Help: HTPC built for Bu-ray and RPG games.

Info & chat about quiet prebuilt, small form factor and barebones systems, people's experiences with vendors thereof, etc.

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Vicotnik
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Re: Help: HTPC built for Bu-ray and RPG games.

Post by Vicotnik » Mon Jan 13, 2014 2:26 am

Avirhel wrote:Should I change the cooler to this: THERMALTAKE FRIO EXTREME 85,90€
http://www.alientech.pt/index.php?cPath ... 3d&&page=2
For the love of god, no.

Just remove (or have the shop remove it rather) your current cooler and check the imprint in the paste. This will usually tell if the contact was poor or not. Check the cooler reviews here on SPCR and you will find pictures of this. Then clean the paste from CPU and cooler, properly reapply new fresh paste (don't have to be the very expensive kind) and remount the cooler, making sure the contact is good.

Avirhel
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Re: Help: HTPC built for Bu-ray and RPG games.

Post by Avirhel » Mon Jan 13, 2014 9:08 am

Ok. I think I will do this:

1) Maintain the THERMALRIGHT MACHO REV.A but change the thermal paste to the ARCTIC COOLING MX-4 20G- 19,95 euros
2) change all the fans to NOCTUA NF-A14 PWM 140MM 300-1500 RPM (31,45 x 5):
- 1 fan at back as exhaust;
- 2 fans at the cooler directing the air to the exhaust fan;
- 2 fans at front as intake.
3) ask them to connect all the fans to the motherboard. But there is only the CHA_FAN 1,2,3. So how do I tell them to do?
- CHA_FAN 1: 2 fans of the cooler;
- CHA_FAN 2: 2 front fans;
- CHA_FAN 3: 1 back fan.

Is this ok?

Thank you

Abula
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Re: Help: HTPC built for Bu-ray and RPG games.

Post by Abula » Mon Jan 13, 2014 9:18 am

Avirhel wrote:1) Maintain the THERMALRIGHT MACHO REV.A but change the thermal paste to the ARCTIC COOLING MX-4 20G- 19,95 euros
I think this is too expensive, the paste should be like $7 and they should do it free as they builded. Try to see if they have cheaper paste, like Artic Silver 5 or Ceramique this is very cheap and should work good as long as they apply it properly.
Avirhel wrote:2) change all the fans to NOCTUA NF-A14 PWM 140MM 300-1500 RPM (31,45 x 5):
- 1 fan at back as exhaust;
- 2 fans at the cooler directing the air to the exhaust fan;
- 2 fans at front as intake.
3) ask them to connect all the fans to the motherboard. But there is only the CHA_FAN 1,2,3. So how do I tell them to do?
- CHA_FAN 1: 2 fans of the cooler;
- CHA_FAN 2: 2 front fans;
- CHA_FAN 3: 1 back fan.
Asus motherboards only have 1 true PWM header, and its the CPU_FAN, the rest CHA_FAN 1,2,3 are voltage controlled headers so if you want to change all fans, personally i don't recommend to do it so fast as its a ton of money, and you might or not see a dramatic drop in temps, i would go baby steps and one thing at the time, start with the heatsink repaste, and see how are the temps, even test in the shop and see how it goes, if after you feel you need more air, and you want to connect them all to motherboard to be controlled with FanXpert2, you will need to use a couple of splitters (Y 3pin) and do not buy PWM fans meaning NF-A14 PWM to be used on CHA_FAN headers, get the NF-A14 FLX or ULN versions of the fans. But still i think that 3 or 4 fan should be enough, even the ones you have should be good enough at 12V to tame the CPU, so do the paste first and see from there how it goes, remember more fans will mean more noise, unless you can drive them to inaudible levels, so not always more fans will end up into a better setup.

Avirhel
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Re: Help: HTPC built for Bu-ray and RPG games.

Post by Avirhel » Mon Jan 13, 2014 10:58 am

They have these thermal paste: http://www.alientech.pt/index.php?cPath ... =1&sort=3d what you suggest?

So thinking more reasonable. The case fans were not correctly controlled, so probably I should do that and maintain the fans for now and see how they react.

Concerning the CPU cooler I will maintain the same and change the thermal paste then. But can I improve the performance by changing the fan? At 1200 rpm is very noisy I was thinking in adding 2 NOCTUA NF-A14 PWM 140MM 300-1500 RPM to the cooler. In that way both work at the same time and don't need to go for the 1200 noisy rpm. But if the mobo only have 1 CPU-FAN place, how is this possible?

thank you

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Re: Help: HTPC built for Bu-ray and RPG games.

Post by Abula » Mon Jan 13, 2014 11:17 am

Avirhel wrote:They have these thermal paste: http://www.alientech.pt/index.php?cPath ... =1&sort=3d what you suggest?
Same just the smaller version, ARCTIC COOLING MX-4 4G 6,50€
Avirhel wrote:Concerning the CPU cooler I will maintain the same and change the thermal paste then. But can I improve the performance by changing the fan? At 1200 rpm is very noisy I was thinking in adding 2 NOCTUA NF-A14 PWM 140MM 300-1500 RPM to the cooler. In that way both work at the same time and don't need to go for the 1200 noisy rpm. But if the mobo only have 1 CPU-FAN place, how is this possible?
Two fans on the HR02 will help cool it down some, you can read on the SPCR review into how much of an improvement you can expect with dual fans, check Thermalright HR-02 Macho Quiet/Fanless Cooler (check the second table in that page), now which fan..... if you want to go with Noctua, then consider the NF-A15 PWM for the cpu cooler, its the same mounting as the included fan as the TY147 that HR02 comes with, you will need a second set of clips to install the second fan, ask them if they have some in stock, just as a mention the NF-A15 PWM will only reach 1200rpm, but higher than that will be noisy, even at that its very noticeble, i would prefer below 1000rpms.

Here is a picture of the HR02 + Noctua NF-A15 PWM,

Image

The problem is having space on the back, but will depend on the case and cpu socket placement.

Image
Avirhel wrote:But if the mobo only have 1 CPU-FAN place, how is this possible?
The NF-A15 PWM comes with with 4pin PWM fan splitter (as an accessory), this will allow you to connect both fans and they will run at the same RPMS, its just a mirror of each other.

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Re: Help: HTPC built for Bu-ray and RPG games.

Post by CA_Steve » Mon Jan 13, 2014 2:33 pm


Avirhel
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Re: Help: HTPC built for Bu-ray and RPG games.

Post by Avirhel » Tue Jan 14, 2014 6:18 am

I don't understand this... the mobo have the CPU-FAN and 4 CHA_FAN headers with 4 pins. The PWM controls the fans based on the temperatures, have 4 pins, right?. These have 4 pins why I should buy 3 pin connect fans and connect them to the mobo if they will not be controlled based on the temperature like the CPU-Fan? This don´t make any sense for that I let the fans connected to the case like they were.

I see at the manual... they are nor real PWM, you are right. But the 4 pins confuse me...
Last edited by Avirhel on Tue Jan 14, 2014 7:46 am, edited 1 time in total.

Abula
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Re: Help: HTPC built for Bu-ray and RPG games.

Post by Abula » Tue Jan 14, 2014 7:32 am

Avirhel wrote:I don't understand this... the mobo have the CPU-FAN and 4 CHA_FAN headers with 4 pins. The PWM controls the fans based on the temperatures, have 4 pins, right?. These have 4 pins why I should buy 3 pin connect fans and connect them to the mobo if they will not be controlled based on the temperature like the CPU-Fan? This don´t make any sense for that I let the fans connected to the case like they were.
Read ASUS Z87-Deluxe fake 4-pin headers & other fan control info

Avirhel
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Re: Help: HTPC built for Bu-ray and RPG games.

Post by Avirhel » Tue Jan 14, 2014 7:49 am

I see... but should i connect with the 4 pin adapter or the 3 pin?

NF-A14 FLX: 140x140x25mm 3-pin, 1200/1050/900rpm

NF-A14 ULN: 140x140x25mm, 3-pin, 800/650rpm

I don´t like either of them:
- The FLX have the low rpm to high (900rpm);
- The ULN have the high rpm to low (800rpm).

:-/

I'm going to the FLX then, it has better air flow... and i will connect with the 4 pin adapter...

thanks

Abula
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Re: Help: HTPC built for Bu-ray and RPG games.

Post by Abula » Tue Jan 14, 2014 8:50 am

Remember im not suggesting you change fans yet, only do the re paste of the CPU heatsink and see from there if you still need or want lower temperatures, this will be at the expense of more noise, so be careful before investing so much money in more fans.

Asus motherboards only have one real 4pin and its the CPU_FAN, the others = CHA_FAN 1, 2, 3 are 4pin but in reality they are 3pin as they are not controlled by PWM signal, they are voltage regulated header. I had issues with NF-A14 PWM, real pwm fans running on voltage control headers like CHA_FAN1, they stopped, like fanXpert2 cant establish the correct low rpms / voltage the fan can reach becomes unstable and stops, this is the reason im suggesting you 3pin fans like FLX or ULN for the case fans (this is if you want to use FanXpert2 to control them, but you also going to need 3pin splitters depending on how many fans you going to run). For the CPU you can go with 4pin PWM fans, the CPU_FAN header is PWM so it will control the 4pin fans fine.

Now you can also get a 5.25 fan controller, and manually adjust the rpms of each fan to your personal liking or your desire of cooling, personally i went away from this route as i wanted the system to react to heat on its own, but this might be complicated for you, maybe a clasic fan controller will work out better for you.

Try to do things one at the time and judge from there the next step, the fans you currently have should be enough to cool your computer, so do the re paste and resetting of the CPU first and then decide if you want more cooling.

Avirhel
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Re: Help: HTPC built for Bu-ray and RPG games.

Post by Avirhel » Tue Jan 14, 2014 10:07 am

Well. I discovered that the shipper Asus z78-k have a CPU_FAN with PWM, and CHA_FAN 1, 2 with PWM also. So not all Asus are the same.
http://imageshack.com/a/img197/9828/wx0a.jpg

Avirhel
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Re: Help: HTPC built for Bu-ray and RPG games.

Post by Avirhel » Sat Jan 18, 2014 10:51 am

The clock time is always wrong. I reinstalled the windows 7 and the problem persists. I think probably is a bios problem. Because the clock in the bios is stopped. I'm starting to hate this motherboard. I think probably the msi would be a better option...

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Re: Help: HTPC built for Bu-ray and RPG games.

Post by Abula » Sat Jan 18, 2014 11:02 am

Avirhel wrote:The clock time is always wrong. I reinstalled the windows 7 and the problem persists. I think probably is a bios problem. Because the clock in the bios is stopped. I'm starting to hate this motherboard. I think probably the msi would be a better option...
The clock issue i have seen on the Asus Maximus VI hero, i didnt experience it on my GENE, but i read about it, check the following thread for more info, Frozen Time Clock in UEFI - The Fix

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Re: Help: HTPC built for Bu-ray and RPG games.

Post by Avirhel » Mon Jan 20, 2014 10:20 am

It worked. The hour is fine now and the net don't goes down.
Now I want to think the best way of controlling the fans.
I'm going to ask for your opinion in one idea that I have.
My Asus Motherboard have 2 PWM fan connectors (CPU_FAN and CPU_OPT) and 4 4 pin fan connectors (CHA_FAN1-4).

Option 1:

- Change thermal paste to ARCTIC COOLING MX-4 4G - 6,50€
- Add 2x NOCTUA NF-A15 PWM 140MM 1200RPM - 24,10€ x2 (for the cooler)
- Add 1x NOCTUA NF-A14 FLX 140MM 1200RPM - 24,10€ x1 (change the ANTEC TRUE QUIET that was at front up in the case for this)
- Place the ANTEC TRUE QUIET 140MM FAN (that was at front up) in the bottom.
- Ask if there is a possibility of controlling the intensity of the led that is at front up in the case and turn it of if i want to.

The connections:
CPU_FAN: 2x NOCTUA NF-A15 PWM 140MM 1200RPM
CHA_FAN1-4: the 4 fan cases (the 2 that came with the case + NOCTUA NF-A14 FLX at front up + ANTEC TRUE QUIET at the bottom) .

Option 2:

- Change thermal paste to ARCTIC COOLING MX-4 4G - 6,50€
- Add 2x NOCTUA NF-A15 PWM 140MM 1200RPM - 24,10€ x2 (for the cooler)
- Add 2x NOCTUA NF-A15 PWM 140MM 1200RPM - 24,10€ x2 (change the ANTEC TRUE QUIET that was at front up and the back fans for those)
- Place the ANTEC TRUE QUIET 140MM FAN (that was at front up) in the bottom.
- Ask if there is a possibility of controlling the intensity of the led that is at front up in the case and turn it of if i want to.

The connections:
CPU_FAN: 2x NOCTUA NF-A15 PWM 140MM 1200RPM (working in mirror in the cooler)
CPU_OPT: 2x NOCTUA NF-A15 PWM 140MM 1200RPM (working in mirror one at the front up and other at back)
CHA_FAN1-4: the 1 that came with the case front down + ANTEC TRUE QUIET at the bottom, controlled by voltage.

If this second option worked i prefer this. In this case all the 4 NOCTUA NF-A15 PWM fans will be controlled according with the CPU temperature. And the air that goes trough the cooler to back will be optimized, entering more fresh air and exausting more hot air according to the CPU temperature.

Tell me your opinion about this please.
Thank you.

Avirhel
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Re: Help: HTPC built for Bu-ray and RPG games.

Post by Avirhel » Wed Jan 22, 2014 8:40 pm

Abula. Can the option 2 work?
I'm just waiting for any answer here to decide what to do. Thanks.

Abula
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Re: Help: HTPC built for Bu-ray and RPG games.

Post by Abula » Wed Jan 22, 2014 9:07 pm

I did read it but decided not to post, as i still feel the same as before, i think you should do one change at the time and see how it reacts, like for 3 people posting here (including me) concur that the first step should be reseating the CPU heatsink, but in my experience haswell quads with hyperthreading run very hot so might not help that much, still should help some.

Now on the fans, more air will lower temps no doubt, but the question is weather the extra noise you will introduce with more fans will justify what drops in temps. You should first try to run all you fans that you have atm (2 fractal and 1 antec) at full 12V, no fan controller no software to reduce their speed, and test it see if the CPU temps lower some, and see how the noise increased, and if you are willing to take more or not. All of this is free, its just a matter of time and testing.

Now to answer you last two posts, out of what you want to do,

The NF-A15 are not standard frame, thus they might not fit in slots like frontal of the case, where NF-A14 should fit, weather its PWM or FLX depends on how you want to control them and with what, for example to use the fan controller on the case or CHA_FAN headers (1,2,3) i would use FLX and for using them via PWM FAN SPLITTER (like swiftech 8) then i would chose all PWM.

One the cooler, NF-A15 PWM are ideal in terms they are the same as TY147 that came with your cooler, mostly physically, the frame of the fan is almost clone, so the included clips will work fine, but at the same time the cooler only comes with a set of clips to mount one fan, you seem to want to do pull push with two fans, here you wont have a second set of mounting clips so idk they will mount it, that aside, the space on the back of the HR02 will be very close to the case to the point that im not sure if a second fan would fit or how much it would help, this are all things that you have to prepare before spending the money on extra fans.

Now your setup is very similar than mine, the cpu are identical since im not overclocking, and CPU cooler is the same in my own testing, so in essence if you go with 4x Noctua NF-A14 PWM (3 in and 1 out) you can expect similar temps than me, given the same ambient temp and correct seating of the cpu socket, that said i still hit 80C on prime95, on fans at 650rpms, if i allow the 4x NF-A14 PWM (case fans) to reach 900rpms i drop like 5C in temps all acoss the cores, so asume around 75C, but this increases the noise significantly to me (might not to you), and if you allow them to go into 1200+ i bet you will get temps close to 70s, but here they really become loud (again to me), but im very picky about fans, i have never own a fan that above 1000rpms is quiet, i try to have as much control as possible to lower them to points where i cant hear them, even at the expense of hotter running componets, all this decisions have to come from you and no one can tell you whats better, you are the one that has to live with your PC and with the noise it will produce.

We all have different settings, specially ambient noise, what might be fine by me might not by you, all is relative to each user, and for this is why tweaking your PC to your personal preference is important. If after you test the fans (the one that you have already) you feel you still need more cooling then go NF-A14 for case fans and NF-A15 PWM for cpu fans, how many... again depends on each setup, there is no magic number, there are points where its worth it and some that its not, specially when you add too much the cooling starts to go into exponential curve where you add tons of air but there is little gain in temps.

Avirhel
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Re: Help: HTPC built for Bu-ray and RPG games.

Post by Avirhel » Thu Jan 23, 2014 7:55 am

Ok, I decided that I will change all the fans.

I will do this:
- Change thermal paste to ARCTIC COOLING MX-4 4G - 6,50€
- Add 2x NOCTUA NF-A15 PWM 140MM 1200RPM - 24,10€ x2 (for the cooler, there is plenty of space for the second fan)
- Add 4x NOCTUA NF-A14 PWM 140MM 1500RPM- 31,45€ x4 (change all the the case fans: 2x front + 1x bottom, + 1x back)
- Ask if there is a possibility of controlling the intensity of the led that is at front up in the case and turn it of if i want to.

Now my doubt are the connections, I want to control all the fans through PWM. But i only have 2 PWM connectors (CPU_FAN and CPU_OPT). What is the best way to control the 6 fans through this 2 connectors using PWM FAN SPLITTER ?

CPU_FAN: 1->2 fan splitter >>> 2x NOCTUA NF-A15 PWM 140MM 1200RPM (CPU Cooler)
CPU_OPT: 1->4 fan splitter >>> 4x NOCTUA NF-A14 PWM 140MM 1500RPM (Case fans)

Is this doable? Is this a good way?

I don´t mind when i´m doing decoding the fans make noise, I don´t want that the CPU gets a temperature higher that 75ºC. I don´t want to listen to the fans wen i´m using the Pc normally or watching a movie for example. The fans have to be powerful (and noisy like side effect...) enough to cool down the CPU when its needed, and be quiet wen its not needed.

Thanks :-)

Abula
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Re: Help: HTPC built for Bu-ray and RPG games.

Post by Abula » Thu Jan 23, 2014 8:24 am

Avirhel wrote:Now my doubt are the connections, I want to control all the fans through PWM. But i only have 2 PWM connectors (CPU_FAN and CPU_OPT). What is the best way to control the 6 fans through this 2 connectors using PWM FAN SPLITTER ?

CPU_FAN: 1->2 fan splitter >>> 2x NOCTUA NF-A15 PWM 140MM 1200RPM (CPU Cooler)
CPU_OPT: 1->4 fan splitter >>> 4x NOCTUA NF-A14 PWM 140MM 1500RPM (Case fans)
There is no difference, as there is only 1 true pwm fan header that its controllable, so that means you can get a splitter like Swiftech 8-Way PWM Cable Splitter - SATA Power (8W-PWM-SPL-ST), and connect all the fans to the splitter and ignore the CPU_OPT, the only usefulness of the CPU_OPT is if you want to read the rpms of a second fan (you wont be able to control it independently), for example you have NF-A15 and NF-A14, so one can read each, but there is no reason to get two splitters, one is fine.
I don´t mind when i´m doing decoding the fans make noise, I don´t want that the CPU gets a temperature higher that 75ºC. I don´t want to listen to the fans wen i´m using the Pc normally or watching a movie for example. The fans have to be powerful (and noisy like side effect...) enough to cool down the CPU when its needed, and be quiet wen its not needed.
Once you set it up on FanXpert2 "tunning", it will determain a graph for the fans, all will be the same in PWM signal, the NF-A15 PWM is like one speed below (1200/1500), so it will always be a little slower than the NF-A14, but since you only have one true pwm header, there is no way around this as the PWM is a signal. You can use the ULN adapters on the NF-A14 PWM to make it extremly similar to the NF-A15 PWM in terms of rpms, and all your fans will have almost the same rpms on a given pwm signal (the adapters come with the fans, just dont apply it to NF-A15).

After the tunning of fanxpert2 is done and you stress test it, see if you reach your desired 75C, if not change the FanXpert2 graph and increase the ramping up, dont move the begging of the graph but the ending.

Avirhel
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Re: Help: HTPC built for Bu-ray and RPG games.

Post by Avirhel » Thu Jan 23, 2014 8:50 am

Ok. I will do that. I don´t find that kind of splitter in the site of the store i´m going to take the pc tough...
And then should i continue to control the PWM fans via FanXpert2? Or Control them manually in the bios?
Thanks

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Re: Help: HTPC built for Bu-ray and RPG games.

Post by simeli » Fri Jan 24, 2014 1:49 am

It's been a while since my last post, but i was sort of in a similar situation when building my friends system. Bluray and later on gaming was also on the list. Its been a good while since that was built but thermal requirements have not really changed for the worse in the past few years.
Concerning HTPC cases, we used the Origen AE s16V. it is quite well laid out and is now filled by 4 disks plus SSD, Bluray drive and a dedicated Radeon card. The system is whisper quiet on anything but intense gaming. The only drawback really was that the length of the GPU was somewhat limited.
You were asking about at least six drives (so about 20TB with todays disks), for that of course you need a different case although you could cramp it in there when using a mATX board. If you need that many drives I would also think about using a separate system just for storage, maybe a drobo N that could sit somewhere else in a corner.

If you want to see the build in question I have that on my blog here.

My personal take on temperature is designing well and choosing the right fans. That keeps temperatures down and noise low without the need for complicated fan control. On top of that there is one subsystem less that can fail. Under real world conditions it is almost impossible to drive all components to their max let alone over prolonged periods of time. And in the case of running a benchmark test in summer, modern chips throttle should you really hit their max thermal envelopes.

Avirhel
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Re: Help: HTPC built for Bu-ray and RPG games.

Post by Avirhel » Wed Feb 05, 2014 8:33 am

The PC is at the store to fix.
But they don't sell splitters or any kind of clip to secure the second fan to the cooler, so I will have to buy them myself later.
They called me asking me for my password of the SO to do the tests after changing the thermal paste... I gave it to them... but didn't want to...
So if they need the SO to properly check if the cooler/thermal paste are well placed, they didn't check it properly before selling the PC to me. Because the PC was bought without any SO installed, and they said at the time that they didn't need the SO installed to test it. And they insinuated/asked me if I changed the thermal paste/cooler myself, they said that they were not placed like they normally do!
I am a little upset... Well... I hope that everything gets well.
Another thing, I have to buy an external solution for backup my files in mirror. It has to be something that I can add HDD's wen i need them.
Thanks.

Abula
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Re: Help: HTPC built for Bu-ray and RPG games.

Post by Abula » Wed Feb 05, 2014 9:14 am

Avirhel wrote:The PC is at the store to fix.
But they don't sell splitters or any kind of clip to secure the second fan to the cooler, so I will have to buy them myself later.
They called me asking me for my password of the SO to do the tests after changing the thermal paste... I gave it to them... but didn't want to...
So if they need the SO to properly check if the cooler/thermal paste are well placed, they didn't check it properly before selling the PC to me. Because the PC was bought without any SO installed, and they said at the time that they didn't need the SO installed to test it. And they insinuated/asked me if I changed the thermal paste/cooler myself, they said that they were not placed like they normally do!
This was the main reason we all suggested to first just re do the paste / seatting of the heatsink, this is most cases, if not done properly can result in abnormal temps, this is not to say you will gain super, as the 4770 is a hot running cpu, but you should get some C drops if it was done properly with decent termal paste.
Avirhel wrote:Another thing, I have to buy an external solution for backup my files in mirror. It has to be something that I can add HDD's wen i need them.
There are tons of options, really a lot, you can go from an external USB enclosure, there are single and multiple hdd enclosures, for example Mediasonic HF2-SU3S2 ProBox 4 Bay Hard Drive Enclosure with USB 3.0 & eSATA. Or you can go into a dedicated NAS, there are lot of options there also, in here it can even backup your fine at night, at first is slow as it does all the backup, but later its just incremental backups, there are lots of options, prebuilt or you can build your own, for example HP Proliant MicroServer Gen8, you can install WHS2011 and add stablebitt, like this you can create a single logical hdd uniting, you can even use de-duplication to have your info in multiple drives, etc, there are lots of OS/software you can try like amahi, unraid, zfs, flexraid, etc, you can even built your own, there are very nice cases like Lian Li Q25, Fractal Design Node 304, and very nice mini itx motherboards for a relatively small storage server.

But since you are not into building, the suggestion that i give to most of my friends is go with a prebuilt that has a solid operating system oriented for storage, my personal favorite and what i recommend most of the time is synology diskstations, they are relatively small, and can hold from 1 to 24 drives, they also have a hybrid raid system so you can add drives as your storage needs increases, depending on your budget and needs, look into
Synology America DiskStation 4-Bay Diskless Network Attached Storage (DS414)
Synology DiskStation 5-Bay Diskless Network Attached Storage (NAS) DS1513+
Synology America DiskStation 8-Bay Diskless Network Attached Storage (DS1813+)
Synology DiskStation 12-Bay (Diskless) Network Attached Storage DS2413+

Avirhel
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Re: Help: HTPC built for Bu-ray and RPG games.

Post by Avirhel » Wed Feb 05, 2014 5:56 pm

What I want is some kind of a case that I can add HDD. Just buy the case and then going to add the HDDs wen I need them. The Synology are perfect, but extremely expensive :-O I was looking for something that could be connected to the PC, USB, or thunderbolt (external disks). I don't want to spend much money at once.
I think I'm going to add HDD's directly in the PC case. The solutions are too expensive... well your first option is reasonable, there are other solutions like the Mediasonic, for comparing.
There is this one: http://www.amazon.co.uk/IB-3640SU3-inch ... Mediasonic
or this: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Hornettek-Enter ... rid_pt_0_0
Thanks :-)

Avirhel
Posts: 68
Joined: Wed Nov 14, 2012 3:37 pm

Re: Help: HTPC built for Bu-ray and RPG games.

Post by Avirhel » Sun Sep 16, 2018 2:29 am

Hello everyone. My PC is great until now.
But it's getting a little slow for games. I need to improve it or buy a new one.
I have been out of the technology development. I see that have been improvements, New SSD M.2. and more.
So here I am again asking for your help :)

CA_Steve
Moderator
Posts: 7650
Joined: Thu Oct 06, 2005 4:36 am
Location: St. Louis, MO

Re: Help: HTPC built for Bu-ray and RPG games.

Post by CA_Steve » Sun Sep 16, 2018 5:39 am

You might want to benchmark your games to see what is the limiting factor - CPU, GPU, RAM... Chances are, it's just the gfx card. If you load Windows Task Manager/Performance tab and run it in the background while playing your games, you can see what hardware is maxing out..(if you are using Win 7...not sure if it'll show the GPU...for that use MSI's Afterburner).

Avirhel
Posts: 68
Joined: Wed Nov 14, 2012 3:37 pm

Re: Help: HTPC built for Bu-ray and RPG games.

Post by Avirhel » Sun Sep 16, 2018 5:52 am

Hello. Thank you for answering.
I looked for components thinking about buying a new PC. But it´s more expensive than 5 years ago.
I'm going to buy a new graphic card for now.
Thank you.

Avirhel
Posts: 68
Joined: Wed Nov 14, 2012 3:37 pm

Re: Help: HTPC built for Bu-ray and RPG games.

Post by Avirhel » Mon Sep 17, 2018 5:34 am

Well. I changed my mind.
I'm going to change the Case + Motherboard + Power supply. Then later I change the CPU/Graphic card.
I need the most quiet and energy efficient and at the same time, play games like Shadow of the Tomb Raider and RPGs at maximum quality possible.
Later I will need a better Graphic card (when the prices drop) with capability for playing games in 4k and movies and for VR.
I need at least 2 HDMI out to be connected to 2 monitors.
The mobo have to have PWM connectors for the fans. I want to control the fans with the bios.

Case: FRACTAL - DEFINE R6 BLACKOUT ATX
Power Supply: Seasonic PRIME Ultra 650W Titanium Full Modular
Motherboard: MSI Z370 GAMING PRO CARBON or AsRock Z370 Tachi or ???

Thank you very much for the help.

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