[ra_zo]

Hi,
i am running a ZOTAC ION ITX D with xbmc. It came with a zotac fan that i decided to apply since it got hot very quickly with passive cooling only.

This zotac fan makes a certain amount of noise which is annoying when watching movies or just running the pc as network server in the living room. Plus my girlfriend is not letting me run the pc all day... so id like to make it unnoticable. I am using a SATA drive inside which i believe makes no sound at all. So all i need is a super quiet fan, that has enough power to cool the Atom N330.

Can someone suggest a good one?

Can someone come up with a sound level (in dB?) which is really absolutely not audible?

greetings

[mason]

if you have some more space in your case i suggesst a noiseblocker BlackSilentFan XR1 its around 11db, i replaced the zotac one with this, and you cant hear a thing anymore! also the temperatures are quite okay with this one...

[Gnome]

...replace girlfriend!

[sorry, I couldn't resist...]

[ashlar]

Can someone come up with a sound level (in dB?) which is really absolutely not audible?

Anything below 20-21db should be fine. While not inaudible if you go near the case, it's perfectly ok from regular watching distance (assuming you have it connected to an HDTV).

What size is the fan?

[mason]

the original zotac is a 60mm fan ... and if you have space in your case i highly recommend the Noiseblocker fan, but note its bigger in height around the double the zotac fan is!

[RedShift]

I bought a case which has an airgrill above the motherboard, I'm hoping it'll suffice to keep the board cool enough for normal usage.

[ashlar]

You might wanna check this thread: http://www.silentpcreview.com/forums/vie...ecae91f313

[RedShift]

So I got my hardware, a Zotac IONITX-D-E (same as the -A but dual-core) and a Silverstone LC-19R. With no fans it's running pretty hot, after 2 hours of video playing I've seen it go up to 77 °c.

I'm willing to live with that but I would like a safeguard mechanism when it reaches for example 80 °c. Unfortunately the motherboard's BIOS doesn't any options to control fan behaviour (even though the CPU fan header has a PWM pin) and lm_sensors 3.1.1 and linux 2.6.31 don't detect any sensors. pwmconfig doesn't work either.