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Silverstone SG01 Evolution Build

U

unixadm

Gawd
Joined
Jun 13, 2002
Messages
560
Well I decided to drop $1500 on a new SFF system to complement the system in my signature. I've been trying to use one computer for media center, Vmware, etc - but it's just not working out. Some bugs in Vista X64 and XP64 prevent me from running more than 2gb of memory and still have a TV Tuner function.

So with that said I decided to purchase my parts tonight from Newegg. I may not have gotten the best deal on everything, but it's all coming from one place. Here's what I ordered for my HTPC:

Case: Silverstone SG01-B Non-Windowed
Memory: 2x1gb Crucial Ballistix PC-8500 1066 Tracers /w Rebates and free 2gb Flash Drive
CPU: Intel C2D E6420
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-G33M-DS2R
PSU: Corsair 620HX Modular
Video Card: MSI 8600GTS-OC HDCP
HSF: Silverstone NT06
Hard Drives: 2 x Seagate 7200.10 320gb
Keyboard / Mouse: Logitech Cordless Desktop S510
Tuner: Hauppauge PVR-150 (HVR-1600 in main system, will swap later)
HD-DVD: Xbox 360 HD-DVD Player (Will use on PC and Xbox 360)
Cooling: 3 x Silverstone 80mm Fans, 1 x Variable Speed Slot Cooler

I should have the parts early next week and I'll post some pictures after it's built. The Tracers and PSU were not my first choice. I had the cheaper Ballistix 1066 memory kit in there that's really dirt cheap after rebate but it went OOS. Newegg also does not carry the short cable version of the ST50-Plus, so I went with the modular Corsair as it would work in a full size case should I ditch the SFF some day. I have a few rebates to deal with too. Hopefully it turns out to a nice system. I will most likely run Ubuntu with MythTV in dual boot with XP64. My goal is cool and quiet.
 
Interesting strategy posting *after* buying rather than before. As far as I have seen, buying expensive ram gives you your worst bang for the buck. The performance difference between the best overclocked versus the very, very slowest is a few percent--if that on Core 2 Duo systems. These days if you are paying more than $30/gig, you are paying too much. Use the extra money to get higher performing parts that will make a bigger difference.
 
Interesting build ... and somewhat similar to mine.

Just a note ... I actually bought the same disk(s) as you "Seagate 7200.10 320GB" but ended up exchanging it because the excessive noise it produced. I have read this is very dependent on the factory / country that it is produced in. Anyway, I replaced it with the newer Western Digital 320GB AAKS at the same price. No real noticable performance difference ... but cooler and much quieter.
 
jadeite said:
Interesting strategy posting *after* buying rather than before. As far as I have seen, buying expensive ram gives you your worst bang for the buck. The performance difference between the best overclocked versus the very, very slowest is a few percent--if that on Core 2 Duo systems. These days if you are paying more than $30/gig, you are paying too much. Use the extra money to get higher performing parts that will make a bigger difference.
Click to expand...

I posted a couple of weeks ago with what I was planning to buy and now followed up with the final configuration. I changed a few things based on some recent findings or parts availability. For example on the Gigabyte GA-G33M-DS2R motherboard, it lacks a 1:1 ratio (stupid). That means the PC-6400 memory I already had wouldn't suit it best if I were raising the FSB much. So that's why I went with 1066 memory. If the board supported 1:1, then I would have went with less expensive memory. Even so, factoring in the rebate and 2gb flash drive, I'm only paying a bit over $110 for these. Since I didn't really want to deal with experimenting with memory trying to reach higher speeds, I bought a higher binned set of sticks which were rated for the task. Not something I always do, but then again I don't want to be screwing around with this thing and having to swap parts after the fact.

adixon said:
Interesting build ... and somewhat similar to mine.

Just a note ... I actually bought the same disk(s) as you "Seagate 7200.10 320GB" but ended up exchanging it because the excessive noise it produced. I have read this is very dependent on the factory / country that it is produced in. Anyway, I replaced it with the newer Western Digital 320GB AAKS at the same price. No real noticable performance difference ... but cooler and much quieter.
Click to expand...

I already have the disks from when I did the raid upgrade on my main system. While they do make some noise, they are not noisy to me by any means. I guess I came from the days where full size 5-1/4" Seagates and 3-1/2" Connors would rattle your teeth out. So most everything seems really quiet to me. In my main system I run 8 Seagate 750gb drives, and it's really pretty quiet. If I was going to buy disks for this, I most likely would have went with two 500gb Samsung Spinpoints.
 
I built the system and it's running nicely. However one issue I ran into is the Corsair HX620 power supply does not really spin up the fan. I mean the power supply was quite hot to the touch, the CPU was running at about 65C at full load (2.8ghz, 1.25v load) and it was just spinning slowly away. I did some mods and right now I'm at 3.2ghz, 400fsb, 1.35v load, 1000mhz DDR and temps around 57C with an increase of 400mhz and .1v over the previous measurement. So it's certainly an improvement as I'm sure I'd be at 70C or more, read below to see what I did.

I opened up the Corsair power supply and replaced the fan with a S-Flex 64CFM. The stock fan isn't a bad one, rated at .37A. However it would appear the controls within the PSU are geared towards it being dead silent. With the S-Flex at full speed, it's hardly audible. I ran the three wire harness out of the power supply through the fan opening (very easy and does not crush the wires), and it now plugs into the CPU header. I then took a quiet 80mm Silverstone fan and zip tied it under the NT-06 heatsink. I'm going to investigate installing a 120mm fan reversed to blow through the heatsink from the bottom side. The fan bracket looks like you may be able to reverse it and a fan may just clear the parallel port. It has just enough room under the heatsink to clear a 25mm thick fan. So for now the 80mm is just zip tied under there pushing air through the heatsink and also drawing some air over the board and lower anodized heatsink that the heat pipes connect into. These two mods dropped my load temps by over 10C and the PSU is much cooler. Total mod time was 15 minutes and both can easily be undone in the same amount of time.

I have a couple of pictures posted here: http://www.dmwtech.com/gallery2/v/misc/sg01e/
 
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