- August 9, 2007
- 70
- 3
- Home Country
-
Sweden
So, I finally found some time to share a little bit about my latest build... For more background details and reasoning you can take a look at https://forum.team-mediaportal.com/threads/new-htpc-please-comment.106233/ but the essence is really the quote from the top of that thread:
"Target use-case is pure “living room” HTPC, i.e. watching TV and videos in client-only configuration. No gaming, “MS Officing” or anything like that. The only “must have” is smooth and trouble-free playback of video material in all resolutions (including 1080p) and all flavours of compression; and smooth and trouble-free playback of TV, both SD and HD. “Nice to Haves” are ability to pass-through HD sound, sleep/resume technology that works well with MP and low power consumption. My current HTPC will become dedicated TV-server and all media is stored on NAS."
Final configuration:
...
Grandia comes with three 120mm fans installed, but I disconnected them from the beginning as I wanted a completely silent HTPC. Also, Seasonic X-400FL is fanless so only airflow in the case comes from the CPU fan which is why I decided to install the Shuriken from the beginning, without even testing the stock fan.
...
Shuriken cannot be heard at all and CPU temperature is stable at around 55 degrees. Not optimal of course, could be lower, but most importantly it is stable (+/- 2 degrees) regardless of what load I throw at it. I'm actually extremely pleasantly surprised given that there is very little space between the case and the shelf (see pictures)...
...
Pass-through HD sound works fine as well, but I have given it up for a while until I get time to look into a small issue I have... When I connect the HTPC to my receiver with HDMI then sometimes resolution that gets through to the TV gets messed up. So, I connected the HTPC directly to the TV instead and use optical connection to get sound to the receiver. The resolution is now fine, but optical doesn't allow for the pass-through...
...
I can sincerely recommend all the components I've used and have very few comments and remarks.
...
The PSU... X-400FL is fanless, but not completely noiseless. There is a certain buzz/whine and google will offer multiple theories about it... Some believe that some PSU:s are faulty, some believe that some people can hear the buzz that is there in all units and other people cannot, some believe that it's about which MB it's connected to and some believe that it's about the load... I did send one back and installed a second one but there was no difference. My personal opinion is that it is dependent on the MB but also on the type of activity that is going on (rather than the actual load). Anyway... The existence of the buzz is frustrating when you pay extra money for a noiseless PSU and once you install it you realize it whines. But... Once the build is complete, the case closed and placed in the shelf, the computer really is noiseless. You would have to place the ear on the case and pay extra attention in a completely silent room to hear the buzz. So, I'm happy with it...
...
The case... It's not as beautiful as the MonCaso I originally wanted (http://www.moneualusa.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=157&Itemid=158), but it's a pretty case and it does the job. There is a lot of ventilation holes which helps a lot with the minimal airflow I have... The blue LED light in the front is too intense but few passes with a black marker made it perfect... I had to remove the two hot-swappable bays in order to fit in somewhat larger PSU. I don't care about the bays themselves, but the problem was that it left me with a big hole on the front side of the case where bays used to be. Fixed it with a piece of a black cardboard from the box that the PSU came in! Sometimes easiest solutions are good enough...
...
That's it from me, cheers!
...
"Target use-case is pure “living room” HTPC, i.e. watching TV and videos in client-only configuration. No gaming, “MS Officing” or anything like that. The only “must have” is smooth and trouble-free playback of video material in all resolutions (including 1080p) and all flavours of compression; and smooth and trouble-free playback of TV, both SD and HD. “Nice to Haves” are ability to pass-through HD sound, sleep/resume technology that works well with MP and low power consumption. My current HTPC will become dedicated TV-server and all media is stored on NAS."
Final configuration:
- CASE: Silverstone Grandia GD06B
http://www.silverstonetek.com/product.php?pid=293&area=en - PSU: Seasonic X-400FL 400W
http://www.seasonicusa.com/NEW_X-series_Fanless.htm - MB: GA-Z68MA-D2H-B3
http://www.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=3975#ov - CPU: Intel Core i3 2105 3,1GHz
- CPU FAN: Scythe Shuriken
http://www.scythe-usa.com/product/cpu/043/scsk1000_detail.html - RAM: Corsair XMS3 DDR3 PC12800/1600MHz CL9 2x2GB (CMX4GX3M2A1600C9)
- SSD: OCZ Vertex 3 SATA III 2.5" SSD 60GB
http://www.ocztechnology.com/ocz-vertex-3-sata-iii-2-5-ssd.html - BD: Samsung SH-B123L
http://m.samsung.com/ca/consumer/of...es/optical-disk-drives/SH-B123L/RSBP-features
...
Grandia comes with three 120mm fans installed, but I disconnected them from the beginning as I wanted a completely silent HTPC. Also, Seasonic X-400FL is fanless so only airflow in the case comes from the CPU fan which is why I decided to install the Shuriken from the beginning, without even testing the stock fan.
...
Shuriken cannot be heard at all and CPU temperature is stable at around 55 degrees. Not optimal of course, could be lower, but most importantly it is stable (+/- 2 degrees) regardless of what load I throw at it. I'm actually extremely pleasantly surprised given that there is very little space between the case and the shelf (see pictures)...
...
Pass-through HD sound works fine as well, but I have given it up for a while until I get time to look into a small issue I have... When I connect the HTPC to my receiver with HDMI then sometimes resolution that gets through to the TV gets messed up. So, I connected the HTPC directly to the TV instead and use optical connection to get sound to the receiver. The resolution is now fine, but optical doesn't allow for the pass-through...
...
I can sincerely recommend all the components I've used and have very few comments and remarks.
...
The PSU... X-400FL is fanless, but not completely noiseless. There is a certain buzz/whine and google will offer multiple theories about it... Some believe that some PSU:s are faulty, some believe that some people can hear the buzz that is there in all units and other people cannot, some believe that it's about which MB it's connected to and some believe that it's about the load... I did send one back and installed a second one but there was no difference. My personal opinion is that it is dependent on the MB but also on the type of activity that is going on (rather than the actual load). Anyway... The existence of the buzz is frustrating when you pay extra money for a noiseless PSU and once you install it you realize it whines. But... Once the build is complete, the case closed and placed in the shelf, the computer really is noiseless. You would have to place the ear on the case and pay extra attention in a completely silent room to hear the buzz. So, I'm happy with it...
...
The case... It's not as beautiful as the MonCaso I originally wanted (http://www.moneualusa.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=157&Itemid=158), but it's a pretty case and it does the job. There is a lot of ventilation holes which helps a lot with the minimal airflow I have... The blue LED light in the front is too intense but few passes with a black marker made it perfect... I had to remove the two hot-swappable bays in order to fit in somewhat larger PSU. I don't care about the bays themselves, but the problem was that it left me with a big hole on the front side of the case where bays used to be. Fixed it with a piece of a black cardboard from the box that the PSU came in!
Sometimes easiest solutions are good enough......
That's it from me, cheers!
...
