Best fanless mini-pc for DSD+ASMD up-sampling

But why try to search for a mini-PC? It will always be a difficult combination to have high processing performance, small space and quiet.

I only know of the existence of the following; no experience, but itā€™s something I keep an eye on: https://fit-iot.com/web/products/airtop3/ . I have read reviews that mentioned coil whine, but supposedly a BIOS adjustment to slightly reduce power consumption helps. This is the only fanless machine Iā€™m aware with a modern Nvidia GPU. I believe pricing is in the same ballpark as a Nucleus+,

Good luck!

Because its small, and I already have a desktop computer.

How does multicore setting in HQPlayer works on AMD CPUs like Ryzen 7 4800U? It has a little less speed/thread but on the other hand it has 8 cores.

Someone would need to try it out and report backā€¦

One idea is to get a powerful machine with less HQP limitations and put it in another room where you wonā€™t hear itā€™s fan.

Then in your listening room use NAA. Can even use your existing desktop as Windows NAA.

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Yes, or buy a chassis-cooled computer/NUC and place a very silent desk fan to help it cool if needed (for example when warm outside). I bet it will make a big difference to how much heat the chassis can handle, and a big desk fan can be virtually silent (30dB) unlike smaller computer-fans.

On the other hand, it sort of defeats the purpose of a fanless computer :slight_smile:

Can work but I prefer a lower noise floor in the room, so have all fans in another room.

Ya but as I hinted, more powerful machine has less HQP limitationsā€¦ fanless can have more HQP limitations, depending what youā€™re doing.

Btw, do you know of a way in Windows to allocate cores to a process from startup? The reason I ask if that one alternative would be to use a combined desktop/HPQ computer, and move that to another room (I have a desktop computer in room today but its very silent)? A fast 8 core CPU, with 2 cores allocated and dedicated to HQPlayer and the rest for Windows and process started by windows.

Even if the CPU becomes a little pricy (in area of $500), all I need is a CPU and a motherboard to replace the ones I have.

Noctua fans are pretty darn silent. :smiley:

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Well designed/constructed fans only make noise because of the airflow, and the more open its placed the less noise (pushing air through metallic grids will make more noise). Just DIYing a little quiet computer fan like better Noctua a short distance from a chassis-cooling NUC and running at low/mid voltage would almost certainly be very quiet and still give a lot of extra airflow and cooling.

Its a little like I have built my desktop computer, using a almost ā€œpassive cooledā€ CPU cooler with a fan that can help a little when needed but which stands still at idle.

Or maybe something like this, which is claimed to produce 30dB (which is lower than the background noise in my apartment), it also uses water to give moisture and better air (which incidentally will increase cooling): https://buybreezie.com/product/mini-air-cooler/
No idea about the quality on it though.
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I canā€™t recall if this was mentioned but you can have a fanless 9900K.

I donā€™t know how effective the cooling is when running ASDM7EC at DSD256.

Something tells me that that mini-pc will be kind of expensive

Ha so now you want lots of HQP capabilities AND fanless AND inexpensive !?

Magnussss, choose 2 of the 3 :smile:

All 3 not possible at the moment

Why fanless? Fans are useful.

Magnus might have different reasons but I assume for some people fans are too noisy inside the listening room (even big Noctuaā€™s).

Fanless (as long as the passive cooling is done proper) is silent.

And for some people having a PC in a different room and running ethernet cable between rooms isnā€™t practicably possible. I can relate to this in a previous place I was renting.

WiFi is also an option, but some extra trouble to set up.

May not be very reliable in all places if there are many wireless networks around, or a lot of steel reinforced concrete walls.

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Yep, thatā€™s the catch with WiFi. Might work, might not.

So there a very valid reasons for looking for a fanless machine.

But like everything in life, thereā€™s a tradeoff, at the moment anyway for people wanting to do DSD256 with EC modulators.

Worth trying though. For me, 8-channel DSD256 works over WiFi to a NAA. And for many just stereo is enough.

True, especially if you can buy gear with a full refund return policy to try, risk free.

What WiFi gear do you use?