Passive Cooling Thread / Projects with several enclosures on itx-boards

hello folks,

Since a htpc is never completed I post here in "ongoing htpc projects"

I was so inspired from this atom thingies that polarie and I thought this could be the definite solution for an ultimate htpc if it wasn't there one little detail which made it obsolete in the end....

But to the point.
First we needed a small passive housing which was found at cooler master. it is genuinely designed for industrial embedded itx computers. Anyway it looked "attractive". It came with a set of a heatpipe kit and a dc/dc board. the heatpipes needed a bit of modifications.

Next step was what components. So built in or better say squeezed in are th following things:

- POV ION Atom 330-1board
- 2 GIG low profile RAM
- Bluray Slot in (Sony BC 5600-S)
- no-name dvb-tstick
- technisat hd s2 usb-box ( stripped to the naked board) with CI
- 500 GB 2.5" Samsung HDD
- new front switch ( original part was a grey, square thing...brrrrr)

After fitting in the parts and installation of win XP and all drivers and PowrDVD ultra, the most interesting things started.

Configuration of MP.

No problem so far. SD channels and 720p TV as well as bluray worked like a charm.

Then we tried Pay TV ( Sky Germany) which works for SD Channels. 1080i was stuttering as hell. Best thing we achieved were 38 fps.

dvbviewer did the job only in overlay mode...vmr9 same thing as in MP....

So, conclusion is...nice thing but the aim was missed...a small, passively cooled htpc which plays all we want.

Well, the next thing we gonna start is an atom board together with a capable gfx card ( like passive hd 4550).
Wehope that will bring a reasonable power consumption as well as the solution to 1080i.

stay tuned...next project's comin' soon.

ieb+polarie

Edit :Since polarie and I are searching for a passive cooling solution, we decided to change thread title and invite you all to share your opinions/suggestions in this thread. Main aim is to find or respectively to modify an existing enclosure (and a proper mainboard) which allows a passive cooling, 1080i dxva TV and pay-tv-solution.

seems to be a dialoque between us polarie
nice job so far mate. i'm curious to see this thingy tonight when we, hopefully, completing the rig and install w7+mp.

cu tonight and we'll report here on the progress.

i would'nt do that....
better place the ION board into the Serener enclosure and the jetway jnc81 into the modified jetway heatsink-enclosure .

hi OnkelChris,

thx for being with us

I'm keen to see your pics and project.

Hi

Do you think this could be a good solution?

BorgFX micro
HFX - BorgFX micro


Serener GA-L01
serener


ASUS AT3N7A-I
ASUSTeK Computer Inc.