A6-PACK ☆ ISK 300-90 picoPSU HTPC A6-3500 Very Silent!

(2012-04-15 05:09)Beer40oz Wrote:  After the third boot it wen't back to 50 sec and then when XBMC popped up it froze..... and I don't even hear windows sound when you boot....

I retraced my steps back because I know I unchecked two thing on msconfig like the ccc and something else... because that fixes xbmc from loosing focus.

But nothing worked......

Next time, try to create restore point before major changes......if you run into trouble, you can restore it to the previouse conditions......

(2012-04-15 05:09)Beer40oz Wrote:  I am tired and mad at this now

Take it easy bud....there is alway tomorrow....!

Well with eskros tutorial you can not make a restore point.... thats why I made an image when it was working correctly. But the image that was working correctly soon was bad. At the moment I am re installing on a regular 2.5 HD...... hope this works.....


Honestly I did not see much difference with the SSD .... only the fact that it installs software faster and boots fast....!!!! but it stopped booting fast for me......

I agree. I'm pretty sure the SSD is the single most overrated piece of hardware recommended on this forum.

(2012-04-15 08:34)maddog808 Wrote:  I agree. I'm pretty sure the SSD is the single most overrated piece of hardware recommended on this forum.

Yes I know.... my LIAN LI PC-V352 Desktop/HTPC is smooth as butter..... I bet this A6-3500 will be too with a 5,400 RPM drive.... well I know I had this drive before on the LIAN LI and it was like butter too..... xbmc artwork dont lag.....

---

Oh and I built my friend a zotac with a SSD from A-data..... now it crapped out. One year later...

(2012-04-15 00:55)Sdpbc Wrote:  How are you liking that keyboard btw? Been trying to find it in Canada, unsuccessfully!

im in Canada too,
do like me and buy it directly from UNISEN-USA
link --> http://unisen-usa.com/Mini-Wireless-Keyboards.html
make sure to get the iPazzPort KP-810-10A

(2012-04-14 23:43)bluray Wrote:  SSD optimization doesn't improve anything for me either. I have better luck with BIOS........

its not only about speed, its mostly about preventing excessive & unneeded writes to your SSD.

(2012-04-15 08:44)Beer40oz Wrote:  50sec and when xbmc pops up right away after boot it freezes.

check with DHARMA, leave EDEN for a sec,
just to see if its a SSD thing or XBMC thing...

also, try this for me, it may sound weird,
but it worked for me,
i too, saw that my SSD wasnt booting as fast as before,
altho still faster then any regular drives,
i tried something and it worked.
sometimes, my SSD would take too much time on the welcome screen...
and this altho i set my htpc to boot directly into desktop no pass needed.

do this, take this 'show desktop' file i made here --> http://www4.zippyshare.com/v/95034692/file.html
and place it in your startup folder
then reboot and see if its any faster!
tell me the result, thx

(2012-04-14 20:34)jack0w Wrote:  

(2012-04-14 15:50)wsume99 Wrote:  

(2012-04-13 23:16)jack0w Wrote:  Thanks for the reassurance, your temperatures seem to be within a few degrees of mine.


Really? How have you managed that? My system draws nearly double the amount of power yours is using!

My build:

A6-3500
ASRock A75M-ITX
4GB DDR
64GB OCZ SSD
1x Noctua NF-R8 80mm Fan

What are you using for a PSU? If you are using an ATX-sized PSU then that is your problem.

I'm just using the standard PSU that came with my Antec ISK300-150, so no not an ATX PSU.

Are you using same case and PSU as me?

I'm not using that case but the problem is the PSU. Although it's not an ATX PSU it is constructed internally just like one and that is your problem (which is what I was getting at in my previous post). If you want to get the kind of power consumption (i.e. low) that others are getting you are going to have to get a DC-DC PSU with an AC adapter. This is the type of PSU that comes in the ISK 300-65 or you can purchase a picoPSU and install it in your current case.

Here is post on silentPCreview where a user did some testing on the PSU in his ISK 300-150 and documented how poorly it performed. --> ISK 300 available with larger power supply now

(2012-04-15 16:46)wsume99 Wrote:  

(2012-04-14 20:34)jack0w Wrote:  

(2012-04-14 15:50)wsume99 Wrote:  What are you using for a PSU? If you are using an ATX-sized PSU then that is your problem.

I'm just using the standard PSU that came with my Antec ISK300-150, so no not an ATX PSU.

Are you using same case and PSU as me?

I'm not using that case but the problem is the PSU. Although it's not an ATX PSU it is constructed internally just like one and that is your problem (which is what I was getting at in my previous post). If you want to get the kind of power consumption (i.e. low) that others are getting you are going to have to get a DC-DC PSU with an AC adapter. This is the type of PSU that comes in the ISK 300-65 or you can purchase a picoPSU and install it in your current case.

Here is post on silentPCreview where a user did some testing on the PSU in his ISK 300-150 and documented how poorly it performed. --> ISK 300 available with larger power supply now

Apologies, think I probably misunderstood your original question! Looks like a PicoPSU is back on the cards, especially given my low power goal!

Thanks so much for the information though, will be invaluable to me and I'm sure others too

(2012-04-15 11:56)eskro Wrote:  its not only about speed, its mostly about preventing excessive & unneeded writes to your SSD.

I don't need it. As long as I don't save anything in it, it'll not write anything to it. I'm using 30GB SSD, and it's still almost 10GB left after almost 2 years (and it's almost the same free space as when I installed it). Everything is stores in external USB 3.0 drive. It works as smooth as butter without any special treatment, and the infamous OZ SSD I installed almost 2 years ago still work fine too. In my believe, the less settings the longer it last.......

I FOUND THE PROBLEM! Why XBMC will freeze at boot and why it loads so slow..... so I took out my SSD and installed my HDD..... and guess what same old thing again!
Took the HDD so long to load and also when XBMC started it will freeze.

"If you're the type to prefer a seriously minimal desktop—so much so that you choose a solid-color desktop over setting a custom wallpaper—you may be wondering why-oh-why Windows 7 takes so long to boot your machine. Turns out a bug in Win7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 causes a 30-second delay at login. Microsoft discusses the problem, potential solutions, and offers a hotfix here, though you could also just set a desktop wallpaper of your own. We've got tons of great suggestions for you, or if you're really set on the whole solid-color thing, you could just create a single-color image with your image editor of choice and tile it as your wallpaper. "


Yes I had a solid BLACK background....
Man..... so I changed my solid color background to a JPG and wala it works.....

I can't not believe this.....now I am going to install my SSD back.....

CRAZY

(2012-04-15 18:53)Beer40oz Wrote:  I FOUND THE PROBLEM! Why XBMC will freeze at boot and why it loads so slow..... so I took out my SSD and installed my HDD..... and guess what same old thing again!
Took the HDD so long to load and also when XBMC started it will freeze.

"If you're the type to prefer a seriously minimal desktop—so much so that you choose a solid-color desktop over setting a custom wallpaper—you may be wondering why-oh-why Windows 7 takes so long to boot your machine. Turns out a bug in Win7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 causes a 30-second delay at login. Microsoft discusses the problem, potential solutions, and offers a hotfix here, though you could also just set a desktop wallpaper of your own. We've got tons of great suggestions for you, or if you're really set on the whole solid-color thing, you could just create a single-color image with your image editor of choice and tile it as your wallpaper. "


Yes I had a solid BLACK background....
Man..... so I changed my solid color background to a JPG and wala it works.....

I can't not believe this.....now I am going to install my SSD back.....

CRAZY

+1

I tweaked the BIOS to switch the drive to AHCI mode, as well as the registry in windows ( per your and eskro's advice ).

At this point, I was booting in about 50s.

Changed the background from solid black to jpg.

Now, my htpc boots in about 20s.

Thank you so much Beer40oz and eskro for your help!