Hush Debuts Fanless Pentium 4 PC

Who says Pentium 4-based PCs require noisy cooling fans?

Hush Technologies, in Stamford, England, has developed a sleek-looking PC, the Hush ATX, that is based on Intel's Pentium 4 processor and doesn't require a cooling fan. The PC made its debut Tuesday at the Computex exhibition in Taipei, which runs through September 26.

Good looks and near-silent operation don't come cheap, though. The Hush ATX, which will be available at the end of October, is priced starting from $1204 and doesn't include a monitor or a keyboard, according to Stuart Brown, the company's founder.

Measuring 17.3 inches by 15.0 inches by 3.9 inches, the Hush ATX's aluminum case is available in either silver or black and more closely resembles a high-end stereo component than it does a computer.

On the Inside

While the inside of the Hush ATX sample on display at Computex was not open for inspection, the PC is kept cool by three heat pipes: one for the CPU; one for the Northbridge chip, which is one of two chips that comprise the PC chipset; and one heat pipe for the graphics chip, Brown said. In addition, the PC's power supply does not use a fan, he said.

In the basic configuration, the computer comes equipped with a 1.7-GHz Intel Celeron processor, a 40GB hard drive, a CD-ROM drive, and an S3 ProSavage 8 graphics chip, Brown said.

The Hush ATX will also be available with an Intel Pentium 4 processor at speeds up to 2.8 GHz, an Advanced Micro Devices Athlon XP chip, or an Athlon 64 chip, Brown said. Users can also upgrade the graphics chip to an ATI Technologies Radeon 9200, Radeon 9600, or Radeon 9800 chip, he said.

The Hush ATX is Hush's second PC model. The company also offers a PC with a similar design that is based on Via Technologies' C3 processor. That model, the Hush Mini-ITX, is currently available and is priced starting from $650, according to Hush's Web site.