Thread: Quiet Non-Music PC Recommendations?

Some of the small form factor Dell computers are really nice and most any decent laptop could fit the bill. If you are inclined, possibly a mac mini might do the trick too. Any budget you want to stay under? There's probably a ton of choices out there, but I love Dell and Macintosh computers.

AC

Are you up to working on the one you have? If so your problem may be easily correctable. Most of the off the shelf boxes don't use near the quality of parts that are used by people who build their own use. Fans are one of the first places they cheap out. If you look at places like Newegg you can find the higher quality quiet fans that are used by builders and replace it yourself. If the noisy fan is part of the power supply replace the whole thing. As to the video if your machine is using the onboard video chip on the motherboard then just buy a new one using the same graphics chip company and plug it into a PCI slot. At start-up go into the setup screen and tell the bios to use the new card instead of the one on the board. I have replaced both many times. The fans are usually the first thing to go. If you are already using an off board video card just replace with newer version from same company, nVidia etc.

Now if you just want a new one, never mind.

AC

Then look at the Dell or Asus models using the ratings from users and Cnet and buy the best deal. Limited lifespan is part of their plan. When I had to buy one a while back the Dell was the best deal and I couldn't wait around.

I concur with Dell and Asus. I would also add in MSI. These three tend to be some of the best. My wife and I have both moved to using laptops full time now. We both have had Desktop computers for years and years but find that laptops have become so much better that the desktop is not offering much more, if any performance gains and the convenience of a good laptop is unbelievable for us.

I have a MSI, which has completely interchangeable parts, like a Desktop. Not long ago I bought my wife an Alienware (Dell's upper line of PC's). It took her a week or to to get used to the 17" screen versus the larger one that she used to have, but now she would not go back to a Desktop no matter what. I feel the same.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B019EF8JL8?psc=1

I've been looking at these small form factor Intel NUC units for a while.
Ideal for desktops where space is limited due to their small size.

Have you seen these?
https://www.endpcnoise.com/powerhouse-pcs

I have never used them of course. Just found them via Google.

If you do think about any of the companies that build customized high end computers I know there are tons of companies out there. With this said I feel you are much better with the companies that have a proven track record. Yes, you usually pay more for these companies products. Usually for a good reason. It is not like a new comer can do it better or cheaper than the companies that have been doing it forever. There are reasons why you pay more.

With that said, I have only two recommendations if you go down the custom made route. This comes from building my own PCs for a good 20+ years, and owning and/or reviewing computers from various custom manufactures. The two best, by far, are Alienware and what i believe is the best is Falcon Northwest. Falcon is the company that started the custom built PCs for enthusiast way back in 1992 if I am not mistaken.

They have designed their own cases for years. Actually one of the only companies that do not just used cases off the shelf. For example, the Tiki model (which I current use for my music server) has a super compact case housing very high end hardware. Their ultra small model is also mounted on a granite base. I took my Tiki that was originally used as my high end, ultra compact desktop PC and modified it (both software and hardware) and re-allocated it as a dedicated music server.

Other than ultra quiet fans, solid state h.d.'s and purpose built/quiet power supplies .....perhaps the easiest thing is just move the tower unit into another adjacent room and plumb the cabling itself through the wall to your office and desk?

True as well ....

Haven't found a reason to own a desktop computer in a long time. The last one purchased for our home was about 20 years ago.

MacBook Air is pretty quiet.


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Originally Posted by Randy Myers

I concur with Dell and Asus. I would also add in MSI. These three tend to be some of the best. My wife and I have both moved to using laptops full time now. We both have had Desktop computers for years and years but find that laptops have become so much better that the desktop is not offering much more, if any performance gains and the convenience of a good laptop is unbelievable for us.

I have a MSI, which has completely interchangeable parts, like a Desktop. Not long ago I bought my wife an Alienware (Dell's upper line of PC's). It took her a week or to to get used to the 17" screen versus the larger one that she used to have, but now she would not go back to a Desktop no matter what. I feel the same.

I guess it all depends on what you use a desktop for. Laptops with photoshop and other photo programs not to mention my CAD programs are lagging behind. Ps we use dual 27" monitors. For music a laptop with enough guts to run say HQ Player and DSD up conversions and optimized for audio are very convenient. The Dell setup is a blast. I still have a 2012 Mac Mini configuration that has not been used in a while it's got the ram and cpu power not to mention a solid state drive but I just didn't like the mac.

Well it depends on which laptop you are referring to. For example, my laptop has a i7 CPU, 16 GB DDR3 RAM, M.2 SSD. In fact the laptop has a cage that can hold 4x M.2 SSD drives (I have 2 installed) along with a TB HHD. It also has a GTX980 graphics card, a blu-ray burner optical drive, 4x USB 3.0 and 2x USB 3.1 ports. Two display port outputs and a HDMI. It can power 3 external monitors and the internal 17", all at the same time. Oh, I could up the memory to 32 GB if I wanted to. It also has a built in SD Card slot so transferring images from my Nikon camera is simple.

The laptop also has complete interchangeable parts. Therefore I could in fact change the CPU or the graphics card for example.

Therefore I say it really depends on the laptop because I can guarantee you that my laptop can do Photoshop, CAD or anything else a desktop can do. In fact I do actually do all of my artwork on my laptop:

http://www.myers-art.com/Paintings.html

I do have photo editing software installed (I prefer Corel versus Adobe, personal preference), although honestly, I do not do a whole lot of photo editing. I concentrate on taking the photos correct up front. Since I learned photo taking back in the 35mm days, prior to digital and easy editing, I try to avoid editing after the fact.

Oh, my wife's new laptop actually has a 6th generation i7 CPU which uses DDR4 RAM. As I said, it all depends on which laptop. Current laptops can indeed perform equal with all but the super high end professional workstation class machine!

If you are looking for a quiet desktop consider a custom built with a water cooled cpu and SSD drives. I have built a couple of computers from scratch but you can buy a computer from Cyber Power PC and customize it for less than you can build one. I have bought 3 computers from them. You can customize almost every aspect of a desk top. Their prices are hard to beat.

https://www.cyberpowerpc.com/

I use a iMac running Bootcamp/Win10
It is very quiet.
I/O a bit slow