Zotac: MAG vs. ZBOX

Ricardo Wrote:After following the instructions your system gives you the dual boot option?

Did you set the partitions before installing xbmc live or while doing it?

GRUB recognizes the windows partition automatically and the setup routine shrinks this partition according to the space you want to reserve for XBMC

there's lots and lots of simple tutorials available in the linux subforums

I was wondering if anyone has found a box similar to the Zotac Mag specs that will take a full 5.25" drive. I currently have a HD-DVD/Blu-Ray drive that I want to use with my HTPC then I can sell both of my stand alone players. I don't want to spend much more than $350. I am will to make it external if I have to.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as...6817392031
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as...6856173001

$334.14 that is with shipping. I am wondering if that will be my best option for what I want to do. Already have a FreeNAS server with most of my stuff on it.

narnol02 Wrote:I was wondering if anyone has found a box similar to the Zotac Mag specs that will take a full 5.25"

there's a point of view box that does that but from some reading it's supposed to be noisy

I'm doing a fanless zotac NM10-DTX in a custom case.

My case is going to be mesh at the top, with 2 big heatsinks on each side. I am going to join the top of the zotac heatsink to a piece of 1/4" aluminum with thermal tape, and hope that this brings some of the heat to the side heatsinks. I'm also going to use thermal tape under the motherboard to help dissipate heat into a large 1/4" bottom plate.

I have a fanless HD5450 to help the atom out with HD stuff.

Furthermore, since the board has 6 SATA ports, I'm going to hook up 2-4 big hard drives (I have a couple 2TB's and some 500gb's) and turn it into a NAS. Going to run XBMC on WHS. The HDD's will be mounted on a custom aluminum rack designed to bring the heat to the bottom plate, while isolating the HDD's.

I got some large sheets of very nice low thermal resistance thermal silicone material - I'm counting on their ability to pull heat from the components into the aluminum structure of the case. On either side of the case will be a BIG heatsink... haven't decided yet whether to purchase these or fab them custom. Eventually, depending on my results, I may even link the VGA card to the heatsink, by putting it on a riser and fabbing an aluminum bracket for it.

The whole thing will be anodized black. On the front I am hoping to install an LCD.

vinistois Wrote:Going to run XBMC on WHS.

you sure that's possible?

Hannes The Hun Wrote:GRUB recognizes the windows partition automatically and the setup routine shrinks this partition according to the space you want to reserve for XBMC

there's lots and lots of simple tutorials available in the linux subforums

You were right, I installed XBMC Live on my HDD and it was quite easy!

Now... since I reserved about 170 gb on my HDD to store media, why can't I see that partition from XBMC live? I formatted it as FAT32 and also as NTFS with no luck. I guess I should mount it from XBMC live. Any suggestions on how to do it?

Thanks.

you have to edit some grub parameters as XBMClive by default does not automount partitions. please use the search function.

Hannes The Hun Wrote:you sure that's possible?

yeah its been confirmed by a few people here that it works. Whether DXVA works is another story... but I will try it and report back.

I just love the idea of a combined HTPC + NAS.

WHS will spin-down the drives that aren't being accessed. I've always wanted a zero-noise computer. Finally it looks like it may be possible... except for the storage HDD's.

We'll see how it goes!

vinistois Wrote:My case is going to be mesh at the top, with 2 big heatsinks on each side. I am going to join the top of the zotac heatsink to a piece of 1/4" aluminum with thermal tape, and hope that this brings some of the heat to the side heatsinks. I'm also going to use thermal tape under the motherboard to help dissipate heat into a large 1/4" bottom plate.

I'm very interested to hear how well essentially extending the CPU heatsink to a larger area works...

Maybe it might be easier to make a custom heatpipe setup to draw away the heat?

magnetik Wrote:I'm very interested to hear how well essentially extending the CPU heatsink to a larger area works...

Maybe it might be easier to make a custom heatpipe setup to draw away the heat?

Could be, I'm just gonna play around with it. Custom heatpipes aren't easy by any means - I'm going that route for a work project. It takes alot of research, design, and CNC manufacturing. I'm trying to keep the parts pretty basic, something I can just have lazer-cut, drill and tap, and put together fairly easily. I also want the case to out-last the motherboard, so I don't really want to invest too much into this particular board.

The fact is the motherboard is designed to be ran fanless, on the test bench it doesn't break 40 degrees. There is quite a bit of heat at the back of the motherboard, I feel like I can make a big difference by transferring it away here.

The thermal transfer medium I have is very high quality. I should be able to reach a C/W ratio of 1.0 or thereabouts.