Trip's HTPC in progress

Show off your quiet rig.

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Trip
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Trip's HTPC in progress

Post by Trip » Mon Oct 27, 2003 11:48 am

*Will update soon* - I have a new computer :o

Coolermaster 600-VX1 8) (Temporarily in an Antec Sonata)

Via C3M266-L (No 1394)
933 PIII (24.5W) Coppermine (21oC, 34oC CPU Burn)
Thermalright 800(A) and Arctic Silver 5
80mm PAPST 8412 NGLE
512MB Muskin

Seasonic SS 400 w/ L1A
Seagate V 60 Gig (in NoVibes III)
DVD player - NEC 5700A
CD copier - Sony CRX140E

60mm ADDA AD0612LB-A73GL ~5V exhaust
Using EAR fan isolators

Sapphire Radeon 9000 PCI
Sound Blaster Live! Value

15" Dell/Philips 1501FP flat screen monitor
Coolermaster aluminum keyboard (USB)
Aluminum Mouse (USB)
Smartdisk 2X external floppy drive (USB)
Westell Wirespeed external DSL modem (Network Connection)

Win 98SE
Office 2000

Every screw (Case and M3) that holds a component is a thumbscrew! The case is held together by reg. screws...

This computer continues to grow quieter, the ADDA fans are very good.

Future Upgrades:
Plextor DVD/CD
Dampening
Sorbothane
Clip Exhaust Grill
Locate more tiny case screws

3DMark2001SE
Last edited by Trip on Sun Aug 27, 2006 11:39 pm, edited 23 times in total.

PhilgB
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Post by PhilgB » Mon Oct 27, 2003 5:02 pm

Ok, do you have the standoffs screwed into the the case where the motherboard goes? That would cause the motherboard to be lower than the back plate. They screw into the case, then the motherboard screws into the standoffs.

Trip
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Post by Trip » Mon Oct 27, 2003 5:42 pm

standoff screws?

I think it could be Windows standby or the generic RAM I'm using.

EDIT: No one wants to read all that :wink: .
Last edited by Trip on Sat Jan 24, 2004 2:49 pm, edited 1 time in total.

PhilgB
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Post by PhilgB » Mon Oct 27, 2003 7:16 pm

They usually look like this:
Image

But some cheaper ones come with plastic standoffs:
Image

Cant stand those.

Trip
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Post by Trip » Mon Oct 27, 2003 10:36 pm

thanks man, I'm gonna look around for those. May actually go for the plastic ones if I can't find aluminum (if I need to order them) My case is aluminum and I don't want to ruin the screw holes. Or I dunno, screwing screws into plastic would be annoying. Dunno, too tired.

EDIT: I'm retarded, actually the whole case is Aluminum EXCEPT for the screw holes for the standoff screws.
Last edited by Trip on Thu Oct 30, 2003 8:35 am, edited 1 time in total.

PhilgB
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Post by PhilgB » Tue Oct 28, 2003 5:13 am

Your motherboard tray might not have holes for those plastic ones and you dont screw screws into them. They just clip through the holes in your motherboard.

I very much prefer the metal standoffs and I doubt anyone has ruined any screw holes with them.

These standoffs are plastic, screw into the same holes as the metal standoffs, and clip into the holes the same way.
Image

Trip
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Post by Trip » Tue Oct 28, 2003 3:43 pm

Thanks Phil, all aluminum case screwholes like mine are easily damaged, but I'll just be careful. It's worth the risk, this thing looks great!

CoolGav
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Post by CoolGav » Wed Oct 29, 2003 3:43 am

I've had some like this:

Image

Which slot into the case and you then screw the motherboard into them.

PhilgB
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Post by PhilgB » Wed Oct 29, 2003 4:51 am

Those are nice too. I actually used a couple to hold down some wires on the reverse side of the motherboard tray.

MGP
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Post by MGP » Wed Oct 29, 2003 8:59 am

Trip: Any pictures for this in-progress HTPC?

Trip
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Post by Trip » Thu Oct 30, 2003 8:31 am

CoolGav, I may end up looking for some like that - they stick to the case instead of screwing in?

PhilgB, sounds like a good idea.

MGP, i'll put some pictures up this weekend or so.


Think I figured out why it was freezing up, not enough airflow. Put two of the case fans back in and it runs fine. I need to get 3 Panaflo 60mm L1A or 3 ADDA 60mm quiet fans. Thought about 80mm with a 60mm converter but I heard that creates noise by turbulence... Coolermaster put in 60mm b/c of the weird design of the case, but I think they could have extended the body of it and put in 80mm. Would use Zalman Fanmate with whatever fan I ended up with.

Nicest Coolermaster left: http://www.sundialmicro.com/cgi-bin/sun ... 30b21.html

ATC-600-VX1 is sold out, collectors item now. 8)

Trip
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Standoff-ful Case

Post by Trip » Fri Oct 31, 2003 2:54 am

Found the standoff screws. Put them in. I think I was very lucky with my standoff-less case. Nothing appears to have been damaged! There are plastic connectors at the bottom of the mobo that held it up from the metal case. Knocked all three case fans off in the process (they are in with earplugs right now). Put them back on.

installed some PCI cards:

Modem - for backup

Dual IDE port card - so that each optical drive can run on its own channel. This way I should be able to copy CDs and play a DVD at the same time with minimal skipping.


Speedfan causes the computer to freeze now, it doesn't handle the Dual IDE card well I don't believe.
Last edited by Trip on Tue Nov 04, 2003 3:38 am, edited 1 time in total.

Jan Kivar
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Post by Jan Kivar » Sat Nov 01, 2003 9:46 am

CoolGav wrote:I've had some like this:

Image

Which slot into the case and you then screw the motherboard into them.
A word of warning if a case has these standoffs installed:

BE SURE TO REMOVE ALL UNNECESSARY ONES!!

My friend fried two memory slots as he installed the board without removing some of the standoffs... It didn't boot at all while the board was in the case, and then later on when he added memory he found out that the two middle slots were unfunctional.

Cheers,

Jan

Trip
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Post by Trip » Tue Jan 13, 2004 3:35 am

my 12cm Papst no longer clicks and I've been able to quiet my computer down to where I can no longer tell if it's on! wow, I had no idea a computer could be this quiet.

Everything is resting in a Sonata case at the moment and I swapped out the old PSU fan for an L1A. I can't feel any air coming from it so I may replace it with an M1A. Even so, it's louder than the 12cm Papst. I may open the back PSU vent like Mike C did with his modded PSUs.

EDIT: I'm having some problems with the mobo - so I'm not certain which case allows for a quieter system. I was just about to clip the exhaust grill, section off the PSU from the mobo w/ foam, install some insulation and sorbothane, etc. when the system shut down. It first appeared to be the HDD but now looks like the mobo...

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