small Compaq desktops, circa Celeron 1.7 or the Raspberry Pi? - bassbinotoko - Computer Audio Asylum

Computer Audio Asylum

Music servers and other computer based digital audio technologies.

small Compaq desktops, circa Celeron 1.7 or the Raspberry Pi?

bassbinotoko

In Reply to: cheap or DIY silent (or nearly so) PC posted by soldermizer on April 6, 2012 at 21:40:01:

I inherited several old Compaq D51S compact desktops after an office cleanup. Celeron 1.7 GHz, 128M, 40G 5400RPM IDE base configuration; CPU Mark rating is around 200. They are unusually quiet - I can tolerate leaving one running in my bedroom 24-7. IIRC there's just one fan, which is variable speed. IDE hard drive, sensibly located for optimum cooling, and one external 5.25" bay for an IDE CD or DVD drive. USB 2.0 support, VGA out (no DVI), two PCI slots, so you could put a good sound card in one and a SATA card in the other. CPU usage with VLC playing a lossless AIFF was 3 to 9% just now. You might find one of these at a computer recycler or Freegeek.

There's probably other worthy small desktops, but I can't recommend the IBM Netvistas of the same vintage: the office bought several of those at the same time, and most of the hard drives failed, IMHO due to poor cooling.

Get on the waiting list for a Raspberry Pi (Newark.com is distributing them in North America). Tiny, fanless, but powerful enough to play 1080p Blu-ray quality video, and open-source.

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Follow Ups Full Thread

Topic - cheap or DIY silent (or nearly so) PC - soldermizer 21:40:01 04/06/12 (11)

small Compaq desktops, circa Celeron 1.7 or the Raspberry Pi? - bassbinotoko 00:38:27 04/08/12 (0)

Don't understand obsession over removing fans - Jon L 09:10:01 04/07/12 (5)

obsession over removing fans - fmak 12:36:53 04/07/12 (0)

RE: Don't understand obsession over removing fans - AbeCollins 10:05:50 04/07/12 (3)

Obsession for "cheap" and quiet, therefore, remove! - soldermizer 12:00:49 04/07/12 (2)

RE: Obsession for "cheap" and quiet, therefore, remove! - AbeCollins 12:14:33 04/07/12 (1)

I'm not cheap, I'm economical...! - soldermizer 16:29:21 04/07/12 (0)

RE: cheap or DIY silent (or nearly so) PC - Bones13 03:48:02 04/07/12 (0)

RE: cheap or DIY silent (or nearly so) PC - Dawnrazor 02:38:42 04/07/12 (0)

RE: cheap or DIY silent (or nearly so) PC - J.Mac 21:59:51 04/06/12 (1)

Another option would be... - soldermizer 21:03:11 04/07/12 (0)

Follow Ups

small Compaq desktops, circa Celeron 1.7 or the Raspberry Pi? - bassbinotoko 00:38:27 04/08/12 (0)

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