For sale: Noctua NH-U9B SE2 . This is a nice, smallish, 92mm fan-based tower CPU heatsink. Mine is in like-new condition: complete with all original parts, accessories and packaging, used for all of... 72 hours maybe? Probably on the order of minutes, but I'm being conservative. (For what it's worth...

MikeC wrote:...there's some evidence it might provide better audio performance.

Can you expand on this, and/or provide links?

Not doubting you, just curious.

Does the DH61DL board have any wacky transistors on the back that would interfere with a CPU heatsink bracket? The DH67CF board is perhaps infamous for this; with it, you're effectively limited to push-pin style heatsink mounts. I looked at pics online of the DH61DL, and at least there's not the hug...

Very nice. :D Thank you! If you decide to go with an Intel board, make sure to check the back of the board first. The DH67CF has a large IC on the back, preventing many coolers with backplate to be used. Oh yeah, I learned that the hard way... the current build in this thread could be called a rebu...

This is a rebuild of the HTPC I build a few months ago . The only real changes are the case, video card, and removal of a hard drive. So new specs: CASE: Apex MI-008 MOBO: Asrock H67M-ITX CPU: Intel i5-2500k PSU: picoPSU-160-XT w/150W Brick RAM: Corsair CMX8GX3M2A1333C9 (2x4GB) GPU: ASUS ENGT430 DC ...

A few months ago, I posted a writeup and picture of my HTPC . One of the things that always left me curious was that the following configuration used about 24 watts of AC power when idle: i5-2500k, asrock h67m-itx, picopsu-160-xt + edac 150w brick, 2x4 GB RAM, SSD. Other people with similar configur...

That's pretty slick! Do those big heatsinks get warm to the touch when your run Prime95?

Also, you're running the i3-2100T---do you think this scheme would be capable of cooling a regular i3-2100 (65W TPD, versus 35W for the T)?

Sorry to resurrect such an old thread, but... what do you guys think about putting a passive nvidia gt430 in this case? I'm not sure if they'd fit, but going by the newegg pictures, the ZOTAC ZT-40605-10L and ASUS ENGT430 DC SL/DI/1GD3 look like they would fit. Not sure if they'd get too hot though....

Over on the similar ServeTheHome thread , somename suggested this MSI IM-945GSE-A Atom Mini-ITX board . Retail price is high at $200, but he says they can be found on ebay for closer to $100. He says 10W idle, which is higher than what the original poster wanted, but pretty close (and exactly what I...

I'm looking for something similar. In fact I asked about it on the ServeTheHome forums . So far as I can tell, I don't think such a beast exists. In fact, I'm using a PCEngines Alix2d3 right now. Works great, but I decided I want a little more flexibility. The Soekris board posted above looks to be ...

Hello all, I'm selling my Norco RPC-4220. It has a broken power switch. I believe it should be easy to repair, as it's only a mechanical problem. I've only owned this case for a few months; I recently replaced it with a Supermicro case. This case comes with the following: 120mm internal fan mount 3x...

Throw in a "+1" from me for this case. I have the model with the built-in media reader. My only minor complaint is that it doesn't have a 120mm rear exhaust fan, but a 92mm one. I think there's probably room for a 120mm fan, if someone wanted to mod the case; I wish SuperMicro would make a new revis...

One sold, three left. Price for lot of three, shipped: $250.

Note that the cables are not included.

I have four new (in sealed bag) IBM ServeRAID m1015 SATA/SAS cards. These are PCIe LSI SAS2008 based cards. With two SAS-to-SATA breakout cables, they give eight SATA 3.0 (6 Gbps) ports. The LSI SAS2008 chipset seems to be fairly mature with good multi-platform support. I use these in my home file s...

For what it's worth, I did a "poor man's calibration" of my two Kill-A-Watt meters. My wife has an old lamp with two 25-Watt incandescent bulbs. Both Kill-A-Watt devices took the same measurements: - With either 25 watt bulb turned on, the Kill-A-Watt read 24 Watts - With both bulbs on, the Kill-A-W...

I basically wanted the (almost) fastest dual-core Sandy Bridge with HD3000 graphics. There was no need to go with 2500k, there are couple of cpus that do offer HD3000, Intel Core i3-2105 and Intel Core i5-2405S , i would probably have gone with the 2105 since you were planning on disabling 2 cores ...

What difference does the HD3000 make? Isn't that only for 3D? That is my understanding, that the HD2000 vs 3000 is a matter of 3D performance. On Linux, 3D is done via OpenGL. MythTV has several ways of rendering video. One of those methods is OpenGL. Also, MythTV can (optionally) use OpenGL for ot...

Yeah, I've got no idea why people use such powerful parts for HTPCs. I'd simply use a Zacate board! I do have some rationale behind it. :) Four cores is way too many. But two fast cores is useful. One, for commercial flagging of broadcast TV. But more importantly, software decoding of bluray conten...

Are you even using the same measurement device? Have they been calibrated? I am using the same measurement device, a Kill-a-Watt. It hasn't been calibrated. I do have a second one, though, so when I get a chance I'll take some readings with it and see if the two read differently. Although IIRC, Mik...

Here's the writeup I alluded to in my original post... This build was somewhat of an exercise in not thinking things through and going over budget. My original goal was: a new HTPC that is as small, quiet, and low-power as possible. Specifically, I use MythTV on Linux as a HTPC platform. I thought I...

For what it's worth, I'm using this 150W AC-DC adapter from Mini-Box.com. It's made my Edac. I can get the model number when I get home. Given that I had the same idle power usage under both Win7 and Linux, I'm guessing that maybe it is the power brick. The "benchmark" for low power seems to be the ...

The power consumption is a little high. DH67CF and 22W? Is that on MythTV? Either your software or your brick is the cause I think. I get about 18W on Win7 but about 21W on Xubuntu. I tested the power consumption of all those boards under both Windows 7 and Linux (specifically, CentOS 6.0). The idl...

Hi all, Last weekend I completed my new home theater PC. It runs MythTV. Specs: CASE: Lian Li PC-Q11B MOBO: Asrock H67M-ITX CPU: Intel i5-2500k PSU: picoPSU-160-XT w/150W Brick RAM: Kingston KVR1333D3N9K2/8G FAN: NoiseBlocker PK-3 GPU: ZOTAC ZT-40601-20L GeForce GT 430 HSF: Thermalright AXP-140 RT w...

I definitely have the "Venom" bracket, i.e. what's in the last picture.

The earlier backplate might have actually worked. Hard to say for sure without having one, of course. But the "arms" of the X look to be much thinner, and they might just clear that obnoxious IC on the back of the DH67CF.

I've been working on a Sandy Bridge mini-ITX HTPC. Originally I wanted to use the Intel DH67CF (aka BOXDH67CFB3) motherboard, given its reputation for lower power consumption . As I posted in this thread , with stock fan, 2x4GB RAM, SSD, 140mm case fan, and picoPSU 160, i5-2500k, I got 22 Watts AC i...

...I'm testing out with the stock Core I3-2100 heatsink/fan first, which seems acceptable noise at idle. I think the first thing I need to do is replace the 80mm fan in the Antec ISK300-65 (which btw is a totally awesome case for a htpc, I'm surprised how well this turned out). [...] Update: Tested...

I'm building something very similar... two more questions: Fan - Front Intake: Noiseblocker BlackSilentPro PK-3 140mm How would you rate this fan in terms of noise? NB's own specs say 27 dBA, 1700 RPM, 90 CFM. How would you compare it to the stock fan? Did you try any other 140mm fans? My PC-Q11B's ...

I don't suppose you happen to have a straight-on picture without the power supply, do you? Like a lot of socket 1155 mini-itx motherboards, the ASRock H67M-ITX looks like the CPU socket is right next to the PCIe slot. How is it that the wide AXP-140 doesn't interfere with the PCIe socket? Anyway, ni...

The least I can do is make a public THANK YOU to running such an awesome site over the years! On the one hand, I've often wondered if SPCR was becoming less relevant, because it's now quite easy to build a *quiet* computer; and if you cherry-pick components from SPCR reviews, you can fairly easily b...

I'm cleaning house, and getting rid of a lot of unused components. Please help support my chronic case of upgradeitis. :) M-Audio Audiophile PCI (2496) Sound Card Gigabyte Technology GA-EP45-DS3R Motherboard Gigabyte Technology GA-MA74GM-S2 Motherboard AMD Athlon 64 X2 3600+ Energy Efficient 1.9 GHz...