[Cialug] Small and quiet Linux box suggestions

[Matt Stanton]

I dabbled with the idea of getting a NUC at one point, but after you add the memory, drives, wireless card (assuming you want wifi), and other necessary peripherals, you end up with a tiny computer with half the processor power you could have had in a mini-ATX sized box that cost the same amount of money.  The NUC is only worth the drop in CPU power and the lack of "accessory space" if you really care about energy savings and a machine that is "quiet out of the box".

You can build a relatively small mini-tower machine that is quiet.  You can avoid heat from hard drives by going the SSD route (which you /want/ to do... don't lie ;) ) and any media storage can be hidden in the basement or a closet with a NAS, assuming you have that much stuff to store (they make 1TB SSDs, now!).  If you get one of those ginormous CPU coolers, you end up with very large PWM fans that only spin up when you need them to, and when they do you can't hear them.  Just remember that small fans generally make more noise than large ones (assuming the large fan is engineered properly to move more air at lower RPM than the smaller fan).  Granted, the larger CPU heatsink/fan combos would require a larger case.  You can also get CPUs that use quite a lot less energy than their predecessors did  few generations ago.

Of course, the NUC will be small and quiet as soon as you get it, while a quiet DIY system takes a good amount of research and work.  You have to find a case that has sound-dampening qualities, quiet fans, low-power components (CPU, GPU, drives), and all in the small form factor for which you are looking.

-- Matt (N0BOX)

Sent from my ASUS Transformer

-----Original Message-----
From: David Champion <dchamp1337 at gmail.com>
To: Central Iowa Linux Users Group <cialug at cialug.org>
Sent: Wed, 23 Apr 2014 10:41 AM
Subject: Re: [Cialug] Small and quiet Linux box suggestions

I've got one of the Asus / Atom mini PC's. It's OK but the CPU is just too
slow for me.

I think any of the Shuttle / Asus / Intel mini PC's with a Core i5 or
better would work well for you.

-dc


On Wed, Apr 23, 2014 at 10:24 AM, Scott Yates <Scott at yatesframe.com> wrote:

> I can add to the IntelNUC conversation a little.
>
> I am using 3 of them in a proxmox cluster, and I have to say they are VERY
> stable and quite zippy!
> Each one has 16 gig of ram and an ssd in it, and proxmox runs a Debian
> based distro.  Apt-get and all that goodness.
>
> ​
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