plz suggest on refining/upgrading my htpc

[kadirmkarthik]

guys,
i have built my own htpc and have connected to my onkyo ht s3300. basically i dont know whether its a perfect htpc.its configuration is;

proccy:AMD athlon II x4 635
mobo:gigabyte 880gm-ud2h
ram: corsair 4gb 1333
gpu: xfx radeon 5770 1gb
case: cooler master elite 360
psu : corsair 450vx

now i ask you to suggest changes in the configuration to get a more efficient,cool,silent htpc. moreover i connect my gpu hdmi to htib hdmi.

i have a lg crt 29 inch tv. (LG 29FE5RGE5 Color TV - Enjoy big size entertainment with adavanced features like XDP,XDS - LG Electronics IN). i dont want to dump it right now and wanna use it to connect my htpc to it to see movies etc. it has a component in and i dont know how to set up a connection between pc and tv or pc to htib and then to tv.
plz guide me.

 

[vaibhavyagnik]

overkill...but ok!! nothing wrong with the configuration.
If you want to go cooler and more power efficient then remove the GPU from computer. Undervolt/downclock the proccy. Mind you, only do the above if you are not playing games as well

 

[Thad E Ginathom]

If you want less noise, then the big question is how are you cooling all of this?

Where is the noise mostly coming from now? Case fans? CPU fans? Graphics card fans?

If you have a stock cooler on your AMD cpu, then I's suspect that a lot of noise is coming from that: a small fan running at several thousand RPM. My stock cooler was certainly the noisiest thing in my AMD machine, built last year. It not only made high-speed motor noise, but it whined when it speeded up. Replace it with a big heatsink with big fan attached to it. The big fans run much more slowly (even 1/10th) the speed with much less noise.

You and I both should probably have bought lower-power, cooler processors --- but still there are quieter ways of cooling them.

As I only do sound and general daily stuff on my PC, I don't know about graphics cards: integrated graphics is ample for me. Mine is not an HTPC.

 

[thatguy]

proccy:AMD athlon II x4 635
mobo:gigabyte 880gm-ud2h
ram: corsair 4gb 1333
gpu: xfx radeon 5770 1gb
case: cooler master elite 360
psu : corsair 450vx

now i ask you to suggest changes in the configuration to get a more efficient,cool,silent htpc. moreover i connect my gpu hdmi to htib hdmi.

I can talk a little about the silent part. I have been researching PC noise for some time and have just built a (rather low performance) machine which is almost inaudible. I am planning to make a desktop next and am in the component buying phase.

The case:
Coolermaster cases are well build but I find them noisy. Their website doesn't even mention the dB rating of the Elite 360. I have the CM690 and while I love its design I can't sleep in the same room in which it is running. Get a quieter case. (I use Silverstone, but I have heard good things about Antec P183 and its sister models too).

Power Supply
A power supply rated at 21dB is going to sound much louder. I use Nexus and love them. Nexus 430 is rated at 15dB at low load and 20 dB at 55% load. I am using it in my machine and it is inaudible.

CPU cooler:
You didn't mention it, so I am assuming you are using a stock cooler. Throw it away and get a better one. I have bought a Zalman for my next build but there are other options too.

Graphics card:
Probably the worst offenders when it comes to noise. Since they can't fit large fans on a PCI card, they will put small high speed ones. If you want the PC to be quiet, get one with passive cooling. They are much larger, but hey, you got to give something up.

Hard disk:
You haven't mentioned it so I don't know if the hard drive is making noise. But high performance drives can be very noisy. I use Western digital green drives (WD10EARX/WD20EARX) and am quite happy. SSDs are not really an option for me because of the price, but if you can spend the money they make no sound and consume lesser power.


Things I haven't tried but am planning to in future
=====================================

Vibration reduction kits:
There are companies that sell them. I believe they are rubber grommets to absorb the vibrations.

Optical drives:
The mass market ones can be noisy. I just ordered a Plexter after reading about how quiet it is. Waiting for it to arrive.

Fan speed control:
Your fans shouldn't be running at full speed all the time. I believe some motherboards can control the fan speed depending on the internal temperature. There are other options available too (fan controllers that fit into the 5.25 inch bay). I am planning to research fan speed control when I get some time.

For more information:
================

Browse the site Quiet PC Experts - Quiet PCs and Top Silent PC Parts if you are looking for a particular component. These guys are experts in PC noise.

 

[kadirmkarthik]

overkill...but ok!! nothing wrong with the configuration.
If you want to go cooler and more power efficient then remove the GPU from computer. Undervolt/downclock the proccy. Mind you, only do the above if you are not playing games as well

ya you have told that. i wanna play games too. but moreover the integrated graphics in my mobo does not work fine when i connect both my htib and monitor.so need to compromise....:sad:

 

[kadirmkarthik]

Where is the noise mostly coming from now? Case fans? CPU fans? Graphics card fans?

i suspect to be from cpu and case fans. i have attached 2 more cooler master 120mm fans to the case. and i could sense the stock cooler fan of the proccy running at a high rpm when there is game running.

 

[kadirmkarthik]

For more information:
================

Browse the site Quiet PC Experts - Quiet PCs and Top Silent PC Parts if you are looking for a particular component. These guys are experts in PC noise.

thanks dude...

 

[vaibhavyagnik]

ya you have told that. i wanna play games too. but moreover the integrated graphics in my mobo does not work fine when i connect both my htib and monitor.so need to compromise....:sad:

what is the issue that you are facing?
As for as connection goes: Connect TV and HTPC with a VGA to Component cable. LINK
Connect HTPC to Onkyo by optical toslink/HDMI/Onboard SPDIF coaxial (you will have to buy a header).
Hope this helps.

---Edit
I think you are trying two things. One is TV-HTPC-onkyo. Other is Monitor-HTPC-onkyo. In case of TV, i have mentioned the way above, for monitor, use DVI for monitor and optical/HDMI for onkyo.

 

[Thad E Ginathom]

Here's my cooler: Hanging a Kilo off your Motherboard? It doesn't look huge in that pic, but that is a big case, and the fan size is 140mm. thatguy: that's a P183 case, the big Antec PSU is silent, but the case/PSU combination was expensive (and the PSU is non-standard, made for a subset of Antec cases).

I want to try different case fans, because I can still hear them! Also I want case fans under MB control (stock P183 fans (2) have a three-speed manual switch) and give a fan to one HDD which runs hotter than my processor!

Most motherboards should control the speed of your fans. There are a couple of different methods. Probably better to check out what connectors your MB has, and what control method it uses before buying the fan. You then need to enable the control and method (or "auto" if available: works with my Noctua cooler) in the BIOS settings.

Here's another useful link for reviews and advice: Silent PC Review

.

 

[hydra]

In the case of cabinet fans, we can either modify the molex connectors to reduce their speed by about half, or use a fan controller. Modifying the molex connectors will not let us control (increase/decrease) the fan speed on the fly, if we need to.

I use this fan controller to tame two of the 120mm fans in my cabinet. They were silent enough to start with, but then, when we want silence, 0dB is what we're looking for, right? hyeah: This controller sits in an unused PCI slot (window?) in the cabinet, and it lets me change fan speed smoothly over a reasonably wide range. So I can take it to the fastest speed (if required) in the summer, and leave it at the slowest speed the rest of the time.

A fan controller like this one doesn't cost that much, and you'll not have to change any of the existing equipment (except maybe swapping out the current case fan/s for more silent ones).

If you want to go farther (= spend more money), you can get a fanless power supply. Silverstone, Seasonic and I think Antec make good fanless PSUs. I don't know how much they cost, though. Most likely an arm, a leg and your firstborn.