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Ultimate SFF HTPC?

E

Exocet956

[H]ard|Gawd
Joined
Jan 25, 2001
Messages
1,387
I got a email from computergeeks saying this http://www.geeks.com/details.asp?invtid=ZPC-64&cpc=SCH&srm=0 was on sale and at first i thought well it would be nice but i bet the integrated graphics suck. i then read the description and realized that not only does it have a agp 8x slot but it has even been certified to run even high end agp cards. I cant believed it only cost $169 :) . I have always wanted a sff pc but the smaller they get the more the video sucks. To me this looks like the perfect balance of size vs. function. a quick trip to iwills website confirms all the information they list at computer geeks. So i decided what the hell. i bought 3000+, the zpc64 barebones, and a aopen dvd +/- slim line drive for $386.96 shipped. for the cost of a shuttle or any other barebones that i could buy i get a processor, barebones, and a dvd burner. this should go well with my numerous aiw agp cards and my geforce 6200 with hd out. it should make the best htpc and portable lan box I have seen yet in any bare bones design. my only worry is the cooling solution might be loud. However i could just replace what looks to be a 70mm fan with the retail fan of the amd retail heatsink. its pretty quiet i believe.

what do you guys think? i can post a mini review after i receive the parts if you guys want.


what do you guys think? i can post a mini review after i recive the parts if you want.
 
It looks fine, though I think you could have grabbed a Shuttle or Biostar "cube" design for roughly the same price. And most of them have AGP 8X and etc.
But this seems fine to me...good luck and report back.
 
well i realize its not as expandable as a cube model but that is the price you pay for a smaller footprint. i wanted the smallest footprint but not sacrifice discrete graphics expansion capability. this is the only one in its size category that fits the bill. plus the sff cube thing is, well, quite crowded. i wanted something with more of a unique look and size.
 
Does it fit a full-sized AGP card or does it need a half-height one?
 
kirbyrj said:
Does it fit a full-sized AGP card or does it need a half-height one?
Click to expand...


it fits full size cards. on i wills site they have a list of qualified cards they even include the ti4600 and the 9800 pro. those are some fairly decent sized cards.

Here is some picture of what it looks like on the outside.



and no agp is not dead especially to those who have as many agp cards as i have ;)
 
Doesn't look too bad...oh well...I just got rid of my P4 2.8C or else I might have looked into the s478 version.
 
unfortunately the s478 version only has pci for expansion due to the onboard video. the amd one has no onboard video hence the need for an agp slot.
 
well damn i did not expect it to ship this fast. its scheduled for delivery on the 24. i guess compgeeks thoguht it was a cristmas for someone. well it is... for me ;)


I have my doubts that i will actually get it delivered by fedex on the 24th. but hey its possible. :)
 
Well I promised a mini review so here it goes:

Case: One would think that this would be difficult to work on but it’s actually quite easy. I got a lot of practice when switching video cards but more on that later. On one side of the case you have the cpu ram and optical device and the other the video card and the hard drive.

They don’t tell you this anywhere in the manual but let me give you a tip. When mounting the optical drive to the metal frame do not screw the included screws in all the way in. It might have just been my slim dvd burner but I think that is probably a issue with all slim optical drives. The optical drive has small, and I mean small, screw holes the issue is: if you screw the screws all the way in the burner cannot open and cannot close. It is possibly that the included screws are too long, or it just may be that slim optical drives have very tight internal tolerances between the tray and the metal casing. Anyhow, it took me about a hour worth of troubleshooting / mounting and dismounting the optical drive before I found the degree to which I must screw the drive in. it is not tight against the frame but it does not seem to wobble when the disc reads so I think I’m good.

The ram installation is pretty straightforward although if you have taller ram sticks there might be a clearance problem. I used to different brands of ram and both fit so I don’t think it will be much of a issue.

The cpu cooling solution is quite easy to mount/ dismount just be careful as the heat pipes and heat sinks are made of copper so it is easier to bend them.

This brings me to the other side of the case. While the left side houses the cpu, ram and optical device the right side holds the hard drive and video card. You must add some form of video card, as this barebones has no onboard video. It is actually a very innovative design in my opinion separating the components like they did.

You have a choice to make when you decide on storage. You can either mount one single 3.5 or 2 2.5-inch drive. Don’t worry; every single possible accessory is included so you don’t need to worry about there being any optional accessories not included. I chose to mount a 3.5 inch drive seeing as i could have mounted a 80 gig versus a 40 gig laptop drive both of which I had extra. you would not believe how tight of clearance there is between the drive and the top and bottom of the case. However at no point during the install did I have any problems either mounting or removing the hard drive.

this brings me to the most important part of the review. agp video i.e. the reason I bought this sff box. The ZPC64 supports agp card with a maximum size of 201x102 mm or 7.913 x 4.015 inch graphics card. Now there is side note to this. Remember when I said that you can use either a 3.5 or 2.5 inch hard drive? Well in order to use this big of a card you must use a 2.5-inch hdd or else it will not fit. Well I suppose you will ask how big of a card will a 3.5-inch hard drive allow me to use? Well I have a answer for you all though I don’t have the exact measurements I have done the research for you. My aiw 8500 128mb just barely fit with about 1 or 2 mm or so of space between the card and the drive. So if any of you happen to know the measurements of an aiw 8500 128mb you will have an exact number.

What video card am i currently using in the box you ask? Well, after much disassembly and card swapping, I was forced to fall back to my geforce 6200. My fan was dying on my 8500 and I had screwed a 40mm fan to the heat sink to use for cooling. While the card still fit in the barebones it did not give enough clearance to the fan to let it spin properly. This means, that single slot cooling is the only kind that will fit in this sff box. While, the geforce 6200 has a larger frame buffer and HD video out it lacks the TV tuner and gaming prowess of my 8500. I was hoping to use the 8500 but I can seem to find a fan that will fit the old style hsf with the fan mounted in the heat sink. On a side note, if any one here has a dead car or knows where I can get a fan that will fit this card that would really help me out and no, I don’t think I have the nerve to try to remove the hsf that is epoxied on there to replace with another.


Bios: the bios is well layed out in typical award bios fashion. it is strange that you have literally no cpu options but have memory timings, and there some settings that I have no frigging clue what they do. Overall, pretty ho hum, but after is initially looked at it and set some settings, I have yet to go back into it.

Noise. It has a rather loud initial fan noise but as the fan control kicks in it is virtually silent. I have yet to hear the fans spin into the second setting in windows. I cannot believe that how quiet this cooling system is. The loudest thing in the entire case is the hdd when the computer is on. You can customize the fan control temperature; I think it is set to 55c before it kicks it up a level. This shows how effective the cooling solution is. it idles at 32-36c and maxes out around 45-48c.

Audio: it has the common alc655 realtek codec capable of doing 6-channel sound. It sounds fine to my ears but I’m no audiophile. I have noticed a quirk that kind of irks me. i use four channel mode for movies when I have it hooked to my 36inch TV. The front channel is hooked to the TV and the rear channel is hooked to some pc speakers. The issue is, that while movies have sound on all four speakers, mp3's do not. I’m used to my sb lives putting sound out on all four speakers regardless of whether they are movies or mp3's. I don’t think this is a driver issue as I tried multiple driver revisions and the issue is still there. I have also notice a slight hum coming from the speakers on the TV that is hooked to the front channel. But, from what I understand, this is quite common to onboard sound so it really isn’t that much of an issue. However, interestingly enough, when I hook the rear speakers to the front headphone jack I can get mp3's and movies both playing from the front and rear speakers.
 
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