the dangers of running a fanless computer

As many here have seen, I built a cheap mini-itx box using hardware parts and one of the fanless 5000 boards. I find myself using it all the time these days. You guys know these are not the snappiest systems, but they do run DSL nicely.

I'm using my plexiglass computer most of the time. Just yesterday my Mother-in-Law (actually a very nice lady!) was over her and wanted to check her email. I asked her what she thought when she was done. She said, "That was strange, I am use to being able to hear the computer turning on .... It was almost eerie."

I could understand what she means, the first couple of times I ran it with the other computers turned off it felt a little unnatural to me too. Yet, something happens after a while. The switch gradually makes you end up loathing the noisy sounds of a standard desktop. These days I only boot up the big computer when I need to do some development work and the whole time I have my big noisy machine going I want to hurry up and turn it off. Thank goodness I am not a hardcore gamer.

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I Agree

I don't have a mini itx yet :( but am wanting one in the near future. I currently run DSL mainly from a cheapo PNY stick and dread having to go into WInXP for work because my cpu fan jumps about 1000rpm and the hum drives me crazy. Running from the stick is much quieter. I have a very nice mainbox but hate to run it because of the noise. No doubt when my mini arrives it will be my main PC with nothing but DSL on usb :)

mmm...

very very nice...
my dream...i think, is to actually have one of those, rather than a laptop, a small wireless Keyboard and mouse(or mini-trackball -- have you seen the size of trackballs lately? it slike they forgot all about mini trackballs that used to be available for laptops and whatnot...), and buy one of those small LCD monitors...and carry them around in a case and pull it out and plug in like 3 or 4 wires and voila, instant portable desktop, that makes me feel better than a laptop...Is the mini-itx smaller than a shuttle? ;\ or do shuttles use mini-itx anyway, hmm..

shuttles seem to be big and bulky, and i think these (or at least the pictures in our DSL store) look a bit flatter...but what about a mac-mini...is this the same form factor?

-william
tronik @ #damnsmalllinux irc.freenode.net