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digitalmars.D - [OT] The coolest (literally) desktop machine I've ever had

reply Andrei Alexandrescu <SeeWebsiteForEmail erdani.org> writes:
I was using a large Lenovo Y70-70 laptop as a pseudo-desktop machine and 
additional monitor. It's quite powerful, but its fans would run at all 
times. Getting really tired of that, I googled for the better part of an 
afternoon for "fanless desktop" and it turns out it's much harder to 
find one than I'd initially thought. (Slow fanless machines are easy to 
find, but I was looking for one as powerful as any desktop.)

At about the time I was ready to give up I found an obscure site of an 
Israeli company that claimed to make a real i7 fanless machine. It was 
releases very recently, too, so I'm thinking it might be of interest to 
some others.

So I got it from Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01CP4S15E. I fitted 
it with 8 GB RAM and 512 GB SSD. It's more expensive than a traditional 
desktop of the same configuration, but as soon as you turn it on, you 
know where that extra money went. (Speaking of money, ironically, the 
extra expenditure has had an unexpected return: I occasionally daytrade, 
and when I do I need CNBC on. That made the laptop's fans make even more 
noise than usual, so I was avoiding it. Nowadays I can keep CNBC on no 
problem, which allowed me to handily cover the extra expense.)

I've put Linux Mint on it (which is what they recommend) and it works 
swimmingly. The handling of multiple desktops is just awesome. The one 
thing I don't like about the machine is it always powers the discrete 
graphics card, which I don't use. Their engineers (who've been very 
active to respond to my emailed questions) said a future BIOS upgrade 
will allow powering off the card.

Thought this might help others looking for a fanless dekstop.


Andrei
Aug 12 2016
next sibling parent jmh530 <john.michael.hall gmail.com> writes:
On Friday, 12 August 2016 at 19:13:12 UTC, Andrei Alexandrescu 
wrote:

 Thought this might help others looking for a fanless dekstop.


I built fanless desktops that I use for HTPC. I find it's much 
easier to just find a fanless heat sink and choose the parts for 
the rest of the machine based on that.
Aug 12 2016
prev sibling next sibling parent Joakim <dlang joakim.fea.st> writes:
On Friday, 12 August 2016 at 19:13:12 UTC, Andrei Alexandrescu 
wrote:

 At about the time I was ready to give up I found an obscure 
 site of an Israeli company that claimed to make a real i7 
 fanless machine. It was releases very recently, too, so I'm 
 thinking it might be of interest to some others.


Compulab is pretty well-known among hardware enthusiasts, as 
they're pretty much the only company putting out ARM desktops:

http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item=compulab_utilite&num=1

They seem to have focused more on the fanless x86 nettops these 
days.
Aug 12 2016
prev sibling next sibling parent Russel Winder via Digitalmars-d <digitalmars-d puremagic.com> writes:
A pity Amazon sell them in the USA, but not the UK.
Aug 13 2016
prev sibling next sibling parent Guillaume Chatelet <chatelet.guillaume gmail.com> writes:
On Friday, 12 August 2016 at 19:13:12 UTC, Andrei Alexandrescu 
wrote:

 I was using a large Lenovo Y70-70 laptop as a pseudo-desktop 
 machine and additional monitor. It's quite powerful, but its 
 fans would run at all times. Getting really tired of that, I 
 googled for the better part of an afternoon for "fanless 
 desktop" and it turns out it's much harder to find one than I'd 
 initially thought. (Slow fanless machines are easy to find, but 
 I was looking for one as powerful as any desktop.)

 [...]


Also Puget System makes some pretty awesome machines - not 
fanless but still absolutely quiet.
https://www.pugetsystems.com/serenity.php

They don't ship to France but they give the parts references so I 
basically built one myself. I'm really happy about it. It's on 
24/7 in my bedroom and I can't ear it while sleeping.
Aug 13 2016
prev sibling next sibling parent reply Vladimir Panteleev <thecybershadow.lists gmail.com> writes:
On Friday, 12 August 2016 at 19:13:12 UTC, Andrei Alexandrescu 
wrote:

 googled for the better part of an afternoon for "fanless 
 desktop" and it turns out it's much harder to find one than I'd


Quiet doesn't necessarily mean fanless. I have a Corsair H100i 
with Noctua fans, and you can barely tell it's on.


 I've put Linux Mint on it (which is what they recommend)


Friends don't let friends use Linux Mint:

https://www.reddit.com/r/linux/comments/4v116g/can_we_stop_recommending_linux_mint/

https://lwn.net/Articles/676664/

Not mentioned above: Linux Mint's upgrade policy is "format and 
reinstall". Their update policy is also "If it ain't broke, don't 
try to fix it". No wonder they have internal security issues.
Aug 13 2016
next sibling parent reply Andrei Alexandrescu <SeeWebsiteForEmail erdani.org> writes:
On 08/13/2016 08:37 AM, Vladimir Panteleev wrote:

 On Friday, 12 August 2016 at 19:13:12 UTC, Andrei Alexandrescu wrote:

 googled for the better part of an afternoon for "fanless desktop" and
 it turns out it's much harder to find one than I'd


 Quiet doesn't necessarily mean fanless. I have a Corsair H100i with
 Noctua fans, and you can barely tell it's on.


 I've put Linux Mint on it (which is what they recommend)


 Friends don't let friends use Linux Mint:

 https://www.reddit.com/r/linux/comments/4v116g/can_we_stop_recommending_linux_mint/


 https://lwn.net/Articles/676664/

 Not mentioned above: Linux Mint's upgrade policy is "format and
 reinstall". Their update policy is also "If it ain't broke, don't try to
 fix it". No wonder they have internal security issues.


Good to know, thanks. So what should I use then? -- Andrei
Aug 13 2016
next sibling parent reply deadalnix <deadalnix gmail.com> writes:
On Saturday, 13 August 2016 at 14:52:06 UTC, Andrei Alexandrescu 
wrote:

 Good to know, thanks. So what should I use then? -- Andrei


Mint is based on ubuntu, which is based on debian. Both ubuntu 
and mint prefers having the latest and fanciest thing, while 
debian favor stability and security.

I assume if this machine has a good mint support, it is probably 
going to work great on ubuntu and debian, so you may want to try.

Also, some tip on install, so blasting the system on't screw 
everything up:
  - Have a root partition for the system and system packages.
  - Have a separate partition for /home
  - Now the only thing on your system partition that isn't 
salvageable easily is /etc . Use etckeeper to keep track of it: 
https://packages.debian.org/jessie/etckeeper

Variations of this setup has served me well for close to a decade 
now.
Aug 13 2016
parent Russel Winder via Digitalmars-d <digitalmars-d puremagic.com> writes:
On Sat, 2016-08-13 at 16:24 +0000, deadalnix via Digitalmars-d wrote:
[=E2=80=A6]

=20
 Mint is based on ubuntu, which is based on debian. Both ubuntu=C2=A0
 and mint prefers having the latest and fanciest thing, while=C2=A0
 debian favor stability and security.


Not a good characterization in my opinion. I'd suggest Debian is a
continuous update system (Sid, latest and greatest mostly) with
releases every so often that are outdated long before being released.
Ubuntu snapshots Debian Sid every six months and then adds Canonical
stuff. Mint snapshots Ubuntu and adds their own desktop system. All of
them can connect to specialist repositories for even more up-to-date
(or not allowed due to licence issues) stuff, cf. d-apt.


 I assume if this machine has a good mint support, it is probably=C2=A0
 going to work great on ubuntu and debian, so you may want to try.


The danger would be proprietary device drivers; Mint and Ubuntu
sometimes have drivers that Debian will not package.=C2=A0


 Also, some tip on install, so blasting the system on't screw=C2=A0
 everything up:
 =C2=A0 - Have a root partition for the system and system packages.
 =C2=A0 - Have a separate partition for /home
 =C2=A0 - Now the only thing on your system partition that isn't=C2=A0
 salvageable easily is /etc . Use etckeeper to keep track of it:=C2=A0
 https://packages.debian.org/jessie/etckeeper
=20
 Variations of this setup has served me well for close to a decade=C2=A0
 now.


Even more important for dual boot set ups (as I have). I confirm having
a 40GB partition for / and having /home as a separate partition is,
effectively, de rigueur, and, indeed, absolutely essential.

I capture /etc nightly as part of my generational backup system on
server and workstation. I shall investigate etckeeper for the laptops.

--=20
Russel.
=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=
=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=
=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=
=3D=3D
Dr Russel Winder      t: +44 20 7585 2200   voip: sip:russel.winder ekiga.n=
et
41 Buckmaster Road    m: +44 7770 465 077   xmpp: russel winder.org.uk
London SW11 1EN, UK   w: www.russel.org.uk  skype: russel_winder
Aug 14 2016
prev sibling next sibling parent Steven Schveighoffer <schveiguy yahoo.com> writes:
On 8/13/16 10:52 AM, Andrei Alexandrescu wrote:

 On 08/13/2016 08:37 AM, Vladimir Panteleev wrote:

 On Friday, 12 August 2016 at 19:13:12 UTC, Andrei Alexandrescu wrote:

 googled for the better part of an afternoon for "fanless desktop" and
 it turns out it's much harder to find one than I'd


 Quiet doesn't necessarily mean fanless. I have a Corsair H100i with
 Noctua fans, and you can barely tell it's on.


 I've put Linux Mint on it (which is what they recommend)


 Friends don't let friends use Linux Mint:

 https://www.reddit.com/r/linux/comments/4v116g/can_we_stop_recommending_linux_mint/



 https://lwn.net/Articles/676664/

 Not mentioned above: Linux Mint's upgrade policy is "format and
 reinstall". Their update policy is also "If it ain't broke, don't try to
 fix it". No wonder they have internal security issues.


 Good to know, thanks. So what should I use then? -- Andrei


I use linux mint on my VMWare install on my mac. It's nice, I like the 
interface, and it's easy to maintain.

I have also experienced the "reinstall instead of upgrade" issue. It 
wasn't too bad, because it's a VM, most of my documents are shared with 
my mac.

But I assumed it was because I waited too long to upgrade. If I was 
going to use a full-install for my OS, I guess using something different 
would be better.

-Steve
Aug 13 2016
prev sibling next sibling parent reply qznc <qznc web.de> writes:
On Saturday, 13 August 2016 at 14:52:06 UTC, Andrei Alexandrescu 
wrote:

 On 08/13/2016 08:37 AM, Vladimir Panteleev wrote:

 Friends don't let friends use Linux Mint


 Good to know, thanks. So what should I use then? -- Andrei


I use Ubuntu LTS, because one breaking upgrade every two years is 
enough. I recently spent a few hours to get my laptop nvidia card 
back to work.
Aug 14 2016
next sibling parent Russel Winder via Digitalmars-d <digitalmars-d puremagic.com> writes:
On Sun, 2016-08-14 at 16:27 +0000, qznc via Digitalmars-d wrote:

=C2=A0.[=E2=80=A6]
 I use Ubuntu LTS, because one breaking upgrade every two years is=C2=A0
 enough. I recently spent a few hours to get my laptop nvidia card=C2=A0
 back to work.


I use Debian Sid and Fedora Rawhide and update daily so when there is a
breaking change it is easy to find the problem. I have given up
spending hours fixing things because of two years, or even six months
of updates all in one go.

--=20
Russel.
=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=
=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=
=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=
=3D=3D
Dr Russel Winder      t: +44 20 7585 2200   voip: sip:russel.winder ekiga.n=
et
41 Buckmaster Road    m: +44 7770 465 077   xmpp: russel winder.org.uk
London SW11 1EN, UK   w: www.russel.org.uk  skype: russel_winder
Aug 14 2016
prev sibling parent reply Basile B. <b2.temp gmx.com> writes:
On Sunday, 14 August 2016 at 16:27:51 UTC, qznc wrote:

 On Saturday, 13 August 2016 at 14:52:06 UTC, Andrei 
 Alexandrescu wrote:

 On 08/13/2016 08:37 AM, Vladimir Panteleev wrote:

 Friends don't let friends use Linux Mint


 Good to know, thanks. So what should I use then? -- Andrei


 I use Ubuntu LTS, because one breaking upgrade every two years 
 is enough. I recently spent a few hours to get my laptop nvidia 
 card back to work.


The "crash and back to login screen" bug I guess ? We're so many 
people to have encountered it. On OpenSuse 13.2 I cannot get G04 
to work anymore since months but G03 is fine.
Aug 14 2016
parent qznc <qznc web.de> writes:
On Sunday, 14 August 2016 at 17:30:21 UTC, Basile B. wrote:

 On Sunday, 14 August 2016 at 16:27:51 UTC, qznc wrote:

 On Saturday, 13 August 2016 at 14:52:06 UTC, Andrei 
 Alexandrescu wrote:

 On 08/13/2016 08:37 AM, Vladimir Panteleev wrote:

 Friends don't let friends use Linux Mint


 Good to know, thanks. So what should I use then? -- Andrei


 I use Ubuntu LTS, because one breaking upgrade every two years 
 is enough. I recently spent a few hours to get my laptop 
 nvidia card back to work.


 The "crash and back to login screen" bug I guess ? We're so 
 many people to have encountered it. On OpenSuse 13.2 I cannot 
 get G04 to work anymore since months but G03 is fine.


Yes. Although "crash and back to login screen" is probably the 
symptom for many graphics related problems and not a specific 
bug. In my case, the solution was to switch to the legacy 
nvidia-340 driver.
Aug 16 2016
prev sibling parent reply Chris <wendlec tcd.ie> writes:
On Saturday, 13 August 2016 at 14:52:06 UTC, Andrei Alexandrescu 
wrote:

 On 08/13/2016 08:37 AM, Vladimir Panteleev wrote:

 On Friday, 12 August 2016 at 19:13:12 UTC, Andrei Alexandrescu 
 wrote:

 googled for the better part of an afternoon for "fanless 
 desktop" and
 it turns out it's much harder to find one than I'd


 Quiet doesn't necessarily mean fanless. I have a Corsair H100i 
 with
 Noctua fans, and you can barely tell it's on.


 I've put Linux Mint on it (which is what they recommend)


 Friends don't let friends use Linux Mint:

 https://www.reddit.com/r/linux/comments/4v116g/can_we_stop_recommending_linux_mint/


 https://lwn.net/Articles/676664/

 Not mentioned above: Linux Mint's upgrade policy is "format and
 reinstall". Their update policy is also "If it ain't broke, 
 don't try to
 fix it". No wonder they have internal security issues.


 Good to know, thanks. So what should I use then? -- Andrei


At home I use Manjaro (https://manjaro.org/) and am quite happy 
with it (ArchLinux based, rolling release). They have various 
official desktops (I use XFCE), Cinnamon is available as a 
community edition:

https://sourceforge.net/projects/manjarolinux/files/community/

Being ArchLinux based, it's "cutting edge" most of the time, 
unlike Ubuntu.
Aug 16 2016
parent Chris <wendlec tcd.ie> writes:
On Tuesday, 16 August 2016 at 08:44:17 UTC, Chris wrote:

 At home I use Manjaro (https://manjaro.org/) and am quite happy 
 with it (ArchLinux based, rolling release). They have various 
 official desktops (I use XFCE), Cinnamon is available as a 
 community edition:

 https://sourceforge.net/projects/manjarolinux/files/community/

 Being ArchLinux based, it's "cutting edge" most of the time, 
 unlike Ubuntu.


The good thing about Manjaro is that they do their own tests 
before each release, and if there's a problem with, say the 
latest version of the X-window server, they won't include it till 
it's fixed. You can choose between various kernels in the system 
settings dialog.
Aug 16 2016
prev sibling next sibling parent reply Andrei Alexandrescu <SeeWebsiteForEmail erdani.org> writes:
On 08/13/2016 08:37 AM, Vladimir Panteleev wrote:

 On Friday, 12 August 2016 at 19:13:12 UTC, Andrei Alexandrescu wrote:

 googled for the better part of an afternoon for "fanless desktop" and
 it turns out it's much harder to find one than I'd


 Quiet doesn't necessarily mean fanless. I have a Corsair H100i with
 Noctua fans, and you can barely tell it's on.


 I've put Linux Mint on it (which is what they recommend)


 Friends don't let friends use Linux Mint:

 https://www.reddit.com/r/linux/comments/4v116g/can_we_stop_recommending_linux_mint/


 https://lwn.net/Articles/676664/

 Not mentioned above: Linux Mint's upgrade policy is "format and
 reinstall". Their update policy is also "If it ain't broke, don't try to
 fix it". No wonder they have internal security issues.


Also, I like Cinnamon. (Tried Gnome, the new KDE, Mate and XFCE, don't 
like them.) Is Cinnamon available on other distros? -- Andrei
Aug 13 2016
next sibling parent Wild <xwildn00bx gmail.com> writes:
On Saturday, 13 August 2016 at 14:54:10 UTC, Andrei Alexandrescu 
wrote:

 Also, I like Cinnamon. (Tried Gnome, the new KDE, Mate and 
 XFCE, don't like them.) Is Cinnamon available on other distros? 
 -- Andrei


Cinnamon exist on most distros, just that you need to install it 
manually from their package manager.

Here is a list of all distos that have cinnamon as default: 
http://distrowatch.com/search.php?desktop=Cinnamon

I would probably recommend https://antergos.com/ because it is 
rolling-release and it uses the ArchLinux repositories, so you 
will always have the latest version of software (after it has 
been tested for about a month).
It also has a GUI installer which configures everything for you 
so you don't need to configure everything like you need to do 
with ArchLinux.

If you want something super stable I would recommend Debian.

It is all depends on how you want your computer to be configured.
Aug 13 2016
prev sibling parent Vladimir Panteleev <thecybershadow.lists gmail.com> writes:
On Saturday, 13 August 2016 at 14:54:10 UTC, Andrei Alexandrescu 
wrote:

 Also, I like Cinnamon. (Tried Gnome, the new KDE, Mate and 
 XFCE, don't like them.) Is Cinnamon available on other distros? 
 -- Andrei


Yep!
Aug 13 2016
prev sibling parent reply jkjkx <jkjkx jkjkx.lm> writes:
On Saturday, 13 August 2016 at 12:37:55 UTC, Vladimir Panteleev 
wrote:

 On Friday, 12 August 2016 at 19:13:12 UTC, Andrei Alexandrescu

 I've put Linux Mint on it (which is what they recommend)


 Friends don't let friends use Linux Mint:

 https://www.reddit.com/r/linux/comments/4v116g/can_we_stop_recommending_linux_mint/

 https://lwn.net/Articles/676664/

 Not mentioned above: Linux Mint's upgrade policy is "format and 
 reinstall". Their update policy is also "If it ain't broke, 
 don't try to fix it". No wonder they have internal security 
 issues.


The comments on the reddit post mitigate the post itself, for 
example:

https://www.reddit.com/r/linux/comments/4v116g/can_we_stop_recommending_linux_mint/d5vo9l6
https://www.reddit.com/r/linux/comments/4v116g/can_we_stop_recommending_linux_mint/d5uk29l

The security issue you talk about is probably the fact that their 
forums have been hacked earlier this year. That's a totaly 
different problem. You can't charge them for this. Some people 
are on a constructive side (they build, they program, they 
create...) while others are on a destructive side...Do you think 
that's smart to exploit the forum of an open-source OS community 
with the aim to sold a stupid list of email 85$ to a bunch of 
idiots who spend their life at running spam server ?

If you see someone being pushed in the back on the stairs and who 
falls, what do you do ? Do you blame the guy who falls "hey 
you're even not able to stay up" or the guy who pushes 
"a****hole, that's not fair"...
Aug 13 2016
parent reply Vladimir Panteleev <thecybershadow.lists gmail.com> writes:
On Saturday, 13 August 2016 at 15:01:21 UTC, jkjkx wrote:

 On Saturday, 13 August 2016 at 12:37:55 UTC, Vladimir Panteleev 
 wrote:

 On Friday, 12 August 2016 at 19:13:12 UTC, Andrei Alexandrescu

 I've put Linux Mint on it (which is what they recommend)


 Friends don't let friends use Linux Mint:

 https://www.reddit.com/r/linux/comments/4v116g/can_we_stop_recommending_linux_mint/

 https://lwn.net/Articles/676664/

 Not mentioned above: Linux Mint's upgrade policy is "format 
 and reinstall". Their update policy is also "If it ain't 
 broke, don't try to fix it". No wonder they have internal 
 security issues.


 The comments on the reddit post mitigate the post itself, for 
 example:

 https://www.reddit.com/r/linux/comments/4v116g/can_we_stop_recommending_linux_mint/d5vo9l6
 https://www.reddit.com/r/linux/comments/4v116g/can_we_stop_recommending_linux_mint/d5uk29l


Funny, if you keep reading, you'll see that a DEBIAN DEVELOPER 
confirmed the OP's post.


 The security issue you talk about is probably the fact that 
 their forums have been hacked earlier this year.


No. The downloads were compromised.


 If you see someone being pushed in the back on the stairs and 
 who falls, what do you do ? Do you blame the guy who falls "hey 
 you're even not able to stay up" or the guy who pushes 
 "a****hole, that's not fair"...


Oh, OK. I guess I can then move everyone's forum passwords to 
http://forum.dlang.org/files/passwords.txt. If something bad 
happens because of that, well, it's not my fault, it wasn't me 
doing anything intentionally evil!
Aug 13 2016
parent reply Basile B. <b2.temp gmx.com> writes:
On Saturday, 13 August 2016 at 16:56:21 UTC, Vladimir Panteleev 
wrote:

 If you see someone being pushed in the back on the stairs and 
 who falls, what do you do ? Do you blame the guy who falls 
 "hey you're even not able to stay up" or the guy who pushes 
 "a****hole, that's not fair"...


 Oh, OK. I guess I can then move everyone's forum passwords to 
 http://forum.dlang.org/files/passwords.txt. If something bad 
 happens because of that, well, it's not my fault, it wasn't me 
 doing anything intentionally evil!


Bad example. The pwd cannot be changed, and it's not really 
useful. If i want to post something under your ID (but note well 
that I wont, for bullshits I use 
http://www.fakenamegenerator.com/) I already can. pseudo + mail 
in the web interface. AFAIK, really few users use a pgp 
signature. Maybe only two.
Aug 13 2016
parent Vladimir Panteleev <thecybershadow.lists gmail.com> writes:
On Saturday, 13 August 2016 at 18:04:32 UTC, Basile B. wrote:

 Bad example.


I don't think so.

The problem with password breaches is not so much that they allow 
people to get into the compromised account, it's that a lot of 
people use the same or similar passwords for other services.
Aug 13 2016
prev sibling next sibling parent angel <andrey.gelman gmail.com> writes:
I happen to be CompuLab's ex-employee, and I have even been 
involved in SW development of the AirTop computer ...
So it is D-friendly at least to the extent, that a D fan was 
involved in its development.
It is indeed quite powerful. The technical support is also very 
good.
Building a fanless computer is not a simple issue at all, 
especially when it is such powerful.
As a side note, there are cheaper and much (physically) smaller 
computers such as IntensePC, that are also very cool - refer to 
www.compulab.co.il.
I am no more associated with CompuLab, so this is in no way an 
advertisement  :)
Aug 14 2016
prev sibling next sibling parent reply Karabuta <karabutaworld gmail.com> writes:
On Friday, 12 August 2016 at 19:13:12 UTC, Andrei Alexandrescu 
wrote:

 I was using a large Lenovo Y70-70 laptop as a pseudo-desktop 
 machine and additional monitor. It's quite powerful, but its 
 fans would run at all times. Getting really tired of that, I 
 googled for the better part of an afternoon for "fanless 
 desktop" and it turns out it's much harder to find one than I'd 
 initially thought. (Slow fanless machines are easy to find, but 
 I was looking for one as powerful as any desktop.)

 At about the time I was ready to give up I found an obscure 
 site of an Israeli company that claimed to make a real i7 
 fanless machine. It was releases very recently, too, so I'm 
 thinking it might be of interest to some others.

 So I got it from Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01CP4S15E. 
 I fitted it with 8 GB RAM and 512 GB SSD. It's more expensive 
 than a traditional desktop of the same configuration, but as 
 soon as you turn it on, you know where that extra money went. 
 (Speaking of money, ironically, the extra expenditure has had 
 an unexpected return: I occasionally daytrade, and when I do I 
 need CNBC on. That made the laptop's fans make even more noise 
 than usual, so I was avoiding it. Nowadays I can keep CNBC on 
 no problem, which allowed me to handily cover the extra 
 expense.)

 I've put Linux Mint on it (which is what they recommend) and it 
 works swimmingly. The handling of multiple desktops is just 
 awesome. The one thing I don't like about the machine is it 
 always powers the discrete graphics card, which I don't use. 
 Their engineers (who've been very active to respond to my 
 emailed questions) said a future BIOS upgrade will allow 
 powering off the card.

 Thought this might help others looking for a fanless dekstop.


 Andrei


You give talks about CPU technologies, optimization techniques 
etc. how did you not know that liquid cooling exist :) Or that is 
not what you wanted?
Aug 14 2016
parent Andrei Alexandrescu <SeeWebsiteForEmail erdani.org> writes:
On 08/14/2016 06:25 PM, Karabuta wrote:

 You give talks about CPU technologies, optimization techniques etc. how
 did you not know that liquid cooling exist :) Or that is not what you
 wanted?


Didn't want liquid cooling. -- Andrei
Aug 14 2016
prev sibling next sibling parent reply Jonathan M Davis via Digitalmars-d <digitalmars-d puremagic.com> writes:
On Friday, August 12, 2016 15:13:12 Andrei Alexandrescu via Digitalmars-d 
wrote:

 Thought this might help others looking for a fanless dekstop.


You don't have to go fanless to have a quiet computer, but there are other
pros and cons involved. I've had a full tower case for my computer for years
now, because I was sick of trying to mess with what was inside when it
barely fit, and I wanted room for more hard drives. The result was that I
ended up with a well-insulated case with very large case fans that don't
spin quickly. And since I had had problems with the heatsink/fan that came
with the CPU not doing a good enough job, I switched to having a huge
heatsinks (which then had a large fan on one side of it), so the CPU fan had
less to do on top of not needing to spin as fast. And the net result is that
I've had a very quiet desktop for years now (though obviously _much_ larger
than what you seem to be dealing with). It was actually quite a shock to me
I put together a secondary computer from some of my parts, and put it in an
old case without much insulation and smaller fans. The fans sounded _so_
noisy under normal circumstances and like they were screaming when I pushed
the CPU. But I'm pretty darn sure that that's exactly what it was like when
I'd used that case for my primary computer years ago. So, my perception has
definitely shifted overtime...

In any case, fanless certainly isn't necessary for a quiet computer, but it
certainly doesn't hurt, and the stuff like better insulation and large fans
do tend to mean that the case will be larger, which may not be what you
want. Regardless, thanks for posting about what you did find. I've never
seen anything quite like it.

- Jonathan M Davis
Aug 14 2016
parent reply Dominikus Dittes Scherkl <Dominikus.Scherkl continental-corporation.com> writes:
On Sunday, 14 August 2016 at 23:51:44 UTC, Jonathan M Davis wrote:

 On Friday, August 12, 2016 15:13:12 Andrei Alexandrescu via 
 Digitalmars-d wrote:

 Thought this might help others looking for a fanless dekstop.


 You don't have to go fanless to have a quiet computer, but 
 there are other pros and cons involved. I've had a full tower 
 case for my computer for years now, because I was sick of 
 trying to mess with what was inside when it barely fit, and I 
 wanted room for more hard drives. The result was that I ended 
 up with a well-insulated case with very large case fans that 
 don't spin quickly.


Big, slow fans and big heat sink etc. may be nice in the winter, 
but with 30°C already in the room, I don't need a radiator, no 
thanks.
So, a computer should be quiet because it use few watts, not 
because it manages to generate the heat silent.

Of course this is somewhat contrary to the goal to have big 
power, but to some extent it is possible to have good power 
management and less power-consuming components which still have 
good efficiency. But for the rest a big slow fan doesn't hurt, I 
agree.
Aug 15 2016
next sibling parent reply Andrei Alexandrescu <SeeWebsiteForEmail erdani.org> writes:
On 08/15/2016 12:34 PM, Dominikus Dittes Scherkl wrote:

 So, a computer should be quiet because it use few watts, not because it
 manages to generate the heat silent.


Good point. The Airtop has a OLED on it that shows the power drawn. It 
is 28-30 watt when in casual use. -- Andrei
Aug 15 2016
parent Philip Daniels <phil foo.com> writes:
I have had a fanless desktop for 3 years now, it's a Core i7 
3770k. Dunno what the power draw is, but for passive cooling I 
went for

1. A specical, very well ventilated case.
2. A massive passive CPU cooler.
3. A fanless power supply.
4. A fanless graphics card (that can still drive 3x1200p monitors 
for desktop use, a SAPPHIRE Radeon HD 6450)


Thanks to gmail-never-forgets:

Qty  Description                                     Price        
   Total
==========================================================================
    1  Nofan CS-60 Computer Chassis                49.99 GBP      
49.99 GBP
    1  Nofan CR-95C Copper IcePipe 95W Fanless     62.49 GBP      
62.49 GBP
    1  Nofan P-400A Silent 400W Fanless Power     107.34 GBP     
107.34 GBP
==========================================================================

Most of the stuff came from here https://www.quietpc.com/

The thing to watch out for is that these passive CPU coolers are 
huge, so you have to be sure they will fit in your case.

Currently thinking of upgrading the graphics card to one that can 
drive a 4k monitor, or two ... :-)
Aug 15 2016
prev sibling parent Jonathan M Davis via Digitalmars-d <digitalmars-d puremagic.com> writes:
On Monday, August 15, 2016 16:34:40 Dominikus Dittes Scherkl via Digitalmars-d 
wrote:

 On Sunday, 14 August 2016 at 23:51:44 UTC, Jonathan M Davis wrote:

 On Friday, August 12, 2016 15:13:12 Andrei Alexandrescu via

 Digitalmars-d wrote:

 Thought this might help others looking for a fanless dekstop.


 You don't have to go fanless to have a quiet computer, but
 there are other pros and cons involved. I've had a full tower
 case for my computer for years now, because I was sick of
 trying to mess with what was inside when it barely fit, and I
 wanted room for more hard drives. The result was that I ended
 up with a well-insulated case with very large case fans that
 don't spin quickly.


 Big, slow fans and big heat sink etc. may be nice in the winter,
 but with 30°C already in the room, I don't need a radiator, no
 thanks.
 So, a computer should be quiet because it use few watts, not
 because it manages to generate the heat silent.

 Of course this is somewhat contrary to the goal to have big
 power, but to some extent it is possible to have good power
 management and less power-consuming components which still have
 good efficiency. But for the rest a big slow fan doesn't hurt, I
 agree.


Well, keeping power consumption down is definitely valuable, but I'm
generally far more worried about how much the CPU can do. It matters for a
lot less than it used to, but it does affect some stuff. In particular, it
matters for compilation time, and it has a huge impact on stuff like
transcoding video, which I do. So, I'm pretty much always going for CPU
performance over low wattage when it comes to a desktop, whereas for a
something like a phone, power consumption is a lot more important.  It is at
the point though that for most folks, getting a high powered computer is
pretty pointless. I doubt that I'll ever be at that point though.

- Jonathan M Davis
Aug 15 2016
prev sibling next sibling parent Israel <tl12000 live.com> writes:
On Friday, 12 August 2016 at 19:13:12 UTC, Andrei Alexandrescu 
wrote:

 I was using a large Lenovo Y70-70 laptop as a pseudo-desktop 
 machine and additional monitor. It's quite powerful, but its 
 fans would run at all times. Getting really tired of that, I 
 googled for the better part of an afternoon for "fanless 
 desktop" and it turns out it's much harder to find one than I'd 
 initially thought. (Slow fanless machines are easy to find, but 
 I was looking for one as powerful as any desktop.)

 At about the time I was ready to give up I found an obscure 
 site of an Israeli company that claimed to make a real i7 
 fanless machine. It was releases very recently, too, so I'm 
 thinking it might be of interest to some others.



 Andrei


Seems strange how lead programmers are after "silent and fanless" 
computers.

An alienware alpha may have fit the bill for much cheaper. The 
fan is very silent and its also compact. Fits under my monitor 
stand very well.
Aug 15 2016
prev sibling parent reply WhatMeWorry <kheaser gmail.com> writes:
On Friday, 12 August 2016 at 19:13:12 UTC, Andrei Alexandrescu 
wrote:

 I was using a large Lenovo Y70-70 laptop as a pseudo-desktop 
 machine and additional monitor. It's quite powerful, but its 
 fans would run at all times. Getting really tired of that, I 
 googled for the better part of an afternoon for "fanless 
 desktop" and it turns out it's much harder to find one than I'd 
 initially thought. (Slow fanless machines are easy to find, but 
 I was looking for one as powerful as any desktop.)

 [...]


So, did you get the free pinwheel?

http://airtop-pc.com/airtop/natural-airflow-technology/
Aug 15 2016
parent Andrei Alexandrescu <SeeWebsiteForEmail erdani.org> writes:
On 8/16/16 1:15 AM, WhatMeWorry wrote:

 So, did you get the free pinwheel?

 http://airtop-pc.com/airtop/natural-airflow-technology/


Yes, and it works as advertised. -- Andrei
Aug 15 2016