Tranquil PC serves up a pair of high-end but laid-back HTPCs

We haven't heard from the folks at Tranquil in some time, the UK-based firm's employees surely too busy watching all the As Time Goes By episodes they stuffed onto their last five-bay media server, but they've sent Gene and Lionel on their way and are back to announce two new HTPCs. First is the T7-MP2, a tiny, fanless Ion- and Atom-powered machine that offers HDMI output for direct connectivity to your HDTV and up to 1TB of storage, starting at a rather pricey £479 (about $700). The other is a more powerful beast, the ixVL, coming sometime next month with either an Intel Core i3 or i5 CPU inside and an optical drive (DVD or Blu-ray), but still no fans for quiet operation. No price on this one yet, but expect it to cost, you know, more than the other one.

[albinomexi Posted May 18th 2010 9:40AM]

Fanless?
I love it being quiet, but I'd worry about the i3/i5 heating my room like my bedroom heater

[archkron Posted May 18th 2010 9:51AM]

@albinomexi

Underclock them.

[graey Posted May 18th 2010 9:52AM]

@albinomexi
I haven't tried, but I can imagine one of those new CULV ones with a decent heatsink wouldn't really give that much het at all. Heck, if an old Athlon (first K8, 1GHz) with a double heatsink (glued together with thermally conductive glue) doesn't, this surely shouldn't.

[Malcolm Posted May 18th 2010 9:53AM]

@albinomexi The fan doesn't change the amount of heat emitted, just how it is emitted. Your room will get just as warm either way.

[albinomexi Posted May 18th 2010 10:02AM]

That would kill the fact of having i3/i5 then.
If anything, it's going to be replacing a core duo mac mini with the POS gma 950 video card.

[TPCSupport Posted May 18th 2010 10:13AM]

@albinomexi
Hey, don't worry - the ixVL and ixL only consume (emit) around 22-24W of heat when idle rising to around 70-80W fully loaded (all cores max'ed out) - so you'll still need your heater :)

[tkuhl87 Posted May 18th 2010 10:55AM]

@albinomexi if anything, it'll give off less heat because you're blowing less out into the air in your room because it is absorbing some.

but yes, you fan-less designs don't change the laws of physics.

[Wolfticket Posted May 18th 2010 11:48AM]

@albinomexi
Heatpipes and the whole case being a massive heatsink usually helps.

[Boyo Posted May 18th 2010 10:29AM]

High-end and laid-back that's the girl for me.

[simbr Posted May 18th 2010 12:46PM]

> We haven't heard from the folks at Tranquil in some time
That's because you've not covered any of the "series 2" home servers and barebones nor the SQA SuperStor or the AVA RS5. Quite a few things have changed since you reviewed the original Squash and RS3 back in 2008.