Ongoing My HTPC (Thermaltake Bach) (1 Viewer)

[Tech Geek]

Well, after spending some time with the remote it's obvious I need to create a settings file for the remote so that it works propery with MediaPortal.

I've also found that MyMusic requires switching back and forth between mouse and cursor control when looking up albums in the IMDB. With a mouse it works great but from a remote that is a PITA.

 

[Tech Geek]

The config file for the iMon VFD program is:

C:\Program Files\SOUNDGRAPH\iMON\iMON_VFD.ini


I haven't gotten the MediaPortal VFD plugin to work proprely yet.

 

[Tech Geek]

Now that the case is "done" I started tweaking the CPU clock and graphics card.

I am using a Tul Socket 754 motherboard and an AMD 2600+ cpu with 64Bit support. The bios has no overclocking but with an add on utility I have it clocked at just under 2GHz and running stable!

I'm using ClockGen btw:
http://www.cpuid.com/clockgen.php

I also overclocked the buss a little and now with my 2600+ and Sapphire X1300 I'm getting almost 4100 '03 3D marks. '05 3D marks drop to 1910 and single digit frame rates a lot of the time. If it were a game it wouldn't be playable without dropping the res and some features. '06 is just brutal on a budget graphics card and CPU so the frame rate drops to less than 1 per sec on much of the test and finished with 881 '06 3D marks. It made some nice looking still shots anyway. LOL

I'm using a Thermaltake Silent 939 CPU/heatsink to keep the CPU cool and 1 GB of Patriot RAM on factory timing. Nothing exotic.

Total cost for the Mobo+CPU+RAM+CPU cooler was around $280 but I got several of the parts on sale. After case, VFD/remote and power supply the total cost was about $530 but I don't have a TV tuner yet so I expect the final price with TV Tuner to be around $600 US.

 

[Tech Geek]

I just found out tonight that some people are overclocking the Sapphire X1300 graphics cards to much higher speeds than stock allows.

Since the graphics chip is the same as the one on the PRO version of the card and these just use slower RAM I think they are burning a PRO bios into the card.

I'm going to give it a shot but I think I'm goind to do some modding to force air over the heatsink from the vent on the top of the case. If it works out my benchmarks should improve by a significant amount.

 

[Tech Geek]

I just found out tonight that some people are overclocking the Sapphire X1300 graphics cards to much higher speeds than stock allows.

Since the graphics chip is the same as the one on the PRO version of the card and these just use slower RAM I think they are burning a PRO bios into the card.

I'm going to give it a shot but I think I'm goind to do some modding to force air over the heatsink from the vent on the top of the case. If it works out my benchmarks should improve by a significant amount.

I accept no responsibility if someone tries this! BTW the speeds listed indicate it may be a hacked bios rather than an X1300PRO bios.
You can find bios images here:
http://www.techpowerup.com/bios/?search=sapphire&Submit=Search

 

[Tech Geek]

scratch the bios comments. A newer version of ATi Tool will do the trick.
I used .25 beta 13 and it recognized the card.
The core looks like it can handle 550 and the mem I'm still testing.

Also, this version now identifies the card as having a 128 bit buss while earlier versions said 64 bit so I'm going to assume the card really is 128 bit.

http://www.techpowerup.com/atitool/

 

[Tech Geek]

552 and 414 were the final MAX speeds according to ATi tool.
But without some sort of active cooling the card will lock up when running 3D Mark and I'm sure a real game will be worse.
The fastest it was able to complete 03 3D mark yielded over 5000 for a score for a 25% increase. It also resulted in an 05 3D Mark score of 2157.

What's most important is... the card should be capable of HDTV with lower settings than I needed for the benchmarks. That would make it the cheapest card capable of HDTV with passive cooling. It will take more experiments to figure out the minimum settings required.

If you are going to overclock this card I suggest you have air directed over the heatsink somehow or it will lock up and the life of the card will probably be shortened.

 

[Tech Geek]

I just thought I'd mention that if you place heatsinks on the RAM on the backside of the X1300 video card it's more reliable when overclocked and you can clock it to higher speeds.

 

[Tech Geek]

It's now January of 2007 and the ATi X1300 cards I have (I bought 2) both are still working fine with ATITool set to overclock them when it detects 3D use.

Do not expect to use less than an X1600 card for H.264 playback though.