Silverstone LC03 HTPC

Show off your quiet rig.

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Aleksi
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Silverstone LC03 HTPC

Post by Aleksi » Sun Mar 20, 2005 12:13 am

Hi guys,

I've been building my HTPC slowly and I've finally gotten it to a point, where I need some opions from you guys. This setup is meant for listening MP3's, watching movies and ,most likely in the near future, used as digital TV-tuner. I've used mostly parts that have been left over from my rig.

Case: Silverstone LC03 desktop

Here's the starting point:
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First I used some leftover Acoustipack and used in on the sides. On the air intakes I placed a filter, that is used in kitchen and oven blowers. Nice stuff, catches the dust, but still lets air in quite nicely.
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The bottom has an air intake which I dremeled open and placed some rubber moulding. The fan is a Panaflo 80M1A @ 5V, installed with some rubber fan mounts. I actually think the new M1A is better than new L1A at 5-7V. Practically they move almost the equal airflow, but the M1A has basicly no chipset noise. I also installed a filter inside the case on top of this fan.
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Motherboard / CPU / PSU: Abit NF7 / AMD Athlon 2000 @ 1.4GHz, 1.4VCore / Fortron FSP300-60PN/PF) with Papst 4412F/2GL

I replaced the stock northbridge cooler with a Zalman 32J. I had lost the original mounts for this one, so I used the extra that came with a Zalman VGA heatpipe. The CPU HS is a Glacialtech SilentBreeze II with a Panaflo 80L1A@5V, but I maybe switching it for a M1A, for the reasons mentioned above. The PSU fan is running below 1000RPM even when folding, so I'll probably switch a Nexus in there.
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DVD: Sony DVD-ROM

I just HAD to do the front bezel mod for this one. I replaced the original bezel with the Silverstone own 5 1/4" bay cover. The bay is opened by pressing the bezel near the original button.

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HDD: IBM 80GB (I'm STILL waiting for my 160GB Maxtor Diamondmax 9 to be returned from warranty)

I used a similar suspension method I use in my other rig. I'm using a 3cm wide elastic band, similar to those used in pants etc.
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Us finnish users have been talking about this cheap "Biltema" sound absorption mat. I took a piece of it and used a sharp knife to make an opening for the HDD. The whole package is then suspended. I'm hoping this would damp the whines from the HDD. Opinions about this one? I'm going to redo it in any case, to get it a bit more tidy.
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Graphics card: Sapphire Radeon 9250
Well, it's passive, has VGA/DVI/TV-OUT. What more is there to tell?

So here's some pictures of the case, still needs some cable management though. I'm probably closing the front part of the case with the above Biltema acoustic mat. I already taped shut all openings between the front of the case and the actual case bezel with aluminium tape. So all the air will come from the sides or the front fan intake.
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I'm running the CPU 112MHz*12,5 => 1.4GHz. Using Speedfan allows me to lower the FSB to 66MHz while idling. I tried 8RDAVCore for FSB and VCore adjustments, but for some reasons it results often in crashes, even in the above situation, where the Speedfan does it stabily.

I really would appreciate your comments and thoughts, both good and bad! I'll be posting some temp info when I get running for a longer time, but so far the temps have been quite decent.

Update:

Well, you guys were correct about the HDD foaming. Temps rose ~10C, but it seemed like a good idea! :roll: Anyway, I made some suspension for the HDD. This was basicly the only position where there was enough space available. I tried mounting the HDD vertically on the 3,5" bay, but the height was not enough. Below are some pictures of the current setup. I have to say, that buying 90cm rounded IDE cables is a bad buy, if you buy them thinking "I'll take the longest, 90cm, I will never have use for shorter cables". You have no idea how much I cursed while trying to hide them.

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a list of things to be done as soon as possible:

- GET SOME SHORTER IDE CABLES!!!
- a quieter DVD-ROM. This one is way too loud.
- HDD mounting. I should get some PCB/HDD mounts in the near future, if they are decent I'll remove the suspension and just stick the HDD in the 3,5" bay. Or then I'll get a 2,5" HDD that can be suspended more nicely.

things to be done / experimented at some point:
- PSU fan replacement => Nexus / Glacialtech.
- removing the intake and CPU fan. CPU could be cooled by the PSU fan if it was ducted or the PSU moved deeper in to the case by 5-10cm.

I'll be posting an update when I get something concrete done. And I still want your thoughts on it! So please post, it gives the people showing their setups a positive feeling, even if you post something negative.
Last edited by Aleksi on Mon Nov 21, 2005 7:05 am, edited 6 times in total.

Qwertyiopisme
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Post by Qwertyiopisme » Sun Mar 20, 2005 5:11 am

That looks like quite a decent setup. The only thing I would be worried about (assuming you're happy with the noise level) is the temperature of the harddisk (I keep mine in the 30-35°C range) when it is put in the foam. Just OOC (I am near to a Biltema too (Sweden)) how good is the foam and which foam, exactly, is it?

Aleksi
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Post by Aleksi » Sun Mar 20, 2005 5:41 am

Hi,

(Product number 369220)
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If I'm translating the Biltema's website correctly, it's open cell foam with heavy/hard plastic sheet. I prefer the Acoustipack Deluxe set if I plan to soundproof a whole computer, but the Biltema's mat is good prototyping and installing in places, where you may have to remove it in the future (it doesn't have an adhesive on the other side). Price is OK, 1000 X 500 X 30 MM sheet costs 24,90€. Considering overall effectiveness, I would have to say that the Acoustipack is better quality, but not much.

I have to check what kind of temps I'm getting with the Maxtor. The intake fan is maybe even useless, as the temps seem OK without it. I actually could run the whole system with only the PSU fan, if I ducted it to the CPU. But the Maxtor does make quite a rumble even when suspended, so that probably drowns out the fans noise of Panaflos @ 5V.

nici
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Post by nici » Sun Mar 20, 2005 9:21 am

The Swede--> You might also want to check out what MDS has to offer, they have a couple of interesting foams meant for speaker enclosures but looks good for comps as well. That on top of some bitum, if you need to get rid of vibration.

dasman
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Post by dasman » Sun Mar 20, 2005 9:28 am

I too would be really worried about HD temps -- HTPC cases get notoriously bad airflow and to encase the drive in foam just seems to be asking for trouble...

Dave S.

Aleksi
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Post by Aleksi » Sun Mar 20, 2005 9:38 am

Hi,

You guys probably are right about HDD getting warm. I could however try to move it over the intake fan and still keep it foamed... I'll dig in to this when I get the Maxtor.

Keep the comments coming!

@Nici: Have you compared the Biltema mat to any others? If I remember correctly, you used it in your case.

nici
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Post by nici » Sun Mar 20, 2005 9:55 am

Yes i used the Biltema stuff in the case, but only at a few small places. Most of the cae was covered with acoustipack. I ripped the fillm off the biltema stuff, i dont believe its of any benefit to dampen sound, more likely its there to stop water from getting to foam if used in boats and such. Anyway, im tired, lets put it this way. This is how my setup looks from the front now, if i cover the whole hole with a big bit of the biltema stuff, i can barely hear the fans or the HDD if i put my ear very close. Oh and before you ask, yes the case is upside-down. Im working on a new front panel and some ducting, this way i got the PSU in the bottom of the case and room to suspend the HDD and overall the case looks much tidyer inside with much better airflow. Its a bit "unfinished" though, as you can see.. :mrgreen: Now look here kids, this is how you remove the restrictive fan grille.. :lol:

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dasman
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Post by dasman » Sun Mar 20, 2005 9:58 am

FWIW, if you really want a quiet HD -- go with a notebook drive. You won't have to worry about the noise or the heat. That's what I ended up with in my HTPC...

Aleksi
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Post by Aleksi » Sun Mar 20, 2005 10:28 am

dashman,

If I could have chosen, I would have gotten a "slightly" different setup :lol: I'm just trying to get all my older components in this one, so I can finally clean out the storage. That's why I'm using the Maxtor.

Edit: Damn that's a nice setup! You HAVE to be single or then you have the most understanding companion. :P

Aleksi
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Post by Aleksi » Thu Mar 24, 2005 9:15 am

a small update to the first post: some HDD suspension and thoughts on the build.

Aleksi
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Post by Aleksi » Mon Jun 27, 2005 10:40 am

update...

finally got the system 99% done, only a mesh filter missing from the rear 60mm fan hole.

The motherboard was swapped out, current one is Asus A7V880. I did some bridge cutting and a wire trick to the socket to enable undervolting. I managed to drop the VCore to 1,425V. The system is running @ 1,25GHz currently. Good for now ;) Also the PSU was swapped for the HEC 300W I covered in the PSU modding tutorial part III. It has a Panaflo FBL80L1A in it, mounted with some EAR fan mounts.

I covered the whole case with American Acoustics Silencepack. OK soundproofing mat, but with horrible glue. I had from the very beginning problems with the glue, the mat didn't attach properly to the case walls and also the foam was coming loose from the mat.

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Overal picture of the case

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Two pictures from the HDD area. I got some EAR grommets and installed the HDD with them using the shoulder bolts that came with the Sonata. I've enabled AAM, but some seek noises are still audible to the outside of the case. Vibration is handled very well by those grommets.

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Two pictures of the front, first one showing the bezel mod I did on the DVD-drive.

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So the system is:
- Asus A7V880 Athlon 2000+, running 1,25GHz @ 1,425Vcore
- CPU cooled by Glacialtech SilentBreeze II with Panaflo FBA80M1A.
Using Speedfan to run it at ~5V, if CPU temps go over 50C the fan speed will be increased to max. ~7V. At this level it stays inaudible from a feet or two away from the case.
- two (2)sticks 256mb Kingston ValueRAM 333MHz
- HEC 300W ARPT-R, modded with a Panaflo FBL80L1A.
The PSU fan is running ~8V when running prime95, but in normal use it stays around 7V. Quite enough for current use, although this is the loudest component in the setup.
- Sapphire Radeon 9250 passive
- Maxtor 160GB Diamondmax 9, AAM enabled, installed with EAR grommets.
- Sony DVD-ROM
- Panaflo 80M1A @ 5V as case intake fan.


Many thanks to Dorothy Bradbury and frankgehry in helping me out with the system! Also a thank you goes out to Jordan Menu, who helped in the very beginning of this build.

brickout1
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Post by brickout1 » Thu Jul 07, 2005 7:53 am

Nice looking setup you have...I'm working on building my first HTPC, and I'm getting plenty of ideas and tips here.

With regards to your dvd-rom being too noisy, if you haven't replaced it yet, look for software to limit your speed. With something like Nero's Drivespeed or similar software, you can set the maximum speed for reading dvd's/cd's as well as spindown time.
This helped me a ton with noise levels.

Good luck!

Aleksi
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Post by Aleksi » Thu Jul 07, 2005 8:33 am

Hi brickout1,

thanks for the nice feedback!

I tried using the Nero Drivespeed, but the drive is so old it doesn't support this feature. So I guess the new drive is on my shopping list.

Are you also building your HTPC in the LC03?

brickout1
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Post by brickout1 » Wed Aug 10, 2005 7:53 am

Hi Aleksi -

Sorry, I forgot I posted here :þ

No, I'm not building mine in the LC03, right now I'm using a cheapie Dell SFF case to see what I can do. I figure that if I can build in that, I can build in anything!

Aleksi
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Post by Aleksi » Sat Mar 31, 2007 12:49 pm

OK, I'm on an update spree...

I only have a few pics of this setup, but it shows the main improvement. This thing currently holds the components from my old main rig

- Athlon XP 3000+ undervolted to 1.35V and underclock to 1.8GHz (IIRC)
- Abit NF-7 with a 1GB of memory
- Maxtor Diamondmax 9 160GB
- LG burner
- GF6800 with Zalman ZM-80D passive cooling.

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Now I had a little problem when I moved these components to this case. First the 6800 runs a bit hot and the case only had one 60mm exhaust fan. Second, the GFX card is so long, that I couldn't fit the HDD in the 3,5" bay! The case has a bit of a design clitch, because the 3,5" bays come over the motherboard. So I had to think of a new place to install the HDD. Basicly the only place with any decent airflow was the case sides with the intake holes. So I took out my trusty drilll...

The HDD is mounted with the silicone grommets and shoulder bolts that came with my NSK6500. I removed the PCI slot from behind the HDD.

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The PSU exhaust all the air from this case and the fan (Papst 4412F/2GL) is controlled with a fanmate. Playing with the fan mated Papst I really noticed a point where the airflow increased (a drop in temps) and the next point where cooling didn't improve too much, but noise increased. So the PSU now runs at ~7V. The CPU is cooled with a 80L1BX at 5V, the front intake is a Panaflo 80L1A at 7V. The airflow noise caused by the PSU fan pretty much drowns out any other noise (except the crunching Maxtor)

The setup uses 90W at idle and 160W from the wall at full load.

I think this setup will be like this for a while. Should really clean up the wiring etc, but haven't had the right time to put the HTPC on the dock. I'm probably moving to another HTPC case in the future.

Thanks once more for looking.

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