New antec fusion HTPC (w/ pics)

wildheart · 23 May 2009 at 12:04

Hi all,

Just thought I would post up some pics of my new HTPC along with my take/thoughts on it and a few questions at the end

First off, sorry about the pictures didnt have a camera with me so these were taken on my phone...

These were taken after everything had been installed, cable management left a lot to be desired

but I wanted to check everything worked before routing the cables:

Ok first criticism, im not overly impressed by the Zalman CNPS8000. It doesnt seem to be controllable via the motherboard, its either full-on or manually set via that funky dial hanging over in pic 4. I can see this might have some benefits but for a HTPC case i would rather had the motherboard control the speed based on the temp.

On the plus side, this heatsink is very low profile, and although being very wide, it fit quite nicely on the lanparty JR mobo.

Some pics after i tidied the cables :rolleyes:

I was overall very impressed with the antec fusion case except for the DVD drive area. It was very tight for the corsair PSU cables and the DVD drive holder to fit in this space, you have to pack/push/cram the cables in the bit of space behind the weird swinging DVD drive holder.

Some system readings:
IDLE: (a little too big for the thread me thinks

)
http://www.lawgriffin.plus.com/idle.jpg

UNDER LOAD:
http://www.lawgriffin.plus.com/load.jpg

A few quick questions im hoping the wise folk can help me with:

1. Im fairly happy with the temp readings under load (approx: 53c) but idle of around 40c seems a little high for an e7300? I could manually crank the fan speed up but what do you think? are these temp ok for an unclocked e7300?

2. Having a small issue with my RAM, CPUZ seems to think its PC2-6400 when its actually OCZ PC2-8500 :confused:

I tried setting the mobo to 266/1066 in the bios but then when i run prime95 i get an "fatal error rounding" message straight away:

I googled around and it said something about increasing the voltage? but im not trying to overclock it, i just want it to run at 1066 to match the FSB ?? :confused:

3. And finally...

for optimal HD playback i assume i want 1080p 24p, how do i set the 24p to get smooth playback? when i set it to 24 hertz the display is noticeably slow when on the desktop? - sorry when it comes to HDTVs im new to the game (**...goes to google to do more searching**)

Cheers all

Claire Drew · 23 May 2009 at 18:37

Looking good, will be very smart when the cables all clean and tidy.

U putting any extra cooling fan in it?

fobose · 23 May 2009 at 18:58

wildheart said:
1. Im fairly happy with the temp readings under load (approx: 53c) but idle of around 40c seems a little high for an e7300? I could manually crank the fan speed up but what do you think? are these temp ok for an unclocked e7300?

I have a e5200 in my NSK 2480 with a passive sycthe mini ninja and that idles around 37c, even when the weather was a bit cooler it never dropped below 36c. I did actually think I hadn't mounted the heatsink properly or had the paste on right but I think its fine for a core temp. The other core has a stuck sensor at 55c (idle and max load, it doesn't change temp).

cmndr_andi · 23 May 2009 at 19:10

wildheart said:
2. Having a small issue with my RAM, CPUZ seems to think its PC2-6400 when its actually OCZ PC2-8500 I tried setting the mobo to 266/1066 in the bios but then when i run prime95 i get an "fatal error rounding" message straight away:

I googled around and it said something about increasing the voltage? but im not trying to overclock it, i just want it to run at 1066 to match the FSB ??

As for overvolting the RAM - it looks like its currently set to 1.8V, but its stock voltage for 1066MHz operation is 2.1V- see here. It looks like the motherboard just set it to standard PC2-6400 settings, just need to manually increase the volts to 2.1V and the RAm speed to 533MHz (DDR 1066) in the BIOS.

As for matching the FSB - that chip uses a 266MHz (1066MHz quad pumped) standard FSB speed. If you wanted to run the RAM at the same speed as the FSB you would need to bring it down in speed to 266MHz (DDR 533). This may aid stability in an overclocking situation, but for you it will just make the memory run slower.

I suggest just bumping the RAM speed up to stock settings as I described above - should run a bit faster and it is definitely not an overclock

Deleted member 77746 · 23 May 2009 at 19:41

Very nice mate very nice. I love these cases! Fits in an ikea lack perfectly!!!!!!

http://www.ikea.com/PIAimages/59637_PE165525_S3.jpg

wildheart · 23 May 2009 at 21:07

Claire Drew said:
Looking good, will be very smart when the cables all clean and tidy.

U putting any extra cooling fan in it?

Nope no exta cooling, i wanted to avoid putting in an extra fans as the two large 120mm case fans will hopefully help to keep it cool and quiet

Xerai · 24 May 2009 at 08:12

Hi wildheart,

I am also building a HTPC around the Fusion remote case atm, can I ask a few questions?

What OS and media centre software have you used?
>Im running Win7RC64 atm

How much noise can you hear from your fans when watching TV?
>My Zalman CPU cooler is a bit too loud for me, probably going to have to try something else.

Are you going to use the Veris remote or something else?
>Im going to use air mouse and wireless kb

Have you enabled the front display and what does it look like when on?
> Mine is too bright

wildheart · 24 May 2009 at 10:54

Xerai said:
Hi wildheart,

I am also building a HTPC around the Fusion remote case atm, can I ask a few questions?

What OS and media centre software have you used?
>Im running Win7RC64 atm

How much noise can you hear from your fans when watching TV?
>My Zalman CPU cooler is a bit too loud for me, probably going to have to try something else.

Are you going to use the Veris remote or something else?
>Im going to use air mouse and wireless kb

Have you enabled the front display and what does it look like when on?
> Mine is too bright

Hi Xerai,

> For the OS im staying simple, I want to have some windows features so i have vista 64 running and as for the actual media player I am an old fan/user of XBMC so have been playing around with that, since I used it last they have improved it lots and im very impressed!

> To be honest with the fan controller my Zalman can be set to VERY quiet, 1200rpm i think!, but for coolness I have it running at around 2200rpm, which is still quieter than my 360

. But like i said on reflection i wish i got a CPU cooler than was controlled by the mobo.

> Im fairly happy with the Veris R200!? remote that came with the case, it can be tricky at times to use the mouse so i will probably invest in a wireless keyboard/touchpad in the future, im trying to avoid the whole "needing to type" business as much as possible though (the iMON quick lauch app is very useful)

> Yeah my front display is very bright too, i have tried turning it down but the LCD backlight is still very bright, if you looking at it from more than 50degrees (standing above looking down) it starts to become very unreadable, but to be honest i dont really see me using it for anything other than the equalizer display.

Also to note I have put the case into my tv unit and there is only around 1 and a half inches between the case and the wooden unit panels, although the manual recommends this case has a 1inch gap, not surprisingly I have seen about an 6-8degree temp increase

so i might increase the fan speed a little more.

Oh and THANKS A LOT for your help cmndr_andi! got my RAM upto speed and stable - cheers

coupe69 · 24 May 2009 at 18:59

If you're not completely happy with your cpu cooler, I can't recommend the Scythe Mini Ninja highly enough.

Providing you're not overclocking you could probably get away with running it passively as the 2 side fans will do a good enough job of expelling the heat.

In fact I'd go so far as to say that the Mini Ninja was perfectly made for this case as it fits in lovely.

My build below has the 80mm fan attached as I'm overclocking an e7200 to 3.6ghz, but I do use a Zalman fan controller to keep it at a barely audible noise.

wildheart · 25 May 2009 at 12:51

oopps bandwidth allowance reached for crappy plusnet server

images down...

fobose · 25 May 2009 at 20:45

I also recommend the scythe mini ninja, I have mine running passively, next to two noctua 1200rpm fans running at 600-800rpm:

The e5200 under it idles at 36-37c.

Phoen1x · 26 May 2009 at 07:29

@ Fobose - I presume those fans are both blowing out of the case?

@ Wildheart - I love XBMC, have done since the good old softmod days

try the Aeon skin, its absolutely amazing, although I find it difficult to do any sort of management tasks on it, I use one of the standard skins for that, and then switch back to Aeon to actually browse my films and watch anything.

Can't wait to get started on my living room HTPC, should have the funds next month or July

fobose · 26 May 2009 at 10:11

Phoen1x said:
@ Fobose - I presume those fans are both blowing out of the case?

Thats right. If you look at my pic towards the back of the case, above the CPU heatsink, you can see a black piece sticking out towards the heatsink, this is designed to help pull air over the CPU through the grill above it.