Thin mini-ITX is back

Now that Mini-STX flopped hard, Thin mini-ITX is ready for a comeback. ASRock launches the AMD-compatible X300TM-ITX motherboard, and our friends over at Streacom tells us that it's perfect for the DB1 (pictured).

The X300TM-ITX supports AMD's Ryzen 4000 Series APUs up to 65W TDP, and up to 64GB of DDR4-3200MHz SO-DIMM memory. The 17 x 17 cm motherboard features two HDMI ports which can drive displays up to 4K 60Hz (one of them is an internal port), a single SATA connector and a single M.2 2280 slot. On the rear there are three USB 3.2 Gen1 Type-A ports, with two internal USB 2.0 headers for expansion and one USB 3.2 Gen1 port. The X300TM-ITX also features a M.2 Key-E slot for Wi-Fi module, and a single Gigabit Ethernet port.

Source: ASRock  

Akasa enthusiast

Great success! 😁 One passively cooled ❄️ NUC that no longer sounds like a tornado 🌪️ https://t.co/0azkNglKwc pic.twitter.com/w2CkdPJQb1

— Martin Wimpress (@m_wimpress) April 14, 2021

I don't know 🤔 if these passively cooled NUC cases from Akasa were designed to stack like this, but I love ❤️ that they do! pic.twitter.com/BvwLF6YeM0

— Martin Wimpress (@m_wimpress) May 8, 2021

Protectli 6-port i7 Vault

The Vault is a small form factor PC built for use as a firewall / router. The FW6E is based on a 6 network port design that leverages the Intel Kaby Lake R i7-8550U CPU. The Kaby Lake CPU supports AES-NI, Intel’s Hardware Acceleration for Encryption. The Vault uses standard Intel components (including Intel NIC ports) which results in compatibility with a variety of operating systems. The Vault is fanless so it has no moving parts, which results in a durable platform that can be used in less than ideal environments. Its all aluminum enclosure (no plastic here) is a giant heat sink, keeping the CPU cool. Protectli's i7 Vault is available for $749.

Ultra-low budget passive build

Not all fanless PCs are expensive. This one is built entirely out of recycled parts. An old Scythe Katana CPU cooler and giant aluminum heat sink are keeping a 77W i3 under 70°C. The overall design is more functional than attractive, but the result does feel tough and hardy.  

Source: pikabu.ru

MeLE's Quieter2 performs surprisingly well (UPDATED)

Courtesy of ETA PRIME
Update: Not everybody is happy about it.

so far, I’m not impressed: it’s been years since I have seen Windows crashing this often on a PC. it’s not the thermals (temps were below 80° C. at all times). MemTest86 ran without errors. oh, and the topcase is made out of plastic…

— michael bosshard (@mibosshard) May 26, 2021

MeLE's Quieter2 is available on Amazon (UPDATED)

The diminutive MeLE Windows 10 PC is now available for $269.99. Featuring 8GB of soldered RAM and 128GB of soldered eMMC storage the machine is powered by the 10W Gemini Lake Celeron J4125. The Quieter2 is the first widely available fanless x86 PC powered via USB-C.

Source: Amazon

Update: No cooling fins here, the case is made of plastic. Don't buy it.

bottom plate: metal
heat spreader: metal
I/O shield: metal
case: plastic

WiFi an Bluetooth antennas are glued on the inside of the case. there would be zero reception if the case was made out of metal.
the kind of screws on the picture I posted earlier don’t go into metal. pic.twitter.com/h7VpP4amCa

— michael bosshard (@mibosshard) May 26, 2021

Linus reviews the ENCTEC concept

And frankly, ENCTEC got the video this idea deserves. Totally impractical but mostly unnecessary, a motherboard featuring the CPU socket on its backside is simply not what the market needs right now. Passive cooling works just fine inside a case.

Source: Linus Tech Tips

Streacom DB1 systems available

Building a fanless PC can be intimidating or confusing. Heat pipes and thermal grease application are certainly not for everyone. If the Streacom DB1 is up your alley, reliable PC builders are shipping complete PCs with it, including Quiet PC (AMD version, Intel version, shipping worldwide), Atlast! Solutions, or Inside-Tech.

The case itself is available from Quiet PC, Overclockers UK, Caseking, OLIOSPEC in Japan, and numerous retailers globally.

A recipe for disaster

We implore you to keep fanless graphics cards away from heat sink cases. Passively-cooled GPUs like the Palit KalmX series require maximum convection, and even open-air setup to function properly. In fact, unless costly solutions like the HDPLEX H5, Turemetal UP10 or MonsterLabo are involved, fanless discrete graphics are simply not recommended.

Source: ComputerBase

Small cases collection

These cool-looking aluminum PC cases are coming out of nowhere, and are perfect for convection / passive cooling (we're talking low-power builds here). The 5.5-liter KABIOU A1 ITX is only 8.07 x 4.29 x 9.96-inch, the 10.3-liter KABIOU B1 ITX is 12.2 x 5.51 x 9.33-inch, the 11-liter KABIOU B2 ITX is 12.2 x 5.51 x 9.65-inch, and the KABIOU B3 MATX is 12.83 x 6.34 x 10.82-inch. The A1 ITX only supports hard-to-find FLEX-1U PSUs while the others support regular SFX-L power supplies, including the SilverStone Fanless NJ450.

Fanless X570 chipset

AMD's actively cooled X570 chipset is a nuisance to society and public health. Thankfully, the decade-old Thermalright HR-05 cooler is keeping the toasty little chip at bay in passive mode. This impressive build also features the 105W Ryzen 9 5950X, NVIDIA's Quadro P2200 graphics, and Turemetal's UP10 case.

Courtesy of Fully Silent PCs

Rocket Lake cirrus7 incus available

The mini-STX PC (pictured next to the smaller NUC-based nimbini) is now available featuring 11th Generation Intel Core processors, including the 35W i5-11400T, i7-11700T, i9-11900T and the 65W i5-11400, i7-11700, i9-11900. The system is configurable with amazing specs (up to 64GB RAM and 10TB of SSD!) and pre-loaded with Windows 10, Ubuntu, Linux mint, or the Linux distribution of your choice.

Source: cirrus7

NUC 11 Pro video review

Courtesy of ETA PRIME

ASUS PN51 early review

The successor the ASUS PN50 AKA the "AMD NUC" features the Ryzen 5000 U-series processors (Zen 2 refresh). The unit is identical to previous generation and we expect it to be compatible with the Akasa Turing A50 (more on that soon). Overall performance is decent but not particularly impressive. Unless there's a specific reason for you to get the newer model, upgrading is absolutely not necessary.

Source: KoolShare 

DIN Rail Mounting for Industrial PCs

Courtesy of OnLogic

Noctua gets it

Noctua's Jakob Dellinger answers the most recurrent (and tiresome) question about passive cooling...

[RelaxedTech]: Why would someone buy a fanless CPU cooler when they can run the NH-D15 with very low RPM speeds?

[Jakob Dellinger]: The key challenge is that for a passive cooler to be truly effective, design parameters such as fin pitch and fin thickness need to be quite different. You need a certain pitch to get low enough flow resistance for sufficient natural convection and a certain fin thickness in order to get the mass that is required for absorbing enough thermal energy. This means that different manufacturing machinery is required, e.g. much stronger stamping presses, etc. Getting this sorted in a reasonably cost-efficient way was quite a challenge. As for how big the market for this type of cooler is, we’ll actually have to wait and see. We found the technical possibility thrilling and hope that many customers will share this feeling. There’s a certain beauty and simplicity to going completely fanless rather than just running slow fans, there’s no real possible point of failure, less dust build-up, and of course, the bliss of complete silence.

Source: RelaxedTech

Jasper Lake DL20N in the works

The upcoming Shuttle DL20N will be the first - and probably the only - fanless mini PC featuring the 10W Jasper Lake processors. Granted, the case is considerably larger than a NUC at 190 x 165 x 43 mm, but it does offer more room for cooling. We reached out to Shuttle and the DL20N is not launching anytime soon though (the global chip shortage is expected to last through 2021). Stay tuned.

Source: Shuttle (PDF)

Meet the Jasper Lake PN41

The Jasper Lake successor to the Gemini Lake PN40 is now official. The fanless NUC features 6W Jasper Lake processors, including the Celeron N4500, Celeron N5100, and Pentium Silver N6000. The PN41 is also sporting substantial upgrades such as 2.5 GbE LAN, WiFi 6, and 24/7 reliability. The ASUS mini desktop will be available as a barebone system, and as a complete Windows 10 PC in various configurations (4GB or 8GB RAM and up to 128GB eMMC, 256GB SSD, or 1TB HDD).

Source: ASUS

Meet the Jasper Lake BRIX

We will not have to wait 2022 for a Jasper Lake desktop after all, and this one is fanless out of the box. GIGABYTE's GB-BMCE-4500C is powered by the 6W Celeron N4500 and should be available in the coming weeks for 159 euros. Cooling looks rudimentary, and consists of an internal CPU heat sink. Temperature-wise, we can already tell that this BRIX will perform better when VESA-mounted. 

✓ Fanless design with Intel Celeron Processor N4500 6W CPU
✓ Ultra compact PC design at only 0.67L (56.22x103x116.52mm)
✓ 1st 10 nm small core CPU
✓ Support M.2 2280 slot for SSD (support PCI-e x2+SATA)
✓ Supports 2.5" HDD/SSD, 7.0/9.5 mm thick (1 x 6 Gbps SATA 3)
✓ 1 x SO-DIMM DDR4 slots support 2933MHz, Max 16GB
✓ 802.11ac, Dual Band Wi-Fi & Bluetooth 4.2
✓ Realtek 8111HS Gigabit LAN
✓ HDMI 2.0b support 4K@60P HDR10
✓ mDP 1.4b support 4K@60P HBR2
✓ Realtek ALC255 Codec
✓ 4 x USB 3.1 (1 x USB Type-C)
✓ Headphone Jack
✓ Mic-phone Jack
✓ VESA Mounting Bracket (75 x 75mm + 100 x 100mm)
✓ AC-DC adapter : 100-240V input, 19V 65W
✓ 1 x Kensington Lock slot
✓ System Environment Operating Temperature: 0°C to +35°C

Source: GIGABYTE 

ARCTIC's Alpines are back in stock

ARCTIC's super popular fanless CPU coolers are back, and slightly more expensive than before. The Intel-compatible Alpine 12 Passive and the AMD-friendly Alpine AM4 Passive are now available for $15. The aluminum heat sinks come with pre-applied MX-2 thermal compound, and handle CPUs up to 47W TDP. Make sure to use them in well-ventilated cases. No case is fine, too!

Revised Akasa Turing A50

By popular demand, a second iteration of the Akasa Turing A50 is coming soon, with some slight adjustments. This new version (A-NUC62-M1BV2) finally supports microSD, microphone array, Displayport, and will be available first from Performance-PCs in the US, and Cartft.com in Europe. Kudos to our friends over at Akasa for listening to user feedback.

Impact Display Solutions fanless Ryzen PC review

"Impact Components specializes in building industrial PCs with specialized hardware and motherboards. Certain models have active cooling while the review unit here is fanless. Let's stress and benchmark the system to see how a passively cooled chassis can handle a low-power 12 to 25 W AMD Ryzen Embedded V1605B CPU.

When running Prime95 to stress the CPU, clock rates would boost to 2.9 GHz for just a few seconds before dipping slightly and stabilizing at 2.8 GHz. After 20 minutes or so, however, core temperature eventually reaches 100 C which forces clock rates to drop much steeper to the 1.8 GHz to 2.4 GHz range as shown by the screenshots below. Running Witcher 3 is more representative of real-world loads. In this scenario, core temperature remains stable at 75 C.

Prime95 shows that the passive cooling of the chassis is not enough to fully support CPU Turbo clock rates for extended periods. Clock rates can start as high as 2.9 GHz before inevitably falling to as low as 1.8 GHz when core temperature inevitably hits 100 C. It appears that even a massive aluminum heat sink isn't able to run the ULV CPU at maximum performance indefinitely."

Source: Notebookcheck

Rocket Lake's UHD Graphics test

Intel's integrated graphics have taken plenty of heat over the years - literally and figuratively - but they have been improving for the past couple of years. Since dedicated GPUs are extremely hard to passively cool, Intel’s UHD Graphics can be an option for casual and classic games. YouTuber ETA PRIME takes a look at the i5-11600K from a gaming perspective, and the results are definitely interesting.

EXCLUSIVE: Jasper Lake NUC

The good news is that an affordable Jasper Lake-powered NUC is in the works. We were really pleased with Gemini Lake and we can't wait for the next generation. The not-so-good news is that global chip shortage is still a thing, and Atlas Canyon won't be available until Q1 2022.

For the first time ever, the entry-level NUC is ditching the 2.5" drive for a slim M.2 version only. The NUC 11 Essential is actively-cooled, although fanless cases are probably a given considering the low TDP. It will be available as a Window 10 mini PC, as a barebone kit (add RAM and storage) and as a board only.

Update: The J6005, J5105, and J4505 are most likely the N6005, N5105, and N4505 released early this year.

✓ Pentium Silver J6005 (NUC11ATKPE) up to 3.3 GHz (4C / 4T)
✓ Celeron J5105 (NUC11ATKC4) up to 2.9 GHz (4C / 4T)
✓ Celeron J4505 (NUC11ATKC2) up 2.7 GHz (2C / 2T)
✓ Dual-channel DDR4-2933 SODIMMs, 16GB max
✓ 1x HDMI 2.0b, 1x DisplayPort 1.4 (HDCP 2.2 support)
✓ Supports 2 x 4K displays
✓ M.2 22x80 key M slots for PCIe x4 NVMe and SATA SSDs
✓ Select SKUs with 64GB eMMC Storage
✓ 10/100/1000 Mbps Ethernet
✓ Intel Wi-Fi 6 AX101 m.2 card + Bluetooth v5.2
✓ 2x front USB 3.1, 2x rear USB 3.1, and 2x rear USB 2.0
✓ Up to 7.1 multichannel digital audio via HDMI
✓ 3.5mm front stereo jack / 3.5mm mic
✓ 19VDC 65W power supply

✓ External 9-pin front panel header
✓ Microsoft Windows 10 / Linux compatible
✓ Three Year Product Life Cycle
✓ Three-Year Warranty

✓ 135 x 115 x 36 mm

Seasonic PRIME Fanless PX-500 review

Russian site iXBT.com takes a look at the 500W fanless option from Seasonic, and the review is glowing. Thanks to a fully modular design, high quality capacitors, outstanding efficiency and industry-leading 12-year warranty, the PX-500 is really something else. While we obsess over cooling, the PSU is the most important part of any build. Spare no expense.

Source: iXBT