My coworkers think I like building computers because I tinker with so much stuff, but no that doesn’t seem super exciting to me anymore. I have mini PC with a laptop CPU and GPU in it. I like it quiet, small and power efficient. It is feeling long in the tooth these days but I haven’t seen something with enough of an upgrade to be worth it.
Recently picked up a used office PC to throw a GPU into. Mostly because ram is so expensive and it cost less than buying ram itself but also because I’m lazy and don’t really care about PC building.
If you have a “big” PC with tons of case fans and no ducting (so all the hot air just circulates around inside), it’s going to be noisy, no matter how fancy your case fans are GPU are. There are just too many fans, and most of them are trying to get the inside of the case reasonably close to ambient temps.
If you have a mini PC with a laptop fan, it’s just too small, so it has to spin very fast.
The “sweet spot” is SFF builds that duct everything, and throttle the parts. If you have 1 heatsink fan and your GPU sucking in ambient air, and you undervolt them, they’re near silent.
My coworkers think I like building computers because I tinker with so much stuff, but no that doesn’t seem super exciting to me anymore. I have mini PC with a laptop CPU and GPU in it. I like it quiet, small and power efficient. It is feeling long in the tooth these days but I haven’t seen something with enough of an upgrade to be worth it.
Recently picked up a used office PC to throw a GPU into. Mostly because ram is so expensive and it cost less than buying ram itself but also because I’m lazy and don’t really care about PC building.
Quiet and mini PC seems an oxymoron to me. Those annoying laptop fans are anything but quiet.
I’ve hacked at mine and Jerry rigged a big fan on the case in the laptop fan’s place. Now that’s a quiet mini PC
There’s a balance.
If you have a “big” PC with tons of case fans and no ducting (so all the hot air just circulates around inside), it’s going to be noisy, no matter how fancy your case fans are GPU are. There are just too many fans, and most of them are trying to get the inside of the case reasonably close to ambient temps.
If you have a mini PC with a laptop fan, it’s just too small, so it has to spin very fast.
The “sweet spot” is SFF builds that duct everything, and throttle the parts. If you have 1 heatsink fan and your GPU sucking in ambient air, and you undervolt them, they’re near silent.