Comment by tacticalturtle
17 days ago
If you’re in a small apartment or sensitive to noise, I think it’s still worth considering the Pi or a new fanless N100 system.
I bought a tiny Lenovo i5-6500 system on eBay, and while it’s fantastic from a price/performance perspective, you can still hear a subtle whine when the ambient noise drops.
Which makes total sense - the acoustic output is probably not a major consideration when they’re optimizing for footprint and cost.
> I think it’s still worth considering the Pi or a new fanless N100 system. I bought a tiny Lenovo i5-6500 system on eBay, and while it’s fantastic from a price/performance perspective, you can still hear a subtle whine when the ambient noise drops.
This. I basically made nearly the same comment somewhere else in this thread. But then we have similar nicknames so...
And at almost exactly the same time! Maybe some parallel universes crossed over.
Buyer beware - Dell mini PCs also have this problem, they run constantly and are clearly audible in a quiet room. The BIOS doesn't have any options to disable or reduce the RPM, software sensors don't see the fan and if you unplug it or try to undervolt it the motherboard panics and doesn't boot anymore. Had to sell mine away.
Otherwise they're a nice piece of kit. Perhaps someone can hack the BIOS to remove the fan protections.
This is situation I am in and I went for a completely fanless mini ITX system that works very well for me for close to 10 years already (yes, it is time for an upgrade - probably to a fanless N100 based mini ITX). These systems are a great alternative to both Raspberry Pi’s (that now need fans) and those repurposed office PCs, even if you do not mind the fans.
At least for the lower power draw models, can you disable the fan entirely? Or cut the RPMs in half?
It’s an i5-6500T, which is the same as the regular Skylake, but limited to a max of 2.5GHz
I actually solved the problem by just discretely routing an Ethernet cable to a closet - but considering that it averages 10W from the wall, I definitely suspect I could get away with taking the lid off and adding a larger heat sink.