We don’t often have totally silent PCs turning up in the PC Pro Labs, but we’ve now had two in short order. Tranquil PC’s impressive MMC-12 is this month followed by up the Quiet PC Streacom FC5-Z68 – another PC that focuses on offering a media experience without the noise usually associated with a Windows PC.
The Streacom chassis is bigger than the Tranquil – 450mm wide rather than 392mm, and 71mm tall instead of 40mm – but it’s been designed along similar lines. The smart, brushed aluminium black or silver chassis is as minimal as it gets: the front is tarnished only by a power button, hard disk light and a slot-loading optical drive. Each side edge is made up of a row of metal fins, with the right-hand row used to dissipate heat from the CPU inside.
It might look like it belongs in a hi-fi stack, but remove the roof and you’ll find a fully featured PC inside. Screwed into the base is a Gigabyte GA-Z68MX-UD2H-B3 motherboard, and its LGA 1155 socket has an Intel 3.3GHz Core i3-2125 processor plugged in, complete with the most powerful integrated HD Graphics 3000 core.
That’s an advantage it holds over the Tranquil, which had a low-power Core i3 with a lesser graphics chip. Thus, the Quiet PC scored 0.76 in our benchmarks, compared to the Tranquil’s 0.62, and it easily played back 1080p footage from a local disk as well as top-quality streams from YouTube HD and BBC iPlayer. An average of 38fps in our Low quality, 1366 x 768 Crysis test won’t set the gaming world alight, but it’s enough for light entertainment.
As you’d expect with those large fins, the Quiet PC kept its components cool despite the absence of fans. Its processor peaked at a very healthy 64°C – a full 13°C cooler than the Tranquil – and we measured the top panel of the chassis at 41°C, compared to the Tranquil’s 52°C. Both systems clearly have some headroom when it comes to cooling, but the one area where the Quiet PC is beaten is in power consumption: its 117W peak draw is much higher than the miniaturised Tranquil’s 44W.
Given the space left inside, Quiet PC has sensibly included a BlackGold BGT3650 DVB-T/T2 TV tuner. There’s also 8GB of DDR3 RAM, and you get both a 64GB Crucial SSD and a 2TB mechanical hard disk, which puts it way ahead of the Tranquil for storage. ArcSoft TotalMedia Theatre 5 is included for Blu-ray playback, and although you get Media Center as part of Windows 7, the system doesn’t boot straight into its front-end in the same way as the Tranquil.
Warranty | |
---|---|
Warranty | 2 yr return to base |
Basic specifications | |
Total hard disk capacity | 2,064GB |
RAM capacity | 8.00GB |
Processor | |
CPU family | Intel Core i3 |
CPU nominal frequency | 3.30GHz |
Processor socket | LGA 1155 |
HSF (heatsink-fan) | Streacom proprietary passive |
Motherboard | |
Motherboard | Gigabyte GA-Z68MX-UD2H-B3 |
Motherboard chipset | Intel Z68 |
Conventional PCI slots free | 0 |
Conventional PCI slots total | 1 |
PCI-E x16 slots free | 1 |
PCI-E x16 slots total | 3 |
PCI-E x1 slots free | 0 |
PCI-E x1 slots total | 1 |
Internal SATA connectors | 4 |
Wired adapter speed | 1,000Mbits/sec |
Memory | |
Memory type | DDR3 |
Memory sockets free | 2 |
Memory sockets total | 4 |
Graphics card | |
Graphics card | Intel HD Graphics 3000 |
Multiple SLI/CrossFire cards? | no |
3D performance setting | Low |
Graphics chipset | Intel HD Graphics 3000 |
DVI-I outputs | 1 |
HDMI outputs | 1 |
VGA (D-SUB) outputs | 1 |
DisplayPort outputs | 1 |
Number of graphics cards | 1 |
Hard disk | |
Hard disk | Crucial M4 SSD |
Capacity | 64GB |
Hard disk usable capacity | 58GB |
Internal disk interface | SATA/600 |
Hard disk 2 make and model | Samsung Spinpoint F4 |
Hard disk 2 nominal capacity | 2,000GB |
Hard disk 2 formatted capacity | 1,862 |
Hard disk 2 spindle speed | 7,200RPM |
Hard disk 2 cache size | 64MB |
Drives | |
Optical drive | Sony Optiarc BC-5600S |
Optical disc technology | Blu-ray reader/DVD writer combo |
Additional Peripherals | |
Sound card | Realtek HD Audio |
Case | |
Chassis | Streacom FC5OD |
Case format | Small form-factor |
Dimensions | 450 x 332 x 71mm (WDH) |
Power supply | |
Power supply rating | 150W |
Free drive bays | |
Free front panel 5.25in bays | 0 |
Rear ports | |
USB ports (downstream) | 4 |
eSATA ports | 1 |
PS/2 mouse port | yes |
Electrical S/PDIF audio ports | 0 |
Optical S/PDIF audio output ports | 1 |
Modem | no |
3.5mm audio jacks | 6 |
Front ports | |
Front panel memory card reader | no |
Operating system and software | |
OS family | Windows 7 |
Software supplied | ArcSoft TotalMedia Theatre 5 |
Noise and power | |
Idle power consumption | 42W |
Peak power consumption | 117W |
Performance tests | |
3D performance (crysis) low settings | 38fps |
3D performance setting | Low |
Overall Real World Benchmark score | 0.76 |
Responsiveness score | 0.88 |
Media score | 0.78 |
Multitasking score | 0.63 |
Disclaimer: Some pages on this site may include an affiliate link. This does not effect our editorial in any way.