Open air PC

This stunning open air build features the Japan-exclusive N-FRAME-ITX case, the 35W Athlon 3000G, the Arctic AM4 Passive CPU cooler, the GALAX Hall of Fame PCIe SSD, and the ASRock X570 Phantom Gaming ITX motherboard. The result is minimalist and yet spectacular.

Source: @Y0NeSK1

Akasa Plato X8 review

"The Akasa Plato X8 is a nice fanless case for Bean Canyon NUCs. I can recommend it for the i5 and i3 models but based on what I’ve read the i7 model might get hot rather quickly in this case. Playing with Intel XTU tool and trying various settings might provide the remedy of course and certain trade-offs might be necessary with the i7 model.

If you’ve seen Akasa’s Gemini Lake case I can tell you that the Plato X8 is significantly more robust and better made case. It’s quite a handsome chunk of aluminium and feels well constructed. It’s not exactly cheap, but I can imagine that the batch sizes for these are not huge and Intel modifies the NUC design between each generation so Akasa needs to produce a new product every year."

Source: The NUC Blog

Parasite

This is wrong on so many levels. Here's a blatant Hades Canyon NUC ripoff, featuring a fanless AMD processor from 4 years ago. At this price and considering the exterior design, cooling is probably mediocre too. Please don't support unethical products.

Source: Aliexpress

Update: It's not fanless after all.

Shuttle DS10U3 review

"Even if we are dealing only with a dual-core SoC, we are benefitting from HyperThreading and considerably higher clocks versus the Celeron SKUs we have tested in the past. The performance increase is not only visible when launching apps or working with multiple applications at once, but also in the 3D department, as you could notice from our game benchmarks. The SoC is capped at 15W so depending on the load, the clocks will differ in order to fit this power envelope. Thanks to the large heatsink, the system can function without any fan installed up to ambient of 40 degrees Celsius, so if you set it up with an SSD it will be basically noiseless."

Source: Madshrimps

Custom EPYC build

This one is pretty insane. Check out this passively-cooled AMD EPYC 7551 / GeForce RTX 2070 duo inside Turemetal's UP10 case. We're very impressed by the custom mounting hardware, including a 2.5kg copper heat spreader for the 180W CPU.

Source: Turemetal

Audio PC on steroids

We're not sure why anyone would need an i9-9900KS audio PC featuring 64GB of RAM, but it's Christmas after all. Housed in the massive and capable HDPLEX H5 case, no doubt that this beast of a machine will provide enjoyment for many years to come.

Source: Chiphell

OnLogic's Pico-ITX motherboards

While GIGABYTE's pico motherboards are still nowhere to be found, OnLogic's own tiny boards are shipping right now. Featuring 6W Apollo Lake processors, these 100 x 72 mm motherboards are full-fledged mini PCs once eMMC storage or an mSATA SSD is added. Each motherboard comes with a sizable heat sink that should guarantee excellent cooling.

✓ EPM160 (Celeron N3350, 1GB RAM, 1 mini-DP, 1 GbE)
✓ EPM161 (Celeron N3350, 2GB RAM, 8GB eMMC, 1 mini-DP, 1 GbE)
✓ EPM162 (Celeron N3350, 4GB RAM, 32GB eMMC, 2 mini-DP, 2 GbE)
✓ EPM163 (Pentium N4200, 4GB RAM, 64GB eMMC, 2 mini-DP, 2 GbE)

Athlon 3000G build

AMD's 35W processors are a godsend for Arctic's Alpine AM4 Passive CPU cooler. Unlike Intel's 35W offering, low-power Athlons are widely available and will greatly improve the number of fanless PCs around the world. Check out this simple Athlon 3000G build that offers a lot of bang for the buck.

Source: Facebook

Turemetal is coming to Europe

According to our friend Mical over at Turemetal, the entry-level DP2 case is going to be available in Europe soon. Featuring four 8mm heat pipes, the mini-ITX case handles 65W processors. In the US, the chassis is available exclusively from Fully Silent PCs for $380.

Source: Twitter

Don't buy the Nofan CR-80EH

There, we said it. The CR-80EH is vastly inferior to the legendary CR-95C, and we don't recommend it. The SilverStone HE02 is the only serious fanless CPU cooler available, if you ask us. Even the Phanteks PH-TC14PE is a far better option than the Nofan for passive cooling. Don't fall for marketing gimmicks.

Coming soon from Compulab

Here's a first look at Compulab's upcoming fanless PC launching in February. Specs and price are expected to be confirmed soon. Stay tuned.

Vintage heat sink

Old school heatsink found at work from r/pcmasterrace

Check out this amazing passive CPU cooler, featuring an equally amazing mounting method. Time for a comeback?

Source: reddit

The 7nm onslaught

AMD is planning a wide range of 7nm APUs "Ryzen Processors with Radeon Vega Graphics", including 15W / 45W mobile SKUs, and 35W / 65W desktop chips. Code-named Renoir, the new family should offer improvements in clock speed and energy efficiency, and should support LPDDR4X-4266 memory. Renoir is rumored to launch next month, at CES Las Vegas.

Source: reddit

Akasa Plato X8 installation

The Plato X8 is Akasa's second Bean Canyon NUC case. Designed for space constraint environments, the Plato X8 is a more conventional HTPC case than the groundbreaking and polarizing Turing.

Last minute Christmas deal

Forget about the new XBOX Series X, get yourself a matte black monolith today. Just pair Akasa's Turing case ($145) with Intel's Coffee Lake NUC (from $320) and add a wireless controller ($35) for a futuristic-looking light gaming machine. Recommended.

Hyper 612 Ver.2 discontinued

Cooler Master's multipurpose Hyper 612 Ver.2 tried to please both the active and passive crowds, and failed at both. Launched in 2015, the direct-contact CPU cooler got so-so reviews and was poorly distributed. The upcoming historic Noctua launch isn't helping the situation either.

It's coming! https://t.co/fGS7bpshVk pic.twitter.com/cF3L3jxmAP

— FanlessTech (@FanlessTech) December 13, 2019

incus A300 case available

The incus A300 aluminum chassis is now available as a standalone product for 199 euros (35W TDP) or 238 euros (65W TDP). Compatible with ASRock's DeskMini A300 mini-STX motherboard, the case also provides cooling for the two M.2 SSDs and VRMs.

Source: cirrus7

Bad omen?

One of the caveats of modularity is user intervention. Intel's own Steve Ashby is confused by the NUC Compute Element installation in their promo video. We're pretty sure that the heat spreader should face the thermal pad. Hopefully, Intel will fix this sooner than later.

Good catch! We are currently working with our team to get this fixed.

— Intel (@intel) December 9, 2019

Shuttle DS10U unboxing

Courtesy of Lon.TV Extras.

Passive cooling ain't that easy (DIY)

Courtesy of Fully Silent PCs.

New Thermalright supercooler

Coming soon from Thermalright, Frost Spirit, a massive 1000g dual-tower featuring four 8mm heat pipes, and a nickel-plated pure copper base.

Source: Chiphell

A Computer With NO FANS?!

Courtesy of Techquickie.

Mini-STX build 2

Granted, a custom back plate was required but the DeepCool Neptwin fits on the tiny ASRock DeskMini motherboard. This dual-tower is far from being a household name, and yet temperatures are pretty good in passive mode. Running AIDA64's stress test, the 51W Pentium 4600 barely reaches 65°C.

Source: Chiphell