Chris you son of a gun. I had a silent computer from work with a bad SSD. $20 later and following this video, it’s now running Ubuntu. Truly thanks for this video. 👋🏽
Over the years I've built a number of PC's for my own use as upgrades. It just occurred to me that, as long as its not connected to the internet, I could just use some of those old parts from previous builds and old operating systems to build a new home theater PC. I wouldn't have to buy a new Windows license since I already did that with the older version of Windows that I'd be using in the new HTPC build. As long as VLC media player still works with an older version of Windows, I should be set. It also helps that I never throw anything away, so it's just a matter of finding the old boards, cards, discs & power supplies and put it all together. Got my next project.
Congratulations on your new silent PC Chris! IMO, any computer related video should have power consumption shown like @17:45 as those of us who have access to electricity on-demand have taken it for granted. I made a conscious decision to reduce my power consumption for compute tasks couple of years back. Since then, I conduct most of my work with low power PCs, ARM SBCs, Gaming on console and anything which needs large compute power I do it on cloud run by very efficient data-centers.
This was an amazing video, it's very impressive to see such results from such a low wattage. I was expecting a great 2nd part to last weeks video and I was not disappointed.
I bought the exact same board back in June this year, I put it in a CiT MTX-007B ITX case, with 8GB DDR 4 memory. The board was only selling for £65 on Ebyer at that time but I have noticed the price has now at least doubled. Irrespective of that, they still make a very formidable little PC for basic tasks at an affordable price. I enjoyed the review.
One thing I enjoy about your videos is that you explain what and how you are doing what you are doing and make suggestions to other software/hardware to check out. Always a pleasure to follow along. I've taken notes on the build and will check out your recommendations as well. Thank Chris appreciate the content.
Given how I am completely disenchanted by all these proprietary solutions - including iTunes, Google and other walled garden systems - I have been pondering building a new media PC based around Kodi and VLC. This is exactly the kind of video I want to see right now. Thank you. "Oh, you paid good money for this game/video/album? Guess what! We've deleted this item from your collection without warning, apology or compensation! We've got your money and we don't care!"
I might go with a solution like this for a person I know who has enquired about me building him a cheap computer. His use case scenario is pretty basic(media player, e-mail, web browsing and a bit of TH-cam), but would be too impatient to deal with a cheaper SBC and ITX with an onboard CPU is something I never even knew existed, never mind considered. Excellent information here.
I use a previous version of that board as my server / htpc, it's running 24/7 with Mint, it crashed 2 times in 4 years, once due to software lockup and once because the PSU died, in my anecdotal experience that little thing is a total trooper
@@sprint955st It's a home theater PC (HTPC), media playback via Kodi and DLNA receiver/renderer, the integrated graphics can decode most formats in hardware via VA-API, including h265 up to 4K@30Hz, if you're looking for a transcoding capable media server I'm not sure if the board by itself is powerful enough for that.
Crackalacking_Z ok thanks, up till now Ive been using a 10yo at least HP-NL40 microserver with Serviio which transcodes as required. It’s good but old and a bit noisy so looking to downsize. For the money it costs I might get this board and experiment. Thanks for responding.
I got the same keyboard for my bedroom media computer, I bought it on sale a few years ago for $20 and it works like a charm. The battery life is really good, I've only changed them once since I bought it about 4 years ago.
Chris, I realise that this vid isnt about the Pi 4 but its all 'small form factor computing' and I just wanted to thank you for your guidance re overclocking the Pi 4. I dont have the Ice Tower - I'm using the Argon case with the fan permanently on, and I'm perfectly happy with 720p when the temp *never* exceeds 65 deg C. I did try 1080@60fps but it drops too many frames - also not sure that my cheapie 1080p Acer monitor is giving me the best possible result, but 720p is absolutely perfect - astonishing when the last Celeron laptop I owned didnt render every 720p vid I own with this level of clarity. Thanks again and keep the vids coming ! (I dont normally bother with the like button, but in your case its 100% warranted)
Thanks again! I have a couple of older IBM chassis that I think I will upgrade in a similar way to your project. I love your attitude and approach - it makes "building" into fun again.
Chris, thanks for sharing the suite of applications you intend to use on your silent, low-power PC. Again, cheers on the case re-use. Thanks again. That all for now. See you in the next video.
Take a look into the Jetway NF9G-QM77 board, passive cooling, 5.1 audio, support up to i7-3940XM - I have been fortunate to obtain several of these and just running a Celeron 1020E the passive temps are around 45 degrees
had already watched your first part … kudos for you including the link in this second part … aids other _netizens_ dropping by, unannounced. appreciated you showing your chosen software … a bit miffed at you overlooking a/v … however, i surmise you've already explained this omission in past videos. as to the presentation … nicely done. as to installing the os … easily navigable. thanks for sharing, *_chris_* !
This is my new favorite tech channel. The presentation is calm and professional while being very informative on all aspects of computing. That said, Christopher looks like an older Linus from Linus Tech Tips, without the beard. EDIT: That is some lightning-fast internet, or am I just living in a place with terrible connection?
Loved the Power consumption part! I'm aiming to run something similar as a small home server and was curious on actual total system power usage! I'll be waiting for the New Elkheart-Lake CPUs coming very soon!
That wattage is really impressive! I'm thinking the solar panels on the RV could handle this very easily. In fact, it would instantly become one of those devices that we wouldn't even worry about, if we had left it on by mistake. Sensational performance for power. Great video!!! Thanks for sharing.
I always partition the disk into a root partition, a home partition and a swap partition. This means that so far I have been able to change/ update operating systems without losing my data. This seems to be standard within the LUG.
Thanks to one of your previous videos, I now have an old MacBook Air with Ubuntu installed on an external SSD drive. Sadly the Mac only has USB 2.0 so it's no speed deamon, but it will give me the chance to delve into Linux and learn. Thanks for all you do Chris, I learn so much from your videos.
Greetings! Finally, Ubuntu has been the lucky one for this little PC; everything seems to work very well, so excellent choice. Thank you for this refreshing "back to basics" presentation; we can remember that it is not necessary to ask for a second mortgage to build a more than honest little home computer... One last thing in closing: the DeskPi Pro has arrived, from the friends of 52Pi! The countdown has started for a presentation!
I've an Intel NUC with a Celeron J3455 and it does a great job running VMWare Workstation on Ubuntu 18.04 with two headless guest VMs. One Windows 7 and the other Windows XP. The J4105 can only be better!
@@petermoeller5901 Faster hardware would certainly work, but I had the Intel NUC with the Celeron and all I needed was to run a Windows XP VM to monitor my solar array, and a W7 VM to serve music and act as an SVN server. 99% of the time both VMs are idle, but when I need them to do their thing they do so perfectly adequately. The hardware on which I'm typing this runs VMWare Workstation on a very fast i7, running two VMs at least - one for the long compiles software development and the other for email and web browsing. :)
As always, Chris, a great video series about one of my favorite topics, computers. I have been getting used to using Ubuntu 20.04 LTS at work. Two of our customers use this platform , we build and test their PCAs post production. I really enjoy the OS and will be utilizing it at home in various applications. Thanks again!
Bonjour, Congratulations on your new setup and thank you for showing it to us. I have a similar processor on my laptop and it is really sufficient. On this PC I do among other things CAD on FreeCAD 0.19. N.B. You can also press Ctrl + L to initialize (clear) the terminal. --- Bonjour, Félicitations pour votre nouvelle configuration et merci de nous la montrer. J'ai un processeur similaire sur mon ordinateur portable et c'est vraiment suffisant. Sur ce PC je fais entre autres de la CAO sur FreeCAD 0.19. N.B. Vous pouvez également appuyer sur Ctrl + L pour initialiser le terminal.
Funny that this "media pc" is drawing less power than the "green pc" that used to be in that case. Intel have been quite good at optimising power usage. I was slightly disappointed because we didn't see the final installation next to a telly or whatever, but maybe in a future office tour video then :)
kännissäontääkintehty Are you insinuating that “media” and “green” are applied marketing tactics? I’ve heard “I was surprised by the size of that unit!”, but I don’t remember her name. For some reason, I think a PC mini/NUC was expected, but that’s pro’lly because of talking a big game and backing up it... Just from the size of homeboy’s hands, though - next to the unit - it seems to be “sizable,” although it doesn’t seem to be “full-size,” for a “desktop computer.” Maybe checking the product link will have the size specs. However, unfortunately, if it’s an Amazon link, one never knows if the “Product Dimensions” are that of the product’s box, or the product, itself... I was also pleasantly surprised by the mounting ease and speed! That’s such an important attribute, when one is constantly mounting numerous volumes.
So true, when I saw Celeron 🙄, it brought back my "Reset Button" memories 😭. I will definitely be trying this Motherboard out and thank you for testing it out for us 😇.
Thank you Cristopher, you are the king of maximum efficiency with low consumption of space and energy. I have a Dell PowerEdge Server. It is a monster in energy consumption and noise! I will advise you.
Only 180 watts for my r720xd with 20 cores 8 x 3.5 hard disk 2 graphic cards 2 ssd and tamming the fan’s beast with ipmitools run silently in my office with no problem
Dear Chris, Thanks for sharing your adventures. They are great fun to watch. Re-using the old housing [part1] seemed daft. You noted that similar but more modern & up-to-date-versions are available at an affordable price. Yet you're using the old ones that don't have usb3 ports and other modern conveniences. Building a NEW machine and 'making do' don't add up; Not at that price-level, IMHO. Regards, Willem
We always get exited when when see ExplainingComputers uploaded: in our notification tab because we are subbed with notifications and if you are not you're missing out
Late to the party , once again you have produced a excellent “How to” video that will be used by thousands of new users for years to come. As always I have picked up a few things that I didn’t know before! Thanks Chris! See you next week....
Very Good as usual. I did a similar thing with a HP T620 (Dual CPU, 4GB Memory, 16GB SDD, using SPARKYLINUX. When playing a Movie from TV One On demand (NZ) on Google Chrome, and both CPU's running at between 88-100%, the CPU Temperature peaked out at 50 degrees C, which surprised me. I expected it to be much higher. The Movie played well. The T620 cost me NZ$80, you can now buy them for about NZ$50. I should have waited a bit longer.
Thank you for another excellent video. I like both your style and your content. I especially appreciate your calmness, clarity, practicality, and lack of silly fan-boy dogma and negativity. Cheers from Wisconsin.
Ubuntu and Mint are my 2 go to distro's for everything Linux. I do most of my compiling for C++ in Ubuntu after installing all the required prerequisites for python and libs etc. Very Nice machine you have there my friend.
One of the reasons I choose Chrome over Chromium is because in the past it has given me the least issues working with streaming services like Netflix / Prime on Linux. Things might have improved a lot since then, but I have no problem with running Chrome. :D
A very interesting pair of programmes. I just wish they would make a combined keyboard/mouse jobby with the pad on the left. For those of us that are left handed mouser's you understand.
Mando! You're a man of excellent taste. That's a good episode. Notice how the baby climbs out of the cot and goes towards Mando's wound - hmm what's he up to, you'll have to watch and see.
I know what you mean about Chrome. I've been using it on Linux for years, for the simple reason that until Google Chrome became fully supported on Linux distros, there was no native support in Linux for streaming services such as Netflix and Hulu. Chrome made it happen. Firefox eventually followed suit, but they were in no hurry. By that point, I had long since quit using Firefox. I'm actually using the new Edge Developer Preview now, built on Chromium. Works great, and quite snappy. I still use Chrome as well.
Just a note. Chromium supports GSuite, sync across devices via Google account and all other Google's services pefrectly well. Also Chromium snap is supported by community and updates automatically (if installed from snap). All of this does not apply to Google's build of Chrome. In fact you'll have to manually update deb package. So installing Chrome hardly makes sence while Chromium snap is available in the store.
Great to see part 2. Thank you and thank you for all your videos which in part have given me the confidence and knowledge to start producing my own retro tech videos. Your videos on editing such as davinci resolve enabled me to learn new things and gain confidence. Keep up the good work.
The one thing I miss on Chris' software videos is the cry of "Get in there, you little swine!" from the hardware build (part 1.) Nice bit of editing with the display from the mains power meter inset over the monitor display. Informative as ever, thanks Chris.
I just changed from a raspberry pi 4 4gb to a J4105 board to use as my home server. Using HDs on sata and x86 processor gives a big improvement in performance. I really liked to go back to x86. Now I'm running some game servers with it too, that doesnt work on ARM.
Thanks for this great two part build and analysis. I was looking forward to building this or something very similar since I wasn't satisfied with using a Pi as a media player for my TV. I was about to pull the trigger on this project, but remembered I was in the market for a Mac to start doing some iOS development and found a pretty cheap Mac Mini that will allow suffice for that purpose, but will spend most of its life as a media center for my TV. Obviously it's a Mac so when it inevitably dies and I can't replace its components, I'll use these videos to build my next media machine ;)
When you edit a video for some 1, 2 hours, the temperature will be much higher, So even a small Raspberry Pi air ventilation would be good choice .... thanks, interesting video as always
I think I enjoyed every minute of that. I too live Disney Plus and Manderloran I really like this set up so I might save up and make it too. Thanks you. Chris
Love your content, haha am using i9 with 3090rtx while playing vr this thing is eating watts like crazy, thats why i ended up buying a AC1-Z, its zotac nano fanless mini pc thats comes with Celeron J4125 / 8gb ram . 265ssd can even run 4k videos! , wow such a huge difference in power consumption. to be honest those mini fanless pc are a must, cuz they r so low in power consumption lets you relax n edit your documents without being worry about ur electrical bill ;)
@@petermoeller5901 Actually true, just wanted to mention, all depends where the pc will be placed and if there is any airflow, if cover is detached etc.
Hi Chris, since this is a media streaming pc you’ve built, I was wondering how it performs whilst connected to a tv. I hope to emulate certain aspects of the build and I was wondering how the Celeron’s iGpu handles video at 1080p or 4k at the standard 60hz refresh rate. I currently have a 4k 60hz Samsung tv I intend to connect my core i5 9400 with an iGpu to and was wondering about the performance of the celeron. As always, love the videos and keep up the good work!
Thanks for this. I've been using this PC connected to a TV since it was built and performance is very good streaming Disney+, TH-cam, BBC iPlayer, etc. However, I only run 1080p.
Wow this is awesome, ive dabbled with raspberry pi’s but this makes me want to make a silent pc myself. I couldnt believe all the software available to you. Even OBS studio! Just awesome! Great video
Since I saw the first green computer video I became very interested in build something similar for simply web browsing or watch streaming services while having another powerful rig for high end applications like gaming or CAD design.
I greatly enjoy your videos. Thank you. a suggestion for your stack of ideas: now you've interested many of us in Linux, it would be good to know about moving data between our Windows 10 and Linux. I think you mentioned the need for care in formatting USB flash drives used for this.
Great video. I would be curious to know how this machine performs at video encoding with QSV. It's an easy install on Ubuntu and should give you a nice boost in Handbrake and OpenShot (though possibly not with Kdenlive). I had no idea there were so many powerful boards available in the Mini ITX form factor. Exciting times.
Asrock have so many great itx options,very few mobo manufacturers seem to follow suit. Neat pair of videos,got the itch to build a new itx HTPC machine.Might just wait for the next AMD apu’s though.They could well be fantastic for the purpose.Good one man! 👍
Hello, Chris; Thank you for all you do. REALLY great job!, thanks pal! I really appreciate you promoting linux on your channel. I hope that you will consider wiping the drive & installing MX linux on the 'silent' computer. I enjoy your videos but you always install Ubuntu. I think trying some other distros may be very educational for your viewers. Of course, if the build is strictly for your personal use I see why you would install your favorite. But if it for the channel try some other distros, please. BTW, I'm always waiting for tubers to close w/ "you can see me in the my next video". Keep up the great job! Have a GREAT day, Neighbor!
Thanks for this. This PC is indeed for personal use, so I do not intend trying other OS (at least right now!). But I have fairly recently reviewed many Linux distros on the channel -- including Linux Mint, Ubuntu, ZorinOS, OpenSUSE, Manjaro and PCLinuxOS, as well as other OS including QubesOS and NomadBSD. And other reviews will follow! :)
Yes, good luck installing Linux on some older Macs with weird EFI booting. I went through a lot of headaches installing Mint 20.04 to a 2006 iMac. But it runs pretty well for that age and max 4 gig of ram and the 24" screen is amazing!
I've got a MacBook Pro that can't be updated beyond High Sierra. It still gets security updates but it won't for much longer. When the updates stop I'll have a go at Linuxing it as I can't bear to throw away something that still works.
@@johnm2012 To tell you the truth, I have several Macs (a 2015 27" iMac and two 2009 Macbook Pros) and I will not be updating any of them beyond Sierra. It breaks much of my old software. If I'm going to go through that they'll become Linux machines. I'm already running Linux on one laptop and I'm very happy with it. I've experimented with Linux on Macs now for 20 years with decent results. If you like the MacOS experience, I recommend ElementaryOS. It's not exactly like MacOS but it's similar and doesn't try to be "just like Windows" like so many other Linux distributions try. It has one of the best file browsers available (Pantheon) the music jukebox is very much like early iTunes (before it got so bloated) and the video player is in many ways better than VLC. (It plays Ogg Vorbis files better than VLC, but VLC plays Matroska files better.)
@@tarmaque I'll take a look at Elementary OS and try it out in a VM. Thanks for the suggestion. As far as Mac OS goes, High Sierra does everything I need for as long as the security updates keep coming.
6:24 I Also Have an Ubuntu 20.04 LTS Using With Old Gigabyte MotherBoard, Intel Core 2 Duo E6550 Up To 2.33GHz, 2GB DDR2 Memory In Two 1gb memory, Zotac Nvidia GeForce 9500 GT 512MB And SSD 512GB By Transcend And it works good and smooth And Also I Watching all your video in this and your other channels Your video is great and Most to educational i love watching your videos:)
Thanks for the temp and power measurements. 62 C at 25 Watts suggests the heat sink unaided isn’t entirely successful. It makes me wonder if instead of silent computing it would be more practical to expect a quiet experience with the addition of a large slow fan. For example I have just seen a new Dell complete small form factor PC for £240, which may actually be cheaper than this build, with an i3-10100 65 W TDP processor which has 3 times the CPU benchmark of the one demonstrated with similar memory, SSD and Windows Pro too. I have searched unsuccessfully for its noise levels but I wonder how much practical difference there would be to the one tested. I do know the Dell example’s temp at idle is 25 C which is not too bad compared to the passively cooled and lower TDP processor.
That is the way to go. It is finally possible to have powerful computing in a small package! High computing with small heat output and energy input. A high efficiency coefficient!! :-) Even a yogi in a cave in the Himalayas can run one of these with a proper solar panel and battery! :-P
My old AMD-450 got about 20 Watts under load and its on 2011 and it ran 24/7 as Server PC. I have about 80 KW per annum. My Desktop PC that I not run 24/7 uses 175 KW per annum.
These figures are impressive, but very surprising given that the TDP of the AMD-450 is 18W, which roughly means that this CPU (APU) alone will consume around that. So this means that the motherboard it is in, RAM, drives, and fans are only consuming 2W, even assuming a 100 per cent efficiency power supply! :) Are you are sure you are reporting raw power drain from the wall outlet, and not CPU package power consumption (as many utilities report)? I cover this in depth -- with lots of test results -- in a video posting this Sunday or next.
Pretty impressive for a diminutive box. I doubt though you would get the same speedy response with power hungry Windows. I'm curious as to why you didn't opt for the server version of Ubuntu since you plan to use it as a media pc.In any case , thanks for the heads up on Hardinfo and Veracrypt. Cheers.
0:34 Can I make a constructive comment about editing? I absolutely agree that fade shots are much better than crash edits, which so may TH-camrs do. But I think some of these fades are just too long. I usually go for a 1s fade between shots, so it 's smooth but you don't get this rather muddled effect. Anyway, I know, it's about the content, which is brilliant.
long fades is part of Chris style of making videos besides the long shots, classic graphic style, chroma key, etc. All his videos is having a bit of a retro '90 style, and this is just one of many atributes that make me love Chris's videos. Maybe beacause I am from the same generation :)
Silent computers are excellent. Unless you’re doing some really high-end processing activities, the tradeoff of performance is well worth the creature comfort. (I’ve got a MacBook 12” from 2016.)
I've been talking to my therapist about the cable management on this PC, as you suggested.
Great to hear! Hope it helped.
If your therapist can treat my octopus' orgy of wires, then help me!
I always thought people who require a silent PC were from the same camp as the people who require tidy cable management.
Icarus Nothing like having a highly-strung cable.
Therapists are a joke. If they could make my brain as organized as my cable management then maybe...
Chris you son of a gun. I had a silent computer from work with a bad SSD. $20 later and following this video, it’s now running Ubuntu. Truly thanks for this video. 👋🏽
This is great to hear! :) TH-cam in action.
Over the years I've built a number of PC's for my own use as upgrades. It just occurred to me that, as long as its not connected to the internet, I could just use some of those old parts from previous builds and old operating systems to build a new home theater PC. I wouldn't have to buy a new Windows license since I already did that with the older version of Windows that I'd be using in the new HTPC build. As long as VLC media player still works with an older version of Windows, I should be set. It also helps that I never throw anything away, so it's just a matter of finding the old boards, cards, discs & power supplies and put it all together. Got my next project.
Sunday Coffee is best enjoyed from an Explaining Computers coffee mug while watching the latest Explaining Computers video!
:)
Try Earl Grey next time, it will blow your mind even more! : )
@@ExplainingComputers Coffee or Earl Grey or should I not even be asking that one mate lol ?
@@heliosgnosis2744 For me, always English Breakfast tea. :)
That is a very nice inception
Congratulations on your new silent PC Chris! IMO, any computer related video should have power consumption shown like @17:45 as those of us who have access to electricity on-demand have taken it for granted.
I made a conscious decision to reduce my power consumption for compute tasks couple of years back. Since then, I conduct most of my work with low power PCs, ARM SBCs, Gaming on console and anything which needs large compute power I do it on cloud run by very efficient data-centers.
This was an amazing video, it's very impressive to see such results from such a low wattage. I was expecting a great 2nd part to last weeks video and I was not disappointed.
Thank you very much!
I bought the exact same board back in June this year, I put it in a CiT MTX-007B ITX case, with 8GB DDR 4 memory. The board was only selling for £65 on Ebyer at that time but I have noticed the price has now at least doubled.
Irrespective of that, they still make a very formidable little PC for basic tasks at an affordable price. I enjoyed the review.
One thing I enjoy about your videos is that you explain what and how you are doing what you are doing and make suggestions to other software/hardware to check out. Always a pleasure to follow along. I've taken notes on the build and will check out your recommendations as well. Thank Chris appreciate the content.
Thanks Richard. :)
Given how I am completely disenchanted by all these proprietary solutions - including iTunes, Google and other walled garden systems - I have been pondering building a new media PC based around Kodi and VLC. This is exactly the kind of video I want to see right now. Thank you.
"Oh, you paid good money for this game/video/album? Guess what! We've deleted this item from your collection without warning, apology or compensation! We've got your money and we don't care!"
I wish I could speak so well like you. I admire your channel very much for being technical and detailed. Thank you and keep it going
I might go with a solution like this for a person I know who has enquired about me building him a cheap computer. His use case scenario is pretty basic(media player, e-mail, web browsing and a bit of TH-cam), but would be too impatient to deal with a cheaper SBC and ITX with an onboard CPU is something I never even knew existed, never mind considered.
Excellent information here.
Few things so satisfying as building a new computer system.
Totally agreed.
Especially when they boot and run when you first turn them on... :)
Present day LINUX and PCs are so easy and powerful. It's now affordable to build your own systems to fit the application. Thanks for the video!
I use a previous version of that board as my server / htpc, it's running 24/7 with Mint, it crashed 2 times in 4 years, once due to software lockup and once because the PSU died, in my anecdotal experience that little thing is a total trooper
Interested in your comment, is it a media server or client next the TV?
@@sprint955st It's a home theater PC (HTPC), media playback via Kodi and DLNA receiver/renderer, the integrated graphics can decode most formats in hardware via VA-API, including h265 up to 4K@30Hz, if you're looking for a transcoding capable media server I'm not sure if the board by itself is powerful enough for that.
Crackalacking_Z ok thanks, up till now Ive been using a 10yo at least HP-NL40 microserver with Serviio which transcodes as required. It’s good but old and a bit noisy so looking to downsize. For the money it costs I might get this board and experiment. Thanks for responding.
I got the same keyboard for my bedroom media computer, I bought it on sale a few years ago for $20 and it works like a charm.
The battery life is really good, I've only changed them once since I bought it about 4 years ago.
Chris you forgot to mention the best thing, everything you Installed Today was Free, from the OS to all the Software
Very true.
@Sovereign Beak Free as in freedom, which chrome is not. Chromium would be a bit different
There is no such thing as a free lunch.
Chris, I realise that this vid isnt about the Pi 4 but its all 'small form factor computing' and I just wanted to thank you for your guidance re overclocking the Pi 4. I dont have the Ice Tower - I'm using the Argon case with the fan permanently on, and I'm perfectly happy with 720p when the temp *never* exceeds 65 deg C. I did try 1080@60fps but it drops too many frames - also not sure that my cheapie 1080p Acer monitor is giving me the best possible result, but 720p is absolutely perfect - astonishing when the last Celeron laptop I owned didnt render every 720p vid I own with this level of clarity. Thanks again and keep the vids coming !
(I dont normally bother with the like button, but in your case its 100% warranted)
It was a nice surprise to get your Linux software recommendations. Thanks.
Thanks again! I have a couple of older IBM chassis that I think I will upgrade in a similar way to your project. I love your attitude and approach - it makes "building" into fun again.
Chris, thanks for sharing the suite of applications you intend to use on your silent, low-power PC. Again, cheers on the case re-use. Thanks again. That all for now. See you in the next video.
This is the only itx motherboard with passive cooling and 5.1 audio that was able to find. And these are now getting harder to find. Really like it.
Take a look into the Jetway NF9G-QM77 board, passive cooling, 5.1 audio, support up to i7-3940XM - I have been fortunate to obtain several of these and just running a Celeron 1020E the passive temps are around 45 degrees
12:44 yea yea "in the name of testing" watching the Mandalorian... oh goodness testing is such hard work!
It is . . .
Johan Hoevink Its a fine show though.Some fantastic actors in it.
@@Doobie3010 yes it is indeed a very fine show!
had already watched your first part … kudos for you including the link in this second part … aids other _netizens_ dropping by, unannounced. appreciated you showing your chosen software … a bit miffed at you overlooking a/v … however, i surmise you've already explained this omission in past videos. as to the presentation … nicely done. as to installing the os … easily navigable. thanks for sharing, *_chris_* !
This is my new favorite tech channel. The presentation is calm and professional while being very informative on all aspects of computing.
That said, Christopher looks like an older Linus from Linus Tech Tips, without the beard.
EDIT: That is some lightning-fast internet, or am I just living in a place with terrible connection?
Linus with a chin reduction.
@Dalle Smalhals yeah, Linus gets me all stressed out at times especially when he goes into a first person shooter game during a demo : )
I noticed it too. How come the installer finished in no time...
Editing!
Editing!
Loved the Power consumption part! I'm aiming to run something similar as a small home server and was curious on actual total system power usage! I'll be waiting for the New Elkheart-Lake CPUs coming very soon!
That wattage is really impressive! I'm thinking the solar panels on the RV could handle this very easily. In fact, it would instantly become one of those devices that we wouldn't even worry about, if we had left it on by mistake. Sensational performance for power. Great video!!! Thanks for sharing.
At about 19:30 does that power usage include the screen?
I always partition the disk into a root partition, a home partition and a swap partition. This means that so far I have been able to change/ update operating systems without losing my data. This seems to be standard within the LUG.
Thanks to one of your previous videos, I now have an old MacBook Air with Ubuntu installed on an external SSD drive. Sadly the Mac only has USB 2.0 so it's no speed deamon, but it will give me the chance to delve into Linux and learn. Thanks for all you do Chris, I learn so much from your videos.
This is great to hear, sounds like an excellent learning tool.
Greetings! Finally, Ubuntu has been the lucky one for this little PC; everything seems to work very well, so excellent choice. Thank you for this refreshing "back to basics" presentation; we can remember that it is not necessary to ask for a second mortgage to build a more than honest little home computer...
One last thing in closing: the DeskPi Pro has arrived, from the friends of 52Pi!
The countdown has started for a presentation!
Yes, that looks a great case. :)
I've an Intel NUC with a Celeron J3455 and it does a great job running VMWare Workstation on Ubuntu 18.04 with two headless guest VMs. One Windows 7 and the other Windows XP. The J4105 can only be better!
@@petermoeller5901 Faster hardware would certainly work, but I had the Intel NUC with the Celeron and all I needed was to run a Windows XP VM to monitor my solar array, and a W7 VM to serve music and act as an SVN server. 99% of the time both VMs are idle, but when I need them to do their thing they do so perfectly adequately.
The hardware on which I'm typing this runs VMWare Workstation on a very fast i7, running two VMs at least - one for the long compiles software development and the other for email and web browsing. :)
I was egarly waiting for this second part and it came that great 👍
As a Linux user, I found this helpful, straightforward to understand and I learnt quite a lot too. Thank You.
Thanks.
Sunday 14:00, just got in from work, computer on, grab some lunch and watch Explaining Computers - Sunday perfection
As always, Chris, a great video series about one of my favorite topics, computers. I have been getting used to using Ubuntu 20.04 LTS at work. Two of our customers use this platform , we build and test their PCAs post production. I really enjoy the OS and will be utilizing it at home in various applications. Thanks again!
I checked just now just to see if you had put the 2nd episode out! I was NOT disappointed! Thanks so much! And your choice of Ubuntu is spot on, imo.
Bonjour,
Congratulations on your new setup and thank you for showing it to us.
I have a similar processor on my laptop and it is really sufficient. On this PC I do among other things CAD on FreeCAD 0.19.
N.B. You can also press Ctrl + L to initialize (clear) the terminal.
---
Bonjour,
Félicitations pour votre nouvelle configuration et merci de nous la montrer.
J'ai un processeur similaire sur mon ordinateur portable et c'est vraiment suffisant. Sur ce PC je fais entre autres de la CAO sur FreeCAD 0.19.
N.B. Vous pouvez également appuyer sur Ctrl + L pour initialiser le terminal.
Funny that this "media pc" is drawing less power than the "green pc" that used to be in that case. Intel have been quite good at optimising power usage.
I was slightly disappointed because we didn't see the final installation next to a telly or whatever, but maybe in a future office tour video then :)
kännissäontääkintehty Are you insinuating that “media” and “green” are applied marketing tactics?
I’ve heard “I was surprised by the size of that unit!”, but I don’t remember her name. For some reason, I think a PC mini/NUC was expected, but that’s pro’lly because of talking a big game and backing up it...
Just from the size of homeboy’s hands, though - next to the unit - it seems to be “sizable,” although it doesn’t seem to be “full-size,” for a “desktop computer.” Maybe checking the product link will have the size specs. However, unfortunately, if it’s an Amazon link, one never knows if the “Product Dimensions” are that of the product’s box, or the product, itself...
I was also pleasantly surprised by the mounting ease and speed! That’s such an important attribute, when one is constantly mounting numerous volumes.
Just a few more days until we can TEST our system more with new installments of Mandalorian. Testing video servers you see is VERY IMPORTANT work!
Hello Mr Chris. For a future video, could you go through all the tech you have accumulated in the past? That would be very nice!
Great idea! Noted.
So true, when I saw Celeron 🙄, it brought back my "Reset Button" memories 😭. I will definitely be trying this Motherboard out and thank you for testing it out for us 😇.
Thank you Cristopher, you are the king of maximum efficiency with low consumption of space and energy. I have a Dell PowerEdge Server. It is a monster in energy consumption and noise! I will advise you.
Only 180 watts for my r720xd with 20 cores 8 x 3.5 hard disk 2 graphic cards 2 ssd and tamming the fan’s beast with ipmitools run silently in my office with no problem
It's nice to see that celeron Js 4xxx are not just rebranded atoms like J1xxx
Dear Chris,
Thanks for sharing your adventures. They are great fun to watch.
Re-using the old housing [part1] seemed daft. You noted that similar but more modern & up-to-date-versions are available at an affordable price.
Yet you're using the old ones that don't have usb3 ports and other modern conveniences. Building a NEW machine and 'making do' don't add up; Not at that price-level, IMHO.
Regards,
Willem
We always get exited when when see ExplainingComputers uploaded: in our notification tab because we are subbed with notifications and if you are not you're missing out
Greetings Sophie.
We love this channel. It's one of the best things on TH-cam.
I'm subscribed but get no email notifications any more. How are you getting them, text/SMS? Thanks.
@@googleplusisdead Hello,
I believe google doesn't do it anymore.
So I go to TH-cam and click on the little bell at the top right.
@@jpwillm5252 Ah, thanks, that's helpful. Sure miss the email notifications though.
Late to the party , once again you have produced a excellent “How to” video that will be used by thousands of new users for years to come.
As always I have picked up a few things that I didn’t know before! Thanks Chris! See you next week....
I enjoy your narration style and humo(u)r as much as the information you impart.
Thank you!
Thanks for watching!
Very impressive Chris. I have always had a negative knee-jerk reaction to anything called Celeron, but obviously times have changed!
Hi Chris.
Very Good as usual. I did a similar thing with a HP T620 (Dual CPU, 4GB Memory, 16GB SDD, using SPARKYLINUX. When playing a Movie from TV One On demand (NZ) on Google Chrome, and both CPU's running at between 88-100%, the CPU Temperature peaked out at 50 degrees C, which surprised me. I expected it to be much higher. The Movie played well. The T620 cost me NZ$80, you can now buy them for about NZ$50. I should have waited a bit longer.
First. This is the way! I always enjoy my Sunday morning looking at a good video from one of my favorite channel. Thanks 👍🏻✌🏻🇨🇦
Yes!
You are indeed! Gold medal to you today.
Kudos! You used the very OS I wanted to see used on a new and innovative tech! LINUX!! Finally! Someone gets it!
Thank you for your videos from Russia! Your videos are very important for me: they help me learn technical English. :-))))))))
Glad to hear that!
Those keyboards are good and they have convenient storage for the dongle under the battery compartment cover.
Thank you for another excellent video. I like both your style and your content. I especially appreciate your calmness, clarity, practicality, and lack of silly fan-boy dogma and negativity. Cheers from Wisconsin.
Ubuntu and Mint are my 2 go to distro's for everything Linux. I do most of my compiling for C++ in Ubuntu after installing all the required prerequisites for python and libs etc. Very Nice machine you have there my friend.
hardinfo is new to me and looks great! THANK YOU !
"...and to my delight, if other people's horror, Chrome is installed!" Lol! This was priceless. Thanks, Chris!
:)
Enjoyed listening to your video while making Linux mint look like the newer ubuntu.
Excellent video. Amazing isn't it, the Pi has gone from passive being the norm to heat sinks and fans and this video is about omitting these items.
One of the reasons I choose Chrome over Chromium is because in the past it has given me the least issues working with streaming services like Netflix / Prime on Linux. Things might have improved a lot since then, but I have no problem with running Chrome. :D
With this I very much agree.
Chrome also supports Android apps so you have a wider selection of apps
Very useful tests, especially power consumption numbers, thank you sir.
A very interesting pair of programmes. I just wish they would make a combined keyboard/mouse jobby with the pad on the left. For those of us that are left handed mouser's you understand.
I was thinking the same when I saw it. Us sinisters don't get much love from keyboard makers, if they make one it often has a price premium.
Mando! You're a man of excellent taste. That's a good episode. Notice how the baby climbs out of the cot and goes towards Mando's wound - hmm what's he up to, you'll have to watch and see.
Thanks for another great vid. I specially like it when I get a chance to see it in my 75" 4k tv.
Now that's a TV!
I know what you mean about Chrome. I've been using it on Linux for years, for the simple reason that until Google Chrome became fully supported on Linux distros, there was no native support in Linux for streaming services such as Netflix and Hulu. Chrome made it happen. Firefox eventually followed suit, but they were in no hurry. By that point, I had long since quit using Firefox. I'm actually using the new Edge Developer Preview now, built on Chromium. Works great, and quite snappy. I still use Chrome as well.
Just a note. Chromium supports GSuite, sync across devices via Google account and all other Google's services pefrectly well. Also Chromium snap is supported by community and updates automatically (if installed from snap). All of this does not apply to Google's build of Chrome. In fact you'll have to manually update deb package. So installing Chrome hardly makes sence while Chromium snap is available in the store.
Great to see part 2. Thank you and thank you for all your videos which in part have given me the confidence and knowledge to start producing my own retro tech videos. Your videos on editing such as davinci resolve enabled me to learn new things and gain confidence. Keep up the good work.
The one thing I miss on Chris' software videos is the cry of "Get in there, you little swine!" from the hardware build (part 1.)
Nice bit of editing with the display from the mains power meter inset over the monitor display.
Informative as ever, thanks Chris.
I just changed from a raspberry pi 4 4gb to a J4105 board to use as my home server. Using HDs on sata and x86 processor gives a big improvement in performance. I really liked to go back to x86. Now I'm running some game servers with it too, that doesnt work on ARM.
Thanks for this great two part build and analysis. I was looking forward to building this or something very similar since I wasn't satisfied with using a Pi as a media player for my TV. I was about to pull the trigger on this project, but remembered I was in the market for a Mac to start doing some iOS development and found a pretty cheap Mac Mini that will allow suffice for that purpose, but will spend most of its life as a media center for my TV. Obviously it's a Mac so when it inevitably dies and I can't replace its components, I'll use these videos to build my next media machine ;)
When you edit a video for some 1, 2 hours, the temperature will be much higher,
So even a small Raspberry Pi air ventilation would be good choice .... thanks, interesting video as always
I think I enjoyed every minute of that. I too live Disney Plus and Manderloran
I really like this set up so I might save up and make it too. Thanks you. Chris
Love your content, haha am using i9 with 3090rtx while playing vr this thing is eating watts like crazy, thats why i ended up buying a AC1-Z, its zotac nano fanless mini pc thats comes with Celeron J4125 / 8gb ram . 265ssd can even run 4k videos! , wow such a huge difference in power consumption. to be honest those mini fanless pc are a must,
cuz they r so low in power consumption lets you relax n edit your documents without being worry about ur electrical bill ;)
I like the economy way and efficiency,
the 70oC is the MAX temp of 850EVO usage
Agreed on the EVO, but it will not be that hot. :) ONly the CPU.
@@petermoeller5901 Actually true, just wanted to mention, all depends where the pc will be placed and if there is any airflow, if cover is detached etc.
Chris, you are my favourite with a wicked dry sense of humour. I absolutely love this channel!
Hi Chris, since this is a media streaming pc you’ve built, I was wondering how it performs whilst connected to a tv. I hope to emulate certain aspects of the build and I was wondering how the Celeron’s iGpu handles video at 1080p or 4k at the standard 60hz refresh rate. I currently have a 4k 60hz Samsung tv I intend to connect my core i5 9400 with an iGpu to and was wondering about the performance of the celeron. As always, love the videos and keep up the good work!
Thanks for this. I've been using this PC connected to a TV since it was built and performance is very good streaming Disney+, TH-cam, BBC iPlayer, etc. However, I only run 1080p.
I was going to request you to upload power consumption related video. Thanks for the upload.
Thanks Chris, as usual I especially like learning about useful apps for Ubuntu.
Very long list of comments. I can't see any test for "frame drops" as you made for ARMs SBC but AS ALWAYS, AN EXCELLENT VIDEO. Thanks Cris.
Wow this is awesome, ive dabbled with raspberry pi’s but this makes me want to make a silent pc myself. I couldnt believe all the software available to you. Even OBS studio! Just awesome! Great video
I like the power meter, I never knew these things existed, what a great idea!
Since I saw the first green computer video I became very interested in build something similar for simply web browsing or watch streaming services while having another powerful rig for high end applications like gaming or CAD design.
I greatly enjoy your videos. Thank you. a suggestion for your stack of ideas: now you've interested many of us in Linux, it would be good to know about moving data between our Windows 10 and Linux. I think you mentioned the need for care in formatting USB flash drives used for this.
@gilkesisking thank you for that information!
Watching why purchasing celeron in 2020 is not a bad idea while watching it on a 10 year old celeron pc. This really is explaining computers.... :P
:)
I came from the future, and this channel will have more than a million subscribers.
Excellent!
Indeed it does.
Great video. I would be curious to know how this machine performs at video encoding with QSV. It's an easy install on Ubuntu and should give you a nice boost in Handbrake and OpenShot (though possibly not with Kdenlive). I had no idea there were so many powerful boards available in the Mini ITX form factor. Exciting times.
The Logitech K400 keyboard/trackpad works well also.
Great job Chris. Looking forward to next Sunday.
Thanks Brian. :)
for a Media Center PC, I usually include Kodi although it does need some tweaking to properly manage both media sources, skins, and add-ons.
Nice to see Stanley making his brief appearance!
Stanley looked sharp!
Asrock have so many great itx options,very few mobo manufacturers seem to follow suit. Neat pair of videos,got the itch to build a new itx HTPC machine.Might just wait for the next AMD apu’s though.They could well be fantastic for the purpose.Good one man! 👍
Hello, Chris;
Thank you for all you do.
REALLY great job!, thanks pal!
I really appreciate you promoting linux on your channel.
I hope that you will consider wiping the drive & installing MX linux on the 'silent' computer.
I enjoy your videos but you always install Ubuntu.
I think trying some other distros may be very educational for your viewers.
Of course, if the build is strictly for your personal use I see why you would install your favorite.
But if it for the channel try some other distros, please.
BTW, I'm always waiting for tubers to close w/ "you can see me in the my next video".
Keep up the great job!
Have a GREAT day, Neighbor!
Thanks for this. This PC is indeed for personal use, so I do not intend trying other OS (at least right now!). But I have fairly recently reviewed many Linux distros on the channel -- including Linux Mint, Ubuntu, ZorinOS, OpenSUSE, Manjaro and PCLinuxOS, as well as other OS including QubesOS and NomadBSD. And other reviews will follow! :)
Very interesting and well presented. I have an old Mac that I’m planning on Linuxing. Thanks for this information.
Good luck with your Linuxing!
Yes, good luck installing Linux on some older Macs with weird EFI booting. I went through a lot of headaches installing Mint 20.04 to a 2006 iMac. But it runs pretty well for that age and max 4 gig of ram and the 24" screen is amazing!
I've got a MacBook Pro that can't be updated beyond High Sierra. It still gets security updates but it won't for much longer. When the updates stop I'll have a go at Linuxing it as I can't bear to throw away something that still works.
@@johnm2012 To tell you the truth, I have several Macs (a 2015 27" iMac and two 2009 Macbook Pros) and I will not be updating any of them beyond Sierra. It breaks much of my old software. If I'm going to go through that they'll become Linux machines. I'm already running Linux on one laptop and I'm very happy with it. I've experimented with Linux on Macs now for 20 years with decent results. If you like the MacOS experience, I recommend ElementaryOS. It's not exactly like MacOS but it's similar and doesn't try to be "just like Windows" like so many other Linux distributions try. It has one of the best file browsers available (Pantheon) the music jukebox is very much like early iTunes (before it got so bloated) and the video player is in many ways better than VLC. (It plays Ogg Vorbis files better than VLC, but VLC plays Matroska files better.)
@@tarmaque I'll take a look at Elementary OS and try it out in a VM. Thanks for the suggestion. As far as Mac OS goes, High Sierra does everything I need for as long as the security updates keep coming.
6:24 I Also Have an Ubuntu 20.04 LTS Using With Old Gigabyte MotherBoard, Intel Core 2 Duo E6550 Up To 2.33GHz, 2GB DDR2 Memory In Two 1gb memory, Zotac Nvidia GeForce 9500 GT 512MB And SSD 512GB By Transcend And it works good and smooth
And Also I Watching all your video in this and your other channels
Your video is great and Most to educational i love watching your videos:)
Thanks for the temp and power measurements. 62 C at 25 Watts suggests the heat sink unaided isn’t entirely successful. It makes me wonder if instead of silent computing it would be more practical to expect a quiet experience with the addition of a large slow fan. For example I have just seen a new Dell complete small form factor PC for £240, which may actually be cheaper than this build, with an i3-10100 65 W TDP processor which has 3 times the CPU benchmark of the one demonstrated with similar memory, SSD and Windows Pro too. I have searched unsuccessfully for its noise levels but I wonder how much practical difference there would be to the one tested. I do know the Dell example’s temp at idle is 25 C which is not too bad compared to the passively cooled and lower TDP processor.
Very enjoyable part 2! I learned some good stuff from you today. Thank you and see you in the next one! 😁😁
Great to hear!
The power consumption was very interesting and was quite surprising. I thought it would be much higher.
That is the way to go. It is finally possible to have powerful computing in a small package! High computing with small heat output and energy input. A high efficiency coefficient!! :-) Even a yogi in a cave in the Himalayas can run one of these with a proper solar panel and battery! :-P
My old AMD-450 got about 20 Watts under load and its on 2011 and it ran 24/7 as Server PC. I have about 80 KW per annum. My Desktop PC that I not run 24/7 uses 175 KW per annum.
These figures are impressive, but very surprising given that the TDP of the AMD-450 is 18W, which roughly means that this CPU (APU) alone will consume around that. So this means that the motherboard it is in, RAM, drives, and fans are only consuming 2W, even assuming a 100 per cent efficiency power supply! :) Are you are sure you are reporting raw power drain from the wall outlet, and not CPU package power consumption (as many utilities report)? I cover this in depth -- with lots of test results -- in a video posting this Sunday or next.
Pretty impressive for a diminutive box. I doubt though you would get the same speedy response with power hungry Windows. I'm curious as to why you didn't opt for the server version of Ubuntu since you plan to use it as a media pc.In any case , thanks for the heads up on Hardinfo and Veracrypt. Cheers.
0:34 Can I make a constructive comment about editing? I absolutely agree that fade shots are much better than crash edits, which so may TH-camrs do. But I think some of these fades are just too long. I usually go for a 1s fade between shots, so it 's smooth but you don't get this rather muddled effect. Anyway, I know, it's about the content, which is brilliant.
long fades is part of Chris style of making videos besides the long shots, classic graphic style, chroma key, etc. All his videos is having a bit of a retro '90 style, and this is just one of many atributes that make me love Chris's videos. Maybe beacause I am from the same generation :)
Silent computers are excellent. Unless you’re doing some really high-end processing activities, the tradeoff of performance is well worth the creature comfort. (I’ve got a MacBook 12” from 2016.)
Morning Chris!!! Morning all.
Good morning... Or in Chris's case, good afternoon
adventureoflinkmk2 And mine; we’re both based in the East Midlands, UK.
@@bfapple then, good afternoon to you too!
Greetings! :)