengeance LPX 32GB (2x16GB) 2400MHz Memory Kit
  • Nofan CR-95C Pearl Black IcePipe 95W Fanless CPU Cooler
  • Nofan P-500A Silent 500W Fanless 80+ GOLD PSU
  • Samsung 950 PRO M.2 512GB NVMe SSD
  • Samsung 850 EVO 250GB 2.5in Solid State Drive
  • Pioneer DVR-221LBK DVD and CD Reader/re-writer
  • Gigabyte Dual Band Wireless-AC GC-WB867D-I Wi-Fi/Bluetooth Card
  • Gigabyte GC-TPM Trusted Platform Module

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Comments (3) -

  • Mike C

    3/3/2016 2:33:05 AM | Reply

    I've gone completely fanless (and solid state) for my arcade cabinet, and other than hearing a relay click when pressing the power switch, the only sound you'll hear is the movement of the controllers and what comes out of the speakers.  I've even designed a power LED into the on switch, so that I can get visual confirmation that the system is in fact powered on (should the screen be dark).

    I agree, it's the direction computers should go.

  • Jason

    3/3/2016 1:08:07 PM | Reply

    Sounds like a fun project Mike!

  • Villads Claes

    3/8/2016 5:07:24 PM | Reply

    Get me one of those!

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