The Beautiful Machine (2020) | Hacker News Reader

The Beautiful Machine (2020)

fabiensanglard.net

50 pointsaliqot11 comments

I am planning to build a similar PC, and the DB4 case is on top of my list.

I am also considering HDPLEX [1] and Cirrus7 [2] cases. The HDPLEX H1 is a bit less pretty, but seems able to cool many Xeons with its 1 kg cooper heatsink (!). Cirrus7 is somewhere in the middle, and also a bit harder to assemble. They are typically sold as ready-made systems.

[1] https://hdplex.com

[2] https://www.cirrus7.com

Wow, I had not seen those. The hdplex is an especially beautiful case.

And it's quite obvious that they care about details from their CAD illustrations [1].

[1] https://hdplex.com/hdplex-h5-fanless-computer-case.html

Yeah, it aims at audiophiles, so aesthetics matter to them. But it's also a great case for a small server! There are many Xeon builds around that use it.

The Beautiful Machine - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23983087 - July 2020 (1 comment)

The Beautiful Machine - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22501462 - March 2020 (9 comments)

While it's beautiful to have fanless machines, I was kind of horrified by the temperature on the SSD. 82 degrees is NOT where you want your m.2 drive to be!

Yes they do run hot, but that means they need to be cooled adequately. Even if you're lucky enough not to have the controller die on you, it will still massively throttle and give you much less I/O than theoretically possible.

I'm disappointed that Apple (or someone) hasn't used the modern low-power chips (such as the M1) to make a computer that is perfectly sealed, no moving parts and no dust paths.

Kind of like an iPad? I'm being facetious here, but the broader point could be that what you describe is better suited for a portable form factor than for a desktop computer, where most users will favor performance over a fanless, sealed design.

How do you remove dust from it?

Open the case and use a leaf blower.

Isn’t the case fully sealed here because of passive heat dissipation? So you would need to only clean the outside surface.

It should be. The PSU is fanless, and that’s typically the only forced air ingress/egress.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com