Hush Technology..... Can you hear it?
Hush technologies were the innovator of the first ‘mass market’ silent PC. Today Hush are launching a new system based on an fullsize ATX platform giving up to 2.8GHz P4 or AMD Athlon equivalent of speed in a passive box.
We have had an exclusive look at this new system; Hush have clearly been listening to what the critics have been saying - the main grudge with their first incarnation was that it is based on a mini-itx solution (In the form of a VIA EPIA based 933 or 1000MHz CPU) that it is not fast enough for most people. So Hush has spent a year developing a passive solution based on an ATX / M-ATX or Mini ITX mainboard and the Intel Pentium 4 Processor or Athlon. This new solution will take any full-sized ATX mainboard, any P4 CPU and any RADEON AGP series graphics card. This is great news for performance users. The new chassis is around one and a half times the height of the original ‘Hush’ solution; however this is due to riser cards options as well as heat dissipation requirements.
The system is available in the normal range of Hush black or silver with matching CDROM etc, the system can be upgraded but only Hush approved configurations are supported. However we think that people who are interested should invest in the budget solution and then upgrade at a later date if they need to.
Another significant difference between the ATX Hush and the Mini-ITX solution is that the ATX system has an optional front panel connection point which has 2 firewire, 2 USB, and your normal audio points (these are optional). This is ideal for people who wish to use it as an entertainment system – you can hot plug a keyboard in to the front if and when you need it.
The thermals within the system are controlled via 3 heatpipes, one for the CPU, Northbridge, and VPU. This allows the system to cater for many different solutions. Within the chassis you can have 1 in the ATX/MATX configuration but more with the mini-itx solutions.
The system is running on a 240W PSU with the option of a 110W PSU for the mini-itx if required which again gives more space within the system. On the rear of the system you have 2 riser slots, and an optional slot for a ‘D-bracket’ for extra USB/Firewire functionality. One slimline optical bay, one 3.5” bay, or 2 * 2.5” bays.
The system will come in at : around 1000 euros for a Celeron 1.7GHz based system with 256MB ram and can cost up to 2500 euros for a fully loaded top of the range solution.
Finally we have a real world solution which is passive and does not generate any noise (that is apart from the hard drive and the CDROM).
