My quiet, but capable HTPC for the living room (with images)
#1
I had to give up on the room accomodating my desktop PC and thus the desktop itself due to babies occupying the room in a few months. My desktop is not a thrilling machine by any standard, but I liked it pretty much and was wondering if I could turn it into a light gaming / no compromise HTPC that blends into the living room nicely while being similarly quiet as my previous ION-based almost-passive HTPC.

The list of components in the PC:
  • Silverstone Grandia GD04S
  • FSP ATX-350PNF 350W PSU - reused from desktop
  • Gigabyte GA-G31M-S2L micro ATX motherboard - reused from desktop
  • Intel Pentium Dual Core E5200 (OC @3GHz) - reused from desktop
  • Scythe Samurai ZZ CPU cooler
  • 2x2GB Kingmax DDR2-800 dual channel - reused from desktop
  • Sapphire Radeon HD6570 Ultimate (passive)
  • Samsung HD322HJ 320GB 7200 RPM SATA2 HDD - reused from desktop
  • NEC 3540A PATA DVD-RW - reused from desktop
  • 4 pcs Coolink SWIF 21200 800 RPM fans
  • 2 packs of Lamptron transparent rubber bolts (4 pcs each)
  • Logitech K360 slim wireless keyboard
  • Logitech M195 wireless mouse - reused from ION HTPC

So let's put this all together. I knew already the FSP is pretty noisy (it's an older model with only ~75% efficiency) so I replaced the stock fan against a Coolink SWIF 21200 using the Coolink supplied rubber mounts. The PSU blends nicely with this fan, the airflow has not decreased significantly, but the noise is completely gone.

Image

For CPU cooling some quick googling revealed the Samurai ZZ should just fit below the ODD when its fan is removed.

Image

This is indeed the case, although the clearance above the RAM sticks is somewhat tight.

Image

I wanted some light gaming (@720p) and passive operation, so the Sapphire HD6570 Ultimate was an obvious choice. It gives enough power for my needs (I mostly play with some older games anyways) and is more than enough to handle any video playback tasks thrown at it.

Image

You might have noticed that I used Coolink SWIFs instead of the Silverstone standard fans which came with the case. While those fans are not very bad, they still produced too much noise for my taste and two of them would not power on at 5V, so I had to use something else. The Coolinks are much more quiet, but don't move that much air as the Silverstones. No issue with the CPU as it maxes out at around 60C, but a Furmark torture test boiled the VGA to 95C. With the Silverstone fans it was kept under 80C. Some quick investigation showed the left side fan is pretty useless when using the Coolinks at 7V, it just blows air into the empty space below the HDD rack. Moving the fan between the HDD and ODD and angling it to blow the air towards the motherboard fixed this so the VGA now maxes out at around 75C.

Image

I attached some self-adhesive foam to the top of the fan to reduce the vibrations transferred to the top of the case. I also did this with the bottom of the right side case fans. Those are mounted using Lamptron rubber bolts instead of screws.

Image

I was somewhat concerned about the noise of the HDD but the HD322HJ is a single platter design and is really very, very quiet. Yet it still delivers a pretty good performance. I can easily get into XBMC under a minute in Win7 including POST so I dropped my intention to switch to SSD in the near future.

Ok, so this PC uses lots of recycled parts from my desktop PC. Unless you have such components lurking around or you can get them very cheap (think second hand), I propose you to look for similar, but more up to date components. Socket 775 with a recent dual core Pentium or Celeron is a pretty good (and cheap) performer as a HTPC, but it is a dead platform. Just go with a CPU with good power consumption figures (remember that TDP doesn't tell the whole story, for example the E5200 is more like a 35W than a 65W TDP CPU really - take your googe time) and take care of RAM height - basically any module without fancy heatsinks should fit, but if you buy it from a shop with good return policy you can't go wrong. This guide is more about giving ideas if you want to build something similar.
Reply
#2
And this is how it blends with the rest of my AV rack:

Image

That's the Omnimo Rainmeter theme with some customizations to provide a better ten-foot experience than the standard Windows taskbar/desktop when not running XBMC. Smile
Reply
#3
Very nice! wife approved.
Reply
#4
Thanks. Sure it has a very high WAF. Smile
Reply
#5
thanks for taking time to write all of this!!

of course, seeing all those FanLess parts in there makes me wonder how much
heat goes on in there,,,

think you could post your temps using SpeedFan or HardWareMonitor??

Smile
Reply
#6
CPU maxes at ~60C with 2 thread Orthos. GPU maxes at ~75C with Furmark. Running Orthos and Furmark at the same time adds +2-3C to the above figures. When using XBMC the CPU temp is between 40-45C, GPU temp between 50-55C, depending on the task to do. HDD temp is around ~35C. Room temp is 25C. No figures about the PSU but the exhausted air is not hot there either and the fan does not rev up so I think it is just enough. The PSU's intake is on the bottom of the case, so it has no direct contact with the heat dissipated by the GPU/CPU.

The Samurai ZZ is actually a huge cooler with 6 heatpipes, way too overkill for a CPU like the E5200 even with this mild OC. Passive is not very true for the CPU anyways since the right side fans blow fresh air directly from outside the case through the fins:

Image

The third Coolink then blows the hot air out from the case through the venting holes in the back of the case.

As you see my AV rack is open (and there is also some clearance behind the case and the wall) so hot air can escape freely so no heat build-up issues here. The AVR is also separated.
Reply
#7
oh nice, well, those 2 x 120mm fans appear to do the job perfectly!

very nice!
Reply
#8
Just a quick follow-up: The old FSP PSU died recently, maybe partly because of the silent cooling and/or just because it was already over 5 years old. Anyways, I was looking for a new PSU; this time one which is quiet out of the box and came up with this: Arctic Cooling Fusion 550R. It seems to be a perfect fit with this case. The 80 mm fan takes air from the left side air inlet and pushes it through the PSU. Fan noise is non existent even when gaming, the PC remained as quiet as it was. Smile
Reply

Logout Mark Read Team Forum Stats Members Help
My quiet, but capable HTPC for the living room (with images)0