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Final HTPC Specs

M

maxse

Gawd
Joined
Apr 21, 2004
Messages
516
Well finally oredered all of my parts except the HSF. Going to try the thermalright ALX I have at home. So here are the specs please let me know what u think.

Case: Antec Aria
Mobo: Biostar M7ncg M-Atx board
Proc: AMD Mobile XP 2400 35Watt
RAM: 1G Corsair PC3200
Video: MSI Nvidia GeForce FX5700
Hard Drive: Maxtor 200 gig
Laser Drive: Lite-On DVD-Rom
Sound: Chaintech AV710

I plan to oc the proc to 2.5 ghz.
Let me know what you think of this setup.
 
Won't really be any difference with a gig of ram vs 512. Not sure of the future though so it cant hurt. The extra 512 can always be diverted into another future rig. What tv capture card will you be using? The pvr250 or pvr250mce is the sweetspot in capability and performance. Any idea on a sound card? I think you'll find the onboard kinda lacking (ac97 no soundstorm). The chaintech av710 is the perfect budget card imho.

You might have a hard time hitting 2.5ghz on a 300w psu & small case but i bet it'll be fun trying. With any luck (and a good cpu) you'll hit 2.3ghz with very low voltage. Low voltage is essential for low temps (i realize i'm preaching to the choir @ [H] ;) ) Check out some of the aria case mods floating around. Modding a 80/92mm fan into the case will help you tremendously im sure.

Otherwise it looks like you'll have a powerful htpc setup. Hope it kicks butt and have fun doing everything with it :)
 
honestly, I don't recomend OCing an HTPC. for one thing, they are not as CPU intensive until you start doing post-processing. Another thing is that OCing can intruduce sound into the system. HTPCnews has done a couple of articles on it. of course, I don't think you should ever overclock just for the sake of overclocking. If your rig is startign to show it's age, OCing can improve the performance without costing real money, but that is my only use for OCing. I prefer a to buy as much power as I can afford and work with it.
 
thanks guys. I forget to mention I bought the AV710. I will need to overclock because I want to be doing a lot of post-processing with FFDShow and the requires a fast CPU.

Do u know if I can fit a 90mm Enermax fan on top of the ALX heatsink? Thats the most difficult part I think. I cant seem to find a good HSF that will go with my mobo and the case.
 
IDversusEGO said:
Another thing is that OCing can intruduce sound into the system. HTPCnews has done a couple of articles on it.
Click to expand...

This just isn't true with modern hardware. In the old days when you overclocked pretty much anything in your system (back before multiple flexible dividers and the concept of a locked bus) you would force your video card, sound card, etc, to run at a bus speed faster or slower than it was designed for, potentially causing noise and other problems. Nowadays this really isn't an issue at all, and processors themselves are given speeds based on wafer location and yeild, not a proprietary speed they are meant to run at. I'd like to see a recent writeup on this with some real proof behind it, as I tend to hear this a lot but no one seems to know how to back it up :confused:

The big issue with overclocking in a modern HTPC is heat :( Most HTPC cases and locations are not designed with cooling in mind, and heat can definately be an issue. Also, power consumption is a legitimate concern if you plan on leaving your setup turned on several hours a day - a processor at stock voltage can draw considerably less current than one with even a mild voltage increase. The mobile CPU was a smart move both for cooling and for power usage, as long as you commit to keeping the overclock to a mild degree :p

On a related note - I backed off my OC some today too. I installed a fan speed controller for the exhaust fan and downclocked a bit (from 2.0 to 2.2) so I could drop the voltage down another couple notches. Temps are mesurably lower with the whole system nearly silent now :) I don't know what changed, but running dvd's scaled to 1440x960 with quite a bit of sharpening used to take every drop of power it has, and now back down at 2.0 it only takes around 50-60% cpu utilization to do that. I'm guessing that it wasn't as stable as I thought it was (failed prime, hence I dropped it) and the error correction was causing slowdowns, but thats all speculation.
 
SJetski71 said:
You might have a hard time hitting 2.5ghz on a 300w psu & small case but i bet it'll be fun trying. )
Click to expand...
I easily reached 2.3Ghz 200FSB with my vcore at 1.7 with my "stock" heatsink and a 300w Forton PSU and the same Mobile CPU but I don't think he can hit 2.5 with the Aria/ Aria PSU which already runs kind of hot (and loud). You'll want to mod the PSU fan with a better quieter one too.

Max, what capture card are you going to use? I have an extra 250 MCE that I could sell you if you want. You might want to cut back on memory little since 512 is more then enough for an HTPC unless your going to game with it.
 
I say cut back on the Ram and use the extra money from the 512MB and purchase something else like maybe upgrading from a DVDRom to a DVDBurner.

Also, I do not know if you want to OC up to that high of a clockspeed on the Aria. I am using an Aria case with my 2600+ and I am leaving it at stock speed with stock cooling and it is running at about 52C already. This is with some nice Shin Etsu grease. Most likely it is because of the HSF. But the Aria does run pretty loud, you will want to swap the PSU fan.

Alex
 
I would definitely consider leaving the chips at stock and then undervolting them... my Athlon XP 1800+ does everything it needs to - including using a craptastic software encoder for the TV input.
 
thanks guys. I actually want to wait for a TV Tuner card that will hardware encode MPEG-4. I think they are coming out soon. In addition, what HSF can u guys recommend for my mobo and case? It seems that I need a fan thats smaller then 25mm high.

In addition I was under the impression that the aria is pretty silent, I guess not. So which fan can u guys recommend for the PSU replacement?
 
I will concede most of the points on OCing, simply because I recognize that I am biased. To me, it is like nitrous for a car. Good gains, but dangerous if not done properly. as for the original question, if the ram was scaled back to 512, and the money saved was put into the CPU, it would be more beneficial. 512 of pc3200 form crucial is about 100 bucks. for 100 bucks, you could get a good bit more CPU power without overclocking, or get a dvd burner, or a better power supply.
 
thanks guys. I dunno I decided to keep the RAM simply because I can use it in another machine if I feel I dont need it, and because I might do some gaming so its good to have it there.

About the cooling... I cant use the Zalman because this mobo does not have the holes that the Zalman needs. Can any1 else suggest something I am kinda stressing right now because I dont know what to do.
 
yea that the HSF I have. I just need need to pick a fan that will clear the PSU. I was hoping for 90mm fan but it turns out that it doesnt support that big of a size. I think the 80mm ones will be too noisy no?

Oh by the way nice RAM link. But I already picked up 1G of Corsair PC3200 Value RAM from newegg for $156
 
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