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.

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?

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

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

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.

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

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 ... :-)

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.

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

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/