Posted by Lori Ayre on September 10, 2003

In phase two of putting my money where my mouth is, I purchased a Super Quiet PC from ARM Systems in Rohnert Park. I'm reselling ARM's PCs on my website Ed: broken link removed 2011so I thought I should put one to use so I could provide any necessary personal testimonials even though you'll find ARM computers all through the Sonoma County school districts.

The thing that really caught my eye about ARM was a) their "stealth PC" and b) their high quality product and c) their personal service. So let's talk about each of these things in order:

Stealth PC aka "Galecia Silent Solution"
This computer is designed from top to bottom to be a PC that is seen but not heard. The case is a stealthy black and is designed to reduce noise while increasing air flow. I like this way of thinking. From cooling fans to CPU cooler to power supply and hard drive...all the components are selected for their cool and quiet characteristics.

Simply put, you can't even tell the thing is on. I can barely hear the fan and can only hear the hard drive gurgle if I pay extremely close attention. It's fantastic! I don't know about you but the constant hum of electronics is really starting to wear my down. This PC offers some welcome relief to that ever present gray noise.

High Quality Product
ARM is an Intel Premier Provider and uses all top-notch components. They were classified by The Gartner Group as a "Leading System Builder." They build custom systems for a wide-variety of uses (servers, laptops, engineering and CAD desktops, office PCs and gaming computers. Here's some of the ARM clients I find most interesting: Petaluma School District, Lockheed Martin Missiles and Space, Santa Rosa City Schools, Los Alamos National Laboratory, West Sonoma Union School District and Veterans Medical Research at UCSD.

Personal Service
ARM provides several warranty programs much like the programs the big Tier One vendors like Dell and Gateway offer. You can get the standard two year warranty on parts and labor on hardware plus one year on-site. Or you can upgrade (for around $150) to the full three year on-site warranty. One key difference with ARM is that they will actually do what needs to be done without you having to spend hours on the phone with five different support techs, each of whom walk you through reinstalling Windows before they decide they sent you a bad RAM chip.

Strangely enough, the fabulously quiet PC hasn't found its way into a library yet....sure hope we can change that.