United Kingdom
Hi there,
I thought I would post here as a place holder for a little project that I have started.
Like most people over time you tweak your setup.
I started off running the following:
Antec Fusion case
Earthworks 380W PSU
Antect Tricool case fan
2 x Hauppage Nova S2 Tuners
AMD 705e CPU
Scythe Mini Ninja (passive)
1 x 1TB drive
Onboard HD4200
MS IR remote
Bluray DVD drive
4GB RAM
Then a slight tweak when a second HDD went in (1 x TB)
Then upped the RAM to 8GB (and switched to a RAMdrive)
Then I swapped one of the HDD for a 2TB version
Then swapped a Tricool fan for a Noctura ULN
Then fitted a passive HD5450 ATI card
All the time trying to manage heat and noise.....
After feeling the 5450 was borderline, I decided to fit fan based 5670 - this was just too noisey.
I thought I would try and reduce the total noise output of the HTPC by fitting a passive PSU (seasonic)
The total noise (basically from the GPU card) was still too loud, so I swapped for a passive version.
But unfortunately this is too tall to allow the lid to fit with the Antec case.
I have just ordered a Digital Design dual S2 card to replace my Hauppuage S2 tuners (will give me more room) - Plus allow me to upgrade to an additional 2 tuners (4 in total) while only using a single PCIe slot.
This is where I am now...and is the birth of this project.
I am going to build (from scratch) a custom fully passive case, using the current internal hardware (and any new bits I buy along the way).
I had thought about splitting the single seat to be server/client, but the single seat does a good job of being a server to a Zotac ION2 client I already have. Plus the speed/responsiveness is better with a single seat (although its minimal). And the power consumption is low with the single seat when its acting as just a server.
I'm baseing the design on the A-Tech Fab 7000 case:
Sides are a heatsink, with custom base, top front, back and internal brackets. I am planning to hide everything behind the front panel (which can be removed). The front panel will only have a hole for the IR receiver.
I will be replacing the CPU and GPU heatsinks for custom heatpipes and blocks connected to the case heatsinks.
All the parts will be custom made/machined to my design/specs.
I'll take some pictures as the bits come together (will take several weeks)...although its nothing special compared to some builds.
Thanks,
J.
I thought I would post here as a place holder for a little project that I have started.
Like most people over time you tweak your setup.
I started off running the following:
Antec Fusion case
Earthworks 380W PSU
Antect Tricool case fan
2 x Hauppage Nova S2 Tuners
AMD 705e CPU
Scythe Mini Ninja (passive)
1 x 1TB drive
Onboard HD4200
MS IR remote
Bluray DVD drive
4GB RAM
Then a slight tweak when a second HDD went in (1 x TB)
Then upped the RAM to 8GB (and switched to a RAMdrive)
Then I swapped one of the HDD for a 2TB version
Then swapped a Tricool fan for a Noctura ULN
Then fitted a passive HD5450 ATI card
All the time trying to manage heat and noise.....
After feeling the 5450 was borderline, I decided to fit fan based 5670 - this was just too noisey.
I thought I would try and reduce the total noise output of the HTPC by fitting a passive PSU (seasonic)
The total noise (basically from the GPU card) was still too loud, so I swapped for a passive version.
But unfortunately this is too tall to allow the lid to fit with the Antec case.
I have just ordered a Digital Design dual S2 card to replace my Hauppuage S2 tuners (will give me more room) - Plus allow me to upgrade to an additional 2 tuners (4 in total) while only using a single PCIe slot.
This is where I am now...and is the birth of this project.
I am going to build (from scratch) a custom fully passive case, using the current internal hardware (and any new bits I buy along the way).
I had thought about splitting the single seat to be server/client, but the single seat does a good job of being a server to a Zotac ION2 client I already have. Plus the speed/responsiveness is better with a single seat (although its minimal). And the power consumption is low with the single seat when its acting as just a server.
I'm baseing the design on the A-Tech Fab 7000 case:
Sides are a heatsink, with custom base, top front, back and internal brackets. I am planning to hide everything behind the front panel (which can be removed). The front panel will only have a hole for the IR receiver.
I will be replacing the CPU and GPU heatsinks for custom heatpipes and blocks connected to the case heatsinks.
All the parts will be custom made/machined to my design/specs.
I'll take some pictures as the bits come together (will take several weeks)...although its nothing special compared to some builds.
Thanks,
J.