[HKNewBi]

Hello

I would like to put a PC in my living room as purely a media centre for my music, films etc. I already have a pc performing this function but it is not silent.

Can anyone recommend a suitable place to get a pc that

a) is quiet

b) functions well as a media centre

c) looks the part - would be better if it was not too big.

Thanks!

[jimbo]

Go to one of the computer centres and get a liquid cooled pc rather than a fan based and voila problem solved.

[HKNewBi]

I saw a shop at the top of WCC with some liquid cooled offerings. Looked $pricey$ and complicated.

Will go back and discuss with the shop.

Anyone have experience of using liquid cooled PC's in terms of any issues with reliability or complexity?

[justsomebody2]

Liquid cooled PC's are very complicated to setup and can be cheap or very expensive, I recall spending over 15k on my PC and around 7K on my liquid setup a couple years ago.

You have to make sure you get either all copper or all aluminum anodized, don't mix, you also have to use distilled water with an anti-corrosion agent, you don't want little green plants growing in your reservoir, then you have to run it after you set it up (preferably without your equipment attached) for at least few hours to see if there are any leaks.

Depending on the heat in your system, heat on one side and moving warm water on the other does what to plastic tubings after age? yes it hardens and becomes brittle so you have to change it once a year or so.

I ended up selling my system due to the maintenance and just settled for some of the newer technology that runs cooler today.

If you are not using one of the advance insanely hot graphic cards, pop in one of those new 45nm cpu's, then you should be able to get a temperature controlled motherboard that will allow the fans to run very quiet. Cooler Master and Zalman both makes very good heat sinks and fans for a media PC.

Hope this helps.

[KnowItAll]

You don't need liquid cooling .. thats like so over the top, unless you're a mad gamer / overclocker. I bet Jimbo does not have a liquid cooled rig.

What you need is a computer with very very quiet fans, solid case and quiet hard drives.

[HKNewBi]

Yes, that was my thinking. My current (new) PC is pretty quiet, but not quite silent. My usual supplier in WCC had 1 option of +$50 for a quieter power supply but other than that was a standard spec.

How do I find out which HDD's etc are that little bit quieter?

[KnowItAll]

Good place to research quiet components...

Quiet Computers - End PC Noise

[HKNewBi]

Thanks, I'll take a look

[aussben]

My friend is using this one:

ASUSTeK Computer Inc.

about 1500 at Sham Shui Po. They are cheap and quite and small. About 3500 HK with 2gb ram and 500gb hdd, plus os cost.

If you want to build one, the Antec Fusion http://www.antec.com/ec/productDetails.php?ProdID=08738 is a nice choice. Very quite and looks nice, smaller then larger atx ones. About 1200 without power supply also at Sham Shui Po, you can also get them without the display, which give you an extra rom bay. But you have to use a mAtx board, I am using the gigabyte ga-73pvm-s2h they are around 700 HK excellent value GIGABYTE - Product - Motherboard - Overview - GA-73PVM-S2H (rev. 1.0) optical out, HDMI, quad core, pci express.


Or you can get a mac mini with xhub http://www.antec.com/ec/productDetails.php?ProdID=08738 The only limitation is the 2.5 inch hard, but you can get a network file server, they are around 1500 plus HDD's, just plug it into your lan.

[HKNewBi]

Thanks for that.

I certainly don't want to build my own, so will go for something like the AsusTek. I'll go to SSP and ask around who sells them.

Is the 3.5k cost a full working unit? Seems cheap.

Bought a Mac Mini last year. It is quiet but I don't really like Front Row or OS X for that matter.