Fanless-Out-Of-The-Box-XMBC-Device
#1
Rainbow 
Hi,
I hope you can help me. I'm searching for a device to run XBMC (and only XMBC, without PVR or gaming option).
The device has to run 1080p mkvs and has to support DTS-Masters and Dolby True HD over HDMI.
The most important thing: No Fan.
3D support would be a nice gimmick.
The price does not matter - I only wouldn't to build it by myself.
Something like this: Ultra 2

Can anyone help me to find a "Fanless-Out-Of-The-Box-XMBC-Device"?
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#2
Well, it seems you've already decided the Xstreamer Ultra 2 is what you want?
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#3
Unfortunately not - the Xtreamer has a fan and will not be quiet (what I read in other forums)..
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#4
That's too bad, because otherwise it looks like a pretty good package.
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#5
As far as fanless goes, I only know of a few options:
1. The Shuttle XS35GT v2. Ion2 based. This device is well documented on the forums. Some love it, some have had issues with it. I personally don't know if it can do True HD or not.
2. The Relia machines. These are newer, but seem to use Intel graphics. I haven't seen any reports from people who use them
3. Habey makes a few fanless machines (BIS-6569A is the current one). I own one (the 6561) and it's been... ok. I love that it's fanless. It has no wireless, only 2 USB ports, the bios doesn't support wake-on-usb properly, and who knows who the motherboard manufacturer is. None of these issues is a big concern to me, but certainly could be to others. I guarantee it cannot handle True HD.
4. Build your own. This used to be really difficult due to the extreme care needed to design proper cooling, but these days it's not so bad. I think there are a few forum posts talking about this.


Good luck, fanless is awesome. To keep it silent I would recommend a SSD, boot off a usb flash drive, or simply PXE boot it from the network.
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#6
The problem with the Shuttle is I don't think it bitstreams HD audio in Windows. Cue my rant how overrated bitstreaming that stuff is.

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#7
Well I would buy the Acer Revo RL70 ....
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#8
I still don't understand why people don't want to run a fan
"PPC is too slow, your CPU has no balls to handle HD content." ~ Davilla
"Maybe it's a toaster. Who knows, but it has nothing to do with us." ~ Ned Scott
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#9
(2012-06-06, 01:38)lrusak Wrote: I still don't understand why people don't want to run a fan
Noise, size, heat, moving parts that fail. But mostly noise. I have very good hearing (pass the "teenager audio test" at the age of 35), and cpu fans drive me nuts. I've seen everyone say "my fan is silent", or "get a large, slow fan and you can't hear it". That's not true. If you're hearing hasn't been damaged by years of rock music or jamming earbuds in them or any of a million other common things - then pc fans are quite annoying.
I still don't understand why people want to browse the web on their TV. But I also don't criticize them for wanting to do so.
(2012-06-06, 01:18)Beer40oz Wrote: Well I would buy the Acer Revo RL70 ....

RL70 has a small high speed fan on the CPU which creates a high pitch whine. It's a pretty quiet machine, but if you're looking for silent - this isn't it.
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#10
Fans suck. They are *always* audible - and the better your sound system (the lower it's noise floor), the more you tend to notice it in the quiet parts of videos - especially if you watch late at night once the house is quiet, with low/no volume and/or subs. Even the big 140mm 'silent' fans really aren't. Of course, most people don't care, and that's great for them. But many find it annoying, especially if they spend all days in rooms with PCs with fans.

Re: the Shuttle - definitely doesn't do HD audio (TrueHD -> PCM, yes, but not the real modern HD formats). Bit jitter issues with Linux, slow performance with Windows. I know it *very* well, and I wouldn't recommend it for a primary 1080p machine, it's fine for a bedroom 720p type machine though.

I know you don't want to build, but it's super easy these days, so just in case, here's a silent build that will play HD audio and fulfil your needs: http://xbmcstuff.bossanova808.net/2012/0...build.html - if you went with a recommended by Streacom mobotherboard (see article) - you could literally build the thing in an hour or less.

Is HD audio that big of a deal? I honestly don't know yet - but I figure might as well support it as it will get increasingly common I think. Certainly can't hurt....


Addons I wrote &/or maintain:
OzWeather (Australian BOM weather) | Check Previous Episode | Playback Resumer | Unpause Jumpback | XSqueezeDisplay | (Legacy - XSqueeze & XZen)
Sorry, no help w/out a *full debug log*.
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#11
On my A6-PACK I don't hear it at all..... come on over take a listen. Even I am confused if I turned it on or not I have to take a look at the on light on it.

But you wan't one out of the box. I'ts not such an easy task.

I mentioned the Acer Revo RL70 because I read somewhere that the fan is not that bad.

I too don't like noise and fans.... that's why I always get an aftermarket cooler.
Oh here is the link

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthr...t=18375202
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#12
(2012-06-06, 02:18)teaguecl Wrote: Noise, size, heat, moving parts that fail. But mostly noise. I have very good hearing (pass the "teenager audio test" at the age of 35), and cpu fans drive me nuts. I've seen everyone say "my fan is silent", or "get a large, slow fan and you can't hear it". That's not true. If you're hearing hasn't been damaged by years of rock music or jamming earbuds in them or any of a million other common things - then pc fans are quite annoying.
I still don't understand why people want to browse the web on their TV. But I also don't criticize them for wanting to do so.
I thought my hearing isn't good, but the sound meter below don't hear any noise from the PC at seating area either. The meter don't lie......

Image

Here is my take on DTS-HD/TrueHD- since most modern AVR's supports DTS-HD/TrueHD, it make sense to match it with bitstreaming HTPC.......

>Alienware X51- do it all HTPC
>Simplify XBMC configurations
>HOW-TO Bitstreaming using XBMC
I refused to watch movie without bitstreaming HD audio!
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#13
This might be of interest to the OP - http://www.fanlesstech.com/2012/06/compu...se-pc.html - core i3 and core i7 fanless options.

Well, I can always hear these supposedly inaudible fans is all I can say. And as they age and get a bit dusty etc, they only get worse.
Addons I wrote &/or maintain:
OzWeather (Australian BOM weather) | Check Previous Episode | Playback Resumer | Unpause Jumpback | XSqueezeDisplay | (Legacy - XSqueeze & XZen)
Sorry, no help w/out a *full debug log*.
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#14
Well I would buy the Acer Revo RL70 ....

Quote:RL70 has a small high speed fan on the CPU which creates a high pitch whine. It's a pretty quiet machine, but if you're looking for silent - this isn't it.

I've had my RL70 for about a week now and I can confirm that the fan is audible, although mine has a very tolerable sound profile (no high pitch whine)...

It could be the case that Acer uses a number of suppliers for their fans (many OEMs do) or many other factors that affect this (I had instances where two fans from the same manufacturer and model but different batches had a different sound profile, but the same sound pressure values while measured under the same conditions).

But bottom line is, it does have a fan and is audible (to me), it's just not offensive and it's not discernible above/within music or movie playing, except in very quiet passages/scenes.


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#15
if price is not an issue, check this site: http://atechfabrication.com/index.htm
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