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Check out how quality fanless PCs are made. Amazing work from our friends over at Tranquil PC.

The Resurrection of Beema (part two)

BIOSTAR launches its own Beema motherboard, featuring the 10W E1-6010 (Radeon R2 Graphics) from 2014 and people are not impressed. Here's a sample of what the TechPowerUp readers have to say:

"This is them just shoveling back stocked garbage to consumers."

"... an obsolete APU which was slow even when released, is just insane."

"It's nice of BIOSTAR that even in those hard times they still try and make us laugh."

✓ AMD E1-6010 (dual-core @ 1.4 GHz)
✓ 2 x DDR3 DIMM slots
✓ 1 x PCI Express slot
✓ 2 x SATA 3 connectors
✓ 2 x USB 3.0 ports
✓ 2 x USB 2.0 ports
✓ 1 x HDMI
✓ 1 x VGA
✓ 1 x PS/2 Mouse / Keyboard
✓ 1 x Gigabit Ethernet (Realtek)

Source: TechPowerUp

I built a new pc today

I built a new pc today - with a simply beautiful, solid, elegant Streacom db4 case with no moving parts but a state of the art cpu (coffee lake 8 cores 16mb cache 65W tdp) and 64gb memory on a mini atx. The case is a work of art and this hasty setup doesn’t do it justice but <3 pic.twitter.com/ECYB7ybLls

— Ben Gras (@bjg) March 14, 2020

Fractal Design's Era ITX

Fractal Design launches a unique mini-ITX case available in five colors. The stylish aluminum chassis features tool-less side panels and a mesh top that's compatible with passive cooling. The tiny 325 x 166 x 310 mm case can definitely house Arctic's Alpine 12 Passive CPU cooler and Silverstone's fanless NJ450 SFX power supply for a totally silent desktop or HTPC. The Era ITX will be available next month for $159.99 / £139.99 / 164.99€.

Source: Fractal Design

The Resurrection of Beema

The market is craving for affordable solutions but Intel's SoCs are extremely hard to find, and AMD's offering is simply nowhere to be found. Introducing the brand new ASRock QC6000M, a microATX motherboard featuring a Beema E2-6110 APU from 2014. We're rooting for AMD but frankly get the J5005-ITX while you can, performance is way better.

✓ 15W AMD E2-6110 (quad-core @ 1.5 GHz)
✓ Radeon R2 Graphics
✓ 2 x DDR3 DIMM slots
✓ 1 x PCIe 2.0 x16 (x1 mode)
✓ 2 x PCIe 2.0 x1
✓ 2 x USB 3.0
✓ 4 x USB 2.0
✓ 2 x SATA 3
✓ D-Sub, HDMI
✓ Realtek Gigabit LAN

Source: ASRock via: @momomo_us

Myth debunked: fanless PCs run hot

The Bean Canyon NUC runs cooler in the fanless Akasa Turing case than in the stock - actively-cooled - chassis.

"Now heat, or lack thereof, is not much, especially compared to stock. With ambient temps varying between 20-25C (shop gets cold and gets hot, so it's pretty good to test in), Prime95 blend, or small, or smallest, or the Intel Burn Test on any size–it doesn't matter–all hit a peak of 74-75C at 50W for about 45 seconds and settle in at about 62C on 30W. It can run for 2 hours and doesn't budge from this. I've tried it at different times of day and different ambient temps and even at 25C, it's within ~2C of the 20C ambient tests."

"When compared to stock, that's insanely low. Stock would hit 95C+ just loading Windows and startup apps/services. And Prime95 made it about 30 seconds before it hit 100C and started throttling back to below 30W. 50W lasted only for a few seconds before dropping down. Plus, no fan noise!"

Source: reddit

OnLogic's Coffee Lake offering

One of OnLogic's most powerful fanless PC is the ML510, now available from $640. The ML510G-50 can be configured with up to 6 cores (35W Celeron G4900T, Pentium G5400T, i3-8100T, i5-8500T, i7-8700T options) and 32 GB of DDR4 2666 MHz memory, making it a high-performance system with a fanless and compact footprint.

"Ready for a wide array of applications, dual Gb LAN, dual DisplayPort connectors, and six USB ports (four of them USB 3.1) make up the I/O base of the ML510G-50. Additional expansion options include 802.11ac Wi-Fi, CAN Bus, two additional LAN, up to four COM ports, and fast, reliable M.2 storage drives, giving the ML510G-50 incredible versatility."

Source: OnLogic

NUC 10 promo video

The NUC 10 is now available. Coded-named Frost Canyon the Comet Lake-powered mini PC features up to a six-core i7 processor, but also a surprisingly average GPU (especially compared to Bean Canyon's Iris Plus graphics).

Third-party NUC Elements case

French start-up Bleujour announces the very first third-party chassis compatible with Intel's NUC Elements family. The heat sink case looks a tad smaller than the original Austin Beach chassis and is definitely artsier, featuring textured aluminum and wavy fins.

Source: Bleujour

The Beautiful Machine

"The last time I built a PC, the CPU was an Intel Celeron 433Mhz Slot1. All cases available were beige and ugly. Information was scarce. Learning that a part existed was an achievement in itself. Actually producing the parts was an adventure requiring to drive around town. In the worst case, orders took months.

Being crazy into CG at the time, the graphic card I picked was a Riva TNT from a relatively new yet impressive company called Nvidia. The NV4 was one of their earlier chip and I had a hard time keeping it cool. The machine froze often during that hot French summer of 1998.

Fast forward 20 years, the world of PC enthusiasts is a marvel. Whatever you are into, there is a manufacturer with parts that will do what you want. Orders can be delivered on the next day. Sometimes even on a Sunday. In last resort, a 3D printer will solve your problem. The hardest task is to make up your mind and decide what you actually need.

I am not a hardcore CG programmer/gamer anymore. Time has allowed my tastes to evolve. Pixels pushing sessions have made way to glyphs carving and type-setting. When I set myself to build one more PC, my goals were different. I did not want to sacrifice everything to horsepower. I wanted a totally silent machine. I wanted something esthetically pleasant. I wanted something that would remind me of the NeXT hardware..."

Source: Fabien Sanglard

BUY NOW

Need a fanless PC in the foreseeable future? It might be a good idea to buy it now. We're hearing that the coronavirus outbreak will absolutely impact releases and availability of our favorite computers / components.

ZOTAC ZBOX CI329 (Celeron N4100)

Shuttle DS10U (Celeron 4205U)

MintBox3 Pro (i9-9900K / GTX 1660 Ti)

MintBox Mini 2 (Celeron J3455)

OnLogic ML100 (i3-7100U)

Intel NUC 8 "Bean Canyon" (i5-8259U)

Intel NUC 10 "Frost Canyon" (i7-10710U)

ARCTIC Alpine 12 Passive

SilverStone HE02

Akasa Plato X8

Coming soon...

Exploding into the fanless tech market...#ThePulsar powered by @AMD pic.twitter.com/pXNEcq3kvt

— Tranquil PC (@tranquilpc) March 9, 2020

Intel launches Bean Canyon Lite

Intel's answer to the lack of availability of the Gemini Lake NUC? Meet the Bean Canyon Lite. This latest NUC and the original Bean Canyon look similar from a design perspective, but the inside is another story.

Gone are the 28W Coffee Lake CPUs / Iris Graphics, the NUC8i3BEHS and NUC8i5BEHS are powered by the unannounced 15W i3-8140U and i5-8260U that look like Kaby Lake processors (the i3-8130U and i5-8250U are).

GPU-wise, these units rock Intel's UHD Graphics 620, a capable yet inferior solution to the Iris Plus Graphics 655. Featuring the same I/O as earlier models, they should be compatible with the fanless Bean Canyon cases. Both SKUs are already listed online for about $300 and $400.

Last Call: Akasa Turing now $125

Success! Cooler temps, zero noise, and I can defend myself by throwing it at an intruder. pic.twitter.com/NG7PgTXS95

— Steve Faulkner (@southpolesteve) March 3, 2020

Last chance to own Akasa's best-selling NUC chassis and enjoy the NUC8's Iris Plus Graphics 655 in passive mode. The dark monolith is now available for only $125. Paired with an i3, i5, or i7 Bean Canyon NUC the system will offer excellent CPU performance and even better graphics than the 10th Gen NUC.

Meanwhile in Russia

Make no mistake, we love the Russian culture and its people. This fanless PC embodies the Russian spirit of getting things done, no matter what. Using evaporators from old air conditioning units this passive cooling solution is keeping a 100W AMD processor under 67°C.

Source: overclockers.ru (2)

OnLogic's ML100 is rock solid

"Temps in this area reach well over 120 degrees in the summer. There is constant vibration from the press slamming down and forming the car parts. [The ML100] has been out there for over a year running constantly. You truly have a wonderful product."

Source: Twitter

AnandTech's NUC 10 in-depth review

"... while the NUC8 was an upgrade over NUC7 in every respect, the Frost Canyon NUC10 slips up a little. Intel's 10th generation U-series processors come in two different versions – the 10nm Ice Lake and the 14nm Comet Lake. Intel's high-end Iris Graphics is available only on Ice Lake, and unfortunately, the Frost Canyon is based on Comet Lake. This means that, for a variety of graphics intensive workloads, the NUC10 actually performs worse than the Iris Plus graphics-equipped NUC8."

"... choosing between Bean Canyon and Frost Canyon is not that straightforward. While Frost Canyon delivers upgrades in many respects, the retrogression in the GPU area may make the Bean Canyon NUC at a lower price point an attractive alternative. In some respects Intel has traded off GPU performance for more CPU performance, and I'm not sure that's what their NUCs really needed."

Source: AnandTech

XEON Cube ART Server

German PC builder Silentmaxx launches a jaw-dropping fanless server powered by the 120W Intel Xeon W-2123. The stunning deep red monolith measures 800mm in height (31") and doubles as a heat sink. The fully configurable machine starts at 1995 euros (with 8GB RAM and a 250GB Samsung SSD). We'd love to see it available as a desktop PC too!

Source: Silentmaxx

3 fanless Seasonic PSUs launched

The new fanless Seasonic power supplies are finally here. And there's a surprise too. Launched in 2017, the hugely popular 600W model is now joined by the flagship PRIME Fanless TX-700 (80 PLUS Titanium certified), the PRIME Fanless PX-500 (80 PLUS Platinum certified) and an unannounced 450W model. Seasonic must have heard our cries for an affordable unit. All of them are fully modular and come with an impressive 12-year warranty.

Source: Seasonic

ThinkCentre M90n Nano IoT review

"The Core i3 model showed enough muscle to be used for light office use or as a media streamer. In either an office or living room, the Nano IoT is an inconspicuous, silent addition with the power needed to handle basic Windows tasks. I'd happily trade away a bit of the processing power of the Core i5-based M90n Nano for the silent operation of the Core i3 Nano IoT in either location, although its office capability would be greatly aided if Lenovo didn't cap the RAM allotment at 4GB."

Source: PCMag