HP DC7100 - very quiet standard PC

Got a shopping cart of parts that you want opinions on? Get advice from members on your planned or existing system (or upgrade).

Moderators: NeilBlanchard, Ralf Hutter, sthayashi, Lawrence Lee

Post Reply
dukeofthomas
Posts: 5
Joined: Tue Dec 12, 2006 3:33 pm

HP DC7100 - very quiet standard PC

Post by dukeofthomas » Tue Dec 12, 2006 4:42 pm

Hi guys, just thought I'd share this with those of you who are looking to buy a new PC and want a very quiet one off the shelf. I bought a HP Compaq DC7100 from Ebay second hand for £140 a few months ago, and was amazed at how quiet it is. I currently have it on top of my desk as a second PC, but when I first got it I had it under the desk, and as long as there was no clear line of sight between it and my ears, it was completely inaudible.
Has anybody else had similar experiences with any stock PCs?

shikimaru
Posts: 64
Joined: Fri Oct 20, 2006 2:05 am
Location: Australia

Post by shikimaru » Tue Dec 12, 2006 5:39 pm

how dare you buy stock and then tell me about it?

ESP from HP...you could have at least bought from a local vendor so that the money stays in the country.

Glad to know it's quiet though, probably because it has a PII inside which you could cool with a passive HS these days

qviri
Posts: 2465
Joined: Tue May 24, 2005 8:22 pm
Location: Berlin
Contact:

Post by qviri » Tue Dec 12, 2006 6:17 pm

That's uncalled for.

Ignoring everything else, the DC7100 sports a Prescott-series processor, and cooling that quietly is not something to be dismissed at once.

dukeofthomas, thanks for the information, and enjoy the machine. Can you describe what kind of environment the machine is in? How much ambient noise is there?

dukeofthomas
Posts: 5
Joined: Tue Dec 12, 2006 3:33 pm

Post by dukeofthomas » Wed Dec 13, 2006 3:34 am

qviri wrote:That's uncalled for.
I have to confess I didn't actually understand what he was on about!


Ignoring everything else, the DC7100 sports a Prescott-series processor, and cooling that quietly is not something to be dismissed at once.

dukeofthomas, thanks for the information, and enjoy the machine. Can you describe what kind of environment the machine is in? How much ambient noise is there?
I believe the DC7100 has a Pentium 4 in it, with onboard Intel graphics, and it only takes half height AGP cards so I doubt I'll ever put one in, but it plays older PC games fine (like Serious Sam). It's in my bedroom, which is pretty quiet. I use the PC for copying DVDs and surfing the internet, that's the only reason I have it on top of the desk, but when it was underneath it was pretty much impossible to hear it, and that presumably was solely because of the desk being between the PC and my ears. Anyway, I'm very pleased indeed with it, I didn't buy it because I wanted it to be silent, (I wanted something small and flat that would fit under my VCRs on the desk!) but the virtual silence is a bonus.

rp
Posts: 40
Joined: Tue Nov 04, 2003 4:52 am

Post by rp » Sat Dec 16, 2006 6:43 am

We have a lot of DC71/7600's at work, and they all stay very quiet even under heavy use. Its a semi-btx layout with a thermal path for the CPU. A big step in the right direction, compared to the earlier D530 SFF models, that were borderline useless at anything other than idle, with the same Pressie CPU.

Suspect the C2D shod 7700's are going to be even better.

Aris
Posts: 2299
Joined: Mon Dec 15, 2003 10:29 am
Location: Bellevue, Nebraska
Contact:

Post by Aris » Sat Dec 16, 2006 7:12 am

from what ive seen, most buisness computers from dell and hp run really quiet. I was suprised when i opened a dell once and saw ducts to reduce the fans in the system, and to move fans further to the interior of the case so less noise gets out.

When i have to recommend cheep computers to people i know that require good tech support because they have no clue what their doing, i always just tell them to buy a dell. There cheep, quiet, reliable, and have good technical support.

dukeofthomas
Posts: 5
Joined: Tue Dec 12, 2006 3:33 pm

Post by dukeofthomas » Sat Dec 16, 2006 1:26 pm

Well said rp. There was a time when I really disliked some 'big name' PCs precisely because they had custom cases and were hard to upgrade, etc. but the DC7100 is quite amazingly quiet, mine is about two feet from my head, on top of my desk, and it's audible but very quiet indeed, which I wasn't expecting from it. I think Dell realise that a lot of noisy PCs in a big office adds up to a lot of background noise that nobody wants, and they've done an excellent job here. I shall look into the new model you mentioned, so when I next need to upgrade I may get one of those second hand too!

Post Reply