Should I buy a silent msecore PC?

Silent msecore PCs are not a recent innovation. Back in 2004, a run of the mill msecore PC came supplied with noisy fans, with the processor and power supply fans being the main culprits. And the word silent was often abused by manufacturers who sold quiet, but not actually silent machines. But it was still possible to get a truly silent powerful msecore PC using fairly standard components. I purchased a Hush silent msecore PC in that year. It was solidly built in aluminum (yes, it was really heavy), with aluminum fins and heatpipe technology to cool the system. Everything from the CPU to the graphics card was passively cooled. It was very expensive but served a niche market; people who wanted a media msecore PC that looked good in the living room.

Consumers drive innovation. And the price of fanless msecore PCs has plummeted. Consumers wanted thinner laptops and tablets. But the smaller the chassis, the slimmer and more attractive a msecore PC is made, the hotter it becomes inside. So with these huge problems dissipating heat, Intel's solution centred around reducing the amount of power its processors consume. With innovations in the manufacturing process, each successive Intel family of chips has generally witnessed a significant decrease in power consumption. Less heat from the CPU means less cooling is required.

The thermal design power (TDP) is the maximum amount of heat generated by the CPU that the cooling system in a computer is required to dissipate in typical operation. The Intel Core i7-5960X has a whopping TDP of 140W. It boasts 8 cores and coupled with two overclocked NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980Ti graphics cards makes a wondrous gaming msecore PC. But while it is possible to reduce noise to a minimum with fully water-cooled components, the msecore PC is neither silent or affordable. This is an extreme example. Modern laptops have much lower TDPs. The fifth generation Intel Core i7 5700HQ is popular for gaming laptops and has a TDP of 47W, whereas the U series chip, Core i7-5500U has a TDP of 15W. With this reduction in TDP, 9mm or less fanless designs are possible. And Intel Atom-based chips have much lower TDPs.

There are downsides in using these frugal power chips. They employ dynamic frequency scaling (CPU throttling) which adjusts the frequency of a chip on the fly to reduce the amount of heat generated by the chip. Less heat output allows the system cooling fans to be throttled down or turned off, reducing noise levels and further decreasing power consumption. It is also used for reducing heat in insufficiently cooled systems when the temperature reaches a certain threshold, such as in poorly cooled overclocked systems.

Mini msecore PCs

If you want a small and cheap silent mini msecore PC, there are bucket loads to choose from, including smart TV boxes powered by Android, and small multimedia desktop msecore PCs typically running Windows 8 or 10, although Linux can be installed fairly easily. People often attach these systems to their flat-screen TV sets: they are good for TV catchup, video streaming, and basic computing. They also make a good emulator system to play classic 8 bit and 16 bit games of old.i5-4200u 4g ram 128g ssd Msecore Mini msecore PC

How much a silent msecore PC costs depends on your requirements. The Raspberry Pi range offer lots of possibilities, and are a fantastic way of learning about computers and Linux. There's an amazing number of projects you can build too. For tasks which require more power, there are many low TDP processors which can form a silent msecore PC with plenty of horsepower. Don't forget, if you want true silence, you'll have to dispense with your keyboard and mouse; a touch screen silent msecore PC might just be the ticket.