My First HTPC: Antec ISK 300 & Asus AT3IONT-I
#1
UPDATE: I got the pictures taken and posted, view them here.

I have been playing around with XBMC on Windows and some experimental Live installs for about the last year, but have been holding off on building a set top box until I decided what I wanted to use for it, as well as when funds were available. Being a gamer going way back, along with my day job as a systems admin, building a box that was small, quiet, and aesthetically pleasing was a big departure for me from what I normally do (and my day job is in a call center so I don't have to make anything look pretty...).

After a ton of research and shopping, I finally built my HTPC and although there are plenty of similar threads out there, I want to share my experience... Some of the parts I used don't seem to be used by other people (I searched constantly to see if I was making the wrong decisions with something, as everyone seems to love Revo's, the new ION 2's, AT3 & 5 Deluxes, and Zotac boards).

To start, my network backbone is a wireless router going to a 1Gb switch for wired connections throughout the house (one of which goes to the wall behind the TV for XBMC, I didn't want to mess with wireless). The router serves WIFI downstairs and also is wired into a router upstairs with duplicate settings to extend the WIFI network. On the Gb switch are my fileserver (Freenas with Raid 5 array - yes this is a hotly debated subject as I know there are plenty of Unraid users out there who are happy with their setups. In my case, I have used Freenas for a few years, am comfortable with it, and am alright with a Raid 5 setup), my desktop, which has a JBOD array on it that Cobian backs up the Freenas shares to weekly, and my HTPC.

Since I was using the desktop for trying out XBMC, all I had to so was build the box:

Asus AT3IONT-I

I went with this mobo for a couple of reasons. First, it has a nice big fanless heatsink - most of the other Ion 330 mobos had tiny little fans which I expect have to run pretty fast to keep cool. The heatsink on this mob is perfect to cool using case fans. The other reasons are I am an Asus fanboy, the Atom 330's seem to still be able to hold their own against the next-gen Ion's, and this mobo has a standard power supply connector (unlike the deluxe) which was fine since the case I was using came with its own.

A pair of 1-Gig sticks of DDR3 1066 - Self explanatory, everyone seemed to agree that 2 GB was fine for a Live install that wasn't doing that much more than serving out video content.

Antek ISK 300-65

For the case I took a bit of a leap... No one on this forum seems to talk about this case, and only a few review sites ont he web talk about it. They have their own external brick power supplies, and go from 65 watts up. I got the 65 as I was not installing anything other than the mobo and ram in the box. What I liked about this case was the manufacturer, the look of the case, and the fact that the few review I found talked about how well it colled the mobo. When the case is laying on its left side (but this is equally effective laying on horizontal) there is an intake port at the bottom of the motherboard, and room for 2 exhaust fans at the top. This is perfect if you want to rely on some slow, quiet, case fans that do a much better (and less loud) job than a loud little CPU/chipset cooler. I ended up replacing the one included exhaust fan with 2 Coolermaster fans, each mounted inline with a Zalman fan speed controller I had leftover from CPU coolers. These are turned all the way down (the fans are getting around 5-6 volts instead of 12, and are barely breaking 1000 RPM) and they still cool the massive CPU/Chipset heatsink very well.

For the OS, I used an internal USB header to USB port that is normally used for embedded OS installs. The nice thing about the case is that the drive rack across the top is a perfect place to tie-wrap down the USB key that stores the OS, along with the 2 fan speed controllers for the exhaust fans. Also, filling the drive rack with these parts allows a more contained flow of air across the heatsink.

So far this thing has been AWESOME. It runs very cool, and it is setting next to a Cable Box / DVR whose hard drives enough sound to the point where you can't even here the XBMC fans.

For the remote, I am using a basic $15 Rosewill Media Center Remote, that does everything I need it to in Live.

I am just surprised that I have not heard about more about this case, mobo, or a combination of the 2 on this forum... I feel like in the last 3 months I checked these forums daily for either good or bad news about them. There was an occasional mention, but no widespread endorsement of either... I am really glad I took the leap though, and hope others go this route, as I have not run into any of the issues I have read about on here (Heat, fan noise, etc.)

* I hope to be able to post some pictures this weekend - have to get the camera, and the chance to open her up for some pics (kind of difficult since I haven't stopped using it since I put it together, and my fiance loves it as well).
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#2
This is EXACTLY the type of XBMC setup I want to do. I was waiting for the AT5IONT-I to see if I could run fanless, but after reading some reviews, I see that this was a bust.

My debate was between this case and the M350 with a picoPSU. The factors for me are size and cooling. I was debating between having a case with a dvd drive or not, but I assumed that with the M350, I could attach a USB drive if needed. This did not rule out the ISK-300 since it has everything needed in one box (except for the slim DVD drive).

I was reading that you could replace the stock case fans with a Noctua 80mm fan: http://www.silentpcreview.com/article959-page6.html
That should make it a bit quieter. If your other components are off, how is the noise?

I'm glad to see that you have something working nicely. Please send pics as soon as you can.
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#3
polkaroo Wrote:I was reading that you could replace the stock case fans with a Noctua 80mm fan: http://www.silentpcreview.com/article959-page6.html
That should make it a bit quieter. If your other components are off, how is the noise?

Hello, I have this case with the ion2 mobo. you can replace the stock fan with the noctua 80 ones. I have the stock fan and one noctua cooler and I really can´t hear the fans at all, not even from a very close distance. Even my gf is pretty pleased with the box...she doesn´t really like the fan noise Wink
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#4
npggefvert Wrote:I am just surprised that I have not heard about more about this case, mobo, or a combination of the 2 on this forum... I feel like in the last 3 months I checked these forums daily for either good or bad news about them. There was an occasional mention, but no widespread endorsement of either...

I think that is just because the Antec case and the Asus Mobo costs more than its Apex and Zotac equivalents.

Glad to hear it works for you, this is one of the better builds I have read about here. Pics would be a treat!

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#5
Posted pictures, see the link at the top of the post.

As for the fan questions, I replaced both the 'fan blank' and stock fan with a pair of quiet Silverstone fans, and hooked them both up to Zalman fan speed controllers that I had left over from Zalman processor fansinks.

I am still doing some testing, but right now I have them both on a lowish-medium to medium and the box puts out about the same noise level as the cable company's set top box / dvr combo next to it (all that has inside it is a hard drive from right I can tell). At that speed, the thing is completely cool, but since we have been having a freakishly warm September here in Southeastern PA and our house is not air conditioned, I would rather be on the safe side... cool components have longer lives than warm ones.

Come winter, I will probably turn them all the way down. When they are at the lowest speed, you cannot hear the fans at all. I went with the variable fan speed controllers because the room where the media center is in ranges from 60 to 100 degrees depending on the time of year.

Also, this case ducts air perfectly for a fanless MOBO / CPU heatsink. As you can see in the pictures, the intake sits at the bottom of the motherboard and the air flows over the heatsink, and out the exhaust port where the fans are. I opted for the fans exhausting because that always seems like a more effective way of cooling, but I think I might try them forcing air in over the heatsink and out the top port, to see if it makes any difference. The reason it might is due to a laminar flow effect that could be drawing air from the inlet, over the heatsink without channeling through it, and then out the fans - but this could just be me over thinking things, as it works great now...
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#6
WOW! been reading so much info on hardware... my head is going to explode. I love your setup. Might just built this same one since it looks much cheaper.

That is totally nice that you are using a USB stick inside instead of a HDD or SSD...

I might need your help on building this if you don't mind. Because I am clueless on how to install new bios updates and how do you install the new flash? how is youtube stream from xbmc?

How big is your memory stick? I have own xporter xt sticks and are pretty fast.

Good job!

I think this and my ps3 for netflix and blue ray will do good.

What do you think of this case? http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as...6811129081

And what do you think of the ASUS AT3IONT-I Deluxe? would it be the same? (just like the built in WiFi)
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#7
This is a nice setup. I do have AT3IONT-I deluxe and M350 case, and it does make a really small HTPC. I put a 32GB SSD, and the only noise is from a small fan I added on top of the heatsink, which throttle down when not needed. Playing HD, GPU get to 50~60C, so pretty cool, and fan is still pretty quiet.

This is connected to a Linux NAS with 2TB hard disk. So, keep the living room quiet, with the noisy server in another room in my apartment.

I did try XBMC very quickly last year, and settled for 7MC at the time (on SD TV, with DVD rips). This is my first HTPC, but now that I have more experience with the whole concept, I was thinking of going with XBMC Dharma. I hope that the PC is fast enough for it. I heard that XBMC now fair well with GPU hardware decoding. Especially since I just got 50" plasma, and wish to play unencrypted blu-rays. Big Grin

My requirement are:
- SD and HD (DVD/Blu-Ray rips, tv shows, ...)
- Some retro-gaming emulation (I'm already set-up with MaximusArcade and an XBOX controller).
- Some Net streaming (youtube & such)

I don't need DVR function as
1 - Already have DVR set-top box
2 - In Canada, there isn't much digital content appart from ATSC, which I don't get without outdoor antenna (out of the question for now, in appartment).
3 - I want XBMC, and it does not support live TV, but that is not a problem since I don't want live TV!

So, let's hope XBMC work smooth on the AT3IONT board. Rolleyes
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My First HTPC: Antec ISK 300 & Asus AT3IONT-I0