Bamboozled by hardware, need guidance

[gaby]

So the final rig I went with is this:

• Gigabyte GA-MA78GM-S2H 780G Socket AM2+ onboard VGA 8 channel audio mATX Motherboard
  
• AMD Athlon X2 5050e Socket AM2 45W Energy Efficient Retail Boxed Processor
  
• Scythe Mini Ninja Socket 478/775/754/939/940/AM2 Heatpipe Cooler
  
• Kingston 2gb (2x1gb) Ddr2 1066mhz Hyperx Memory Cl5(5-5-5-15)
  
• Maxtor 500GB Hard Drive SATAII 7200rpm *32MB Cache* - OEM
  
• Extra Value MATX Desktop/Tower Case - With 200W PSU
  
• OCZ 400W ModXStream Pro PSU - 140mm Fan 80+ Certified 1x PCI-E 4x SATA
  
• LG 22X DVD±RW DL & RAM SATA LightScribe Black Bare Drive
  

For a shade over £320, that should run smooth and quiet. I have a Scythe Mugen II in my desktop, it's amazing. I'm hoping the mini Ninja should be just as good at keeping it cool without the noise. Just wish I could have got the 5050e in OEM format instead of retail packaging. The PSU from the case is probably going straight into the recycling pile, the OCZ PSU has a 132mm fan on it

[pBS]

yea, that's a nice rig...bet it's whisper quiet..
you know it's funny, power supplies need to be redesigned, most systems like this will only draw about 150 wats MAX while power supplies cannot be found under 200w, and certainly no 80plus style psu's which is exactly what is needed...

i would jump all over a 175w 80-plus psu, it probably wouldn't even need a fan...lol
seriously, a 90w cpu and all the extras is wayyy under 200watts and peaks just aren't a factor without more than 3 wasteful drives or power hungry video card...

An 80-Plus PSU is one of the #1 grabs for a HTPC...and get low wattage!!

Scythe is a great maker, all their stuff is quiet...i use a Coolermaster with the swirly fan that works so well i used it for cooling myself during the hurricane
[the pressure it develops is amazing, it sucks air towards center like a scoop instead of a propeller pushing it outwards] i run it at 700 rpm so you can't hear it with your ear an inch away...

also, try turning off the cpu fan and watching the temps...you might be amazed..
that cpu/heatsink combo shouldn't need a fan if there's any case airflow..

[gaby]

Sigh. Everything arrived today and there's only one problem. The case is a proper MATX case and as such won't take the lovely ATX PSU. The PSU is just too wide (or the case is just too small) so I'm stuck with either using the wind turbine, sorry PSU supplied with the case, changing the case or changing the PSU. This PSU is silent, modular, all the cables are wrapped and I don't need to have any excess wires dangling around the case. I'm tempted to just bite the bullet and get a larger case, I need the space for the Ninja.

Scythe is a great maker, all their stuff is quiet

I have a Mugen II in my desktop case, fantastically quiet. I plan to install a Zalman FanMate in the case to ensure the CPU fan will run slower. The Athlow 5050e at 45W probably won't kick out that much heat anyway.

An 80-Plus PSU is one of the #1 grabs for a HTPC...and get low wattage!!

The 400W OCZ was the best compromise I could find between low wattage, price and having an enormous fan on the bottom. The bonus is the modular design on it, the downside is that I'll have to go for a larger case now

For the moment I can bench test it and get it all installed and running before the new box arrives. So far everything has arrived intact, no DOA parts. My memory is bright blue!

[gaby]

Another small problem overcome; the case wouldn't have fit in the spot we had designated for it anyway. So I'm sending that lovely PSU back (sob), the Mini Ninja and the cheapo case and replacing it with the Antec NSK1480 which has an 80+ 350W PSU, fits very snugly in the space we have and has a relatively quiet CPU. I've also had to swap out the Ninja for a Shuriken as the Ninja was too tall, despite being marketed as a small heatsink. It actually brought the size of the motherboard to 14.9cm, larger than the case could accommodate. The new one is 6.4cm high which fits much more snugly in the Antec case.

Now I have to either manufacture a low-profile bracket for the Pinnacle 3010iX or swap it out for a low profile version of the Hauppage Nova-T 500. The Hauppage card costs more but I can't see what the benefit of it over the Pinnacle card is. It doesn't appear to have anything that the Pinnacle card doesn't already, other than the low profile form factor.

[pBS]

ahh.cases....yea, in small htpc systems the power is always a problem...i just ordered a 80plus for my TFX sized case...[ever heard of that one?] it's smaller than my vcr...
http://www.directron.com/7k09bb.html

even tho it isn't all that roomy inside, i managed to squeeze 2 drives plus a bluray and a vfd into it
but boy do i wish it had a few more inches for a regular power supply, as i had a fanless one [truely silent!] ready for it..
but am really happy with it after my mods...the only other case i liked was 150$ but nice aluminum [Lian-Li LC-01?]

but unfortunately all the nice black brushed aluminum case seem to have disappeared off the market last year....!? i know of at least 20 cases, all black anodized auminum that just disappeared from the market, and now the maker only has silver ones left!
just when viable hardware finally hits the market, the nice cases dry up...figures..

btw, 200w power supplies are a sign of non-standard size...i haven't seen less than 300 on any modern normal sized one in years..

[pBS]

here's a good one..i'm getting same psu that goes with that case! lol
so here's hoping it's as quiet/cool as advertised...

my 270w that came with case runs hot even at idle...the sign of a bad efficiency rating...
but hey, my entire case costs less than just this psu...

[pBS]

it's an excellent PSU...totally silent and isn't even warm to the touch!!
and it's about 2 inches smaller than my psu so fits even better... plus more case airflow..
even tho it costs nearly 60$ i say it's worth it..

now the loudest noise i hear is the only remaining non-80Plus psu i have...lol
[and it's a 120mm fan!]

[gaby]

I finished the build into the Antec case, it's a very nice piece of kit. The only complaint I have is that there's no built-in IR receiver on the front panel, nor is there a slot that I could put a 3.5" front mounted card reader in.

The PSU is very quiet indeed, the case fans themselves make more noise than the PSU! The Shuriken fits like a dream as well, the 4-pin fan doesn't even turn with the lid off the case

The Pinnacle 3010iX simply won't fit in the case. I can't even mangle the backplate to make it a low profile card, I wouldn't be able to plug in the IR receiver. I am currently hunting down a Nova-T 500 that I can get a low profile bracket for which should fit in the case nicely.

I did have the Pinnacle card in with the lid off the box long enough to try it out with GB-PVR, load up the EPG and watch a little bit of live TV and experiment with the various antenna options that I have. Turns out the shitty little splitter I bought at ASDA reduced the signal strength by 50%, as did using the 15M extension cables. Best results came from plugging the aerial socket directly into the card but this isn't quite ideal for the Pinnacle card as the dual tuners require one aerial connection each. The Hauppage card should resolve this problem.

I also got DVD playback working thanks to the codecs from free-codecs.com. I think it was either the all in 1 pack or the XP pack that fixed it. ffdshow was the winner in the end.

I have some pictures of the box, I'll be sure to post a link to my gallery when it's more complete.

[stustunz]

a power supply will only use as much power as it needs just because its 500watts maximum output doesnt mean it uses 500 watts all the time
they are switch mode so they can change the load accordingly
its not like a heater with one resistive load
in fact a bigger power supply could even use less power as its not under load all the time as a small one would be which would mean that less heat is generated heat is just lost energy which you dont want
dont get hung up on watts look at the efficiency