ISK300-150, Foxconn H67S, Sandy Bridge Pentium G620T build

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Gramkow
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ISK300-150, Foxconn H67S, Sandy Bridge Pentium G620T build

Post by Gramkow » Mon Jul 04, 2011 12:33 pm

Finally got time to take some snaps and do a short writeup of a recent build.

The machine in question is a mITX build for a family member, where it will be used as an HTPC. It will replace an old Acer Revo 3600 (single-core Atom), which is horribly slow, and not really up to the task of recording dual HD DVB-T streams through a USB tuner. The workload for the box is playing DVDs, MP3/WMA files, recording and playing back TV, live TV watching and occasional lightweight web browsing.

I decided to use this build to check out a couple of components that had me interested: The Antec ISK300-150 case and the new Sandy Bridge Pentium G620T 35W dual-core CPU. This is intended as a low-cost scrouge build, so apart from the case, CPU and optical drive, everything came from the spares locker.

Case: Antec ISK300-150
I had considered the ISK300-65 on a number of occasions, but at the time of ordering it wasn't in stock, and the ISK300-150 was about the same price. Getting 150W instead of 65W would eradicate any doubts about needing more power, so I figured I'd go for it. There has been some discussion about the noise level of the power supply, but it turned out as a pleasant surprise.

Motherboard: Foxconn H67S
I bought this for myself a few days before the B3 stepping debacle erupted. Since I didn't intend to use more than the two SATA/6Gbps ports, I didn't bother with a replacement board. Nevertheless, it drove me nuts when I tried to use it. Didn't want to boot off flash drives, crashed with alarming regularity in Windows at default settings and generally made me shout profanities in the general direction of Foxconn. I got myself another board and this one went in the spares box.
Recently i noticed that a new BIOS version was available. The readme only listed a problem fixed with COM ports ... yay, big deal. Nevertheless, I proceeded to fight the board for 4 hours to get it to accept the new firmware (DOS boot disk, forcing the update even though the utility complained it was up to date)... To my surprise, all the problems went away ... Can boot from USB flash drives, Windows is running stable - happy days :D

CPU: Intel Pentium Sandy Bridge G620T, 35W TDP
This turned up recently at some of the major online retailers where I shop for parts, but apart from an obscure Chinese site, no reviews were available. I wanted something for the Foxconn board, and the 35W TDP looked interesting.

CPU heatsink: Scythe Big Shuriken
Was looking at using either a Shuriken Rev. B or the Big Shuriken. The Shuriken Rev. B might have fitted an ISK300-65, but since the ISK300-150 has a thick power cable running from the back of the case to the power supply, that will get in the way of the little Shuriken. The Big Shuriken fits fine without the fan. Actually, I could fit the 100mm fan from the Shuriken Rev. B on top of the Big Shuriken heatsink, but I didn't want to bother with that, as I intended to run it fanless

Case fan: Scythe S-Flex SFF80B
Replaced the factory fitted Antec TriCool with this. It is connected to the chassis fan header on the motherboard with a Noctua ULNA (7V) adapter, which is neccessary as the H67S provides no voltage control for non-PWM fans. Apart from the PSU fan, this is the only fan in the system.

Hard disk: Western Digital Scorpio WD2500BEVS
From the spares box. 5400RPM, 8MB cache, decently quiet.

Optical drive: Slimline Sony NEC Optiarc DVD-RW
Not fitted yet, going in later this week. Will update the thread with pictures then.

Memory: 1 x Kingston KVR1333D3N9/2G
Cheap as chips, nice and stable.

Some pictures:
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Front view, cover off

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Angle shot

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Side shot

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Motherboard and Big Shuriken installed

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Another shot with motherboard fitted

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Low profile memory fitted

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Side shot of Shuriken fitted

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Power cable refitted. Turning the power cable upside down provided a couple of millimeters of extra clearance, so the cable and connector actually clears the top of the Shuriken heatsink.

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Closeup of the power cable turned upside down

As you can see from the pictures, with the amount of cables inside the box, you need better cablegami skills than I posess to use the expansion card slot for anything. I would expect the ISK300-65 to be better in this respect since the power board takes up a lot less space than the 150W PSU in the ISK300-150.

Will post some usage details, including power draw, temps & HTPC usage experience (1080p playback) later this week. The box is running nice and stable, and copes fine with whatever HTPC duties I have thrown at it so far :)

Hope someone will find this useful. Any questions welcome.

Regards,
Gramkow

HFat
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Re: ISK300-150, Foxconn H67S, Sandy Bridge Pentium G620T bui

Post by HFat » Mon Jul 04, 2011 1:04 pm

Nice build.
Gramkow wrote:CPU: Intel Pentium Sandy Bridge G620T, 35W TDP
This turned up recently at some of the major online retailers where I shop for parts, but apart from an obscure Chinese site, no reviews were available. I wanted something for the Foxconn board, and the 35W TDP looked interesting.
There are some informal reviews on forums. These are often better than regular reviews (SPCR's excepted).
The short of it is that Intel's ratings are silly and that the regular G620 does not consume significantly more power than the G620T. But it's supposed to come with a different heastink for those who are interested. I got a G620T myself because I was going to pair it with a 60W power supply and didn't want to take any chances.
You can further reduce the power consumption of the CPU by reducing the multiplier if you want.

Gramkow
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Location: Denmark

Re: ISK300-150, Foxconn H67S, Sandy Bridge Pentium G620T bui

Post by Gramkow » Mon Jul 04, 2011 1:09 pm

Actually, the G620T was cheaper than the non-T version when I got it, so it was really a no-brainer. The included HSF is a pretty tiny part.

/ Gramkow

HFat
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Re: ISK300-150, Foxconn H67S, Sandy Bridge Pentium G620T bui

Post by HFat » Mon Jul 04, 2011 1:20 pm

It's tiny so it fits the smallest of cases but it works well if you have some room or decent ventilation in the case. It's not silent of course but it's OK at the lowest setting. If I had room for something nicer, I would have taken it but my only other choice really was the Silverstone NT07 (37mm) and I chose to avoid the expense (once you include shipping...).

Abula
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Re: ISK300-150, Foxconn H67S, Sandy Bridge Pentium G620T bui

Post by Abula » Mon Jul 04, 2011 2:04 pm

Would be great to see some power consumption on it, i kinda think with 1 fan and with G620T, i think you can go below 10W idle, im idling 14W with 2100T (but with 3 fans)

HFat
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Re: ISK300-150, Foxconn H67S, Sandy Bridge Pentium G620T bui

Post by HFat » Mon Jul 04, 2011 2:12 pm

You're probably idling lower than us thanks to your power supply and your board.
I haven't got the equipment to do a proper measurement on hand unfortunately but I don't think the CPU makes >4W of difference (probably <2W) as long as you have a dual-core. It would be quite an achievement to get even 12W without mobile gear! So I doubt you'll see 10W with this platform.

Abula
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Re: ISK300-150, Foxconn H67S, Sandy Bridge Pentium G620T bui

Post by Abula » Mon Jul 04, 2011 2:27 pm

HFat wrote:You're probably idling lower than us thanks to your power supply and your board.
I haven't got the equipment to do a proper measurement on hand unfortunately but I don't think the CPU makes >4W of difference (probably <2W) as long as you have a dual-core. It would be quite an achievement to get even 12W without mobile gear! So I doubt you'll see 10W with this platform.
Well what i meant was that today i measured a Noiseblocker 80mm fan, and at 1200rpm its drawing 1.7W, at the lowest the Zalman Fanmate 2 can pull it down its at 1.3W, so im assuming my 3 fans will draw at least 3W maybe more like 4.5W, also using dual memory slots, so this might drop something going into single, maybe using a picoPSU 80W instead of my 150XT might also drop it a little more (im not sure though as this low watts might not be big difference), and maybe the G620T will drop something.... so im thinking it might be very close to 10W.

HFat
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Re: ISK300-150, Foxconn H67S, Sandy Bridge Pentium G620T bui

Post by HFat » Mon Jul 04, 2011 2:34 pm

Yeah, if we used picos...
With a nice heatsink and a bigger case (or a fanless case with assorted heatpipes), we could go fanless. And the G620T probably drops a little something. Maybe not more than a 2100T or a G620 but that's still something. But you're the only one with an Intel board! And that might well make a bigger difference than anything else.
If you're right about your fan and your total power consumption, you could probably break a record you know: disconnect a couple of fans, take out a stick of RAM and take a picture of your meter! I might be forgetting something but I don't think I've ever seen someone break 12W without a mobile gear or a a soldering iron.

Gramkow
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Re: ISK300-150, Foxconn H67S, Sandy Bridge Pentium G620T bui

Post by Gramkow » Tue Jul 05, 2011 10:34 am

As promised, some temperature and power measurements, as well as a short 1080p playback test to determine suitability for Blu-Ray playback when used as an HTPC. The idle power usage was a bit of a letdown, but I suspect that the 150W PSU in the ISK300-150 has pretty poor efficiency at the idle load level.

Temps measured using latest version of SpeedFan. No BIOS settings to play around with to lower voltages, so it's all pretty standard I guess. Ambient temperature at time of testing was 21C
Power usage measured using a "Home Depot" energy meter, similar to a Seasonic Power Angel.

Idle
(sat at the Windows desktop, measured 5 minutes after startup)
Power consumption: 30 watts (no, it's not a typo :? )
Core temperature: 30-32C

Load
(Prime95, both cores loaded at 100%, 15 minute run)
Power consumption: 49 watts
Core temperature: 52C (peak recorded)

At the end of the 15 minute Prime95 run, temps were stabilized at 49-50C. During boot, power usage peaks at 48 watts.

After this, I tried a1080p playback test to get an idea if the box would be suited for Blu-Ray playback. I use the "Elephant's Dream" WMV clip which is available for download from Microsoft - it's 830MB in size and can be found here http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/de ... n&id=24559

This is a 1080p file encoded using VC-1, and has a pretty hefty bitrate @25000kbps for the video stream (25429kbps total). This should be a decent challenge to evaluate HD playback capability.

It played back beautifully, without any hiccups at all.

Power consumption: 36-40 watts (varies throughout the clip)
Core temperature: 38C
CPU load: <20% during playback

All in all, I am quite satisfied with the build. Idle power consumption could be a lot better, but the rest of the numbers are quite satisfactory in my opinion. I am pretty happy with the power consumption during media playback. Also, the sound level is definitely acceptable - and being able to cool the box with just the PSU fan and the Scythe 80mm @ 7V suits me just fine.

Regards,
Gramkow

Abula
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Re: ISK300-150, Foxconn H67S, Sandy Bridge Pentium G620T bui

Post by Abula » Tue Jul 05, 2011 10:50 am

Thanks for the feedback
Gramkow wrote:Idle
(sat at the Windows desktop, measured 5 minutes after startup)
Power consumption: 30 watts (no, it's not a typo :? )
Core temperature: 30-32C

Load
(Prime95, both cores loaded at 100%, 15 minute run)
Power consumption: 49 watts
Core temperature: 52C (peak recorded)
Pretty impressive temps for a fanless/ 1 case fan setup, in my case i idle 28C with 3 fans (including 2 140mm but low rpms), my load is almost the same at 50C, so all in all seems very good. The power consumption is mostly the mobo/psu, but still low.

HFat wrote:Yeah, if we used picos...
With a nice heatsink and a bigger case (or a fanless case with assorted heatpipes), we could go fanless. And the G620T probably drops a little something. Maybe not more than a 2100T or a G620 but that's still something. But you're the only one with an Intel board! And that might well make a bigger difference than anything else.
If you're right about your fan and your total power consumption, you could probably break a record you know: disconnect a couple of fans, take out a stick of RAM and take a picture of your meter! I might be forgetting something but I don't think I've ever seen someone break 12W without a mobile gear or a a soldering iron.
I might try at some point, but i have the problem that i posted in my thread that i cant take out the 4pin connector of the CPU, or i would have to take out the cpu heatsink.... to much trouble to go through. I might though, im thinking on upgrading my server and using the 2100T that i have atm, and buying a G620T for the current setup, if i do, ill try fanless or use a extrenal PSU to power 1 fan to test how low it can get. Today im changing the Hitachi 5k750, it started to develop a wierd sound like idle seek very high pitch, and not always does it, kinda like the old Raptops did, so i bought another 5k500b, ill post the consuption lowers (i doubt it).

HFat
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Re: ISK300-150, Foxconn H67S, Sandy Bridge Pentium G620T bui

Post by HFat » Tue Jul 05, 2011 1:22 pm

The efficiency of Antec's PSU is most likely terrible.
Abula wrote:Pretty impressive temps for a fanless/ 1 case fan setup
I get a similar load temp without a case fan with the stock heatsink/fan at 1500 rpm (lowest setting on my board) and the stock thermal compound. I probably get a higher idle temp but your idle temps are too low anyway.

batka
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Re: ISK300-150, Foxconn H67S, Sandy Bridge Pentium G620T bui

Post by batka » Tue Jul 05, 2011 1:44 pm

Thanks a lot posting your build Gramkow, it's a nice build, and useful infos from it!

multiplexer
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Re: ISK300-150, Foxconn H67S, Sandy Bridge Pentium G620T bui

Post by multiplexer » Fri Jul 15, 2011 9:37 am

HFat wrote:The efficiency of Antec's PSU is most likely terrible.
I've seen people consistently get 15W-ish figures with the Antec ISK300-65. I don't know much about the 150W version, but I'd be surprised if this was the major cause.
I get a similar load temp without a case fan with the stock heatsink/fan at 1500 rpm (lowest setting on my board) and the stock thermal compound. I probably get a higher idle temp but your idle temps are too low anyway.
I've put quite a bit of research into the true power consumption (and thus the expected temperature rise) of the core i3-530 in particular, which is very similar in idle power consumption to sandy bridge. As it turns out, it consumes about 3W in idle. Any HSF performs better than 2 K/W (that's even a ridiculously high figure even when accounting for junction-to-heatspreader thermal resistance), so assuming an ambient temperature of around about 20-25C his figure seems perfectly acceptable (i.e. 5-10C over ambient).

HFat
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Re: ISK300-150, Foxconn H67S, Sandy Bridge Pentium G620T bui

Post by HFat » Fri Jul 15, 2011 10:02 am

Obivously it's more than acceptable! What I meant is that it's not worth spending extra to get that low.
multiplexer wrote:I've seen people consistently get 15W-ish figures with the Antec ISK300-65. I don't know much about the 150W version, but I'd be surprised if this was the major cause.
They're completely different PSUs. Obviously a 65W PSU with an external brick is going to have better efficiency at low loads.

osl
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Re: ISK300-150, Foxconn H67S, Sandy Bridge Pentium G620T bui

Post by osl » Sun Jul 31, 2011 2:28 am

New BIOS available for Foxconn H67S - Version A41F1P01 (07/22/11)
Amongst other things memory problem fixed.
http://www.foxconnsupport.com/download. ... &sort=BIOS
Remember to enable MFG (ME) jumper setting 1-2 to run flash. Disable afterwards

Kiste_Becks
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Re: ISK300-150, Foxconn H67S, Sandy Bridge Pentium G620T bui

Post by Kiste_Becks » Thu Aug 11, 2011 4:53 am

@abula: youre idling @14w? do you measure the power consumpion after the psu or before the psu (wall plug) ?

my i3-540 also uses ~30w. the wattmeter is +-10%, its displaying 30 so the real value is somewhere between 33 and 27.
measured at wall plug, seasonic 300w power supply.

Kiste_Becks
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Re: ISK300-150, Foxconn H67S, Sandy Bridge Pentium G620T bui

Post by Kiste_Becks » Thu Aug 11, 2011 5:53 am

@abula: where did you measure power if you get 14w of idle?

germanicus
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Re: ISK300-150, Foxconn H67S, Sandy Bridge Pentium G620T bui

Post by germanicus » Sun Sep 18, 2011 12:07 pm

Please help!

I have this same board (and case, incidentally) and am experiencing relentless crashing. The board came with the A41F1020 BIOS, but there's a newer one that I'd like to try. I've been playing at this all weekend, but can't get the evil bugger to flash. I don't have a floppy drive so I've tried flashing from a bootable USB stick and a CD (using Foxconn's instructions). When I try to run the CreateFlashCD utility (recommended by Foxconn's instructions), I'm told that the image it creates can't be larger than 2.88MB. The bios bin file is about 4MB. I tried hacking the 4MB bin file into the img file that CreateFlashCD creates, but the disc won't boot. When I try to run the flash program (fpt.exe) from the USB stick it tells me that it can't find the location of ftp.exe. I find that last bit very confusing. My USB stick boots with WinPE 3.0 and I'm trying to run this from CMD. I would contact Foxconn support, but it seems that the only way to do that is through a utility that says it's not compatible with my motherboard! I'm about to throw myself out my own window!

Gramkow, how did you update your BIOS?

Foxconn H67S
Intel i3-2100
4GB GSkill 10666
Crucial M4 64GB SSD

germanicus
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Re: ISK300-150, Foxconn H67S, Sandy Bridge Pentium G620T bui

Post by germanicus » Tue Sep 20, 2011 5:16 am

Never mind! Turns out it was incompatible RAM.

samcro
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Re: ISK300-150, Foxconn H67S, Sandy Bridge Pentium G620T bui

Post by samcro » Wed Nov 28, 2012 7:07 pm

Greetings, all!

I have a near identical build in the works.

I am planning on installing the Ceton Infinitv PCI-e card, my question is, will I still be able to use the onboard video when I do this?

Many thanks!

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