On Mon, 29 Nov 2004, Andy Ruhl wrote:

> On Mon, 29 Nov 2004 08:51:48 -0800, Kevin Lahey <kml@patheticgeek.net> wrote:
> > In message <20041129160245.GE11050@netmeister.org>Jan Schaumann writes
> > >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?
> >
> > Ummm, mine is fairly noisy.  It is probably less noisy than my tower
> > case PC, but there is still plenty of fan noise.
>
> It's not dead quiet, but I'd say it's probably going to be quieter
> than your average PC. It's got 1 small fan. My drive is a little noisy
> too, I've heard some 5400 rpm drives are a lot quieter.
>
> I hate to say it, because I hate PCs, but these new mini itx systems
> with the fanless Via processors seem like the best quiet machiene
> setup.

If only Sun had removed it's blinkers for long enough to let their
visionaries have the foresight to go along that sort of path... We could
have quiet, almost fanless high-end Sparc workstations instead of machines
like the Ultra 2 and some others that produce enough noise to rival a
power drill.

I am dead-against Wintendo machines, but agree that fanless and tiny PC's
are definitely the way to go for overall reductions in noise pollution,
energy conservation, etc. esp. if something like NetBSD (or even Linux) is
run on them instead of MegaHard WinBlows... 8-)

It would good to find a way to get the tiny, noisy, unreliable fans out of
the earlier Cobalt appliances. The Raq-2i I was running for the best part
of 3 years had a few fan failures in that time. It's been replaced by a
Raq-4i, but I intend to use the 2i as my mail server running NetBSD and
using SpamAssassin + Postfix (just like I am doing on a few machines
already - but at present there is not one single mail server for my LAN).

Craig.

-- 
Post by Craig Dewick (tm). Web --> "http://lios.apana.org.au/~cdewick".
Email me at "cdewick@poison.lios.apana.org.au". Explore my public-domain Sun
Microsystems technical data archive at "http://www.sunshack.org". Sun Micro
enthusiasts/users webring at "http://n.webring.com/hub?ring=sunmicrosystemsu".