Audible humming / ticking in fit-PC3

earthping7
Posts: 6
Joined: Wed Mar 24, 2010 6:02 pm

Re: Audible humming / ticking in fit-PC3

Post by earthping7 »

I second the motion that the circuit design should be changed to remove the humming/ticking sounds.

This is unwarranted, given that previous generations (fitpc2/2i, fitpc original, slim, etc) did not have this issue. Sitting close (<1m) away, this becomes very annoying and defeats the true purpose of a completely silent pc.

I look forward to ordering soon, once new production run is released (with sound issues fixed).

Hary
Posts: 8
Joined: Sat Dec 10, 2011 6:11 pm

Re: Audible humming / ticking in fit-PC3

Post by Hary »

I totally agree.

Arwen
Posts: 145
Joined: Sun Nov 20, 2011 10:43 pm

Re: Audible humming / ticking in fit-PC3

Post by Arwen »

I have to agree that if the Fit-PC 3 has continuous noise, it's not as suitable
for my use. Currently my old Fit-PC 1, Full Height is about 1 meter away
from my home entertainment center. For practical purposes, it's totally
silent even with a spinning IDE hard drive.

Please consider selling a version that does not include hum or ticking noise.
Arwen Evenstar
Rivendale, Middle Earth

irads

Re: Audible humming / ticking in fit-PC3

Post by irads »

We appreciate the feedback. There is a trade-off between being audible at maximum power saving and being silent at a slightly higher power consumption. This is determined by implementing skip-mode in the switching power supply. fit-PC3 was designed with skip-mode enabled to minimize power consumption. We will check whether skip-mode can be optionally disabled for users who appreciate silence over power saving.

Ziggo
Posts: 2
Joined: Thu Jan 19, 2012 5:02 pm

Re: Audible humming / ticking in fit-PC3

Post by Ziggo »

Yes, please do consider adding such an option. Power saving is not that important to me.

Arwen
Posts: 145
Joined: Sun Nov 20, 2011 10:43 pm

Re: Audible humming / ticking in fit-PC3

Post by Arwen »

Is the power supply that generates the noise internal to the box?
Or external?

This may make a difference for some of us who can place the CPU unit
where noise would be a problem. But can relocate the power supply part
further away.
Arwen Evenstar
Rivendale, Middle Earth

bugger
Posts: 3
Joined: Sun Jan 22, 2012 9:27 pm

Re: Audible humming / ticking in fit-PC3

Post by bugger »

Arwen wrote:Is the power supply that generates the noise internal to the box?
Or external?
According to this post it's internal.

mirumu
Posts: 14
Joined: Thu Nov 10, 2011 8:51 am

Re: Audible humming / ticking in fit-PC3

Post by mirumu »

Arwen wrote:Is the power supply that generates the noise internal to the box?
Or external?

This may make a difference for some of us who can place the CPU unit
where noise would be a problem. But can relocate the power supply part
further away.
Sorry for the confusion. There is an external power supply, but I can't say I've heard any noise from it. The ticking noises described come from the Fit-PC3 itself.

To put things in perspective I can't hear the noise at all from about 2 meters away in a near silent room. So yes, if you can relocate it somewhere a bit further away from your ears then this noise would not be a problem at all. Also if there is anything else making noise in the room then you won't hear the Fit-PC3 noise. Almost anything else will drown the noise out. The noise will only really be an issue in a silent room, and if you're close to the unit.

I also just wanted to thank irads for looking into this further. It's a shame there's a trade-off involved, but anything that can be done is welcome.

Arwen
Posts: 145
Joined: Sun Nov 20, 2011 10:43 pm

Re: Audible humming / ticking in fit-PC3

Post by Arwen »

Thanks bugger and mirumu for the clarification.
Arwen Evenstar
Rivendale, Middle Earth

monnier
Posts: 42
Joined: Sat Jan 09, 2010 4:08 am

Re: Audible humming / ticking in fit-PC3

Post by monnier »

irads wrote:We appreciate the feedback. There is a trade-off between being audible at maximum power saving and being silent at a slightly higher power consumption.
I do not understand this tradeoff, but I care about minimizing power usage when idle and minimizing noise when idle as well, even if this comes at the expense of a slightly higher power usage when active, or some minor noise when active.
FWIW, my fit-pc2's idle consumption is probably higher than it should be since I had to disable the extra sleep states in the BIOS (since they cause the fit-pc2 to occasionally fail to wake up for about 5minutes, which is usually seen in the OS's time drifting). So maybe a slightly higher idle consumption is not that terrible.
If the tradeoff could be quantified (at least on the power-consumption side but ideally also on the dB side) it would help.

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