My HTPC (in my sig) has been converted to a file server. I added 4xWD green drives, and took out the 2.5" drive and the tuner. Boots and runs flawlessly with the 120w Pico and the 80W brick. Of course I can't get the top on the case anymore because of all the drives in there, but that just gives goo...

Hi guys, It's been a while since I've done a new build. I'm currently looking to build a NAS in an HTPC style case. To start it'll have 4 WD 2TB green drives, but I want to leave room to upgrade to 6 or more. It'll probably have an Matx board. Can anyone suggest some cases that have reasonable airfl...

Thanks for the feedback. I asked here because I trust the advice - and you guys know cooling, without going over the top :lol: Yeah, overclocking and single HD aren't as reliable as other options. But we're not looking for 5 years of reliability, just 6-12 months 'till we're done. The HD is going to...

I'd like some feedback on a system with: i7 920 (overclocked to ~3.6 GHz) P6T deluxe (or P6T) 500GB HD 12GB 1600 C8D (or 1866 C9D as I'm having trouble getting the 1600) basic video card Thermalright Ultra 120 eXtreme CPU cooler This machine will be running the CPU full load 24/7 crunching numbers, ...

Sounds reasonable - the less bells and whistles, the less power used. The other thing to look at is whether/how much the OS will allow you to control the undervolting/underclocking of your hardware, integrate with speedstep etc. I think that's one are where my laptop lets me down - Ubuntu doesn't se...

Depends on your hardware. My laptop runs much hotter (and therefore sucks more power) on Ubuntu than it does on XP...

Remember your overall system power consumption depends on the rest of your system as much as your CPU, so you need to ensure all components are as low-power as possible. My E8400 runs stock speeds at 1V in the bios (slightly lower in cpuZ). The overall system runs fine on an 80W brick, but without m...

I bought one from amazon.co.uk a while back.

Yeah, I think so. Take an average 3.5" and an average 2.5" and the 3.5 will suck more power, generate more heat and be noisier. I haven't been following it closely enough recently to point you in the direction of specific comparisons, but http://www.silentpcreview.com/article29-page1.html will give ...

What are your temps looking like? When I'm testing with Orthos nothing's over 35C - that's with my living room at approx 17C, CPU and case fans at approx 600 rpm. But mine is a C2Duo and different mobo and I'm running it monitor-less so not stressing the video component at all. From looking at your...

I've got a WD10EACS hard-mounted in my server. It's currently sitting on the coffee table about 50cm from my head. As long as the drive is only doing one task at a time (ie streaming a movie) I can't hear it. However, if the drive is really busy - streaming, plus encoding something else in the backg...

I've got the same case. I'm running mine with a PW-200-M PSU (bigger cousin of the PicoPSU), and a 120mm fan where the original power supply was. That means (a) the heat from the PSU isn't dumped inside the case, and (b) there's better heat exhaust (and room for a bigger CPU cooler if you need one)....

I've been running a new e8400 at stock speeds at 1.0v on a GA G33M-S2H with no problems for the last couple of weeks.

Sorry, I wasn't clear. My problem is the x1250 not managing it. Even just the Windows desktop flickers and drops in and out. I was thinking maybe a later BIOS might help (I'm on 0502), but I could be way off base.

I've been running this board for some time, but haven't managed to get 1080p from the onboard graphics, although it runs fine at 1080i. Has anyone here had any luck getting it to run at 1080p? If so, how?

Interesting about the pico vs 200W. I had the same problem - my 200 wouldn't run a system that the pico 120 ran fine. I didn't pursue it further, ended up using the 200 in another box. As for the power the tuner draws - I'm not familiar with that tuner, but my digital tuners all draw well under 10W ...

Whoops. I left the tuner out of my sig. And since my sig and config change regularly, here's the config LBadvance is referring to: HTPC: X2 4000+ (stock speeds @1.0V|stock cooler, Nexus fan)|M2A-VM HDMI|Seagate 40GB 2.5"|PicoPSU120, 80W brick|Silverstone LC02|DVICO digital tuner| Oh, and for the rec...

Hard question. I found my receipt from Short-Circuit - I bought a pico 120 plus 80w brick for USD70, another 80W brick for $28 (for another project) and then $50 worth of small bits like internal cables. Total shipping to Sydney was $60. I can't find the details from mini-box, but remember thinking ...

Not sure whether it's too high or not, but it doesn't seem over the top to me. Some thoughts: Your tuner probably pulls ~10W - and the WD HD about the same. No idea about the X-Fi. How efficient is the Corsair at low wattage? I had a noticeable increase in efficiency when I swapped from a Seasonic s...

Hey, congratulations! I never even turned on my stock PSU - the first thing I did when unpacking the case was remove it, LOL. I bought my picopsu's from 2 different places - www.mini-box.com and www.short-circuit.com - both seem to ship to just about anywhere - but one of them had expensive shipping...

I've got the M2A-VM HDMI - with a 1080p tv. I'm running it at 1080i DVI -> HDMI with a Brisbane CPU. It works fine, but I have to be a bit choosey about the playing software and codecs - I have had it run one of the cores to the max and start juddering. I haven't tested exhaustively, but I can't get...

How about adhesive velcro? For a 2.5" drive it's plenty strong enough, and absorbs what little vibration there is.

Good luck with MythTV. I really wanted to use it, and had a shot at it a couple of years ago but gave up in frustration - couldn't get it to recognise my tuners, plus a host of other issues. Being a total linux newbie, I gave up and went back to windows. These days my laptop runs Linux and it works ...

I didn't know that you could manipulate the intel GMA to do other resolutions. If you can, maybe it'll do what you need it to or else, as you said, look for an intel board thats got a more flexible graphics chip. I might add - the intel chip had no problem outputting 1920x1080p - I just couldn't adj...

Think hard whether you want to change out that Mobo. I've got the S2H, and used it in my HTPC for a while. But its onboard video driver is hopeless, you've got almost no scope for adjusting anything. I ended up putting it in my server, and buying the ASUS 2A-VM HDMI for my HTPC instead - works much ...

I'm running plain Windows XP - with Webscheduler for recording, and Zoomplayer for playing - although I'm thinking about swapping to VLC - it seeks forward and back much better on my work Fedora laptop than ZP does. But I don't know Linux well enough yet to switch my home machines over. I tried Myth...

Yep, molex and Y should do it. Dunno what you're planning to do with the power cable coming in to the Pico - it should just reach to the PCI slots, but you won't have one free, will you? You might need to think about a) extending the cable and b) how to mount it to the case. I haven't done anything ...

I could not see in the picture. But did you have to buy any extra cables for the picoPSU to work with the asus HDMI motherboard? E.g. 20-> 24pin or P4 connector etc? 20-24 pin is no problem - just plug the 20-pin right in - it's keyed so you can't get it wrong. But you will need the extra 4-pin pow...

OK, the HTPC as configured in my sig draws about 40W at idle, 44W playing a DVD or SD content from the HD or across the network. HD (1080i) material draws about 50W. At boot it hits 60W for a few seconds. If I run Orthos it's 63W, Orthos and Rthdribl is 65W. So if you think you might EVER want to ru...

It'll depend on what mobo and CPU you end up with - and how much you can undervolt it - and how much headroom you want to have. I'll stick mine on the kill-a-watt tomorrow and let you know how much it's using - right now the kill-a-watt is on my server that's busy recording...