One of the most important rules in libraries and reading rooms is:
You should only ever whisper and not make any excessive noises. Even the noise of whirring fans and hard drives clicking in vibrating PC casings can quickly get on your nerves. If people are then trying to read, study or be taught right next to aged IT equipment, this can have a negative impact on the outcomes.
Mini-PC manufacturer Shuttle recognised this many years ago and established a successful product range without any active cooling. The modern PC solutions dispense with fans entirely because they consume less energy, so they in turn generate less waste heat and, thanks to their design, also benefit from the physical principle of convection.
The four machines from the XPC slim DS10 model range, for example, require less than 8 watts to operate, are available with the latest Intel Celeron, Core i3, Core i5 and Core i7 processor, and can be combined with up to 64 GB of RAM. The appropriate version can be selected to suit the requirements of the software which is used.
