It is genuinely refreshing to see someone building a new PC that is not intended to be ridiculously high performing but is instead just right for their needs. Throughout this build I noticed so many modest and sensible hardware choices; it made me consider the clear benefits of having a silent, efficient albeit slightly less performant machine. Thank you once again Chris for another excellent video; I am soon going to use your network cabling tutorial for my own installation!

@weinbergfahrer4048

5 ай бұрын

That's exactly the reason why I switched to an Apple Mac mini M1 in its stock configuration. Although it has a fan, under normal load it's practically inaudible. Thanks to Christopher for videos, that often put things in the right perspective!

@danielpicassomunoz2752

5 ай бұрын

I'm looking forward to low specs, high performance, optimized software

@gregclare

5 ай бұрын

Totally agree. The most common overkill in new PC builds that I see is with GPU. People seem to want to buy the best GPU they can afford, instead of what they actually need. I mean, you don’t need a RTX 4000 series for checking email, social media, web browsing, and even most gaming needs! I suspect in most builds, people can save the most by buying only the GPU they really need now, also allowing an easy future upgrade when more graphics performance is really needed.

@DJDocsVideos

5 ай бұрын

both the SSD and the RAM choice are overkill for this box

@Darkk6969

5 ай бұрын

@@DJDocsVideos Well he uses virtualbox so it will benefit from it.

Nicely done! 1/3 electricity consumed for 3-4x performance gain. And no tinnitus triggering noise. Wishing you another 10 years of enjoying this computer case.

@NOPerative

5 ай бұрын

Absolutely. Less power consumption with tangible performance improvements is the real-world, old-school, inarguable upgrade.

@knerduno5942

5 ай бұрын

Too bad we are not seeing Atom based board anymore. They have even lower power usage, and have even better math performance than the N series.

@BenState

5 ай бұрын

Still way too expensive. the power difference will not be noticeable in any meaningful way in terms of cost.

@knerduno5942

5 ай бұрын

I think it is too expensive also. Should be around $60

@clooi5018

5 ай бұрын

This is E-core only version of Alderlake family. So is all gracemont core. :) @@knerduno5942

Nice video Chris - you've not changed in (nearly) 40 years! You won't remember, and neither of us knew it at the time, but you were instrumental in starting me off on a career in IT when you were helping me with an electronics project at school.

@ExplainingComputers

4 ай бұрын

Wow! I presume this was at WRGS? A long time ago.

@Gorf1234

4 ай бұрын

@@ExplainingComputers Indeed it was! Not the happiest of times for other reasons, but even after all this time I remember you patiently explaining the purpose of a 555 timer to what must have looked like a Lancashire neanderthal. Clearly your desire to educate others hasn't dwindled.

@ExplainingComputers

4 ай бұрын

Ah this takes me back, as does the 555. Still a useful and classic IC. :)

Its nice seeing someone create a low end PC instead of some high-end gaming PC. Your videos are great!

@ExplainingComputers

5 ай бұрын

Thanks. :)

@nicholaswjamrock

5 ай бұрын

@@ExplainingComputers could you post a link to where i could get the simular case

What a beautiful rig. Love how you focus on practical and power-efficient builds that don’t make your power bill skyrocket.

I tend to have music on most times to dampen my tinnitus - but the power saving aspect is something to look for regardless especially in these times..... Thank you for the video Chris, and take care.

@ExplainingComputers

5 ай бұрын

Thanks for your support. I find there are times when background sound helps, and times when I prefer to remove all triggers. :)

Stanley the Knife has seen better days

@Praxibetel-Ix

5 ай бұрын

He's such a hard-working knife, our Stanley.

I enjoy seeing these videos. Helps when deciding what to use when upgrading and I appreciate the honesty shown when discussing any drawbacks. The silent cooling is a bonus as well. Thanks and as always, great video.

Smashing! You did the usual outstanding job on this Chris. Thank you for choosing to upgrade with affordable yet fully capable components. Looking forward to a subsequent report down the line. Cheers!

Awesome mix of old school and new school! Keep up the great work Sir!

Great quiet build, Mint and XP.. two of my favourites!

Hi Chris. Congrats for the upgrade and thanks for the nice video.

I’m really impressed by these low power solutions. Thanks!

It's so nice to watch a video like this. It reminds me of older systems when passive cooling was still a common thing. Such a beautiful piece of computing engineering, for daily use of browser, office, etc.

Glad you're doing this when I thought about getting this board to make a 1U server.

Getting to watch an excellent new build video from Chris while simultaneously getting to watch him struggle with the small form factor on camera is such a perfect combo. Passive cooling too! The only thing quieter than a Noctua fan.

Professor Barnatt, when I find a channel that grabs me, I stick with it. Over the last couple of years, a lot of channels I used to find interesting got to be boring, stupid or just shite, but your videos are still as interesting as the 1st!

@ExplainingComputers

5 ай бұрын

Thanks for this positive feedback, appreciated. :)

I love seeing new systems built that use far less energy :) This is the way!

@ExplainingComputers

5 ай бұрын

The way indeed.

As always Chris, informative and entertaining. I am extremely happy I found your channel years ago. Thank you for all the great vids including this one.

I love your computer upgrade videos. So down to earth, and a good reminder to keep hardware in service when possible rather than buying everything new for a new project.

PS2 port, parallel port headers, serial port, VGA port.... Feels like a blast from the past.... But with a modern cpu. Great video!

Big hardware improvements in speed and efficiency at decent prices. Bravo Chris. Thanks for another great video. 🙂👍

This Build was Clear and confidence building for those us building our own desktop pc or returning to doing so. Energy saver too.

I am glad you got your new PC. I wanted to do something similar but I got lost in the many options to choose from, and gave up. Seeing how simple the build can be helps a lot. Thanks for sharing. ❤

Great upgrade! Thanks Chris.

I really appreciate the way you re-use the case, and drives, and do frugal upgrades that get what you need and don't waste resources. this would make a great Home Theater PC or Plex (or similar) server. Nice job!

The combination of perfectly suited lower-end "tool" PC build AND Explaining Computers. Absolute must watch for me.

That new board looks really nice. Props to ASRock for making it, and props to you, good sir, for giving it a happy new home. 💻🖥👍

What a sweet little box! I really wasn't sure that the N100 would do the job, but I admit I am pretty impressed.

I always love an EC computer build!

Thanks Christopher, that's a nice wee system you've got there. I liked the Tremeloes reference even though it's before your time!

Very helpful video as usual. Today I built a similar pc to his build. I’m very impressed with the performance and price. These N100 cpus make for a snappy little machine.

Another outstanding build.

Hats off to you Christopher! Reminds me of the day I built a silent no moving parts intel atom pc way back when❤

First one of your videos that I've seen. Very straightforward and measured. I am reminded in the best way, of the Open University broadcasts of the 80s & 90s. 👍🎓😎

Nice set of choices for a perfectly functional "daily driver". As a build for you and your skills, this was falling-down easy. But I'm sure it would be a great tutorial for beginners looking for a similar very affordable platform. It's a nice addition to your canon, and your video production skills are always top-notch.

I like this setup idea. Great video - thank you.

Congrats Chris on your new driver! Good move!

Greetings. A silent PC is certainly a nice choice when it gives enough power to do everyday tasks and even run a VM. Interesting upgrade video, Chris B.

Verrry impressive! Congrats on hitting load numbers equal to your old resting ones.

Neat, I'm thinking of using this motherboard for a low power server system. Looks good

Small (and simple) is beautiful!

The sub d connectors give it a kind of retro look. Happy holidays.

You have CRT monitor! Massive respect!

I really like this project as it matches with a similar idea i had for building switching over my NAS. I probably would have put a fan in there because I am paranoid, but it is nicely done. Thank you for sharing.

This is the type of videos I love!

After I watched this video I bought all the parts and built one for myself. The bios went right to my USB stick and booted into Linux mint. I installed it and it loaded just fine. I installed a temperature app and put on a video, the temp only went up to 120. This is an amazing board. Thanks Chris.

Nice build. It's always extremely satisfying to see the performance benefits of current PC tech vs something nearly a decade old. A year on, I suffer from post-covid tinnitus so I can fully appreciate how it feels to never be able to hear true silence ever again 😞. But, some people have succumbed to far more serious after effects of the virus so I should be thankful really.

Great little machine and so efficient.

Always good to see an EC build video. Clear explanation as to why each component was chosen, and how to carry out the assembly. As a bonus, I think this might be the first time I heard the meaning of LPT.

@sharonwolff1

5 ай бұрын

That and the serial port are now relics of the past for most people. Surprising the board had them both. Unless you ordered that motherboard especially because you had a use for them?

@Colin_Ames

5 ай бұрын

@@sharonwolff1 I too was surprised to see that Chris’ board had both ports, as I’m sure it’s meant for office or home use. Serial is still (or was until recently) used in industrial applications.

@nasanierulastname2997

3 ай бұрын

Those older ports might be useful for certain commercial or industrial use cases where interfacing with the machine the computer controls requires LPT or COM. One example I can immediately think of is laser tag arenas.

Congratulations for the new build! I thought that N100 were available only on mini PCs, so it's cool to know they are an option to consider for power-efficient modern builds!

@jamescollins6085

5 ай бұрын

I hope to find a similar solution with the more powerful i3 N305 CPU, as that would make for a great low power home server.

@MrPir84free

5 ай бұрын

There's also firewall appliances in the N100 format. Not terribly user friendly as far as servicing, but they come with a massive heatsink in the fanless variety. Personally, I might be interested in a N305 version over the N100; twice the cores, with a slight bump up in power draw. Note. I checked my N100 firewall appliance; it's running at 55 C currently.

Excellent video as always. I definitely like these type of builds for low power consumption if I'm going to have a lot of them especially. Thank you for sharing.

Awesome video!! Many of us do not need the latest gaming builds! Silence and efficiently operating systems are wonderful for a lot of what we do. Love to see more builds lkke this!👍

Yeah, Now That Was Fun! Virtually Running XP To Run WORD!?! Would You Believe, Back In The Day, I Was A Word Perfect 5.1 Maniac! Thank You!

Thanks for sharing. This board and its bigger m-atx sister are right in the home pc/lab space and very economical too. For anyone curious. The specific nvme is MZ-V7S2T0. The manufacture’s website has a memory QVL file in the support section so you can get a better interesting about ram speed options. There is a storage QVL too if anyone is curious.

Nice little system and totally silent too.

Great video, clear and concise. A balance of energy savings of compute power is becoming easier these days with tech. This hardware functions are similar to a Dell 7060m series, which is what I use for a daily driver, but with a good performance boost.

Brilliant video as always Chris. Your presentation style reminds me of the old schools programes on TV with the white screen and the next title whooshing in. Thanks again.

I'm using this motherboard inside an old switch 1U rack case, as a home server and smart home hub, DVR etc. What I missed was an internal DC connector to have 19V laptop brick mounted inside, not only via back panel. Also I'd love it to have a full x16 PCIe for RAID storage options. The connector is x4, but actually only x2 connected. Same for mpcie.

Great video. I didn't know about these boards. I think I'm gonna have to build me one. Thanks Chris!

Congratulations! I've build my night sky observation camera station for outdoor usage with an ASRock board as main server . I love the power efficiency of these boards. 😊

@ExplainingComputers

5 ай бұрын

:)

The thermaltake case you have is a case I love, I have one I use as my linux machine. Half way across the world same taste in cases. Great content.

@ExplainingComputers

5 ай бұрын

:)

Chris, I was person that did the memory reference layout for the CPU company (This family cpu supports DDR4, DDR5, LPDDR5, max 32G ram), very happy to see you like the system . I posted a link to Intel website on the N family that has more powerful CPU N200,N300 , lower performance N95 --. Somehow my comment was deleted yesterday . So I am not posting any URL risk robot spam removal. Nothing is more satisfying than seeing happy customer. Merry Christmas !

@ExplainingComputers

5 ай бұрын

Thanks for this, very interesting to hear from somebody involved. :)

@clooi5018

4 ай бұрын

​@@ExplainingComputers This chip was also optimized for chromebook. If you build a Chrome flex OS and run it off SSD, it will be very fast. A few well known OEM build chromebook with this CPU. Surface Go4 will come with this family of CPU too. 😊

I really miss taking a closer look. But the videos are fantastic as usual.

Something old. Something new. Upgrade baby! Good stuff.

serial and parallel connectors - made me feel quite retro!

@johanpeturdam

5 ай бұрын

Ikr? You can put a CVX4 or OPL3LPT on the LPT port and have actual retro sounds coming out of your machine. And a mouse in COM1 too.

Thank you! 👍🏻🙏🏻🙂 6:00 Small World! I'm a *QuietPC* customer too! I live in Florida and they were the only retailer on Planet Earth who had a brand new *i9-13900T* to sell me earlier this year. It was a flawless transaction and I highly recommend them to everyone I know. 💖

Love this build. What I love about my Apple M1 MacBook Air no fan, low power.

This is what I was thinking about doing but add in some nas drives as well. Thanks for the ideas!

I’ve decided to build one as my 2nd pc to play my older games on. Since I do not play nor enjoy modern hand held guiding games, press this button press that button known as QuickTime events no thanks. This solution is ideal for the less demanding titles I enjoy. Thanks for inspiring me to do so.

Nice upgrade Chris! Hadn't heard about the N100 processor until this video!

@ExplainingComputers

5 ай бұрын

Greetings Chris.

Silence is Golden

@Praxibetel-Ix

4 ай бұрын

Indeed it is. 😌

Totally with you about MS Office. I Still run windows 7 on my daily computer for exactly this reason.

Very interesting build, this has helped with some of my reservations about these CPUs. The main thing about them that makes me worried is the lack of hyper-threading and only single channel memory support but I guess they're more capable than I feared

Glad I caught this video Christopher! This gives me some ideas for upgrading a nice old Falcon Northwest aluminum 'Shuttle' type case that currently has an old mini-ATX with a dual-core Celeron that's about used up. I'm pretty sure the case is setup for a micro ITX as well, but even if it isn't, there's plenty of floor space to redrill it for the necessary stand-offs. I don't see those SATA power cables being able to support any type of standard 3.5 in. SATA drives, so I may have to go with the N100M, so I can retain my stock PSU, and a case fan or 2, to keep the drives cool. It wouldn't be quite as efficient, but I could have a LOT more storage, and exponentially faster to boot!😉

iv always felt asrock is underated, this board has all you need. and nice to see the vga port sticking around

Thanks for the idea! I'm planning to build a low power home server soon and energy usage is a major consideration, alongside noise. While this specific model doesn't have enough SATA ports for my liking (unless I get a PCIe -> SATA card), this has definitely pointed me in the right direction!

@45KevinR

4 ай бұрын

There's a few aliexpress motherboards out there with 6 sata and 1-2 M2 shots. They appear to be the latest cpu upgrade on boards that came up from 5105 & 6213 cpus. The main struggle is the N100 only having 9 pci lanes to handle everything, so there's some compromises. Those motherboards seem to originate from NVR security camera recording. So they get 3/4 2.5G ethernet ports (!) which claim the lion's share of the pci lanes. Still very good value of you wait for the prices to cycle lower. I was looking at older SFF pcs or H110i motherboards and the price-performance-wattage on the new N100 softrouter/nas setups appear to compete very well even against used systems. We don't get as great deals on discarded commercial kit in the UK.

I bought an N100 NUC recently, and it is remarkable performance for the price. It feels like my old desktop i5 from ten years ago: 4 cores, 4 threads, nothing fancy like P-cores or chiplets, everything is equal and sane. It feels right somehow.

Great video. I almost feel inspired to build something like this for my parents’ daily use. And in the words of Depeche Mode: Enjoy the Silence!

@Praxibetel-Ix

5 ай бұрын

[piiiiiiiing...] God-tier song. Anyway, good luck if you do build one!

I love your mini pc videos thanks alot my friend have a nice one.

Nice build. I recently bought an N100 mini PC for running Jellyfin , pihole, and Nextcloud. Performs well, at just 6 watts draw.

@danielkowalski7527

5 ай бұрын

up to 15w draw

@watching_events447

5 ай бұрын

@@danielkowalski7527 Measured mine at 6w when streaming video from Jellyfin. That's about as much as I do at any one time.

It seems as though KZread ate my first attempt to make this comment so here it goes again. I always love the PC build videos and this one is certainly no exception. I did have to hold back my laughter upon seeing the two individually bagged screws that came with the board! Whose bright idea was that? Anyway, hopefully your ears will be very happy with the quiet PC upgrade! And in regards to 15:21, here's a nice virtual hug. 🤗

Nice, reminds me of an intel atom mini ITX I had about 10 years ago. Was a bit too niche for my uses but for playing VLC it did the job.

Built to work and last. NO RGB nonsene, just a tool to work with Thank you

Merry Christmas

I just love your videos! Now you can read comments without any noise :D

@ExplainingComputers

5 ай бұрын

Thanks, and exactly so. :)

Another excellent video. One idea for the black plastic back plate you used to cover the empty PSU bay would be to fit a parallel port. It would be pretty cool to have a modern system that has PS/2, serial and parallel ports should you need them for older devices.

@busydadscooking001

5 ай бұрын

I missed this part of the video. I would actually block it with a screen or leave it open for airflow. That case was not designed for fanless specifically and so it has ventilation but ideally more..

@michaelwright2986

5 ай бұрын

I'm sure somewhere in the world there are still functioning daisy wheel printers. That would give a real retro charm to paper output.

@jorgerapalo2673

5 ай бұрын

I work with structural design software that uses a hardware lock device that connects to a parallel port in order to let the program function legally. I have needed to keep functional old machines that still have that port. Newer versions of the software use other methods but are expensive and the old one that was legally bought still works like a charm. So having a newer computer with a functioning parallel port would be great.

Not sure how many viewers will get the Tremeloes reference, but nicely delivered Chris.

All in all, it is a good board. I can use it to operate as a beefy PLC application in factory settings or a small PC controller and monitor many PLCs in a factory setting. I have 2 on order and will test it before trying to market it to my customers. It has to function stressed under max loads in a hot. humid, and dusty environment. I may have to run it caseless as I do many of my SBCs that serve as replacements for old SS PLCs. It looks promising and cost-effective. Cool Video. Thank you.

I totally agree with the option of having a virtual windows xp for an alternative office version, that is a good idea. Great upgrade. I just did a minor upgrade to AMD 7500F running linux mint. Very smooth so far.

Great video (as always)! One thing I've learnt throughout the years of computing is to take pauses during longer sessions. It's easy to forget about time while working/gaming/etc., but a few minutes of just standing up or leaving the room for a minute helps with getting out of that very static stance one might have while sitting down (completely unaware of it). Tinnitus can come from muscle tension and so on, for instance, jaw clenching. Hope the silent machine helps out anyhow! Sure think it will!

@ExplainingComputers

4 ай бұрын

A very interesting point on muscle tension. Thanks for this,

I love the fact that you have copious amounts of blu-tack alongside your K-9. I use that much of it I ought to buy shares in the company! ;-)

This is fun to watch. Even tho some complain that x86 is stagnant because they don’t see big changes between generation of CPU anymore this shows that over 10 year period quit much has happend in form of performance/watt. Also nostalgia to see Win XP and Office 2003. 👍

Just ordered one of these based on your recommendation. I'll be using it as a plex and roon server. I've had a beautiful fractal design mini itx case sitting idle for a couple of years and finally have something worthy, but not overpriced, to put in it.

@ExplainingComputers

5 ай бұрын

Good luck with your build! :) I remain very pleased with this board.

Lovely stuff! Regarding power consumption, I went from ~120W idle on an 3rd gen Xeon 12 core (fastest you could get on socket 2011), all the way down to ~50W with 2.5x the performance with 12th gen. I also added a good chunk of RAM too (32GB to 64GB). May not sound like a lot, but given the 24/7 usage, that's a good chuck of my house's base load reduced!

I have this motherboard too and was able to run in without issues with USB-C PD to 20V DC barrel jack converter cable from powerbank.

An interesting silent build & not a bad price for the N100. I like the the old itx case you've reused it seemed to have a fair amount of space. Mr scissors had plenty of action nice to see, one thing missing was the cursing of the IO shield.

I love that case, I wish more modern cases had 5.25'' drive bays, even if you're not gonna put an optical drive, they're handy for hot swap sata bays or additional front usb.

This has inspired me to make a silent ITX build.

@ExplainingComputers

4 ай бұрын

Excellent! Good luck.

@WalterW

4 ай бұрын

@@ExplainingComputers thank you, Chris

I must say you increased my knowledge. Thank you for that