Antec NSK2400 HTPC

Bjarke · Post by **Bjarke** » Mon Jan 18, 2010 5:04 am

Hi.
I am new to these forums and would like to take advantage of your readily available expertice.

I am making a mediacenter and would like your opinions on this setup:

Case: Antec NSK2400

Motherboard: Asus P5Q-EM

Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo E7400

Heatsink: Scythe Ninja Mini
(Would it be possible to use the heatsink in this setup without mounting an additional fan on the heatsink? To clarify: Would the fans in the NSK2400 case be enough to cool the heatsink?)

Harddrive: WD Caviar SE16 500GB

Ram: 2GB something or other

DVD drive: No clue what to buy - suggestions would be appreciated. What I would like is to be able to watch DVD's and burn CD's - nothing more fancy than that.

After reading the SPCR review of the Antec NSK2400 case I am thinking of swapping out the two 120mm TriCool fans for a couple of Nexus 120s as that seemed to remove alot of the noise generated in the test-setup.

I hope it is apparent from this setup that one of my main goals is to get a silent media center, but all help and advice regarding the parts chosen are very welcome

And by the way - I don't have a tv-tuner in this setup because I won't be using my mediacenter for watching TV anytime soon.

adikt · Post by **adikt** » Mon Jan 18, 2010 6:46 am

I think you would be able to run the CPU fanless if you undervolted the CPU and you may even be able to run one 120mm fan. I've used the E8400 and E6750 Core 2 Duos and you can reduce the tempretures very easily once you find a stable undervolt. I have the Antec Fusion (very similar case) and have the two stock tri-cools running and for me it is far too loud.

murtoz · Post by **murtoz** » Mon Jan 18, 2010 9:29 am

would suggest ducting the heatsink with one of the system fans. I have a lian li pc-c32b, minja, and a quad core QX9650 which has high heat output (i know, not the most logical choice but I had it lying round...).
In idle the proc sits at 40ish (-60 thermal margin). Haven't done any load testing yet though, but I did see at least 5 degrees difference with and without duct.

Bjarke · Post by **Bjarke** » Mon Jan 18, 2010 10:13 am

Thanks for the input guys.
Think I'll try both undervolting and ducting the heatsink when my system arrives. It also sounds like I should order a nexus120 right away instead of wasting time trying out the tricool fans.

fpsrandy · Post by **fpsrandy** » Mon Jan 18, 2010 10:57 am

I would make sure to get a WD Caviar Green Edition drive. Uses less power, and makes less noise when being used.

as for a dvd drive, I would get just about any dvd burner (they are 30 bucks or less Canadian here), they wont really make a ton of noise...

have you thought of which psu and os are you using?

it comes with a 380w psu, but it looks like the psu has a 80mm fan, which usually will add quite a bit of noise... Id personally would like a better quality psu, and one that had a 120mm fan in it. Although the psu should be powerful enough to run your system.

Bjarke · Post by **Bjarke** » Mon Jan 18, 2010 12:19 pm

I actually already have a 500GB caviar green model lying around so that is what I'll be using

Regarding the PSU. To be honest I haven't really researched it much but I'm guessing that with this build that will probably be the most noisy component?
If it needs to be changed the only likely candidate from my perspective is probably the Seasonic S12-330, but as I said - haven't been looking around for silent PSU's so if you have any good suggestions they'd be very welcome.

hybrid2d4x4 · Post by **hybrid2d4x4** » Tue Jan 19, 2010 9:56 pm

You should have no problem running the minja without a fan on even without undervolting. I would second the recommendation to replace the Tri-cools right away. Also, you can do what I and a few others on here have done, which is to take the 80mm fan included with the minja, and swap it into the Antec 380W PSU's fan header. Also, make sure you either undervolt the 120mm fans you get either by something like a Fanmate2, or using speedfan. If you keep 2 fans, you shouldn't have to run them faster than 600RPMs.

Your component choices seem sensible, though I'm not sure the performance difference (if even perceptible) between the E7400 and something like the newer E6300 is worth the price premium.

Bjarke · Post by **Bjarke** » Tue Jan 19, 2010 11:57 pm

hybrid2d4x4 wrote:You should have no problem running the minja without a fan on even without undervolting. I would second the recommendation to replace the Tri-cools right away. Also, you can do what I and a few others on here have done, which is to take the 80mm fan included with the minja, and swap it into the Antec 380W PSU's fan header. Also, make sure you either undervolt the 120mm fans you get either by something like a Fanmate2, or using speedfan. If you keep 2 fans, you shouldn't have to run them faster than 600RPMs.

Thanks - I'll do that - all of it!

Regarding the processor. It seems the only difference between the E7400 and the E6300 is that the E7400 have 1 MB L2 cache, and cost about 45$, more so you are probably right. Looks like you just saved me the money for two nexus 120's

On another note. Just noticed the ZOTAC GeForce 9300 (Micro-ATX) model for sale for the same price as the p5q-em. With the nvidia graphics on the Zotac mobo would'nt that be a better mediacenter motherboard than the p5q-em?

adikt · Post by **adikt** » Wed Jan 20, 2010 12:59 am

I think the difference between E6xxx and E7xxx would be the fact that they're manufactured at 65 nm and 45 nm respectively. This might have an impact on cooling, not sure.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_In ... processors

Bjarke · Post by **Bjarke** » Wed Jan 20, 2010 3:04 am

As far as I can see they are both 45nm

It's rather weird that intel has two processors called E6300 though. This one and a core 2 duo model :s

Here's a side by side comparison of the E7400 and the E6300 I'm considering
http://ark.intel.com/Compare.aspx?ids=36500,41493,

hybrid2d4x4 · Post by **hybrid2d4x4** » Wed Jan 20, 2010 12:49 pm

Yes, it's pretty annoying that they reuse the E6300 name, but I guess the distinction is that the new 45nm one is "Pentium Dual Core" branded, like the HTPC-favorite E5200/E5300, whereas the older 65nm chips were Core2 branded. Here's the old/new 6300 vs the 7400:
http://ark.intel.com/Compare.aspx?ids=4 ... 500,27248,

As for the Zotac, yes the GF9300 is generally a better IGP than the G45, but it may also be harder to cool, though some minor ducting inside the NSK2480 is all it took for me and I have the hotter-still 9400. You can sort of see what I mean in my HTPC page linked in my sig. Also, some early Zotac boards didn't support wake-on-USB, so you may want to look into this by looking through their manuals (should be available on the mfg's site) or forums like avsforum.com (though I didn't find an official thread for this board with a quick search).

Bjarke · Post by **Bjarke** » Wed Jan 20, 2010 11:11 pm

Nice htpc system you've set up hybrid. (Especially considering it's 1Â½ year old : )

Just ordered my NSK2480 case. Will be ordering the rest of the parts as I get some money. (Being a student does not pay as well as I'd like it to.)
I'll probably go with the parts specified in the top of the thread except that I'll be using the Zotac Geforce9300 instead of the ASUS mobo.

EDIT: You were right, the Zotac mobo does'nt support wake-on usb. Guess it's back to the ASUS board unless I can find something else. Good thing I have a couple of weeks before I can afford the mobo anyway ,p

Thanks for the help everyone

hybrid2d4x4 · Post by **hybrid2d4x4** » Fri Jan 22, 2010 5:53 pm

Bjarke wrote:Nice htpc system you've set up hybrid. (Especially considering it's 1Â½ year old : )

Thanks!