[mythtv-users] Looking for a Mini Mac/AOpen mini PC replacement

[Kevin Hulse]

On Fri, Oct 19, 2007 at 01:35:11PM -0700, David Brodbeck wrote:
> 
> On Oct 19, 2007, at 1:15 PM, Chris Ribe wrote:
> > Just a nit to pick here, but I see this myth floated out there a  
> > lot.  A mac mini is not silent.  It is extremely quiet under light  
> > load, but it sounds like a jet aircraft when its fan starts going.

	A mac mini is indeed quiet, even under load. It is less
quiet under load but it's still not nearly as bad as a stock AMD
fan going full tilt. It's about on par with a more recent laptop.

	I have an old vaio laptop that I wanted to use as a 
frontend but it is far noisier than the mini (even under load). 

> >
> > Additionally, most of its quietness comes from the fact that it  
> > isn't nearly as small as advertised.  It doesn't have an internal  
> > power supply, but an external power brick that is half the size of  
> > the computer!

	Considering that the PSU is often one of the biggest 
generators of both noise and heat in a system it's a pretty
blindingly obvious thing to separate out from the rest of the
system. I'm surprised this idea hasn't caught on yet in larger
systems.

	It used to be a pretty standard thing to do. In those
days no one even bothered with fans for the rest of the system.

> 
> It's not inaccurate to think of a Mini as a laptop, sans display and  
> keyboard, mashed into a vaguely cubical shape.
> 
> It has most of the tradeoffs a laptop does -- it's small and has low  
> power consumption, but it also has a slow hard disk and not much  
> upgrade potential.  And yeah, it needs an external power brick, just  
> like a laptop.  (The external brick for my VIA miniITX system is  
> huge, too.)
> 
> Anyone remember the Toshiba laptops that had the power supply built  
> in, so you just plugged a 120V power cord right into the laptop?  I  
> miss that sometimes.