My wife doesn't mind me tweaking and hacking with PCs, but when the PC is also the TV/DVD/Stereo, that's a bit different. I've only just got it all set-up, so will leave it as-is for a wee while. Oddly, it is quieter when the top lid is removed, which seems odd. I think on mine the larger case fan is louder, as it is definitely quieter when you stop it. I updated the firmware, but it already had the firmware with the fan fix in it (1.5), now it's on 1.6. So far I've found the PC is about the same noise levels as a modern HP or Dell desktop. gacmb5, your pages are really handy.Īfter years of putting off getting a silent PC to use a a HTPC, I bought one of these. The bigger built in fan is a 5cm/50mm (20mm depth - most fans are only 10mm depth) unit though if you want to replace it that fan size isn’t too common so you may need to hunt around various PC stores, since the bios updates have address the noise in the unit there is not much point in replacing it. 20330#bios which adjusts the speed the smaller fan to address the oscillating noise There are actually two fans in the unit a very small fan cools one of the chips it is under the DVD drive if you remove the DVD/HD cage, this is the noisy fan of the two (its 30mm in size) if running 1.00 bios.
#REPLACEMENT FAN IN ASROCK ION 330 UPDATE#
Be sure you to update to the latest bios as it improves the fan control (& it’s overall noise output). You shouldn’t hear the unit when content is playing or with general background noise but in a totally silent room you may hear it. Well that’s a hard one to pin down as some people are more picky than others, I’d say its not as quiet as a PS3 but not as loud as an Xbox 360 (no disc). Product appears to be available in Canada, but not yet in US.
ASRock is also working on the MultiBook M15, which is going to be an Intel notebook with a multi-touch touchpad, which should be out later this year and will certainly be interesting to see.
There is also the NetTop ION 330-BD for those looking for Blu-ray disc support. In fact, for that price, we absolutely love this product. The ASRock NetTop ION 330 is not yet available through most retail outlets, but we are told its price will be at about $350 USD, which is not bad at all. The ability to overclock the Atom 330 processor is also excellent and allows you to squeeze a bit more performance of the system if you so wish. There is also great connectivity with HDMI, DVI, VGA, and S/PDIF, but this system lacks any integrated eSATA or WiFi or Bluetooth support. Not only does the ASRock Nettop perform well thanks to its NVIDIA ION GPU and Intel Atom 330 dual-core processor, but also the system has a very small form factor, runs cool and quiet, and comes with a great set of features.