[audio.addicted]

Hi guys,

I started to assamble my HTPC and facing the first problem:
The USB 3.0 Header of the Mainboard is just below the Heatpipes Has somebody a good idea?
http://extreme.pcgameshardware.de/attach...cf3279.jpg

Best Regards,
Robert

[binwiederda]

Streacom HT4 Riser adapter should do the trick :-)

[audio.addicted]

Mybe it will help, or I just use USB 2.0 for the front ports.

Do you think the cooling will be affected by the HT4?

[binwiederda]

Honestly, I don't know. You can write Streacom, they answer very quickly.
But I can't imagine it will affect the cooling.

[audio.addicted]

I made a descision today based on this review: http://www.overclock.net/t/1314135/build...ed-hd-7750#: Changing to ASRock Z77E-ITX, because it's layout is much more suitable in combination with FC8 Evo.

My advise: Stay away from ASRock H77M-ITX if you need front USB 3.0 / 2.0 (if you don't need IRRC), also the placement of the PSU very close to the side is not an advantage.

[LJ50]

Thanks, LJ50 for the detailed description. That was very helpful! And audio.addiction, for the image!
I'm planning a very similar build, but with the Streacom FC10 and a few more disks. Here's the thread.

LJ50, do you have exact numbers in terms of wattage? Idle/load?
And: What made you choose the i3-3225 instead of the i3-3220T?

Merry Chistmas everyone!

Apologies, I've been on holiday and just returned.

At Idle the wattage has been ridiculously low. I haven't had chance to do much obviously, having been away, but it's idling at 7-9W from memory. When I loaded the CPU up it was reaching around 43W I think. I am not 100% sure it's that's the correct figure, but whatever it was it is well, well under the PSU I bought.

I went for the i3-3225 mainly because I was assured that it would still run cool and low-powered, and the additional cost was quite small for the additional generation of GPU. I doubt it'll make any difference to my experience, but as I said, the price difference was very small and I saw it as a bit of additional future-proofing.

---

ODD: Sony BD-5850H

are you sure the button aligns with the case button?

I see the replies below, and the posters are right, the EVO model is supposed to make any slimline drive fit.

What I would say is that getting the drive eject button to work is a bit fiddly. If you push the drive too far forward it doesn't seem to allow slack to let the press "through" but if you don't position is forward enough then obviously the press doesn't make contact with the button either. Streamcom's suggestion that when fitting you "listen for the click" is fairly useless with the Sony drive as the button is absolutely silent. So, took a couple of goes in powering the build up and adjusting the positon. All working great now though.

[binwiederda]

I hope you had a great vacation. Happy New Year.

Those are really great power consumption numbers. I am glad I took the i3-3225 as well. I'll assemble my build this weekend. Hopefully it'll reach similar numbers.

[LJ50]

Thanks. Happy New Year to you also.

Good luck. The Streacom box is fiddly, requires a lot more patience than any box I've ever built before, but I am genuinely delighted with the result.

Now...If only I could manage to get XBMC playing Bluray discs...

[binwiederda]

Hm. I can't imagine that the FC10 is as difficult as the FC8 Evo. It comes in one piece. All you have to do is screw in the mobo and the disks. And the processor/heatpipe setup of course... we'll see.

Bluray you say? My box will be on Linux, so I won't be having any Bluray fun at all. I bought a Bluray drive anyway. Just in case I might want to dual boot or anything...

[smudgeruk]

What temperatures are are you getting?

[binwiederda]

smudgeruk, I suppose you mean me?

--> Okay I know now what you mean with fiddly. The heatpipe stuff took a while.

The case is not fully closed yet, because I'm missing some parts (second HDD, optical drive SATA adapter, power extension), but for the tests I closed the lid.

Results:
- Idle: 26W / 40°C
- With full load on 4 cores (using cpuburn, after 5 minutes): 45W, 64°C

[smudgeruk]

Actually both.

Interestingly I am also running at 40c. I ran a prime 95 test at 100% load it took 8 minutes to reach 64c. Generally with a movie playing it will idle between 45-50c.

I'm using CPUID Hardware monitor for temps. It also has a power section which apparently I am only drawing 4w at idle, which I don't quite believe. With the Prime 95 it maxed out at 29w

I concur that the heatpipes were extremely fiddly. Was quite disappointed the heatsink and pipe unit doesn't come assembled or at least provide us with thermal paste. I used a whole artic silver 3.5g tube and and used no where near as much as what the instructions or a guide I found online (http://techsupport.perfecthometheater.co...lation.pdf) illustrated.

I can't find the T-case for the 3rd gen i3's, but would assume its in the late 60's to early 70c's

[binwiederda]

I'm assuming that the 4W idle is only the CPU, and not the whole system :-) Do you have a Kill-A-Watt or something like that to measure the entire system consumption?

[smudgeruk]

Unfortunately don't have a killawatt, but it's not going to be a lot as its a very minimal system. So much better than my desktop and no sound at all.

Just playing around with themes at the moment. But from sending the magic packet from my phone my system boots up into xbmc in 8 seconds, which is sweet

[binwiederda]

I think that 26W idle is pretty sweet. I can't imagine that yours will be much less. The i3-3220T is probably 2-3W less, and then of course the HDD that I have, probably another 3-4W. So I guess yours might be around 18-20W.