Custom build, all-in-one: HTPC/1080p + RAID1 + Fanless + Linux + 30 watts + 24x7

interesting. thanks for that hint. what about the jetway board i found? any thoughts? or the other questions?

@h0ly lag - XBMC2 in my sig was running off of Ubuntu minimal 12.04 and it still had the temperamental RealTEK NIC issue so I DON'T consider it fixed. I threw an Intel NIC into after I freed one up elsewhere and haven't had a single network issue since.

Couple things I'll add to the RealTEK NIC conversation:

i) I found that the newer hardware rev of the RTL8111/RTL8168 had more issues than older hardware builds.
ii) I also did try blacklisting / forcing other drivers. It did get unit to work to, but knocked it down to 100Mbps and still wasn't 100% stable.

If RealTEK NIC's working good for some people - great. Me personally I have added it to the "it's-not-worth-my-time-if-it-can-be-avoided" category.

Any thoughts?

Option A: Jetway Build
Mainboard: Jetway NC98-525E-LF (Atom D525 + NM10 Express)
RAM: 2x Kingston 2GB 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) KVR800D2N6/2G
Power: Some AC Power Adapter 12V (no idea which)
PCIe: (none)
Disks:
- 1x SSD SSD SAMSUNG 830 Series MZ-7PC064B/WW 2.5" 64GB SATA III MLC
- 2x HDD Western Digital WD Green WD30EZRX 3TB
Case: Streacom FC10 (or maybe the HD PLEX H5.S with a 'Layout B / ext. placement' as per this post, image here)
Fans: (none)

Option B: Zotac Build
Mainboard: ZOTAC IONITX-S-E (Atom D525 + NM10 Express)
RAM: 2x Kingston 2GB 204-Pin DDR3 SO-DIMM Unbuffered DDR3 800 KVR800D3S8S6/2G
Power: (no idea yet)
PCIe: HighPoint RocketRAID 2300 PCI Express SATA II
Disks:
- 1x SSD SSD SAMSUNG 830 Series MZ-7PC064B/WW 2.5" 64GB SATA III MLC
- 2x HDD Western Digital WD Green WD30EZRX 3TB
Case: Streacom FC10 (or maybe the HD PLEX H5.S with a 'Layout B / ext. placement' as per this post, image here)
Fans: (none)

I disagree with the consensus here. I don't believe you can have "silence" with moving parts. Fanless is the way to go if you have a very quiet room, or very sensitive hearing. Fortunately most adults have terrible hearing and don't notice the difference. Don't forget that fans have ball bearings in them. Bearings are quietest at the beginning of their lifetime, and get louder and louder as they wear out.
That being said, fanless isn't that difficult as long as you give up the RAID portion of your requirements. IMO HTPC's are for displaying media, not for storing it. If you're going to throw two giant RAID1 drives in this thing, then fans aren't even your largest source of noise! Get those things out of the living room, and into a closet somewhere.

I generally agree with that idea. Keeping the data separate from the media PC makes total sense. However, whenever I decided to go with the 2-PC-option I wondered: why should I build two if I can just build one with two more disks? What's the harm?

Again to the build: Does anyone have an opinion on one of the two options?

Was browsing trying to work out which GFX card upgrade to and saw your post.

Think about the heat you will be producing idle. On the low side

3 h/ds ... 10 watts
cpu, chipset, gfx ... 20-30 watts
ps ... 85% efficient ... 6 watts

Of course if you are sitting in XBMC at the menu I would expect another 10 watts at least on the video and cpu

So idle in XBMC with Atom, NVidia, really power efficient drives, lets say 40 watts best case.
Playing video maybe 50 watts really best case.

That is a lot of heat to release using convection. You need a huge amount of surface area, heatsinks on everything or a very large case with a lot of holes in it in the right places so you create a chimney effect.

Now consider that with a "silent" fan, the hard-drives will produce far more bearing noise and harmonics amplified by the case in interesting ways ... so unless you use SSD's there is no point in heading down fanless ... the h/d's make more noise

Cheers
Steve

the first fanless versions of the nm70 boards are comming out

http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid=143433

Hi mctubster,

thank you very much for that great feedback.

(2012-12-13 09:57)mctubster Wrote:  So idle in XBMC with Atom, NVidia, really power efficient drives, lets say 40 watts best case.
Playing video maybe 50 watts really best case.

I'm hoping to achieve an average of 35watts, I haven't calculated anything yet. I'll try to set the HDDs in sleep mode when not needed, and maybe also automatically shut down the machine (and wake it up) as needed. However, I am well aware that with the requirements I have, the electricity bill is not going to be small.

(2012-12-13 09:57)mctubster Wrote:  That is a lot of heat to release using convection. You need a huge amount of surface area, heatsinks on everything or a very large case with a lot of holes in it in the right places so you create a chimney effect.

Now consider that with a "silent" fan, the hard-drives will produce far more bearing noise and harmonics amplified by the case in interesting ways ... so unless you use SSD's there is no point in heading down fanless ... the h/d's make more noise

The case I've chosen is the Streacom FC10, which -- according to the manufacturer -- can take up to 3 HDDs. So I'll try it fanless first with lots of heatpipes, and if it doesn't work buy a large Noctua 120mm fan.

What do you think about the mainboard though? Would you take the Zotac plus an SATA PCIe card or the Jetway board?

I wouldn't have an opinion on that

Jetway does send a shiver up my spine ... based on history though. They could be reformed! Adding a PCIe card could be another 5-10 watts

Good luck and let us know how you go with power consumption and cooling once you have built

In case anyone stumbles upon this through a search engine. These threads are the continuation:

- http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid=149312
- http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid=149615