Fanless computers
No fan, no moving parts, no noise. Built for environments where silence and reliability are non-negotiable.
What is a fanless computer
A fanless computer cools entirely passively — via large heat sinks that dissipate heat into the surrounding air. There are no fans inside. No moving parts. Zero noise.
Why no fans
No moving parts means no physical wear and tear; furthermore, no dust or dirt is sucked into the computer. In a medical environment, pathogens cannot be blown around the room. Plus, fanless computers are fully sealed, which in turn protects the hardware inside the casing.
A fanless system completely eliminates that weak point. There is nothing that can wear out, nothing that gets clogged, and nothing that makes a noise.
How it works
The casing itself acts as a heat sink. The processor and other heat-generating components are connected via heat pipes to the aluminium or copper exterior of the casing. The heat is dissipated via convection (natural airflow).
The trade-off
Passive cooling has its limits. A high-end desktop CPU that generates 250 watts of heat cannot be passively cooled. Fanless systems therefore use energy-efficient processors — typically 15 to 65 watts TDP. That is sufficient for sensor reading, edge computing and local AI inference, but not for heavy rendering or simulation.
The trick is to find the right balance between computing power and thermal budget. That is exactly what we do.
Our choice
No fan means no noise, no dust, no wear and tear - but it requires careful component selection.
Industrial and embedded applications
Fanless computers are the norm in industrial environments. In such environments, dust, vibrations, moisture and extreme temperatures would cause a standard PC to break down within months.
Where we supply fanless systems
- Factory automation: machine control, HMI panels, SCADA systems. Dust-free and vibration-resistant.
- Maritime: navigation systems, vessel monitoring, alarm systems. Resistant to salt, moisture and continuous vibrations.
- Digital signage: information displays in shops, airports, hospitals. On 24/7, no maintenance, no noise.
- Kiosk and retail: ordering and payment systems, interactive kiosks. Compact, reliable, silent.
- Medical: equipment in treatment rooms where silence is essential and dust-free environments are required.
Temperature range
Our industrial fanless systems are tested for an ambient temperature of 0°C to +60°C. That is not a marketing claim — it is the operational specification of the components we select. In an unheated warehouse in January or a machine room in August, that is not enough. Special hardware is available for extreme temperatures, for example for permafrost environments. Environments
Mounting and form factor
Fanless industrial systems are supplied in compact enclosures with DIN-rail mounting, VESA mounting or wall mounting. They fit into control cabinets, behind monitors or in confined technical spaces where a standard tower PC would not physically fit.
Our choice
Industrial fanless is not a luxury - it is a necessity for environments that have no room for interference.
Local AI: why fanless
AI isn’t just run in data centres. More and more companies want to run AI locally — in the office, in the factory, at the customer’s premises. Without the cloud, without latency, without privacy concerns.
Inference vs training
AI training — training a model — requires enormous GPU computing power and is a task for a data centre or a powerful workstation. But inference — running a trained model — is much lighter. A language model, image recognition or predictive model can run locally on modest hardware.
Why fanless for inference
Local AI inference often runs in environments where a traditional computer won’t fit:
- Shop floor: customer recognition, stock management, interactive displays
- Factory floor: quality control via cameras, predictive maintenance
- Medical: on-site image analysis, privacy-sensitive data that must not leave the premises
- Office: document processing, translation, local chatbots without cloud costs
In all these situations, noise is undesirable, dust is a risk, and reliability is essential. A fanless system solves all three at once.
What we build
Our fanless AI systems run on Intel or AMD processors with an integrated NPU (Neural Processing Unit), or with a compact dedicated GPU such as an NVidia RTX graphics card. This provides sufficient computing power for real-time inference in a completely silent, compact format.
For more demanding inference tasks — larger language models, multiple camera streams — we build systems using NVidia Jetson or compact desktop GPUs in a semi-fanless configuration: passive cooling up to a certain load, and a large, slow-spinning fan as a backup.
Our choice
Local AI doesn't have to be big and loud. Fanless inference is now practical and affordable.
Our fanless configurations
We build fanless systems for a wide range of applications. Below is an overview of what we typically supply.
Compact office / signage
- Processor: Intel Core i3, i5 / i7 (15–28W TDP), i9 (only in the Tank case)
- Memory: 8–92GB DDR5
- Storage: 500GB–8TB NVMe SSD
- Size: 1–2 litres, VESA-mountable
- Applications: office work, digital signage, thin client, POS system
Industrial / marine
- Processor: Intel Core i3, i5 / i7 industrial (extended temperature range)
- Memory: 8–92GB DDR5 ECC (where available) (ATX boards up to 192GB)
- Storage: industrial SSD with power loss protection
- Temperature range: -20°C to +60°C
- I/O: multiple COM ports, dual LAN, GPIO
- Mounting: DIN rail, VESA, wall mounting
- Applications: SCADA, HMI, ship control, process automation, sensor technology
Edge AI / inference
- Processor: Intel Core Ultra with NPU, or AMD Ryzen AI
- GPU: optional NVIDIA RTX card
- Memory: 32–92GB DDR5
- Storage: 1–8TB NVMe SSD
- Application: local AI inference, image recognition, predictive maintenance
Customised
The configurations above are examples. Every fanless computer we build is configured to meet your specific requirements. Do you need an unusual I/O configuration, a specific operating system or a particular certification? We’ll build it.
Our choice
Every fanless system is customised. The above configurations are starting points, not fixed products.
Interested in a fanless system?
Tell us your application and we will configure a suitable system.