Morex 3320

[sutton8]

I currently have an Asus AT5IONT-I in an Antec ISK 300 Mini case. I tried to run it fanless but the temps were horrible, idling at around 60c and 90c at load. So I had to put a fan on it with a Zalman controller.

I would like to run it passive and am considering the Morex 3320. It has more vent holes and I am wondering could the board be run passive, at reasonable temps, without fans in this case. Grateful for any guidance.

[HFat]

It depends on what you consider reasonable. If Asus really intended their board to be run without any fans, it should be OK but Asus should also have provided some guidance with regard to cases and temperatures.

I haven't tried the T3320 but I tried the T3310.
I have no experience with that particular heatsink but it looks like the one Asus used in their expensive Zacate board and it didn't perform well.

The version which wants an ATX power supply is being sold with the T3500. I don't know what temps you'd get with that but I assume they'd be OK. Caveat emptor...
The temps in the T3320 would most likely be higher. The T3320's vents do not expose the whole heatsink. I would tend to recommend the T3320 only with boards which consume less power and have a more traditional heatsink in the right place.
Note that orientation can affect temperatures with fanless cooling. In many cases you get lower temperatures when the motherboard is perpendicular to the ground. In that case you might not get excessive temperatures with the T3320. But it could be the opposite with your heatsink and I do not expect the T3320 would allow the heatsink to perform decently in that position.

[sutton8]

Thanks for the response. As a test I just ran the board in the Antec Case with the fan at 0. After 90 minutes of playing a HD video clip the maximum the GPU reached was 87 degrees according to Nvidia's own temp monitor and the CPU 63 degrees according to Core Temp. I can live with that since the GPU is rated for 125, though it throttles before then. The purpose is really for a quiet net surfing machine in real world use I am unlikely to ever play HD for 90 mins. Perhaps the temps are cooler now since we are out of summer.

That gives me some confidence since based on the pics alone the Morex appears to have more vent holes than the Antec and it will be sitting vertically on my "ventilated" desk rather than horizontally in my quite well enclosed AV rack where it sits at the moment. Granted there is more volume to the Antec case.

I'm going to give it a go and see how I get on. I'll report midweek. If it fails I can go back and am only out 70 quid. But I'm hopeful.

[HFat]

There's one thing I would do before deciding one way or the other: try the board outside of a case, first horizontally then vertically. If it doesn't perform well vertically, I would reconsider...

I wouldn't expect the board to overheat badly while playing a video. If you're OK with an overheating risk in case some software decides to make the GPU as well as the CPU work hard, that gives you more leeway.

In case you are stuck with a T3320 you don't know what to do with and want to sell it, PM me.
Regardless, pictures of the inside of the case would be appreciated. I wonder what exactly is the difference with the T3310. I'll post pictures of the T3310 if you're curious.

[sutton8]

Regardless, pictures of the inside of the case would be appreciated. I wonder what exactly is the difference with the T3310. I'll post pictures of the T3310 if you're curious.

Please do post pics I'd be interested. I've ordered the case this afternoon and it will be here on Tuesday hopefully. I'll post some pics midweek.

One thing I have just realised is that the PSU is 20pin but the board requres 24pin. It does have the 12v 4pin connector though. In a low powered system like this all should be OK. The seller seems to think this is fine.

I believe Seasonic make the power supply and in the past i've only had good experience with their kit, for what that is worth.

I believe the difference between 3310 and 3320 is more cooling holes on 3320 for better ventilation.

[HFat]

Actually someone seems to have recently posted pics I've never seen before:
http://www.easycom.com.ua/cases/morex_t3300-60/?lang=ru
One clearly sees the difference in the vent covers between the two models. These pictures ought to be sufficient, don't you think?

[sutton8]

Thanks for the link, some nice pics. My "O" level Russian was many years ago so I am not sure what is being said

I'll post pics midweek.

[Abula]

Thanks for the link, some nice pics. My "O" level Russian was many years ago so I am not sure what is being said

I'll post pics midweek.

Use google chrome as your browser, it will detect forign langauge and offer you to translate, not perfect but pretty good. If you dont like Chrome, then just use google translate, here is an exaple using it on the review, link

[sutton8]

Thanks, Opera and Google did the biz.

[HFat]

I'll post pics midweek.

You're welcome to of course but don't do it only for me: the pictures from Russia are good enough.

What would be more interesting for me is information such as what temperature difference do you get when you close the cover. That should tell us how much airflow the vents let through.
In the T3310 case in the horizontal position, the idle CPU got from 12C above ambient (according to the CPU's thermometer whose calibration is dubious) to 30C above ambient when I closed the cover (after some time to allow temperatures to reach equilibrium).

[sutton8]

Finally got around to building the machine. The build was straightforward bar routing the SATA cable under the HDD tray. There is not much space and I suggest using as short a SATA cable as you possibly can. It's all a bit scrunched in. The machine consists of:

Asus AT5IONT-I Board (ION and Intel Atom D525 @ 1.8GHz)
1 OCZ Vertex SSD
2 Sticks RAM

3 USB Devices
External Western Digital Hard Drive
External Creative Soundcard (for Dolby Digital Live surround sound to receiver)
USB Mouse and Keyboard

DVI Connection to Monitor
Windows 7 HP 32bit


I switched the machine on (fully built with side panel on), left idle for 30 minutes to normalise with room temp and used Core Temp and Nvidia System Monitoring tool for readings.
Ambient 22c
Core 0 27c
Core 1 29c
GPU 59c

I then ran a 1080P WMV file (constantly), ran a full Microsoft Security Essentials virus check and surfed the net. Which sort of reflects the very hardest of real world usage possible for me with this machine. In reality I'd never use it like that. After a further 30 minutes the temps became
Ambient 22c
Core 0 58c
Core 1 59c
GPU 80c

The heat rises out of the mesh at the top of the case. You can feel the heat but can keep your hand on top of it. It is not too warm. The left side panel vents little heat but the right side is a little warmer. As you would expect given the orientation of the board and heatsink.

After 50 further mins (machine on for 110 in total) of running the clip, virus checking, moving a few file and surfing the temps were:

Ambient 22c
Core 0 64c
Core 1 65c
GPU 86c

So all of that is toasty but workable and way beyond how I would usually use the machine. The GPU seemed to reach the 80's quickly but then stay there and not get much hotter. It is rated for 125.

If you have limited ambition for using the machine then it works. The case is fine on your desktop (see pic) and has a small foot print sort of akin to the silent Shuttle XS35 Version2 that I used to have. Certainly the Antec ISK300-65 case it replaced was way too large to sit on your desk in the same way. And of course it is absolutely silent which is the main point.

[HFat]

Unless the CPU temperature is off, that big heatsink is actually better than I thought. Your idle temperatures would be very good if they were accurate. I didn't like the temperatures people were getting with the heatsink and the E-350 but your CPU runs less hot, especially with the integrated graphics disabled.

It looks like you'll be OK as long as you avoid making the little computer work hard.
But a word of caution: your GPU temps are OK, sure but is the GPU heating up other parts next to it? Some parts are not supposed to withstand >80C. I suppose the board manufacturer did their job well but without any word from them on what temperatures are safe, I'd be cautious.
So if you want to be safe, you could perhaps run a temperature monitoring application configured to shut the computer down in case it overheats. It's not bulletproof but it'll handle most of the cases where something happens while you're not in front of the computer. You could also use Windows' standby on idle feature which is much easier to setup but it's not as reliable.