Lian Li PC-Q09B Sandy Bridge HTPC build

Show off your quiet rig.

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Gramkow
Posts: 35
Joined: Tue Dec 06, 2005 11:46 pm
Location: Denmark

Lian Li PC-Q09B Sandy Bridge HTPC build

Post by Gramkow » Wed Oct 05, 2011 12:44 pm

Finally found a little time to gather my notes on this build. This is a small box intended to sit (preferably quietly) on a shelf doing HTPC duty.

TV tuners and file storage is accessed over the network, so add-in cards and lots of disks are not needed.

Components used:

Lian Li PC-Q09B case: Small, unobtrusive. Comes with an external 110W power brick. Layout is quite unusual, but makes for a pretty easy build.
http://www.caseking.de/shop/catalog/Geh ... anguage=en

Asus P8H67-I Deluxe motherboard: Reviewed on this fine site. Originally got this to build a Mini-ITX gaming machine, but got fed up fighting heat and noise. Really nice board with all the onboard stuff you'd ever need. That's also the reason the board is sporting 8 gigs of memory - I would normally never put that much into an HTPC.

Intel Core i3-2100 Sandy Bridge CPU - didn't bother with the low power version. Plenty of horsepower for what it will be doing.

Scythe Kozuti CPU cooler: Low height required in order to fit in the case - good replacement for the stock Intel i3 HSF.

2 x 4GB Corsair DDR3-1333Mhz: 8GB is overkill for an HTPC, sure ... but since I had it, why not use it :)

Seagate Momentus XT 250GB 2.5" hard drive: Case only fits a single 2.5" drive, and I would like a decent lump of storage - and this is decently quiet as well

Sony Optiarc BC-5500H Blu-Ray reader / DVD burner - would have liked the slot-in version, but it wasn't in stock at the time.

The 80mm exhaust fan was replaced with a Scythe S-Flex SFF80B (max 1500RPM)

Pictures:

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Everything in, top lid off

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Top shot - not too cramped actually

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Scythe Kozuti blocking the expansion slot

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Rear view

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Bottom view

The box is nice and quiet, and plenty fast - power LED is obnoxiously bright, but that's to be expected. Will post power draw figures later on when I get them measured.

/ Gramkow

Arbutus
Posts: 234
Joined: Wed Jun 02, 2010 9:15 pm
Location: Calgary, Alberta, Canada

Re: Lian Li PC-Q09B Sandy Bridge HTPC build

Post by Arbutus » Wed Oct 05, 2011 2:34 pm

A W E S O M E

I am VERY interested in hearing more.

Gramkow
Posts: 35
Joined: Tue Dec 06, 2005 11:46 pm
Location: Denmark

Re: Lian Li PC-Q09B Sandy Bridge HTPC build

Post by Gramkow » Mon Nov 14, 2011 1:24 pm

A couple of extra pictures - apologize for the poor quality.

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With a soda can for size comparison

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Another exterior shot

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Took a look at some of the pictures and realized that I'd positioned the heatsink so that it actually blocked airflow instead of allowing it to flow through the fins. Rotated it 90 degress, so that's sorted now :)

Took some power measurements today as well. Sitting idle on the Windows desktop, it uses 33-35 watts. Blu-Ray playback and testing using the "Elephant's Dream" 1080p WMV file from Microsoft both use 43-45 watts. Idle power consumption would suggest that the power brick for the PC-Q09 isn't very efficient.

All in all, I am really pleased with the box. Compared to the Atom D510 / Ion setup I have, this system is way more responsive. Especially starting Blu-Ray playback is much, much snappier than on the Atom box... time to upgrade, methinks.

CA_Steve
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Location: St. Louis, MO

Re: Lian Li PC-Q09B Sandy Bridge HTPC build

Post by CA_Steve » Mon Nov 14, 2011 6:59 pm

Pretty build.

30+W idle is high.

Scrooge
Posts: 206
Joined: Tue Oct 17, 2006 4:46 am

Re: Lian Li PC-Q09B Sandy Bridge HTPC build

Post by Scrooge » Mon Nov 14, 2011 7:20 pm

Nice build! Now I'm not the only person I've seen use a Kozuti in an HTPC, though yours is much smaller than mine!

Gramkow
Posts: 35
Joined: Tue Dec 06, 2005 11:46 pm
Location: Denmark

Re: Lian Li PC-Q09B Sandy Bridge HTPC build

Post by Gramkow » Tue Nov 15, 2011 12:28 pm

CA_Steve wrote:30+W idle is high.
I agree completely, and suspect that my cheap and nasty power meter is at least partly to blame ... Anyhow, a new (far more expensive) power meter is on order (which can measure down to 0,2W load), so we'll see if that agrees with the old one :-)

As for the power brick, I have a spare of those from a Lian Li hard drive enclosure, so if the numbers are still looking odd when I get them measured with the new power meter, I might try to take a sanity check reading with the other power brick.

Will post when I have some news ... busy moving my home server into its new home (PC-Q25 enclosure) - that is one sweet case to work in :D

/ Gramkow

Gramkow
Posts: 35
Joined: Tue Dec 06, 2005 11:46 pm
Location: Denmark

Re: Lian Li PC-Q09B Sandy Bridge HTPC build

Post by Gramkow » Thu Nov 17, 2011 2:19 pm

Okay, was able to retest with a new (German built, expensive) power meter. It would appear that the power brick supplied with the PC-Q09 is just not very good :(

In 'off' state, the box draws between 1,5 and 2,5 watts. That's quite a lot in my book. The machine idles at around 32-36 watts (Windows desktop, not doing anything).

I did test with the (identical) spare power brick I had lying around - same result. It is equally inefficient. But at least they are consistent :D

/ Gramkow

CA_Steve
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Re: Lian Li PC-Q09B Sandy Bridge HTPC build

Post by CA_Steve » Thu Nov 17, 2011 3:07 pm

..it could be the internal DC-DC supply that sucks, too.

Gramkow
Posts: 35
Joined: Tue Dec 06, 2005 11:46 pm
Location: Denmark

Re: Lian Li PC-Q09B Sandy Bridge HTPC build

Post by Gramkow » Fri Nov 18, 2011 1:16 am

CA_Steve wrote:..it could be the internal DC-DC supply that sucks, too.
Spot on. Tried testing the brick on its own (not connected to the PC) - less than 0,2 watts in standby. So it's the internal DC-DC that's sucking power.

Might look at switching that around - perhaps fit a PicoPSU ?

/ Gramkow

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