Req mobo & cooling advice for Antec Minuet

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psklenar
Posts: 50
Joined: Wed Jan 19, 2005 6:37 am
Location: Southern New England, USA

Req mobo & cooling advice for Antec Minuet

Post by psklenar » Fri Jan 21, 2005 7:56 am

Good morning,

I'm buying or building a new PC. It's going to be a number cruncher more than anything else - receive data from a weather station, generate HTML based on said data, and provide a near-realtime feed to an online weather page. It must be unobtrusive (small and quiet) since it'll live the living room (best reception for wireless weather station) and will be running 24x7. No gaming (I already have a dedicated gaming PC), no movie watching or anything like that.

I've been planning to go with a 1GHz Via EPIA based system in something like a Morex 3677 or Travla C150 case - around $500 USD. More research however has me wondering if I could do something in an Antec Minuet case and still have it be as quiet or quieter for lower cost. I like the power supply that comes with it, the few reviews I've found indicate it's nice & quiet and 220W is *far* more than I'll ever need for this system

i need onboard audio (simple 2 channel is more than enough for), video, onboard 10/100MB ethernet (10/100/1000 would be nice, but not really necessary). Needs to support 512MB of memory (do they even make boards that won't take that much any more? :) ), 2 IDE channels (1 for CD, 1 for HD). I want to need *NO* add-on cards! I've always run Intel CPUs and am comfortable with them, but I could go AMD if it's cheaper for comperable performance.

There are just too many choices available today. Can anyone give me any recommendations or ideas for a basic system - mobo, CPU and cooling solution - that'll fit in the Minuet case? I've already got an HD & CD that will fit.

Thank you,
pat----

MikeC
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Post by MikeC » Fri Jan 21, 2005 8:19 am

It's a nice looking case, but the Minuet needs a lot of work to make quiet. I built a ~20 dBA/1m machine in that using a ~2GHz CPU a year ago and it works ok, gets a bit too hot in summer, BUT I had to use every trcik I know and mod everything in sight to make it work. I don't recommend it unless you are prepared to do the same.

A better choice would be the Shuttle Zen SFF barebones, A coule of simple mods and you'd have a small extremely quiet system. There's a review on the main site. Check the SPCR Lab article for info about the Zen I used for an audio PC. Also do a search in the forum -- there are many people who have done more extensive mods.

psklenar
Posts: 50
Joined: Wed Jan 19, 2005 6:37 am
Location: Southern New England, USA

Post by psklenar » Fri Jan 21, 2005 9:08 am

Mike,

Thank you very much for such a quick response. Shuttle Zen, eh? I've got a Biostar IDEQ (200T) and a Shuttle Gaming system ... both are noiser than I want in my living room. This Zen system is (can be made) truly quiet enough to not be a bother in a room like that?

looks to be about the same price ($450-ish) as my earlier EPIA plans but with a P4 2GHz ... hmmm

Again, thanks for the reply. More research to do I guess. :)

pat----

psklenar
Posts: 50
Joined: Wed Jan 19, 2005 6:37 am
Location: Southern New England, USA

Post by psklenar » Sun Jan 30, 2005 6:58 am

MikeC,

Just wanted to thank you for your recommendation. I brought my ST62K based, living room locarted, WX system online friday and with the TV/Stereo off and no other sounds being generated in the room, I can't hear the "Zen" at all from more than one to two feet away with nothing but suspending the drive. I'm still waiting for the nexus fan to arrive, but I'm not sure I'm going to install it at this point.

Again, thank you very much!
pat----

ps, Now I've got to quiet my "old" IDEQ 200T! It's a dang jet engine in comparison! :(

MikeC
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Posts: 12285
Joined: Sun Aug 11, 2002 3:26 pm
Location: Vancouver, BC, Canada
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Post by MikeC » Sun Jan 30, 2005 12:21 pm

Glad it worked out well for you. :)

I have a sample of one of the iDEQs. The problem was not the fans/ cooling, which were OK and could be made better -- but in my case -- the whining and buzzing from ALL the PSU and board-mounted power components. I tried to convince BIOSTAR there was something wrong with this sample, that this was unacceptable, but they never did do anything about it, so I never bothered with the review. It's pretty well designed except for this incredible fatal flaw. With the fans on low enough, the whining/buzzing sounds like a cacophony of a women's choir gone horribly wrong. :P Even with the fans on normal, my wife could hear the screaming going on beneath the fan turbulence noise from 2 rooms away.

psklenar
Posts: 50
Joined: Wed Jan 19, 2005 6:37 am
Location: Southern New England, USA

Post by psklenar » Mon Jan 31, 2005 7:08 pm

MikeC,

Noticed something interesting this evening. My Zen was running my 2.4GHz CPU at 3.0GHz without my having done anything to overclock it! BIOS settings were:

CPU FSB Clock: AUTO
CPU Over Clock By: +0MHz
CPU Voltage Set: AUTO

But it was pushing the FSB of my CU from the default 133MHz to 166MHz! I upgraded the BIOS from the 2/27/04 version it came with to the newest 12/20/04 version. My CPU is now running where it was supposed to be.

According to SpeedFan 4.20, the CPU was at 50-51C while at 3.0GHz adn is now down to 43-44C for the correct speed of 2.4GHz.

Interesting,
pat----

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