[mythtv-users] Reference fanless 1080p capable frontend?

[Raymond Wagner]

On 11/14/2009 18:13, Harry Coin wrote:
> I'm looking for guidance for hardware shopping for a basic reliable 
> myth dedicated fanless frontend (no backend, just playback and that's 
> it) capable of quality 1080p and lower running the new .22.   Web 
> links or system suggestions?

'Fanless' is a very difficult prospect.  The only way to do it properly 
is to have a big external heatsink.  There are a handful of cases and 
water cooling units specifically designed for this purpose.

That said, fanless is not necessary for quiet.  The Revo is not fanless, 
but rather is set up like a laptop.  Everything heat producing gets 
piped to a single heatsink, with a small centripetal fan blowing out the 
vents on top.  It's not difficult to make a computer quiet.  Just make 
sure you go for low power parts, like a 45W or 65W CPU, a low end 
graphics card, and a high efficiency CPU.  A high efficiency power 
supply will be very quiet.  A CPU can be made quiet with a sufficiently 
large heating and large/slow fan.  Motherboards are all typically 
fanless anymore, relying on the CPU fan for airflow.  Video cards tend 
to be loud, but a low end fanless one is not a problem.  Video cards are 
rated for sufficiently high temperatures that fanless operation is 
actually reasonable.