Introduction
Tranquil PC Review
Shush!
It's safe to say that most potential PC buyers always look at the high-end machines first, and they marvel at the amount of technology that can be crammed into an elegant case. Sultry specifications, consisting of, say, a 3.2GHz P4, Canterwood board, 1GB of Corsair's finest, ATi Radeon 9800 Pro 256MB, 19" TFTs, 360GB of hard drives ....... the list can go on and on, invite the buyer to whip out their credit cards and be forever indebted to the Mr. VISA or Mastercard. Yet when this wallet-busting system arrives, a number of users are content with raising the odd spreadsheet, answering a few e-mails and playing Minesweeper. And it must be noted that keeping such a power-hungry system cool is no mean task in itself. A decent OEM power PC may incorporate as many as 6 large fans in an effort to cool the voltage-happy beast.
The fans bring with them the problem of excessive noise. The PC is meant to be the centre of your multimedia adventures, right ?. That's what a number of glossy adverts would have us believe. However, just how integral can a PC be if you're having to raise the volume a few more notches that usual. The glaringly obvious fact is that most potential buyers, whether they like to admit it or not, don't need the very latest power PC. That's perhaps why we've seen a steady increase in demand for a niche market that caters for ultra-quiet PCs which are able to handle common, everyday tasks with ease.
The rise of the quiet machines has begun (nice movie tie-in, huh ?). One such company looking to exploit this sector is the appropriately named Tranquil PC, a U.K-based firm with a penchant for all things quiet. Yours truly has always been an advocate of power without excessive noise pollution, so this was an interesting opportunity to see if the folks over at Tranquil could live up to their name. Read on to find out.
