Quietest near silent SFF PC from a major Manufacturer?

[MBisFrenchy]

Hi, 

 

I've been on the search for the quietest pre-built sff pc from a major brand for work. I basically want silent. I installed a Noctua CPU cooler In a lenovo thinkcentre but the PSU fan bearings are really loud. I tried a HP SFF micro PC and a Dell Micro PC. The Dell is pretty much almost there, but lacks the expandability. The lenovo thinkcentre M720 seemed perfect on paper. How's the HP equivalent SFF business PC's if you guys have tried it? I'll always use a Noctua CPU cooler so I guess my question is who makes a SFF pc with a silent or near silent power supply fan? 

 

I am fine with a i3 as I just do excel and other boring non intensive tasks. I'd just like to be able to add extra 2.5 inch SSD's or PCI based SSD's as storage prices drop over time hopefully. Also almost forgot I need to have the option for natively have 3 video outputs. Dell and HP have the little expansion boards for extra ports for $30-45 which I am fine with. 

[SenKa]

quiet PSU fans and SFF dont tend to mix, unless you get a larger SFF case that supports a full ATX power supply (which doesn't seem to apply here). A smaller PSU means a smaller fan, smaller fans have to move faster (louder) to move enough air. Fanless ATX PSU's are not hard to find, ITX and smaller are not on the market.

 

My school as a bunch of HP micro PC's, they are very quiet and decently quick.

[Mling]

the low power intel nuc are silent. the i7 models can be noisy and hot. A new i3 should perform well. I was using a celeron quad core for a while but i found it was a bit slow.

[MBisFrenchy]

1 hour ago, SenKa said:

quiet PSU fans and SFF dont tend to mix, unless you get a larger SFF case that supports a full ATX power supply (which doesn't seem to apply here). A smaller PSU means a smaller fan, smaller fans have to move faster (louder) to move enough air. Fanless ATX PSU's are not hard to find, ITX and smaller are not on the market.

 

My school as a bunch of HP micro PC's, they are very quiet and decently quick.

Interesting, my micro pc was pretty loud. Maybe I got a dud. 

[MBisFrenchy]

1 hour ago, Mling said:

the low power intel nuc are silent. the i7 models can be noisy and hot. A new i3 should perform well. I was using a celeron quad core for a while but i found it was a bit slow.

Interesting forgot about those. Is your celeron active or passively cooled? 

[BlueChinchillaEatingDorito]

Dell Optiplex SFF. Don't get the Micro one. Get one of these:

 

I've used them throughout my University degree and I can't even tell if the fans were on. Just a little tip, you might be able to get three monitors of these using a DisplayLink Universal Docking Station if the onboard outputs don't allow for three. 

[it_dont_work]

I've still a couple of hp elite sff pc's and they are almost silent 

[Mling]

41 minutes ago, MBisFrenchy said:

Interesting forgot about those. Is your celeron active or passively cooled? 

All intel nucs have a fan. It pretty much is passively cooled in winter coz i never heard the fan spin up. I think its peak frequency is 2.4GHz which is nothing these days. They're all mobile CPUs. You can get models that can hold multiple drives. Ive seen them used as file servers in small businesses where people used to use a mac mini. Don't bother with a celeron model. They are too handicapped. Get an i3 or i5. I think an i3 would be all you really need. These are mobile CPUs so its not going to be as powerful as a desktop i3.

[Mling]

Have a look at a AMD 3200G build. The 5000 series will be bringing out something interesting which i might buy into. I replaced my intel nuc with a mATX with 3200G. It doesnt play games but I have all the power saving settings on in bios including the 45W limiter and it runs so much better than my celeron nuc. Its super quiet too. Hardly ever makes the fans spin up.

[MBisFrenchy]

12 hours ago, BlueChinchillaEatingDorito said:

Dell Optiplex SFF. Don't get the Micro one. Get one of these:

 

I've used them throughout my University degree and I can't even tell if the fans were on. Just a little tip, you might be able to get three monitors of these using a DisplayLink Universal Docking Station if the onboard outputs don't allow for three. 

Interesting tip, I'll look into this. 

[MBisFrenchy]

On 1/12/2021 at 1:36 AM, Mling said:

Have a look at a AMD 3200G build. The 5000 series will be bringing out something interesting which i might buy into. I replaced my intel nuc with a mATX with 3200G. It doesnt play games but I have all the power saving settings on in bios including the 45W limiter and it runs so much better than my celeron nuc. Its super quiet too. Hardly ever makes the fans spin up.

Thank you, I'll look at this option too. 

[MBisFrenchy]

Bit of a odd question. I got the replacement power supply and lenovo first sent me a replacement CPU heatsink and the second brand uses even louder bearings. I'm giving up on the M720s and reviewing all options but wondering what you guys think of replacing the stock 80mm fan with a noctua fan and running the Power for the 4 pin noctua off a motherboard header?