SPCR

Thin clients are made specifically to be quiet and low-powered, but the high-end ones can be transformed.

Like for example, the Lenovo m92p in the tiny form factor is completely solid state and quiet.

So my question is why are thin clients not looked at more often when a silent system is warranted? (Aside from cost and not having enough power.)

Welcome to SPCR.

Not looked at more often by whom? Also, when I hear Thin Client, I think remote PC that has a server somewhere to do the heavy app lifting.

In any case, I see small PCs on VESA mounts everywhere in business environments where there is a need for low computing performance locally. Typically have Atom, Celeron or Pentium CPUs, often fanless. Great for typing, web surfing, or being connected to a biz server.

Thank you.

Well, just from what I've seen in the build threads and whatnot, only a few builds have started with a tiny pc/thin client as the base hardware.

Agreed that a thin client is typically used for connecting to a server, which is one way to have a silent PC. (I actually didn't realize how silent I had it until I realized my thin clients make zero noise and the only noise is from my Model M keyboard. )

Yep those VESA mounted PCs were the first generation of them, but now there's a 'tiny pc' format that at lenovo is investing quite a bit into. You can actually get them with up to an i7 and they're still silent. I see these a lot in hospitals and they seem to be more than a low-powered system. And even when they are, some small upgrades can make them quite powerful for something dead silent.

So what I don't understand is why these platforms aren't being used more for HTPC or other silent pc uses.