Late to the game with PVR-350

[kmoore]

Well, for example, today my friend was watching an episode of a show I recorded earlier this morning. He fast forwarded to the end of the show to see what it would do and the TV-out went to some funny red pattern, but GBPVR was not frozen and the menu still responded to the remote control. But nothing I did restored the TV-out output from the PVR-350. Eventually, after going back and forth between Live TV, guide, etc, the whole machine locked up...

The box seems to be getting quite warm. I still might work a little harder to cool the entire case. Maybe replace the power supply fan with a different unit. For some reason, the fan sucks in air and blows it right onto the CPU heatsink fan. The only place for air to exhaust is down at the bottom, in the front of case. In other words, backwards from convection. Seems like a dumb design. I would reverse the fan to start.

Overall I'm pretty happy, even with the slow UI. It didn't freeze up more than once today, whereas last night I had to reset it three times before giving up and going to bed. I don't want to give up on it, but in the back of my head, I feel comforted knowing that if I spend the time, I can always revert to MythTV.

[flyswatta]

Before spending $ replacing stuff, run it with the cover off and a clip on fan blowing into it. If you don't have a fan, just having the cover off should prevent heat buildup. If it's still cutting out, then it's probably not heat related.

[kmoore]

That's a pretty good idea. I have a box fan that will probably do the trick.

[flyswatta]

If you DO need to replace fans, keep an eye on what you're getting. You'll want to find a compromise between the noise level (DB) and the CFM (Cubic Feet/Minute - how much air it blows). Since it's a PVR, I personally went with the quieter fans I think they were around 18 db for the CPU and power supply fans and are pretty quiet. They were pretty reasonable - I think it was $12 for the regular fan and $18 for the CPU fan/heatsink.

I also switched to all Seagate drives, since they're pretty quiet and don't cost a fortune.

Also, I read an article that opened my eyes about PC cooling. It was a case modding site that tried all different combinations of side fans, front fans, blowholes, and rear fans. The best combination for airflow was: Single fan in the power supply blowing out! I'll look around and see if I can find that article again...

[kmoore]

If you DO need to replace fans, keep an eye on what you're getting. You'll want to find a compromise between the noise level (DB) and the CFM (Cubic Feet/Minute - how much air it blows). Since it's a PVR, I personally went with the quieter fans I think they were around 18 db for the CPU and power supply fans and are pretty quiet. They were pretty reasonable - I think it was $12 for the regular fan and $18 for the CPU fan/heatsink.

Oh I'm well aware of the dB/CFM ratio. I bought a Zalman fan for my main desktop PC, and it came with a resistor harness that chops the noise to a minimal level, but it didn't blow enough air to cool that box. Generally, you want the largest diameter fan that will POSSIBLY fit your application. Those smaller, high RPM fans are typically noisy as hell.

I also switched to all Seagate drives, since they're pretty quiet and don't cost a fortune.

I've found that the majority of modern hard drives are pretty quiet. Those old Western Digital Expert 7200rpm drives are pretty noisy, both during access and just idling, compared to the more modern WD 120 gig drives in my desktop.

Also, I read an article that opened my eyes about PC cooling. It was a case modding site that tried all different combinations of side fans, front fans, blowholes, and rear fans. The best combination for airflow was: Single fan in the power supply blowing out! I'll look around and see if I can find that article again...

As long as you work with convection, instead of fighting against it (as this HP power supply fan is doing) you'll generally have an effective PC cooling solution. I think for a PVR, the best idea is a power supply with large diameter, variable speed (thermostatic) fans. I recently rebuilt a PC for my brother. His biggest complaint about his old system was the noise. There were many fans contributing to the din, so I chose the replacement components carefully. I went with a power supply with adjustable speed fans, a passively cooled MB chipset, a passively cooled video card, one chassis fan in the front doing induction duty and a variable speed CPU fan that seems quiet. It's not PVR quiet but much better than the old machine, so he's happy.

[kmoore]

Alright, another stability update.

Last night, I set GBPVR to record 6 episodes of a show, all running back to back starting at midnight. When I checked it this morning, it looks like the machine froze at 2:59am, probably as it was trying to close the 3rd recording and/or start a new one.

It occured to me that this should have NOTHING to do with the PVR-350 model specifically, as recording only uses the encoder, something the 350 shares with the other models. I did reverse the power supply fan and that seemed to make the case much less hot. I need to try the box fan trick once and for all see if it's a heat problem or not. I wonder if it could be an inadequate power supply. I think it said 90W max on it. I have two 7200rpm hard drives and the PVR-350, all which HP didn't really intend to be in that box when they built it in 99-2000. Guess I need to get out the multimeter and check the voltages.

[stefan]

It occured to me that this should have NOTHING to do with the PVR-350 model specifically, as recording only uses the encoder

True

I wonder if it could be an inadequate power supply. I think it said 90W max on it.

:eek:

Yes, that is very likely a problem. Or will become one.

[kmoore]

Alright then. How does this look:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as...6817194017

Seems like a decent unit that would also allow me to shove modern hardware into this box since it's a good size for a PVR system (micro tower).

[Mr. Camaro]

Why not spend an extra $50 and get this:

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/...5&CatId=31

ECS K8M800-M2 Socket 754 Barebone Kit / AMD Sempron 3000+ OEM / CPU Fan / ATX Mid-Tower Case / 350 Watt Power Supply

$99 after $30 rebate.

[kmoore]

That looks like a great deal, but how can I guarantee PVR-350 compatibility?

I decided what I am going to do is wait a bit for more off lease Dell Optiplexes (the GX series, namely GX270) to show up on eBay. There are already some under $150. I use them at work and they are REALLY quiet machines. I would assume the PVR-350 would work fine with them.