ThermoLab GOYO preview

ThermoLab will start 2014 with the launch of an aggressive looking yet affordable and rather small (125 x 70 x 135mm / 290g) CPU cooler. The GOYO will work passively with TDP up to 60W. These widely spaced fins sure look promising.

Source: Parkoz

FanlessTech: the Best of 2013

Fanless NUC roundup

Late 2015 NUC

The Fanless artist

EXCLUSIVE: Thermalright HR-22 hands-on

EXCLUSIVE: 2 new passive cases from Akasa

EXCLUSIVE: Akasa Tesla

EXCLUSIVE: Shuttle DS47 unboxing and overview

Impactics D1NU1 unboxing

Fanless, you're doing it wrong

10 coolers to use without a fan

HDPLEX H1

Intel i7-4765T is amazing [+ our new PC]

TechPowerUp reviews Prolimatech Black Genesis

Sold without any fan, the uniquely shaped cooler will keep your low-power CPU at ease in a passive mode... if you can fit it in your case.

✓ 800g
✓ 6 x 6mm heat pipes
✓ 146mm (L) X 216.5mm (W) X 160mm (H)

Source: TechPowerUp

Update: Available for $108 on Amazon.

GIGABYTE GA-C1037UN-EU available in Europe

GIGABYTE's latest mini-ITX motherboard is now available in France, UK, Germany, Italy, Poland, Austria, Norway, Sweden (at pretty good prices). No doubt the little Celeron 1037U (2 cores @ 1.8 GHz) will make a capable HTPC or server.

✓ 4 x USB 2.0
✓ 1 x SATA 6Gb
✓ 2 x SATA 3Gb
✓ 1 x eSATA
✓ 1 x D-Sub
✓ 1 x HDMI
✓ 2 x GbE ports
✓ 8 Channel Realtek HD Audio

ID-Cooling Silencer-ITX Chinese review

Not surprisingly, temperatures are awful and rise to 98°C. With heat pipes turned upside down and air vents mostly under the case, ID-Cooling's Silencer defies common sense.

Any quality cooler in a case with air vents on top will most likely perform better.

Source: Zol.com.cn

Seriously AMD, what are you doing?

Was your LiveBox just vaporware? Where's your answer to the NUC? Where are your Kabini mini-ITX systems? Where are your low-power, Linux-friendly solutions?

Image credit: Engadget

Update: Prayers (partially) answered with some intriguing desktop SoCs.

✓ Athlon 5150, 4 cores, 1.6 GHz, HD 8400, 25W TDP, $45
✓ Athlon 5350, 4 cores, 2.05 GHz, HD 8400, 25W TDP, $54
✓ Sempron 2650, 2 cores, 1.4 GHz, HD 8240, 25W TDP, $35
✓ Sempron 3850, 4 cores, 1.3 GHz, HD 8280, 25W TDP, $39

Source: CPU-World

Very first Bay Trail motherboards available

ASRock IMB-150 and IMB-151 are industrial (read rock-solid, 24/7 usage, premium components) motherboards available for everyone thanks to Steatite-Embedded. The Thin mini-ITX IMB-151 looks particularly appealing (only 2.2cm in height, DC jack for external power supply). Mainstream Bay Trail motherboards are expected in early 2014.

✓ IMB-150 with Celeron J1900 for £180.00
✓ IMB-150 with Celeron N2920 for £186.00
✓ IMB-151 with Celeron J1900 for £180.00
✓ IMB-151 with Celeron N2920 for £186.00

Akasa Tesla H official

The addition of a SATA port will change the course of the NUC's history, and Akasa's new passive case is ready for it. The Tesla H will support not one but two SSD/HDD (mSATA to SATA adapter required for the second drive).

✓ Compatible with Intel's D54250WYB and D34010WYB boards
✓ 2 x 2.5" bays
✓ 2 x front USB 3.0
✓ Front Audio in/out
✓ Infrared receiver
✓ 3 x antenna holes
✓ Kensington lock
✓ Vesa mountable
✓ 240 x 150 x 48 mm

Building the Perfect Silent HTPC

Let's head to AVSforum for a solid homemade HTPC. Noctua's NH-C12P SE14 passively cooling a 45W i7, and proving once again the Austrian brand's undeniable excellence.

"THE CHALLENGE:

Build a powerful HTPC that looks good, runs cool, can play games, and is powerful enough to run madVR on high quality without dropping frames. Great! Not that hard right?

Oh, but there’s one more thing… It also has to be completely passive cooled with NO fans (not even case fans) and has to have no moving components whatsoever (except for the Blu-ray drive). "

Source: AVSforum

Linutop 5 released

Linutop 5 is a small, multi-purpose Linux PC available for 390 euros. Great concept, we love low-power solutions (and can't wait for Bay Trail-D systems). But with an Atom N270 and 4GB of storage this is basically retro-computing.

✓ Atom N270 1.6 GHz
✓ 2 GB DDR2
✓ 4 GB storage
✓ 4 x USB 2.0
✓ 2 x 2 Sata ports
✓ 1 x 2.5’’ bay
✓ 1 x PCIe
✓ 1 x DVI
✓ 1 x GbE port
✓ 15.2 x 11 x 3.5 cm (6 x 3.1 x 1.4")
✓ 602 g (1.3lbs)

The world's most powerful fanless PSU

Now available in Japan for $195 the KRPW-FL600W from Kuroutoshikou is a fully modular, 80PLUS PLATINUM-rated powerhouse. No worry, word is that a 600W PSU is coming to the West soon.

Source: Gdm.or.jp

Thermalright HR-22 appears online

Thermalright's enormous CPU cooler is now available on Nan's Gaming Gear, FrozenCPU, Amazon, and PC-Cooling.de. Sometimes silence comes with a price, indeed.

ECS KBN-I/2100 reviews

Reviews for the sole fanless Kabini are in. Play3r quite likes it:

"Are you contemplating building a little system for general usage, a HTPC or even a home server? If you are, then a server is probably going to be on all day, every day of the year so power consumption being at its lowest is a key factor when making such a decision. Perhaps ECS have something that is just right for you."

While Micromart is less enthusiastic:

"In our application benchmarks the ECS board returned an overall score of 0.22. That’s the sort of speed we used to associate with netbooks, and it means that any PC built using this board will only be capable of the most basic desktop tasks."

10W Bay Trail Vs 65W Core 2 Duo

A quick look at the indispensable CPUbenchmark shows that Bay Trail-D processors favorably compare to 65W Core 2 Duo chips (and to Ivy Bridge Celerons as well). Performance of the quad core J2900 should be very interesting.

Source: CPUbenchmark (2, 3)

Update: With 3 samples, the J1850 passmark is now 1614 (it's discontinued anyway). The J1800 is 1179, the J1900 is 2006, and the J2900 is 2169.

Bay Trail-D motherboards already upgraded?

The Bay Trail-D Mini-ITX boards which were announced last month just vanished from ECS website. The good news is that 3 new models featuring the Turbo Boosted (and totally unexpected) J1800, J1900 and J2900 are replacing them.

✓ BAT-I/J1800 (Celeron J1800, 2 cores @ 2,41 GHz, up to 2.58 GHz)
✓ BAT-I/J1900 (Celeron J1900, 4 cores @ 2,00 GHz, up to 2.42 GHz)
✓ BAT-I/J2900 (Pentium J2900, 4 cores @ 2,41 GHz, up to 2.67 GHz)

Source: ECS

Akasa Newton H

H for Haswell. The latest NUC case from Akasa is 2cm longer than its predecessors. While we appreciate cooler temperatures, 15cm x 17cm is mini-ITX territory. The original NUC's concept is lost here. We're waiting for a taller case with a smaller footprint (think Euler, 61mm is still very low profile).

✓ 150 x 170 x 47 mm
✓ 2 x front USB 3.0
✓ Front Audio in/out
✓ Infrared receiver
✓ 2 x antenna holes
✓ Kensington lock
✓ Vesa mountable
✓ Pure Aluminum
✓ 1kg

Colorful Haswell NUC

Tranquil PC is upgrading its NUC systems with speedy Haswell processors and eye-popping colors.

The Abel H3 comes with a Core i3 4010U and a 60GB SSD for £399, while the H5 rocks a Core i5 4250U, a 120GB SSD, and Bluetooth support for £548.

Both also share the following specs: 4GB DDR3, internal WiFi (802 b/g/n) module with external high gain antenna, Windows 7 Professional, a mini HDMI to HDMI adapter, and a five years warranty.

TechPowerUp reviews Tranquil PC NUC case

A glowing review for this NUC chassis - made of one single piece of aluminium - that does a better job than the original fan-cooled case.

"The Tranquil PC NUC does one thing extremely well: It drops the NUC system's temperatures considerably. And it uses no fan, unlike the Intel case; it is great to see temperatures noticeably lower in a passive enclosure."

Source: TechPowerUp

ASKTech NT-ZENO3

ASKTech launches its third and most efficent passive case yet. The NT-ZENO3 can handle 95W TDP processors and will be available in Japan for $296 in December.

✓ Intel 775, 1150, 1155, 1156, 1366, 2011
✓ Designed for mini-ITX motherboards
✓ 4 x copper heat pipes cooling system
✓ 1 x slim ODD bay
✓ 2 x 2.5" SSD bays
✓ 273 (W) x 274 (D) x 100 (H) mm
✓ 3.5kg

Source: Gdm.or.jp

Nofan CR-80EH appears on eBay

Nofan's new CPU cooler is now available for £47 on eBay UK, about $75 (a bit more expensive than expected). Definitely groundbreaking, but how will it perform?

Update: The CR-80EH is available on one of our favorite sites, QuietPC, for £41.

EXCLUSIVE: Streacom NC1-WY and NC3

Here's the first picture of Streacom's NC1 evolution, compatible with Haswell NUCs. Beside the different mounting system, front audio and infrared captor are now de rigueur. The NC1-WY will be in stores at the end of December / beginning of January.

Coming soon from Streacom, a larger NC2 case that will take advantage of the SATA port, as well as a NC3 with a whole new design. Stay tuned!

Bay Trail-D now with Turbo Boost Technology

The lines keep blurring between Intel's low power offering and Core series. Three new desktop SoC, based on Silvermont architecture, are coming this quarter. The Celeron J1800, J1900, and Pentium J2900 feature improved HD Graphics (up to 792 MHz, 854 MHz, and 896 MHz respectively) but also Intel's Turbo Boost.

✓ Celeron J1800, 2 cores @ 2,41 GHz, up to 2.58 GHz
✓ Celeron J1900, 4 cores @ 2,00 GHz, up to 2.42 GHz
✓ Pentium J2900, 4 cores @ 2,41 GHz, up to 2.67 GHz

All of them retain their passive cooling-friendly 10W TDP. According to Intel, the Bay Trail-D series is "ideal for fanless and smaller form factor systems for entry level desktop computing." Sounds good to us.

Source: Intel (2, 3)

Habey BIS-6761 (Celeron 857) now $210

Bargain hunters will love Habey's BIS-6761 new price at Newegg. We had the chance to sample Habey's case design, and it works pretty nicely.

✓ Intel Celeron 857 (2 cores @ 1.2 GHz)
✓ Intel HD Graphics
✓ 1 x DDRIII SODIMM slot
✓ 1 x 2.5” SATAII drive bay
✓ 2 x Mini PCIe slots
✓ 6 x USB 2.0
✓ 1 x HDMI
✓ 1 x VGA
✓ 1 x RS-232
✓ 1 x GbE port
✓ Supports Windows & Linux
✓ DC 12V power input
✓ VESA mountable
✓ 190 x 190 x 67 mm (7.5″ x 7.5″ x 2.6″)

Update: Now only $130.

EXCLUSIVE: Nofan CR-80EH

Nofan Computer is finally coming with a new CPU cooler. The CR-80EH is a smaller, more affordable version of the popular (and fanless king) CR-95C.

Designed to handle 80W TDP, the cooler measures 113mm in height, 155mm in width, and weights only 300g. Unlike previous models, it should have no trouble fitting inside most chassis. The CR-80EH will be available in the coming weeks for about $60.

New i7-4765T machine

Atlast Solutions launches a powerful and very balanced PC, featuring an i7-4765T, ASUS Q87T Thin mini-ITX motherboard, 8GB DDR3 and a 128GB SSD, all inside Akasa's Euler. The base configuration starts at 780 euros (shipping with Linux Mint too). We approve.

Update: Available inside Impactics C3LH-B too.