NSK-2480 + Minja HTPC

djkest · Post by **djkest** » Thu Nov 15, 2007 9:47 pm

Okay, so I've been wanting an HTPC for quite some time. I mainly wanted something that could playback high quality audio to my stereo, and possibly display pictures and movies on my TV. Then I decided I really needed a DVR. Well anyway, so after playing around with Media Portal, I was hooked. This guy is running WinXP pro, media portal, and for now I'm using AverMedia Center for TV watching/recording.

Specs:
AMD A64 x2 3800+ Windsor, 65W
Gigabyte GA69MA-SH2 motherboard
2x 1GB Corsair PC6400 DDR2
WD 5000AAKS 500GB SATA HD
Samsung S203-BK DVD-RW/DL
Antec Solution Series NSK-2480 Case
"Minja" Scythe Mini-Ninja CPU heatsink
AverMedia M780 hybrid TV tuner
Antec Earthwatts 380 (included in case)

The Lineup. Yes, I know it's kind of Nerdy.

The stock fans were quickly removed, and replace with super-quiet 800 rpm Noctua fans.

The Minja had an amazingly smooth finish on the bottom. I've never seen anything quite like it on a heatsink, let alone one for 29.99

The heatpipes easily cleared the large capacitors nearby. Brilliant!

Plenty of space around the base.

The size of the Minja dominates the real estate.

The ninja installed with a lot of force. So much force that once it was latched, I was unable to remove it without breaking the AM2 tabs. It was a scary amount. Look at how much the backplate bent.

Remember kids to always use protection.

Shoehorned into the motherboard chamber.

Now when everything was assembled, I fired it up. In free air, it really cooled well. I saw all the temps between 30 and 40 C, and 45C with a loaded CPU. Really not bad for only 2 low speed fans.

Unfortunately, my TV stand is not super ventilated, and when I stuffed the computer into it, the temps shot up a lot. I saw my hard drive temp near 50C while recording TV.

To remedy this I sadly removed the Noctua fans and put the Tricools back in (on low). On low they spin at 1200RPM, and they aren't too bad in terms of noise. I figured this would increase my airflow by nearly 50% through the motherboard chamber. I also suspended the 80mm fan in the HD chamber that came with the Minja. Now normally, this is a loud, fast fan. I used the ULNA from the noctua, which took it all the way down to about 800RPM, at which point it was inaudible @1ft.

The hard drive temp is now 30 at idle, and 35 while in use. This is important for recording movies and being a file server I suppose. The case temps also dropped quite a bit.

At home in the natural habitat. My TV stand isn't really ideal, it's just the only way I could get all my stuff under the TV.

I haven't been able to undervolt yet, I think I need to install the newer bios or something. At CnQ idle, its sucking down 59W of power.

derekva · Post by **derekva** » Thu Nov 15, 2007 10:35 pm

Here's an idea - ditch the 65W 3800+ X2 for one of the 35W 3800+ X2 processors. NewEgghas a batch of them for $60. That'll reduce your temperatures even more.

scrandman · Post by **scrandman** » Fri Nov 16, 2007 2:59 am

Nice build. I have a kinda generic question for you - why did you go for a black DVD-RW instead of silver? Was it because it's difficult to get a silver drive that actually matches the colour of the 2480?

Edit: One other thing - you mention a AMD A64 x2 3800+ Windsor, 65W, but the photo shows a 5000 black series?

Techno Pride · Post by **Techno Pride** » Fri Nov 16, 2007 4:04 am

scrandman wrote:Nice build. I have a kinda generic question for you - why did you go for a black DVD-RW instead of silver? Was it because it's difficult to get a silver drive that actually matches the colour of the 2480?

Edit: One other thing - you mention a AMD A64 x2 3800+ Windsor, 65W, but the photo shows a 5000 black series?

Maybe the 5000+ is for another computer. The rig pictures do not have his new Thermalright heatsink too.

djkest · Post by **djkest** » Fri Nov 16, 2007 5:35 am

Ha ha, you guys are observant. It's true, the 3800+ was formerly in my gaming computer, and I got a 5000+ to swap in there. So the HTPC got the hand-me-down CPU. Also the thermalright I was thinking about putting on the northbridge, but it turns out there really isn't room: so I'm going to put it in my wife's computer.

Getting a 35W CPU would be sweet, but that costs money! If I can get some undervoltage controls, I'll probably just stick with this one. I'm pretty happy with the power consumption right now, and I'm afraid I can't get the minja off now, either. :p

I got the black drive because I really like my other samsung SH203BK, they are very quiet and have excellent reading abilities. I might try to stealth the drive a little, but I might not bother.

I'm contemplating adding a VFD and a card reader to this as well, as stealthily as I can.

djkest · Post by **djkest** » Fri Nov 16, 2007 11:27 am

Oops, sorry for double post.

scrandman · Post by **scrandman** » Fri Nov 16, 2007 11:59 am

djkest wrote:If I can get some undervoltage controls, I'll probably just stick with this one.

The best thing I've used is RMClock - it has allowed me to undervolt my S939 Opteron 146 by 0.2V while at the same time overclock it by 20%.

Unfortunately I cannot get the current release (2.3) to work on my system (it crashes at start-up), so I stick with the older v2.2 which is no longer available on the website.

Anyway, give 2.3 a shot - if it doesn't work try googling for 2.2 or failing that, I'll try and file share it somewhere for you.

http://cpu.rightmark.org/download/rmclo ... n_upd1.exe

clalor · Post by **clalor** » Fri Nov 16, 2007 1:53 pm

Why Gigabyte continues to use a plastic backplate is something I just don't understand. Tracking down a metal backplate can be a pain.

Have you tried using MediaPortal for TV yet?

Felger Carbon · Post by **Felger Carbon** » Fri Nov 16, 2007 2:13 pm

derekva wrote:Here's an idea - ditch the 65W 3800+ X2 for one of the 35W 3800+ X2 processors. NewEgghas a batch of them for $60.

Read the first several reviews. That "35W" is a Newegg typo, it's really a 65W CPU.

djkest · Post by **djkest** » Sat Nov 17, 2007 10:01 am

One of the reasons I go w/ AMD is I'm frugal with components (normally), so I get them for the value. So I probably won't be buying another CPU while I have a perfectly good one already. I might think about it later though.

Media Portal is not working. I've spent probably 5 or 6 hours trying to get it to work. I've made some progress though, I got it to recognize my capture card!

I tried beyondTV also, and neither that nor media portal natively supports the Avermedia M780, which has been around for at least 6 months now. The point I am at is that I can tune in stations, but when I watch them, the program locks up completely after about 5 seconds.

AverMedia thankfully has a program called AverMedia center, which WORKS for both SD and HD. It does lock up when attempting to tune in 1080i, but I only have a 720p TV. So as it stands, I have to use one program for TV tuning and recording, (and oddly the included remote does not work in their own program), and pictures, music, and movie playback are all handled well by Media Portal. I don't use the AverMedia Center for anything else cause it actually sucks for media browsing.

I also ran Mythbuntu and my TV card was not supported. So basically, I was thinking about getting a cheaper SD tuner card, but now that I have an HDTV it seems a little silly.

Quiet? The system is pretty quiet, but I can hear it. Unfortunately my refridgerator is 12 feet away, and that thing is probably 40dB when the compressor is running. I did manage to bring the temps down a little by ripping a chunk of wood off the back of the TV stand. Turns out it was really trapping hot air in there. If I did put the noctuas back in, I'd probably need to swap out the PS fan to lower the noise threshold.