new HTPC chassis

Enclosures and acoustic damping to help quiet them.

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Woody
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new HTPC chassis

Post by Woody » Wed Jun 13, 2012 10:49 pm

I've been unlucky with my Antec Fusion Remote MAX case while trying to install a NZXT external fancontroller inside the front of the case. (Modding project) With a dremel and some other tools we managed to f**k up the case fronting :(

Now I got the Antec NSK 2480 to replace the monster, but it's getting too hot and the fans are spinning up and makes noise.
I've got a Gigabyte Nvidia Gforce 460 card inside, and I believe the space between it, and the wall protecting the PSU creates the heat, and therefore creates noise:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/customer-media ... s_pl_link
With the Fusion Remote, sound from the HTPC was no issue at all. It was dead silent, and very cool together with fans from Scythe.

I've been looking for similar HTPC cases, but no one even come close to Fusion Remote MAX as far as I can find out?
With this case you have all you need. Silent when watching BD movies, and a little bit noise whan playing high end PC games.
There are always some god damn compromise I have to do when reading other cases specs... either 80mm fans, or too small spacing inside, or missing 5.25 slot in front.
Is there really no other HTPC cases today that can match Fusion MAX from Antec?

So far I've been looking at: Chieftec, Silverstone, Lian-Li, Fractal Design, and Origen.

None of them comes close as far as I can see.
My priorities: Almost no noise. 120mm fans. Space for a 5.25 fan-controller plus a BD-ROM player.
Good spacing for Graphics card.

Guess I should just buy a new fusion max then? :(

quest_for_silence
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Re: new HTPC chassis

Post by quest_for_silence » Thu Jun 14, 2012 4:52 am

Woody wrote:I've got a Gigabyte Nvidia Gforce 460 card inside, and I believe the space between it, and the wall protecting the PSU creates the heat, and therefore creates noise:
What about sharing further details?

Which Gigabyte card? Does it sport the WindForce cooler? Did you mod its BIOS? Did you tune its fans curve? Do you use custom voltage settings? Which PCI-express slot does it fit? On which motherboard? Did you get rid of the slots blankets? Do you use other expansion cards? Which fans are you using?

Woody
Posts: 31
Joined: Mon Oct 11, 2010 2:05 am
Location: Norway

Re: new HTPC chassis

Post by Woody » Thu Jun 14, 2012 9:47 am

Sorry for not adding enough info. Very rude of me.
Thought i got it in the signature.
Gigabyte graphics card:
GV-N460OC-1GI / With the windforce cooler.
http://www.gigabyte.com/products/produc ... x?pid=3530
Not modified at all, but will see what I can figure out.. although, inside the fusion max, this was the most silent part, except from the scythe cpu fan.
Motherboard is Gigabyte GA-MA78GM-SH2 ( revision 1.1 )
Scythe shuriken slipstream low profile 1200 rpm for the amd phenom II cpu.
2 Scythe slipstream 120 mm 800 rpm exhaust fans.
PSU: SEASONIC X-650 650W MODULAR, completely silent.No fan running.
When all this was used in the fusion max, it idle'd at around 28 to 31 celsius.
Now im above 40 celsius or more.
So, custom voltage settings, with the Akasa fancontroller I've also got, should work fine ?

How about turning the scythe 120 mm fans the other way? So they work as intake fans?

nostalgia
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Re: new HTPC chassis

Post by nostalgia » Thu Jun 14, 2012 11:52 am

Woody wrote:I've been looking for similar HTPC cases, but no one even come close to Fusion Remote MAX as far as I can find out?
When you were searching for an alternative for the Antec, did you come across the PC-C60 made by Lian Li? If yes, may I ask what were your feelings about it? I have components not that much unlike yours waiting to be deployed and I would appreciate any thoughts you (or anyone else) might have regarding the PC-C60. When I was doing research for a new HTPC case, the PC-C60 and Fusion Remote Max were the main contenders.

CA_Steve
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Re: new HTPC chassis

Post by CA_Steve » Thu Jun 14, 2012 2:30 pm

Is the bit you effed up removable? Have you asked Antec customer service if you can buy a replacement front fascia?

quest_for_silence
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Re: new HTPC chassis

Post by quest_for_silence » Fri Jun 15, 2012 2:50 am

Woody wrote:Thought i got it in the signature.

You're not rude at all.
However, yes, there were some info in the sig, but personally I need express details.

Well, and now which are the major noise sources? The CPU? The case fans? The VGA? Everything?
Woody wrote:When all this was used in the fusion max, it idle'd at around 28 to 31 celsius.
Now im above 40 celsius or more.

There's nothing to worry about: more interesting would be the temp load figures. Have you recorded anything about?
Woody wrote:So, custom voltage settings, with the Akasa fancontroller I've also got, should work fine ?

I don't know your NZXT/Akasa controllers, I usually prefer Scythe ones.
But it would be worthwhile if you can explain how they work, which are the relevant settings.
Woody wrote:How about turning the scythe 120 mm fans the other way? So they work as intake fans?

I don't think it may worth, unless - maybe - it's the CPU the culprit, but at any rate you can try.

Woody
Posts: 31
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Location: Norway

Re: new HTPC chassis

Post by Woody » Sat Jun 16, 2012 1:42 am

Nostalgia: Will defently check out PC-C60 made by Lian Li. Looks very good, and would fit my needs perfectly. I dont' know why I didn't find it.
Thanks for the tip!
I guess the difference between that one, and Antec MAX is that it has its own room for the PSU.
This is one of the reasons why the chassis can keep everything so cool. But I guess there are more differences.

CA_Steve: Just sent a request to Antec to see if they have the aluminium front, only, to sell. That would be awesome :)

quest_for_silence: The main noise problem is the Gigabyte graphics card. It has to speed up the fans for it to be cool. The wall protecting the PSU inside antec nsk 2480, is just 1 or 2 cm away from the fans, so you see the GPU has no where to push the air. Inside antec fusion max, it idle'd at 40% speed of the fans, and so it was inaudible.

Anyway.. After about an hour the room inside the chassis is above 40 celsius and so the scythe fans has the speed up too. I guess I could try and remove the wall protecting the PSU but that would be a longshot. I'll try to figure this out. Maybe let the Scythe shuriken take care of cooling, and turn off the exhaust fans. This worked nicely inside the fusion max. Just used the fans when booting a game.
The fancontroller is from akasa:
http://www.akasa.com.tw/update.php?tpl= ... AK-FC-07BK

I got that one just because you can turn off the lights in front, and it will still work.
Excellent when watching movies.

Thank you so much everyone for your tips and help.
PS: just to tell you how quiet the antec fusion setup was, I dont know if anyone of you have a HDPVR boks @ home, from your cable tv company? Some of them has an integrated harddrive. Well, that box was the one you heard in the living room.
Not the Antec PC ;)

quest_for_silence
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Re: new HTPC chassis

Post by quest_for_silence » Sat Jun 16, 2012 3:40 am

I think that you might just tweak the Gigabyte (and I haven't understood if the slots blankets are open or not).

Lower its voltage with Afterburner, I think you should go down to 0.875 (I can go down to 0.862), and then stress the card with FurMark or Kombustor, and let us know what happens.

If it works for you, you may flash the BIOS accordingly (or launch Afterburner at startup). You may use OCCT or Nvida Inspector to detect any artifact.

Then you may continue the stress tests with Prime and FurMark (or OCCT).

Broadly speaking, you have lowered your volume by 33% (26lt from 38): it has to be hotter.
Mind to a pot of water: supplying the same amount of heat, 26 litres would reach a greater temperature than 38 litres of the same water.
You have just to check if it's safe, and tune the fans speed accordingly.

Woody
Posts: 31
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Location: Norway

Re: new HTPC chassis

Post by Woody » Sun Jun 17, 2012 11:25 am

quest_for_silence: I can undervolt the motherboard in bios. I've done it before sucessfully, so this will solve the problem I guess.
Yes, I know,I shouldn't expect the same cooling as the fusion MAX. NSK 2480 IS an awesome case. No questions about it.
Will try undervolting and see how it goes.
Thanks for all your help so far :)

Sidequestion: Will the new technology Lucid Virtu together with a new Intel LGA processor really "turn off" your discrete graphics card, when it's not in use?
Then use the internal GPU from the motherboard?
This would ofcourse solve all my problems.

quest_for_silence
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Location: ITALY

Re: new HTPC chassis

Post by quest_for_silence » Sun Jun 17, 2012 2:54 pm

Woody wrote:quest_for_silence: I can undervolt the motherboard in bios. I've done it before sucessfully, so this will solve the problem I guess.

I beg your pardon, but maybe there's a misunderstanding.

I've not talked about undervolting the CPU (AFAIK in the motherboard BIOS you can undervolt the CPU, not the motherboard itself).

I've adviced you to undervolt the graphics card, the Gigabyte GTX 460 to lower its temp and calm down its fans (you can try also to dial them down with a custom fan curve, while the minimum speed flashable in the BIOS for those cards seems to be around 29-30%).

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