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My Fanless OpenBSD Desktop (2021)

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Re: My Fanless OpenBSD Desktop (2021)

#101

Post by hedora »

trabant00 wrote: post #41

This is some form of laptop Stockholm Syndrome. Why would you crank your neck, type on a cramped keyboard and use a tiny mouse? Fan noise is also not a problem with a huge Noctua fan and positioning the tower under the desk. And my personal pet peeve: small monitor. > I've always chosen smaller ( Get a HUGE monitor, position it far away: you get the same relative size and relative pixel density, but your eyes can sta…

> Get a HUGE monitor, position it far away: you get the same relative size and relative pixel density, but your eyes can stay a lot more relaxed focusing at a decent distance.

I also age over time. Can confirm this is a better strategy.

Re: My Fanless OpenBSD Desktop (2021)

#102

Post by jeroenhd »

vel0city wrote: post #95
jeroenhd wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The effect depends on the screen technology you use. Windows guesses the pixel layout, but you can tweak ClearType to fit your screen better. You can open a wizard that takes you through six steps and asks you to select the rectangle with the best text (out of six rectangles) to tweak it to your liking. When the subpixels don't align, ClearType can be ugly as hell, but for me the default guesses always worked out.

I wonder if virtualization software messing with how ClearType assumes subpixel layouts could cause a lot of the dislike for ClearType in the Mac crowd, as many Mac users possibly predominately handled Windows in things like Parallels? I don't have any knowledge about how ClearType behaves in software like Parallels so I could be entirely off-base with that idea. The only time I had dislike for ClearType was when I'd…

The virtualisation problem may definitely play a role! In my experience, ClearType in a VM is often very very wrong. I think it may even be off by default if Windows can't find details about the current screen.

Alternatively, you may be getting the "RDP" experience for optimized drivers, which is just very blocky.

I prefer ClearType over whatever macOS does (or did, been a while since I had a Hackintosh) but combining different rendering styles is always jarring. Helping Mac people through remote desktop always made the text look wrong to me, probably for the same reason. When you expect text to look a certain way, alternative renderers are always wrong.

This is also something I notice with some custom GUI libraries that implement their own font rendering. I've dropped several GUI tools because I just got frustrated by how their text always looked different from normal text.

Re: My Fanless OpenBSD Desktop (2021)

#103

Post by Beltalowda »

formerly_proven wrote: post #23
frou_dh wrote: post #18

Something I've learned from discussing computer hardware informally online over the years is that people have vastly different standards for what it means for fans to be "silent" in use. So much so that it's hardly worth discussing, because someone will insist that such and such fan or actively-cooled device is silent, and then you buy it and it sounds like crap. I suspect it's "Cloth Ears" in many cases.

I think it's not just different standards (quiet = "I can't hear it when blasting Call of Duty at an unhealthy volume") but likely the prevalence of hearing damage. A 30 dB noise is way less noticeable if your threshold of hearing is in the 10-30 dB range instead of the -10 to 10 dB range. Likewise the ability of people to perceive separate noises simultaneously differs. (Likewise many people say they can't hear the…

> Likewise many people say they can't hear the noise ANC headphones produce - it seems likely to me that they're either in a too loud environment so it's masked at all times, have hearing damage or both.

On my old QC-35 I couldn't hear it, but it's pretty noticeable on the QC-45 I got after those broke.

Re: My Fanless OpenBSD Desktop (2021)

#104

Post by sgtnoodle »

sidewndr46 wrote: post #100

Doesn't using a single DIMM for memory really kill the performance? I thought basically all Intel & AMD CPUs have two channels of memory controllers. So for optimal bandwidth on the memory you need to use a multiple of two memory sticks.

It's perhaps a bit worse in terms of raw throughput. It likely doesn't impact the user experience in any perceivable way, though.

Re: My Fanless OpenBSD Desktop (2021)

#105

Post by hedora »

mhb wrote: post #82
christophilus wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your comment made me check my own (LG Ultrafine 5k) and it’s 140W… That’s crazy. I love this monitor, but am interested in a high quality, lower power option if anyone knows of one.

Crazy? At 20 cents/kWh, running it for 12 hours a day costs 34 cents per day or $123/year.

My entire house idles at 500W.

That includes two fridges, a freezer, a NAS, multiple internet uplinks, lighting, an always-on desktop, a half-dozen IoT gizmos and five wireless access points.

The house averages 1-2 kW (including laundry, water heater, water treatment, hvac, dishwasher, oven, cooktop, etc).

A 140W monitor would meaningfully increase these numbers.

Re: My Fanless OpenBSD Desktop (2021)

#107

Post by hedora »

eMSF wrote: post #67
haunter wrote: post #11

Nice! My brother made a fanless gaming PC and it’s pretty nice. Sadly GTX 1650 was the last GPU available with a passive cooler [0]. So sooner or later it will be EOL. Afaik no RTX card was ever released with a passive cooler 0, https://www.palit.com/palit/vgapro.php?id=3494

You'd gave to be quite lucky to buy a high-power GPU like that which, under load, wouldn't have coil whine significantly louder than quiet case fans. (GPU fans usually aren't that quiet even at lowest operating speeds but these days 0rpm modes on low loads are pretty much a standard feature.)

Yeah; I got an AMD 6600xt, and it's not noticeable in my quiet, but not fanless case. Also it adds a few very large, very low RPM fans that only spin up under load. Those help pull air through the case, helping other stuff stay in passive / low RPM mode.

It is counterintuitive, but many fans can end up being quieter than a few fans.

Re: My Fanless OpenBSD Desktop (2021)

#108

Post by hedora »

kaszanka wrote: post #46
lloydatkinson wrote: post #40

"future Intel "Evo"-branded laptops would lack S3 suspend" What is this about? Why would Intel remove a power saving option?

They replaced it with S0ix where the operating system remains running (Microsoft variously calls it "connected standby", "modern standby"). https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29122687

Has anyone gotten it working yet? This is the reason Dell no longer supports transporting windows laptops in bags, right?

Re: My Fanless OpenBSD Desktop (2021)

#110

Post by Beltalowda »

anemoiac wrote: post #84

I enjoy reading posts like this, which delve into personal setups and the intentions behind them. However, I found this a bit puzzling: > While not an absolute requirement, integrated speakers would be a nice option on the monitor so I wouldn't have to buy separate ones and find a place for them on my desk. For such a methodically constructed workspace, especially one that goes out of its way to avoid fan noise, I'd…

I appreciate a quiet setup, but I don't actually care all that much about the quality of the PC speakers; most of the time I use it just to watch a short video, or maybe a presentation or interview. As long as it doesn't sound absolutely horribly tinny it's "good enough". For more "serious listening" I use headphones.
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