Fanless SandyBridge how?

[WarrenH]

The Origen is far from silent, and finding a quiet 60mm fan impossible. It's a matter of choice, but thanks nevertheless for your valuable contribution.

[assassin]

So what does one of their passive cases run?

[gcoupe]

If money was no object, and I lived in the US, then I'd certainly be tempted by this...

[cw-kid]

So what does one of their passive cases run?

How do you mean?

[milli260876]

http://www.hfx.at/index.php?view=catego ... t&Itemid=1

I'd buy an hfx system if I had the readies!!!

[assassin]

So what does one of their passive cases run?

How do you mean?

What does it cost in $$$?

[cw-kid]

They are made in Manchester UK so in UK pounds this bare bones kit is 249 ex VAT.

Mine turned up today, pretty pleased with it, I took the lid off and had a look inside at the design of it and heat pipes and what not. Need to order the rest of the parts to get it up and running though.

[sgtpokey]

Getting onto this topic late and it sounds like you've already gone Tranquil.

To complete the choices for a fanless chassis:
1) m-cubed tech, based in Austria also sell do-it-yourself HTPC cases as part of their HFX line of stuff. I've used their original, full-size ATX version since 2005, going from their original Rev 1 all the way to Rev 3. Their pricing sounds like it is comparable to Tranquil. As a US customer, my price was actually about ~20% cheaper than their quoted prices since VAT was taken off of my order (done automatically at time of checkout based on your shipping location).
http://www.hfx.at/store/

2) In the US, there's a new company called HDPlex that silentpcreview (and missingremote.com if i recall correctly) has reviewed. I have no firsthand experience except for a pleasant email exchange with the owner (didn't buy though, I was inquiring as to when they would have a case that was more DIY friendly [e.g. more space and more capability to handle expansion cards or 5.25" enclosures]).
http://www.hd-plex.com/

3) Finally, also in the US a custom builder called Atech fabrication also makes good but expensive equipment. I still use his "4x mass storage drive" as my hard drive enclosure.
http://atechfabrication.com/

[cw-kid]

My fanless sandybridge HTPC

http://thedigitallifestyle.com/w/index. ... -itx-htpc/

[holidayboy]

Looks like a really nice box Stuart.

I'm still trying to workout what I want for my guest bedroom - I started out looking at Zino etc but I'd prefer a full power box really.

There are cheaper boxes around like the zbox units on Ebuyer but I do like a good quality case - especially if it lets me go fanless!

It is a bit bulky though - I did first plan on sitting my screen on top of a cheap DVD player style case (with fans obviously) - like my old faithful Hiper Media case. (Still going strong with a Pico PSU unit powering a 2.4GHZ desktop C2D chip!)

http://hipergroup.com/products.php?lv=4 ... on=Picture

[cw-kid]

I like the iTX form factor, micro ATX / ATX just too big, OK if you have no WHS and need a large HTPC with lots of disks inside it. But when you have a WHS smaller quieter or silent HTPC's are nice to have.

I also like these cases:

http://www.wesena.co.uk/
http://www.origenae.co.kr/en/htpc_m10.htm
http://www.it-tech-uk.com/product.php?id_product=19

[cw-kid]

And I've just found these, they look just like the Tranquil PC cases, I've not see these before and they are a damm sight cheaper!

Streacom FC8

http://www.kustompcs.co.uk/acatalog/info_0989.html

Although I can't see the two copper pipes that sit on top of the CPU and then connect to one side of the case with the big external heatsink fins, in the pictures and the CPU heatsink looks different.

http://www.streacom.com/products/fc8-fanless-chassis/

I've never even heard of Streacom before have you? They also have chassis that look just liked the Wesena ones. http://www.streacom.com/products/f1c-chassis/

[cw-kid]

You can see the copper pipes on this picture this is the same as my Tranquil PC just the CPU heatsink is different

[cw-kid]

"The Wesena Streacom Group comprises of Wesena, founded in 2008 and Streacom, founded in 2010. Together they form an elite team of experts in design, engineering, manufacturing, and distribution. All of the key individuals within our company have amassed many years of experience within the industry and understand every aspect of the business. With this experience comes the ability to deliver products that are in a class of their own."

So Streacom is Wesena and it looks like they are the manufacturer of the Tranquil PC cases. I never knew this I always thought Tranquil made their own cases. Not sure why I didn't see this before I bought my Tranquil as I did look at lots of cases on the web.

[wayner]

I built a system with no moving parts using the HDPlex H3.S case and an i3-2100 Sandy Bridge CPU. My case has lots of left over space since this is only a client PC as I store all of my media on a server as I primarily use SageTV as my HTPC software: See info here: