Tranquil PC Reveals Passively Cooled Intel NUC Enclosure

By Niels Broekhuijsen
published

Another passively cooled case.

Yesterday we showed you Silverstone's prototype of its NUC enclosure. Today we're showing you Tranquil PC passively cooled Intel NUC enclosure. From Tranquil PC we will see two different enclosures. Both are based on the same structure, the only difference being the cutout on the rear end for either a Thunderbolt port or a Gigabit Ethernet port.

Like the Silverstone NUC enclosure we saw yesterday, Tranquil PC's case also acts as a giant heatsink. Interestingly, according to Tranquil PC, its passively cooled NUC enclosure is supposed to leave its internals running 5 to 15 °C cooler than Intel's reference design with a fan.

The chassis will measure 110 x 164 x 47mm, and while this is a tad bigger than Intel's reference design, it's still minuscule compared to today's desktops, and a small price to pay for losing the fan.

Pricing is set at £99.-, which converts to $155 by today's exchange rates. Tranquil didn't offer details on US pricing, nor did it mention availability.

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Niels Broekhuijsen
Niels Broekhuijsen

Niels Broekhuijsen is a Contributing Writer for Tom's Hardware US. He reviews cases, water cooling and pc builds.

14 Comments Comment from the forums
  • A Bad Day
    Haven't found any AMD NUCs...
    Reply
  • A Bad DayHaven't found any AMD NUCs...
    The Zbox from zotac is pretty good and small.
    Reply
  • WithoutWeakness
    $155 for the case? On top of the $300+ the NUC costs? $155 will get you a reasonably high-end desktop case.
    Reply
  • Supercrit
    $155? That's almost enough for this case to be made of pure silver.
    Reply
  • joytech22
    WithoutWeakness$155 for the case? On top of the $300+ the NUC costs? $155 will get you a reasonably high-end desktop case.
    I'm also unsure why the case costs so much. It's literally a lump of metal worth maybe $5-10 at MOST?
    Reply
  • CaedenV
    A Bad DayHaven't found any AMD NUCs...Because NUC is an Intel standard similar to the Ultrabook. AMD will probably have something very similar, but under a different name.
    Reply
  • ojas
    WithoutWeakness$155 for the case? On top of the $300+ the NUC costs? $155 will get you a reasonably high-end desktop case.I could give you the same argument for tablets and $600 smartphones, but then the PC is dead and they're the future.....
    /s
    joytech22I'm also unsure why the case costs so much. It's literally a lump of metal worth maybe $5-10 at MOST?Probably why it costs so much...it's a giant heatsink...remember the price of high end coolers? I'm not sure what it's made of, though.

    It isn't cheap by any means, but then it'll make a dead quiet HTPC, and i guess that's worth it...
    Reply
  • WhyFi
    Website now states that they'll ship to the US (estimated shipping to me, in the midwest, was an additional £30).
    Reply
  • WhyFi
    For those questioning the value - if you look at Streacom's passive cases, which also act as a heatsink, they start in the $160ish region and significantly higher. The Streacoms offer better cooling and flexibility, but they're also significantly larger. While the price on this Tranquil case isn't attractive, I'd say it's reasonable for being completely silent, dust-free and smallest in class.
    Reply
  • f-14
    not bad and it will even keep your drinks hot/warm
    Reply