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Matblack
27-08-2007, 12:38
I'm seriously considering selling my HTPC to make way for a more powerful unit.

The system is ideally suited to front room deployment as it uses a very low profile case, a 2Ghz Pentium Mobile chip with low heat output and hence is capable of being very quiet.

Come with 1Gb of RAM, DVD/ CD Burner, 250Gb HDD and has both optical and standard sound outputs.

Case is a black Silverstone LC 11

http://www.silentpcreview.com/article228-page1.html

I've never had an issues with it as an HTPC unit, its not a games machine and uses on board graphics, but its great for pushing a picture to a TV/ Projector.

The only reason I want to upgrade is to get a C2Q for encoding.

The case alone cost over £100 but I would consider offers in the region of £250 for this unit. It comes with a legit XP on it and I will leave the office Suite, a copy of all the DVD watching software I have, basically all you need for a fully funtional PC, plus a few movies too :)

So, anyone?

MB

Stan_Lite
28-08-2007, 04:54
Hmmmm.

Every rig I've built has been built with mega performance in mind, and as such, I've never bothered about the noise factor. I've been thinking recently that it might be an interesting project to build an ultra quiet system. I am also going to be running the TV aerial cable into my bedroom when I get back so I may want to have a quiet system to use as a TV receiver instead of using my loud gaming rig.

Do you have the complete spec for this rig Matt? (i.e. CPU, motherboard, RAM etc.). I'd be interested to see if I can make this almost silent. Maybe replace the PSU with a passively cooled one, underclock ( :shocked: ) the CPU and see if it can be passively cooled (or at least turn the fan down on the HSF), get low noise 5V fans etc.

Matblack
28-08-2007, 08:05
Heres the CPUZ file, I think that will help :)

MB

Matblack
28-08-2007, 08:17
mobo
http://www.trustedreviews.com/motherboards/review/2005/07/21/AOpen-i915GMm-HFS-Pentium-M-motherboard/p1

CPU
http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/showdoc.aspx?i=2129

Memory is
Samsung - DDR2, PC2-3200

Case
http://www.silverstonetek.com/products/p_contents.php?pno=lc11&area=

The software that comes with the PC allows over and underclocking the chip and its only rated at 27W anyway which means that with some fettling you could probably make it completely passive or at least very very quiet

MB

Stan_Lite
28-08-2007, 10:07
Thanks Matt.

I found a review which used the same CPU you have in the board, which was helpful. The guy got the temps down to a reasonable level with the fan at 5V by undervolting the CPU to 1.10V. There was no mention of underclocking so I can only assume this was at stock speed. With luck, by underclocking to 1.5 or 1.6GHz, I may be able to undervolt to below 1V - which may make my passive cooling idea feasible.

A couple of questions before I commit:

One thing I picked up on from the reviews was that earlier versions of the board shipped with a puny, ineffectual heatsink, which was upgraded for later versions. Can you verify that yours has the newer, meatier heatsink? Apparently, the hole spacings in the motherboard for the heatsink are peculiar to AOpen and it is impossible to find another heatsink to fit without serious modifications.

One review I read about the case was that the loudest part of whole machine was the PSU exhaust fan.

Can you confirm this?
Is it a standard size mATX PSU or is it another "special"?


Having asked that last question and done a bit of Googling, it looks as if finding a fanless mATX PSU may be more difficult than I thought - I may have to do a bit of modding :D

Many thanks :)

Matblack
28-08-2007, 10:39
I'm not sure about the mobo, the heatsink does come with the board and has a fan which attaches to the top of it, this out of anything is probably the source of any noise in the box but it could easily be changed with a 'funnel' style adaptor and a little imagination.

The PSU is a custom fit to the box and is quite small, you could however open it up and fit a quieter fan or make some adjustments.

The whole machine can be underclocked using the software which came with the mobo, it allows you to access all the multipliers on the fly and underclock as much as you want which could be handy.

If you want to mess with it then this is not really a project for the faint hearted but it works great as it is and with a few crafty mods would pay dividends as a media box, as I say though it is already a good unit and has given me very reliable service, downloading movies and feeding my projector :)

The box alone retails is ~£120 and the chip was never cheap (although obviously now outmode-ed).

Let me know what you think, if I can't sell it here I will probably just get a new mobo/ RAM/ CPU and utilise the box for the new build, although I might consider breaking if someone wants the mobo/ CPU/ Mem or the case :)

MB

Matblack
28-08-2007, 11:52
AHhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

Its the MkII board :)

http://www.silentpcreview.com/article252-page6.html

Has the taller heatsink

MB

Stan_Lite
28-08-2007, 12:11
In that case, I'm definitely interested :)
I think this will make an interesting little project. I want to have a TV receiver that I can record and store programmes on. With this, I should be able to have a virtually silent media box - all I need is a TV card, a set of half decent speakers and a bit of tinkering.

If you're moving to a quad system, maybe we could do a bit of a deal.
I don't use my Q6600 to anywhere near it's full potential, it sits in my gaming rig using less than 2 cores 95% of the time. I would manage just as well if I bunged the E6600 in there instead. I only really bought the quad for the Folding output - now that I've all but quit the Folding (for now, anyway), I don't actually have any practical use for it tbh.

Would you be interested in taking the Q6600 in part exchange? If not, it doesn't matter, I can keep hold of the quad but I'll still be interested in the HTPC.

Matblack
28-08-2007, 12:25
I'm starting to wonder about the Quad core but depending on my rambling thoughts I might be interested.

This is going to be a media box again and I still want to keep the noise down as far as possible, I'm thinking that I probably won't need the power of the quad core and also wondering what difference it will make in the noise stakes to cool a quad core.

My research continues :D

MB

Stan_Lite
28-08-2007, 12:33
The Q6600 runs a damn sight hotter than the E6600 - although, it only gets really bad when you start using all 4 cores. If you intend doing a lot of encoding, it could get a little toasty inside a small case. If it's for a media box, I doubt if you would find a quiet cooler which would be up to the job without going down the watercooling route.

As I said, if you don't want the quad, I don't mind, I only mentioned it because you did.

Matblack
28-08-2007, 12:39
Its a good point Stan :D

I'm not sure what I want really, the encoding isn't really encoding its more decoding i.e. PARing and WinZiping files back together to DVD ISOs.

I'd also like to be able to upscale video and post process before shoving it to the projector, however the quietness of the system remains a priority.

This is all very confusing :(

I'd really LIKE a quad core, but do I NEED a quad core, as I probably don't NEED to sell and upgrade the answer is probably no.

I'm going to have a look on the net and see what people are using for HTPCs at the moment and I'll get back to you ASAP :)

MB

Stan_Lite
28-08-2007, 12:41
No hurry dude, I'll be stuck on this bloody rig for another 3 1/2 weeks anyway so I'm not in a hurry for anything :(

Mark
28-08-2007, 13:01
PARing and WinZipping won't benefit from quad core (or even dual core for that matter).

Upscaling might but it seems unlikely - it depends on the software. Multi-threaded encoders (e.g. DivX Pro 6) do exist, but are rare, but I've not found a multi-threaded upscaler yet (ffdshow definitely doesn't qualify).

Of course, if you're doing more than one of these things (watching while there's downloads going on in the background), then you'll still benefit from at least a Core2Duo, so long as you have the disk bandwidth to avoid the whole lot grinding to a halt.

If quietness is a priority, then you're unlikely to go far wrong with a Core2Duo and a decent (i.e. big) cooler.

Stan_Lite
28-08-2007, 14:18
One of the first things I did when I got the E6600 was to try to use it all so I set about encoding 2 DVDs at the same time, whilst listening to music and browsing the forums. I managed to pretty much max out both cores (also one of the few times, until I got Vista, that I managed to use over 1Gb RAM at one time :D

For multitasking, multiple cores are a Godsend.

Davey_Pitch
28-08-2007, 15:14
For multitasking, multiple cores are a Godsend.

Given that I've just ordered a Core2Duo, and I often play games and watch something at the same time, those are the type of comments I love to hear :D