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Going to Build Intel NUC Server Fan or Not?

I will have the server in my listening space although it will be about 14 feet away from my listening spot and situated on a side wall bookcase. I will ethernet connect the NUC server direct to my router and from the router I will fiber optic cable connect to my Weiss 501, my sole source of playback. Do any of you find the fan noise to be an issue? I will most likely go with a 10th generation I7 NUC.

 

 

 

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Showing 2 responses by sonic79

sonic79
80 posts
 

If you can properly control temperatures passively then fanless is ideal. Audible noise will not be a concern, but fans do produce vibrations and EMI. There is something to be said about keeping components cool, and active cooling can counteract the drawbacks of spinning fans. High TDP processors and real time upsampling can generate a lot of heat that no amount of passive cooling will dissipate.

A NUC serving native files will have no problem being passively cooled.

sonic79
80 posts
 

I was intending to use the 12700K for my music server build and looked into setting PL1 at 65W. Performance at 65W is on par with a Ryzen 5800x, so good enough for DSD256 using the lighter modulators and filters in HQPlayer. I am going a different route now using a 3rd gen Intel scalable processor with a TDP of 150W.

Do you use HQPlayer? I can upsample to DSD256 in Roon with my 2011 MacBook Pro with only a dual core processor. HQPlayer is a different beast, however.

You can set the MIN-MAX TDP to 65 for the new i7-12700 chip. I have been running my passive cooled audio server for a few weeks now, upsampling all FLACs to DSD 512 and I have never seen Core Temp exceed 60C.

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