Jan Schaumann wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> I'm considering getting a cobalt qube 2 to replace my noisy PC as my
> private mail and webserver.  The thing would most likely be in my
> bedroom, so I'd like it to be quiet -- how noisy are the qubes?
> 
> Thanks,
> -Jan

      They can be really, really quiet!  Just unplug the noisy 40mm fan 
that they come with.  You could also replace it with a quieter one, but 
the fan is unnecessary.  The only thing that gets warm is the hard 
drive, but I'd say the internal temperature reaches at most 10-15 
degrees C above ambient.  My QUBE 2's metal case feels about skin 
temperature, or maybe slightly cooler.

 From http://cobaltqube.org/story/index.html:
> They used MIPS because of its performance and low power consumption.
> At that time, in same performance, Intel products produced 15W heat.
> 2W for MIPS. Heatless in a small box lead to trouble free products.
> "The consuming electricity of low end Qube products was only 20W in
> total, which means it doesn't need a fan. But user may think it is
> not real without fan, so we attached fan", he said with smiling.

      That quote was from Vivek Mehra, one of the founders of Cobalt.  I 
believe it referred to the Qube (not the Qube 2), but it appears the 
same advice applies.

      Without the fan, the Qube 2 is as quiet as the hard drive inside 
it.  (I have a noisy 13-gig Western Digital drive in mine, but the 
two-layer skin of the Qube muffles it quite a bit.)  Newer Hitachi 
drives like the ones I use in my desktop have FDB motors so quiet you 
can't hear them from 6" away, even if the room is completely silent.  If 
you're going for absolute silence, I recommend those.

--
c v k @ z y b x . c o m