Ongoing Quiet and Powerfull Silverstone LC11 HTPC is possible! (1 Viewer)

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Anonymous

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Khryo.

Can you PM or detail the settings to get your CPU working in this motherboard?

I have almost exactly the same setup as you, but it is lock to 800MHz. Even when booting up it does not recognise the chip, and only recognise this CPU as a Athlon 64 2800+
 

Khryo

Portal Member
February 6, 2005
10
0
Hi Eddie,

I got the same trouble when I started the configuration the first time. Hopefully, I found a workaround to the "non-support" of mobile athlon by MSI on such motherboard. After digging into the forum, I finally did this:

In the BIOS:

- Cool'n Quiet activated
- LDT to AGP lokar down to 600Mhz (if I keep 800Mhz, the PC freeze after few minutes in XP)
- VLINK8x disabled (dunno yet the benefit of this, after a benchmak my AGP NVidia 5200FX works very well) but if it is enabled, the PC freeze too

That's the first step , after this I was able to install windows XP, and SP2 + Nvidia driver without trouble ... but, the CPU is still running with 800Mhz

In the forum, they are talking about an AMD 64 mobile driver, but I didn't see any difference with it (CPU-Z) and I suspect the BIOS. So the workaround is RMCLock.

It is a very good tool to monitor and toggle your CPU speed and voltage on the fly! http://cpu.rightmark.org/products/rmclock.shtml

With this tool, you can lock your CPU speed / voltage in the registry or let it run and adapt the setting according to the load : benefit is the power comsumption and the head spreading. WHile playing a mp3 or a DvD my CPU runs at 800Mhz with 0.9V ... if I grab a DvD it uses the full power and goes up to 1400Mhz.

This is how I did, and the system is running full time now and going to suspend mode, and wake-up when needed without problem.

Hope this help you,

/incent
 

Khryo

Portal Member
February 6, 2005
10
0
Project is going on!

I just finished to install two new hard drives in the server, replacing the 200Go by 2 Seagate SATA 400Go :D. Why so much? Because we plan to rip our DvD collection in the server ... Our experience shows that when you have a large collection of music albums or DvD stored in a shelf you don't always think about what you have and want to see ... with MP, this is great, just browse a little bit and find old DvD you forgot :)

Btw, I made some TBalancer tweak, and now only 1 FAN runs when watching a DvD, the side FAN is there if something goes wrong.
 

Khryo

Portal Member
February 6, 2005
10
0
Hardware update

Well, long time I have been working on my HTPC. In fact, I spent lot of time trying to fine tune the dvd playback quality, and most of the time it was ok , but for some reason I had bad framerate on particular movies.

As I said ealier, the CPU wasn't fully supported on my Motherboard -which was at that time the only one I found on Micro-ATX format , and accepting the CPU. I had to use a software which tried to handle the CPU clockrate and so on ... well , I still had some problem with this solution.

This month, I decided to change this and finally found a new Motherboard which fully support the mobile athlon 64 , with a 754 socket and still have the AGPx8 port ( my dream so I don't have to change my video card riser, and the video card ). This board is the ECS K8M800-M2 (http://www.ecs.com.tw/ECSWeb/Products/ProductsDetail.aspx?DetailID=605&MenuID=21&LanID=0). I got the version 2.0 and it works like charm.

This MB detect the CPU at bios time with the right CPU clockrate, and Windows XP see it as a 3000+ Athlon 64 without any software or driver. In fact, this MB support the Cool'n'quiet technology.

Well, today , I'm doing a fresh new installation of my Windows XP (special install for MP with nlite) and I already see the dvd playback is smooth on the dvd I had problems before.

So, for only few 50€ , problems solved and it s clearly a reborn of my HTPC ;)
 

Tech Geek

Portal Pro
January 29, 2006
354
0
Denver, CO USA
Great build! The system looks beautiful! I really wanted to go with that case but just couldn't sqeeze everything in.


Just some comments/opinions here:


The BIOS/CPU support issue is a growing problem I've seen with manufacturers. BIOS updates to support bug fixes and new CPUs seem to be getting rare as they would rather just introduce new boards.
I've had trouble with SOYO offering NO updates and DFI provided support for a new CPU but dropped support for the SATA/RAID controller on one board so I have full CPU support or SATA. The system is retired to ftp server duties with the old 1.3GHz CPU and I'll think twice about buying a SOYO or DFI again.
No matter what manufacturer's board I've used I never get a reply from tech support either. I think the industry needs to clean up it's act here.


My HTPC case is too deep as well. It appears to be a common issue with HTPC cases.


By reversing the fan on the side of the case you are fighting the natural order of things. Heat rises. Your system *may* be more prone to hot spots and some of the air that goes out the bottom may come back in the side as it rises from onder the case.


You can improve airflow between the cards by drilling small holes in the bracket for the video card. Just don't get too close to the edge or a connector and take it off to drill it. This works best if the air comes in through the holes (cooler) but it will probably flow out through yours.


If you have to do it over again, you would probably be better off with the latest integrated video from ATi or NVidia. It's faster than the 5200 and in the proper setup actually handles HDTV where the 5200 won't. One side benefit is that the better boards also have HD Audio. You do have to be carefull to get a board with the proper TV outputs and the risers could be a problem. I wrote Silverstone about that case and asked if they would offer a riser with an extra PCI slot rather than AGP or PCIe and they said something along the lines they weren't planning annother PCI slot but if there was enough demand would consider it. They were investigating PCIe. If they ever add that, you could fit more tuners in that case with an integrated video mobo.


I don't use the Zalman coolers myself. They are great but I personally think they are too expensive and too big. You have to trim fins way too often. Good luck returning it under warranty if it dies. I'd only use 'em if something else didn't fit. I think too many people buy them because they look cool or just to brag about their low CPU temp. With your CPU, temp should NOT be an issue. By no means am I suggesting you get rid of the Zalman now that it's in... they do a great job.

I have a Thermaltake Silent939 in my HTPC (it fits my 754) that is inaudible from a couple feet away but was much cheaper and easier to fit than a Zalman. It also dropped temps from the factory cooler and fits in about the same space. It was something like $20 US.

I just put an ArcticCooling unit in a machine and it's about as quiet as I've found and was only $10. It runs about the same temp as the factory cooler but at a fraction of the noise. It also fits in slightly less space than the cooler it replaced. With a cool CPU like your's I think this would be a good option for someone building one from scratch.

My desktop machine has a huge Thermaltake passive cooler that wouldn't fit in a small case like yours and was about the price of a Zalman but you can't even tell that machine is on between it and the quite Antec Sonata case it's in. The temps are low, there's no fan to wear out and it's the quietest option you can buy. I thought the mounting clamp could be better though.
I just wish some manufacturer would come out with a model that used a CPU block where the heat pipes could exit in the direction you chose and with long enough heat pipes to position it in front of an exhaust fan at the back of the case. I'd never recommend anything else.
 

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