Creating a totally non moving Media PC

[cheetah05]

Hi there,

I have set myself the project of creating a totally passive and non moving media PC.

First of all, I am disregarding storage of media as that is elsewhere, apart from the OS and Media Portal etc.

So thinking about this, I am guessing I will go Mini-ITX and probably a P4 mini itx and have a p4-m cpu. Question is, can I run this silently with good enough cooling that it wont fry?

For os and media portal, i was thinking of running it off a media card (the fastest i can find) or a usb stick. Question is, will windows and media portal run fast enough of the card/usb stick (disregarding startup speeds), just usage?

For the PSU i will have a brick style PSU, fair enough, these are silent (the laptop style)

For the graphics card, i will get something silent and with hdmi so i can connect it via hdmi to my TV.

The motherboard would be mini-itx and they would be passive enough.

I need a case with good enough ventilation that it wont fry in the summer aswell.

What do you think on the questions and in general. Any tips? etc?

Thanks.

[Marcusb]

Unless you have a real aversion to any movement and super hearing, I would recommend some fans in your PC. If they are slowed down heaps they are "virtually" silent. Same goes for hard drives.
You'll end up with better performance and less heartache and effort.

[McChots]

Usb sticks and memory cards have limited lifespan in terms of number of reads/write compared to hdd's as well as access sped. While it can be done I don't think its worth in terms of cost/speed.

Also windows cannot boot of a usb drive natively, if theres any software that can do it, please let me know.

[strontium]

I have tried using a 2gb usb key. I used a program called bart pe (http://www.nu2.nu/pebuilder/), I managed to get XP running, but it was slow and boot up from cold was 8 minutes!
I also considered a CF card using a cf to ide converter, in the end I have just decided to use a samsung spinpoint drive as it was easier, and less time consuming in the long run.

[Kalden]

If you are worried about heat, I think I'd go with a Dual Core. They produce a lot less than those power hungry Prescott and Northwood cores. As well, I think they perform quite a bit better than the P4-M (at least in my experience). I'm currently running the E6300 in two of my machines and they work great.

[knutinh]

There are pre-built passive systems.

First of all, you should check out the excellent DIY projects at:
www.silentpcreviewc.com
www.mini-itx.com

Then, turn to stuff like:

http://www.hifiatx.com/hfx.php?lang=EN

http://www.hushtechnologies.net/


I believe that Samsung (?) has released a 32GB 2.5" laptop "harddisk" based on flash for about $600. I guess that it can handle many write operations.

There are a number of drives coming for Vistas functionality of hybrid disk/flash drives that shouldbe able to boo without spinning.

There are special linux versions and "hacks" to Windows to shrink it and decrease pagefile use so as to run efficiently off of a regular flash memory.

I dont think that the p4m is a good candidate...

regards
Knut

[onkl]

Do consider adding some fans and use fan control progams which shuts them down most of the time, yet kicks in if you try to fry your PC (involuntary probably) Combine this with the various recommendation above and you could have a system which is basically silent, unless you start doing things like recoding movies WHILE recording AND playing some heavy game or so. Cutting that last bit of sould is in general exessive unless your budgets are near limitless.

[funkstar]

Have a search for SSD - Solid State Disk. They are the latest thing in flash memory storage. 16 and 32GB version have been announced by Sandisk, Samsung and others. Prices are expected to crash over the course of this year.

I have one of those HFX passive cases. along with a passive PSU. AMD Energy Efficient AM2 is connected to one side of the case with heat pipes and the graphics card to the other. I need to pull it all out and get the motherboard north bridge connected up too as i think that is causing the PC to reboot randomly (i did think it was MP or my TV card, but it happened when MP isn't even loaded).

The only moving part is the 200gig Seagate in the case and another 500gig Seagate externally in an aluminium dive case. This cute the sound down quite a bit.

I would like to move the OS to a SSD at some point and put the 200gig an another enclosure. But that will have to wait until funds are available and they are more reasonably priced.

Oh, and another advantage of SSDs: they are incredibly fast, especially for random seek tasks like booting an OS and loading apps. And they run very cool too.

[cheetah05]

Thanks for the replies guys.

Yes I have looked into the mCubed cases, but they cost an arm and a leg at £300+. Although i don't know where to get the Hush cases from.

With regards to people saying about case fans etc. Yes i am very sensitive to noise and I can hear fans that you would find inaudible.

The solid state hard drives look expensive. Can you give me a link to the one you where referring to. Seen as i only need media portal and the OS which i think i can get down to around 2GB. I was thinking of using one of the Corsair Vista ReadyBooast flash drives which i think are used to being read and written from. I was planning to use a USB to IDE convert for this so i can install windows. I may even use one of those i-RAM thingys.

I think i will use one of the Core Duo chips. The fastest i can get hold of. I was thinking of even getting a mobile chip so they have lower voltages and would produce less heat.

[knutinh]

Originally Posted by cheetah05

Thanks for the replies guys.

Yes I have looked into the mCubed cases, but they cost an arm and a leg at £300+. Although i don't know where to get the Hush cases from.

With regards to people saying about case fans etc. Yes i am very sensitive to noise and I can hear fans that you would find inaudible.

The solid state hard drives look expensive. Can you give me a link to the one you where referring to. Seen as i only need media portal and the OS which i think i can get down to around 2GB. I was thinking of using one of the Corsair Vista ReadyBooast flash drives which i think are used to being read and written from. I was planning to use a USB to IDE convert for this so i can install windows. I may even use one of those i-RAM thingys.

I think i will use one of the Core Duo chips. The fastest i can get hold of. I was thinking of even getting a mobile chip so they have lower voltages and would produce less heat.

I still maintain that while getting silent low-performance computers is easy (mini itx), and high-performance noisy computers is even easier (any DIY will do), getting reasonably high performance AND low noise is really difficult. You will have to do a lot of research and trial & error.

I, for one, have been swapping coolers and fans for some years. I have come to the conclusion that "silent enough" should be the goal, not complete silence. For my HTPC, "silent enough" is when I sit in my couch and cant hear the HTPC over the typical background-noise in my appartement.

Even if you go all the way, you may end up spending more time and money than simply buying an mCubed/Hush. Remember that large, high-performance cooling components arent cheap.

When you get high-efficiency cpu/gpu coolers with large, slow-moving fans, a good high-efficiency PSU with low-noise temperature regulated fan, a reasonable harddrive (preferreably with bungee cord de-coupling) and run a software fancontrol like speedfan... You have gotten a low-noise, high-performance PC for a reasonable amount of money.

The point of diminishing returns come when you swap a $100 300GB hd for a $600 32GB SSD drive, etc. The last 10% of noise is simply very expensive to get rid of, and will almost always affect performance.

If youd like, you may follow the discussion I am having on silencing a high-performance system here:
http://www.silentpcreview.com/forums...ic.php?t=37606

I made a general guide for building a MediaPortal HTPC here:
Guide to hardware selection

-k

-k