Silent HTPC 2011 | E-350 APU

I am building a new HTPC. Thoughts?

Design Targets

Zero Noise < 10Db | Fanless

A/V Component Form Factor

Low Boot Time

1080P+ HD Video | 7.1 BitStream Audio | Multi-Display | USB 3.0 & GigE | Personal & Online Cloud-Based Entertainment

High 100% Passive Performance

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CPU: AMD APU E-350 "Zacate"

Motherboard: TBD

SSD: 2 Corsair F40 RAID 0

http://www.ocmodshop.com/images/revi...air_f40_11.jpg
DRAM: Corsair Dominator GT 4GB

GPU: Gigabyte SilentCell 5770 [Worried About Case Clearance]

http://xtreview.com/images/Gigabyte%...20cell%201.jpg

Case: Silverstone Grandia

http://images.highspeedbackbone.net/...-1190-main.jpg

Power Supply: Seasonic X400 Review
http://images.bit-tech.net/content_i...fanless04s.jpg

but Corsair Dominator GT come with fans? lol that's not fanless

if the case had an open top...it would work ok..."fanless"

default fans are kinda loud..

replace sst fans with these:

http://www.performance-pcs.com/catal...ducts_id=25494

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Hondacity

if the case had an open top...it would work ok..."fanless"

default fans are kinda loud..

replace sst fans with these:

http://www.performance-pcs.com/catal...ducts_id=25494

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I will remove the fans; I don't think I wll need them.

The platform will produce little heat, it's the GPU we have to worry about and the case has very good venting & flow.

That is why I am building it...to see if it works sans fans.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by demonkevy666

but Corsair Dominator GT come with fans? lol that's not fanless

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They do, obviously I am not going to use them.

Why get 2 40GB SSD? They only populate half the channels of the SSD controller, so getting a 80, 90, 100, or 120 GB ssd will be about twice as fast in sequential file read/writes, negating the need for two lower end SSD in RAID 0...?

EDIT: I'm wrong. This only applies to Intel V series SSD, not Sandforce.

Uhhhh.... nvm, I'm wrong about the SSD.

I'm not a big fan of ASUS, but this board looks quite nice:

http://www.fudzilla.com/images/stori...usionboard.jpg

Good luck with the project. :)

looking forward to the end result :)

Will you have another drive to compliment the raid array? 40GB is not a lot for a HTPC...especially if you end up storing recorded shows, movies, or music. Only problem with that is finding a quiet drive.

Everything else looks good. Zacate is a low power beast.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by zalbard

I'm not a big fan of ASUS, but this board looks quite nice:

http://www.fudzilla.com/images/stori...usionboard.jpg

Good luck with the project. :)

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when is this coming out?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Hondacity

when is this coming out?

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http://www.fudzilla.com/motherboard/...sted-in-europe
Already listed in EU, not sure when it's going to be available. Soon, I suppose.

my opinions

change the case or the video card, the top of the gpu WILL hit the top of the case:
http://images.highspeedbackbone.net/...-out6-wg-p.jpg
see how the top of the PCI slots go to the very top of the case, so you have to make sure its flush all the way across (i almost wonder if a xfire bridge wouldnt fit)
as much as i like the fully silent gpu, theres a few issues. first, how can you unplug the power if thats covered by the heatsink? and second, that might be too long, and third its clearly too tall, but might be able to chop that part off, keyword is might. and last, the gpu is going to be as tall as the case, which means air will only move between the holes on the side with those on the back, and since heat rises, its no where near optimal for the gpu heat to go anywhere.

add in a WD green large HDD, i hear most people say they make no noise, or find one that has great reviews for being silent.
you could also pack some foam around the drive to keep any noises from escaping, since heat is hardly an issue for low power spinning HDDs

i would go with a case that does have a fan on the top or side, a gentle typhoon at 1000rpms is close to silent, under 800 will be silent.

love the PSU, i have the 650W version and the fan turns on for 5 seconds every minute or so.

so as much as i like the initiate to go full silent, i think you need just a little airflow and proper tweaking to achieve the same noise level and much safer heat removal.

i was really thinking of picking up the same motherboard and using an old 4850 to make a short and skinny HTPC myself, although it would be with a fan or two.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by zalbard

I'm not a big fan of ASUS, but this board looks quite nice:

http://www.fudzilla.com/images/stori...usionboard.jpg

Good luck with the project. :)

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looks good and with some tweaks for OC!;)

Do you need the add-on video card? I am looking forward to how it does. Looking to upgrade a Media Center or 3.;)

yeah I want to build a mini-system around the new E-350 as well......hurrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrry

simon

when is estimated date of completion? i hope you have a digital thermometer..i wanna see the temp of the case when its been runnin 30minutes :D

this is the only amd i might consider :D

I may be building one myself soon.

Just finished cooking the PS3's PCB for the 5th time now and it works yet again :rolleyes:.

We are now baking with up to 300F, it's getting really annoying to have to tear it apart every month and bake it in an oven just to watch Blu rays.

Take off it's HS' fan XD That will help it auto-bake :p:

Do you need that 5770 with the E-350?

I would probably dump the GPU, use onboard and grab a larger ssd to aid storage rather than the 2 smaller ones. Boot times wouldn't be too far off without having to load the raid.

Sent from my very noisey HTPC, curse you seagate barracuda!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by eXa

Do you need that 5770 with the E-350?

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It will depend if Zacate continues AMD's braindead removal of HD (or any passthrough) 7.1 channel audio from their IGP units. I don't know about Zacate, yet, but it also allows some gaming on the side :D

Dont bother with a GPU, just use the IGP which supports full HD support even 3d support/ Hdmi and the rest!, Zalbard the board you mentioned i dont think it fully supports 5.1 ..

You missed out the Blu-ray Drive ;)

Interesting Project you got there

I have similar plan to "downgrade" my 905e Media PC to APU too
But I will pair it with HD5570 Low Profile , and I probably go for Gigabyte E-350 ITX board :)

I have a feeling if you ever loaded that gpu it would overheat with a lack of any airflow in the case get a case fan and undervolt the :banana::banana::banana::banana: outta it

Quote:

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Originally Posted by chew*

We are now baking with up to 300F, it's getting really annoying to have to tear it apart every month and bake it in an oven just to watch Blu rays.

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bake food together with it for a movie :up:

Hey Simon,

If your interested, I'd highly recommend this drive for storage.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822152173

I've had one for ~1 yr now, it's very quiet, runs cool, cheap and has a decent amount of room... ;)

Mine's been totally reliable. Those SSD's are a nice touch, but where you gonna put your media (unless you wanna stream it all).

Just thought I'd throw it out there... :p:

found a thing that looks cool..

http://translate.google.com/translat...pulab-fit-pc3/

http://www.tgspot.co.il/wp-content/u...h-mac-mini.jpg

it'd be good enough for me

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Tomasis

found a thing that looks cool..

it'd be good enough for me

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Dude that's awesome.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by richierich

Dude that's awesome.

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+1
Nice little power package ! only usb3 and it would be perfection. Add this controller and you got perfect htpc.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by richierich

Dude that's awesome.

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i like how the case is the heatsink

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Tomasis

found a thing that looks cool..

http://translate.google.com/translat...pulab-fit-pc3/

http://www.tgspot.co.il/wp-content/u...h-mac-mini.jpg

it'd be good enough for me

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i think that should be shown in the news section, its crazy small and yet still a full PC (minus optical drive which means you can use a USB blu ray instead of being stuck with dvd?)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Tomasis

found a thing that looks cool..

http://translate.google.com/translat...pulab-fit-pc3/

http://www.tgspot.co.il/wp-content/u...h-mac-mini.jpg

it'd be good enough for me

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First time ive seen something like that :up:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by zalbard

http://www.fudzilla.com/motherboard/...sted-in-europe
Already listed in EU, not sure when it's going to be available. Soon, I suppose.

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200$ WTFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF


i like it :D

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Hondacity

200$ WTFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF


i like it :D

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153 EUR in Europe, so probably ~$175 in the US...
And it's a pre-order price, so it might drop, who knows. :yepp:

I think is to much. $120 is more reasonable. Board looks cool tho.

If they dropped board a bit this board would kill it as a HTPC, bluetooth,WIFI, 2x pcie, 18Wtdp and looks like it has some great chipset cooling!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Manicdan

i think that should be shown in the news section, its crazy small and yet still a full PC (minus optical drive which means you can use a USB blu ray instead of being stuck with dvd?)

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the problem is that it is for enterprise, not consumers, hence quite expensive..


I hope other companies produce something like this. maybe zotac?

case as heatsink, yeah! great idea.. love the compact size :shocked:

put things as external 3,5e hdd, bluray, etc. on the case and connect with e-sata, usb :up: like as lego module

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Tomasis

the problem is that it is for enterprise, not consumers, hence quite expensive..


I hope other companies produce something like this. maybe zotac?

case as heatsink, yeah! great idea.. love the compact size :shocked:

put things as external 3,5e hdd, bluray, etc. on the case and connect with e-sata, usb :up: like as lego module

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i didnt see a price for it at all, and the article just says price not published

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Manicdan

i didnt see a price for it at all, and the article just says price not published

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I should be more clear that I didnt state price as fact :D

but its good idea to look at PC2 price (older)

since it is customized unit for enterprise, they could charge double or triple price :p:

lets hope it is cheap enough.. who knows

I'm waiting on these boards to arrive myself...

Want to put a demo and HTPC build together within this case:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811121114 $60
Running Ubuntu (free)
E-350 motherboard (hopefully less than $150)
250GB WD AV Drive $35
Slim DVD Burner $25
4GB DDR3-1066 $35

Projected price being $325 Ubuntu, $460 with Windows 7 Professional 64-bit installed

Quote:

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Originally Posted by BeepBeep2

I'm waiting on these boards to arrive myself...

Want to put a demo and HTPC build together within this case:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811121114 $60
Running Ubuntu (free)
E-350 motherboard (hopefully less than $150)
250GB WD AV Drive $35
Slim DVD Burner $25
4GB DDR3-1066 $35

Projected price being $325 Ubuntu, $460 with Windows 7 Professional 64-bit installed

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Nice beepbeep, would be even cheaper with 2gb ram :O ...im still waiting for llano for a htpc though..

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Johnny87au

Nice beepbeep, would be even cheaper with 2gb ram :O ...im still waiting for llano for a htpc though..

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...and thats 4GB Dual Channel. For what my school does with their thin clients, I believe running 512MB/1GB of ram would even be sufficient.

If I were to build these for my school district I'd definately stick with a single stick of 2GB ram ($20)...and I'd need to get in contact with manufacturers XD :yepp:

Say I were to personally build 120-240 of these (should be simple enough considering the PSU setup), making only $35 on each build I'd net a near instand 4 to 8k profit...and thats huge for someone like me, anyway.

I'd just have to put ram on board, put board in case, add HDD and disk drive, connect via SATA, connect PSU, close case...slap geniune Windows sticker on side and install/test the box, install windows, run through memtest, maybe 10 passes LinX and a minute of furmark and that machine is done. ...heck I could teach a 10 year old to do that.

definately, 1gb/2gb is what i'd go..25w max? :D

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Johnny87au

definately, 1gb/2gb is what i'd go..25w max? :D

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They would be really nice efficient, compact full machines, wouldn't they?

It's something I wouldn't mind running Photoshop on in Photography actually, and they should most definately be as fast or faster CPU wise as our 2.8 Ghz P4 HT builds, without the headaches of thin clients... :ROTF:

If only my school district were not so retarded....:down: They bought I believe about 1000 HP T5710 Thin Clients back in '08...

TWO FREE USB PORTS...AND THEY DONT FUNCTION AT ALL :ROTF:

You get your little HP mouse, your HP keyboard, and your crappy 17 inch HP screen connects via VGA, with lots of lines and analog artifacts because either the thin client's signal is weak or your cable is trash.

lol i think the teachers "head of IT" really needs to tune into these forums, Its another ball game to them lol... Yeah i'd imagine them being a pretty hand computer, light on the sources and is good enough for browsing the web, Definately better then a Intel P4 :D

Pix in the AM.

Laser cutting required.

I'd really like to see some pics of this little beauty Simon.

Any clue when these Zacate boards will be available for us mear mortals... ;)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Daveburt714

I'd really like to see some pics of this little beauty Simon.

Any clue when these Zacate boards will be available for us mear mortals... ;)

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February buddy ;)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by jeremyshaw

It will depend if Zacate continues AMD's braindead removal of HD (or any passthrough) 7.1 channel audio from their IGP units. I don't know about Zacate, yet, but it also allows some gaming on the side :D

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Removal of HD audio from IGP? Where did they remove audio from the IGP? I've got a 785G board here that has it, as well as an 890GX board that has it. Did some newer IGP (aside from this one, which appears to have it) without HD audio come out?

--Matt

hump