The iMac was quiet no matter what and this has a 2.8GHz CPU and built into the confines of a monitor. Laptops by there very design are quiet for most part but desktop Machine’s for some reason are too noisy. I see them in the shops and they seem very quiet but the environment is not a library – so easy to be fooled. I have seen (or rather heard) an HP machine which was so quiet, you would be mistaken that it was actually on until you work out the inside is low powered crap.
I have two desktop computers up and running, one if a old Fujitsu Siemens and personally this was never totally silent as it is powered by a Athlon 64 3700. The case is smaller I would say then a normal tower case plus the Athlon 64 was never a cool CPU – the noise is bearable and constant but it would not be a machine I would leave on 24/7 for example and I notice that while the Temp rises while playing a game, it comes down quickly afterwards.
The other machine is off the shelf but along the way has had a few changes made, for example I swapped the 1.8GHz CPU for my 2.4GHz one, the graphics card from on-board to PCI-Express and slipped in there 4 sticks of Ram (which have heat spreaders on). The case inside is no bigger then the Athlon so there is not much room at all. There is two problems with this machine:
1. While trying to stream 640×480 on FME/Wirecast/Procaster etc – hold back data.
2. Once the Temp of the system (not the CPU) rises due to room temp, the cpu FAN spins up to 4500 RPM and its get noisy, a quick reboot fixes this but WHY does it not go back down?
I have a ASUS Motherboard spare and a case and even a CPU Heatsink/Fan but no mounting brackets for the CPU holder (just holes). I am very close at this time to rip the motherboard out of the Acer, see if I can take the mounting brackets off the CPU holes and re-fit the entire lot into this case. This would means a complete rebuild of my OS, for it to be placed in a case not as nice looking and no guarantee that the noise will get any better. It has crossed my mind that the system works outsaide of these minor issues and as I type this, the Fans are spinning at 3434RPM with the CPU sitting at 37c for example – motherboard reads 47c.
Maybe this is the reason people just go and buy a Dell computer – it works, it’s quiet and yes I agree you have no control over overclocking.
