Silent HTPC in x15e case

[fstark]

Hi everybody,

First post here, please be gentle . English is not my primary language.

I want to build a silent HTPC. I want to keep it always on. There is not TV card in it, as its multimedia parts are just playing dvds, divx, cds and mp3. As it will be located near our bed, I want it to be a silent as possible, or my wife will veto it

I spent nearly 30 hours documenting on the subject (started as 100% n00b), and ended-up with the following specs, for the most important components. As you may guess by reading the list, I don’t really care about the price. There is no monitor and I have no TV (only projector), hence the x15e touchscreen case.

Item Vendor Ref Tech Spec
Case Origen Ae x15e http://www.origenae.com/product_x15e.htm
PSU Antec Phantom 500 http://www.antec.com/us/productDetails.php?ProdID=24500
Video Matrox Millenium G550 32mo DDR http://www.matrox.com/mga/support/user_ ... 0/home.cfm
Case Fan Papst 8412 NGLE dynamic site, can’t bookmark
MB DFI 855GME-GMF http://www.dfi.com.tw/Product/xx_produc ... MB&SITE=US
CPU Intel Pentium M 735

The plan is to underclock the Pentium-M, and put a passive heatsink on it.

So, I have a few questions for you silent pc specialists:

1/ Which is the most underclockable Pentium M ? (I choosed the 735, because it is the lowest one I can easily buy, but there may be a better way to choose)
2/ Which passive heatsink should I use ? I don’t have any problem going to big Scyte Ninja-like heatsink, but:
2.1/ Are those compatible with a socket 479 ?
2.2/ It looks like they are done for vertical cases or horizontal cases with a powerful airflow
2.3/ Will they fit in the case ?
3/ Can I avoid the case fan and have 100% fanless in a horizontal case (which, I guess, have a worse heatflow than a vertical one) ?

I don’t think the rest of the components (dvd, ram) are problematic. I’ll probably drop a 802.11g card in it too.

I’ll put the OS on a compact flash, and use external 400Gb drive for storage if needed, to keep heat down.

Tell me what you think.

If there is a way to get a linux-friendly fanless system in the x15e case, I'd love to hear about it. Would a mini-ITX via board a better solution ? Would it fit ? Or is there any way to get an external PSU?

Thanks in advance for any reply, and congratulations for the pile of info on silentpcreview.com.

--fred

[Beyonder]

A few observations, before I attempt to answer your questions:
1. I wouldn't use that motherboard. For starters, it has a non-standard CPU mounting mechanism and components close to the sockets, which is going to make using aftermarket coolers (like the Ninja) difficult and/or impossible. Truthfully, if you're just going to undervolt, I'd recommend using an Athlon 64. There are much better motherboards to pick from, and you can easily get to the point where a Ninja would be fine with either 5V or passive.

2. I'd stick with NVidia/ATI card. That matrox is old, and isn't going to have the same image quality when it comes to things like deinterlacing. It's also not going to perform well when decoding H.26x/WMV/MPEG video, because the newer NVidia/ATI cards support hardware decoding. There are many, many fanless ATI/NVidia cards available. Since you're interested in Linux, I think NVidia is a better bet.

3. Get a motherboard and video card with PCIe. Not only is it much better for video processing, but you'll have a much more pleasant upgrade path (AGP cards are a dying breed).

4. You could probably use a Seasonic or Zalman PS with a fan, and you wouldn't be able to hear it above the Papst you've spec'd out.


Your questions:

Which is the most underclockable Pentium M ? (I choosed the 735, because it is the lowest one I can easily buy, but there may be a better way to choose)

It doesn't matter--your underclocking capabilities are going to be decided by the motherboard's options. I don't know what to expect with the DFI board. However, the majority of A64 based boards can seriously underclock/undervolt.

2/ Which passive heatsink should I use ? I don’t have any problem going to big Scyte Ninja-like heatsink, but:
2.1/ Are those compatible with a socket 479 ?

No, they're probably not compatible--see above. On the A64 system, you have a huge amount of processors at your disposal.

2.2/ It looks like they are done for vertical cases or horizontal cases with a powerful airflow

You'll have to check the manufacturer's site. In the case of the Ninja, no orientation is specified, so I'd imagine it'll work fine in that position. SPCR.com's review tested like that (with a fan) and it worked fine. I think your performance will be better in a vertical case, however.

2.3/ Will they fit in the case ?

In the case of the ninja, I doubt it. The Origen is 155mm in height, and the ninja is 150mm--there's plenty of fudge factor here that could eat 5mm, so this is a no-go.

3/ Can I avoid the case fan and have 100% fanless in a horizontal case (which, I guess, have a worse heatflow than a vertical one) ?

You probably could, if you underclocked enough. That being said, you're probably much better off using undervolted fans to get at least some airflow.


Were it me, I'd probably do something like this:
A64 3000/3200+, undervolted and underclocked down to somewhere around 1 GHz
BIOSTAR TForce6100-939 (includes onboard video w/passive HS, onboard sound, LAN, etc.)
Seasonic S12-330
Maybe an 80mm fan @5V, but I bet the SS would be enough airflow
2 * 512MB RAM


...the advantages being:
1. Video card compatibility
2. HS compatibility
3. Plenty of headroom for performance later on, if you decide to upgrade
4. Much cheaper, although given that your case is going for $600+, I doubt that's much of a concern.

[El Doug]

hope its not to late to shed some light, but that case is dreadful in low-light conditions, as I assume your bedroom would be

the LED on the power button is REALLY bright - and if this comp is going to be on 24/7, youll either need to solder in a higher-ohm resistor, or put a bean-bag in front of it to get any shut-eye. I speak having used the x11, but i assume the x15 has not changed this.


its is attractive, though

[Gojira-X]

To hell with the Ati/nvdia carsd and their power hungry performance.
if you want a card that does dvd decoding, you should go for the XGI Volari 8300 review and another

its proberly the best of the bunch, even tho it has a fan.

I guess that could be replaced with some form of passive cooler easily.

[ZyRo70]

Wouldn't the Cool n' Quiet capabilities of the Amd 64 underclock itself when its not being used too much and shut off/slow down a lot any active cooling on the CPU?

[Elixer]

The problem with that motherboard is it will only fit the included heatsink. I know there's a pentium M board that will fit socket 478 heatsinks, but I can't remember what it is. I think SPCR reviewed it a while back.