Quiet PC Sidewinder Fanless

This super-slim high-specification beautiful PC uses 6th Generation Intel processors and comes in a choice of silver or black. It has no fans for zero noise, zero dust and zero maintenance.

Beauty and power in your living room

We are pleased to announce yet another ground-breaking example of living room PC design - the Quiet PC ‘Sidewinder’ Fanless Media PC. With its design goal being focussed on beauty, the machine is 435mm wide by only 60mm high and is sure to look great at the centre of any home entertainment system. The machine is supplied in a shot-blasted silver or black finish and its fascia is clean, elegant and uncluttered. Only the power button, power light, optical slot (WS case only) and remote control sensor (option) are visible on the front of the case.

Top Performance and Reliability

The PC itself doesn’t compromise on performance, and can be built pre-installed with up to 32 gigabytes of memory. Although Microsoft Windows will run happily on 4GB of memory, we recommend a minimum of 8GB to ensure that the machine has plenty to spare and will always offer excellent responsiveness whilst running PVR software.

Despite its diminutive size, it packs a real punch - Intel’s 8th Generation Core processors gives fantastic performance and low power consumption, allowing the machine to be cooled without any forced air whatsoever. The whole case acts as a processor heatsink, with heat being efficiently transferred from the CPU to the chassis via six copper heatpipes.

Two motherboards, HDMI 2.0 option

The Lora Fanless has two motherboards to choose from. The main reason for this is due to the fact we have had many customers ask if it is possible to run a 4K @ 60Hz TV/Monitor via a HDMI port. For this to happen there has to be a HDMI 2.0 port, but it is very rare for a motherboard to have HDMI 2.0 built in. That is until Gigabyte released their Z390I-AORUS Wi-Fi motherboard which features a HDMI 2.0 port as standard. This means it is now possible to run anything at 4K @ 60Hz without the need for a graphics card. This not only reduces the overall power consumption of the system, as no graphics card is required, but also reduces the cost of the system. Of course HDMI 2.0 may not be required for all customers and therefore we suggest opting for the less expensive ASUS ROG STRIX B360-I ITX motherboard if that is the case.

Blu-ray playback

If you like to watch Blu-ray films then we offer an optional Blu-ray player which is a slimline slot-loading model. However, Windows does not have the built-in ability to play Blu-ray movie discs and if you would like to be able to do this, we recommend that you purchase third party software to enable the facility. Software such as CyberLink PowerDVD will allow seamless playback and control of Blu-ray movies.

Windows Media Center

Unfortunately Windows 10 does not include Windows Media Center, therefore we recommend you consider an alternative. The most popular are MediaPortal and Kodi (formally known as XBMC). Both programs offer the facility to do exactly (and much more) what Windows Media Center does, although some configuration is required via plugins (add-ons) supplied by both MediaPortal and Kodi. Both pieces of software are open source which means they are free for personal use and they can be used with any Windows operating system. We highly recommend you take a look at them to see if they are more suited to your needs. Please note that we do not provide support for MediaPortal or Kodi.

Black and silver versions of the Sidewinder with optical drive slot

Black and silver versions of the Sidewinder without optical drive slot

Storage considerations

When specifying your new PC’s storage options using our system configurator below, you will be offered a choice of drives which vary by price and capacity. There are two primary types of storage. A conventional hard disk drive (HDD) offers huge storage capacity for a low price, but it won’t be especially fast and it will generate a certain amount of running noise since it contains a constantly-rotating spindle. A solid state (SSD) or a M2 drive on the other hand, offer tremendous speed and absolutely silent operation, but they cost more than an HDD for any given capacity.

So if you need a lot of storage space (for videos or large quantities of digital photos for example), then we would recommend an HDD. On the other hand, if you prefer silence and speed (especially boot-up speed), then an SSD or M2 drive would be a better choice. Of course, you can have more than one drive, so you could have the best of both worlds by choosing one of each! We recommend that customers choose an SSD or M2 drive as a boot drive that contains the operating system and important programs. A conventional HDD would store other data but remember that if you intend to have a totally silent PC, you might want to forgo the HDDs altogether as they will make some noise due to their moving parts.

Clean Build™ Promise

The price of many pre-built PCs these days is often supported by cash kickbacks from software companies who pay hardware manufacturers to pre-install limited or trial versions of their software and then hope that the customer pays to upgrade to the full version. The downside to this approach is that the new PC comes pre-loaded with a lot of “junkware” which bloats the operating system and can cause severe performance degradation.

Here at Quiet PC we believe that customers have every right to expect the best possible performance from a brand new PC, so every system we build comes with our Clean Build™ promise. We install the operating system (if you order one), motherboard drivers, OS updates and Microsoft Security Essentials / Windows Defender - that’s it. You won’t be pestered by pop-ups and nag screens and you can get on with using your new PC immediately without having to uninstall lots of junkware first. Your new machine will boot in super-quick time and will stay running quickly for many months and years to come.

Free hardware support and fully inclusive warranty

We offer free hardware technical support for as long as you own the machine. This support covers any hardware query or problem, including advice on maintenance and upgrades. We regret we can’t offer software support or training so we would recommend contacting the software vendor in this instance.

Our hardware warranty runs for two years and is “collect and return” meaning that you don’t need to worry about getting the machine back to us - we will instruct our courier to collect it from you on a day of your choosing, then after we have checked and repaired it, we will send it back to you by express courier at our expense. In addition, unlike many other PC suppliers, we have an “open-case” policy which means you are free to open the machine and perform your own minor modifications or upgrades without worrying that your warranty might be affected.