Well I love my HTPC I built with the help of you all last year and so does my father so i am helping him build one. Right now I am trying to decide between an Intel i3 530 or Athlon II x2 240. What I need the most help with is selecting a good low powered motherboard. Reports of peoples' experience ...

It's not as fancy or small as some of the other cases I have made but it is just the right width and depth for my Hi-Fi stack. Top and sides are 3/4" hard wood. The airflow comes in through a vent in the bottom and out through the back. Normally the computer is turned on and off by a remote so I put...

After reading this review I feel even better about my decision to get a Dinvo Mini for my HTPC. I do type even less then the review on my HTPC. Just enough to go to my favorite web pages or run a search on google. For any other tasks it is a better experience to grab my laptop which takes only a mom...

I don't know why it happened in this case but I have had seen that problem before. In my case I blamed it on a generaly low budget and buggy motherboard.

BTW you should have been able to clear the CMOS by moving a jumper on your motherboard without removing the battery.

i just built a htpc with an msi g41tm-e43, and the integrated graphics sucked... it uses the intel x4300(?) gpu, which doesn't support all forms of decoding, and doesn't play well with the powerdvd oem video player... most mpeg2 video clips were severely pixellated and broken up on the screen, and ...

Thanks for linking that thread, which I hadn't seen. Given the small difference at idle between G31 and G45, it seems likely that other differences in motherboards are likely to be more significant. Just from looking at the two 785g MB SPCR review I can tell you there can be big differences power c...

What's inside an external power brick? What's stopping a manufacturer - or a brave modder - from transferring the contents of a power brick into a TFX or SFX form factor box with lots of holes in it? I don't see a reason why that can't be done, so why aren't there fanless, 80-Plus efficiency, ~120W...

If you really want bit streaming maybe you should wait for the low end 5000 series GPUs to roll around. You could always get a motherboard with integrated graphics to hold you over until the new GPU are released. You might even decide its good enough for your needs. I am extremely happy with the MSI...

Why the necro bump? BTW this thread brings back alot of memories. Marco's PSU mod was the first I attempted myself. The result was very successful and I only got shocked 3 times from that PSU. I later used what I learned to make an ultra compact case using a stripped down PSU. The second case was mu...

I got a MSI 785GM-E65. I really like it. Only the cpu fan is actively controlled. The case fan voltage can be set manualy. On my system I have the cpu fan ducted to take outside air. I use the case fan to give a little air flow over the hard drive. It is a 80mm panaflow on the lowest bios setting (I...

ANTEC SL300S LOAD = 95W IDLE = 61W ANTEC TRUPOWER NEW 550W (80+ Bronze) LOAD = 82W IDLE = 53W PICOPSU 150XT + Dell DA-1 LOAD= 75W IDLE =45W I expected the improvement, but did not really think I would see a 17% improvement vs a 80+Bronze PS @ IDLE. -That is all hope you found it interesting... I am...

Any review that tests a low power part like a 240e and gets a system idle power over 100W is doing something wrong. My Athlon II 240 based system runs at 32W @ idle. Also you have to be careful when making power consumption comparisons across platforms as different chipsets and even different boards...

Before I started the PC I was surprised to see it was pulling 10W from the wall socket, - would this be the power supply ?...and is it an overhead I can discount with a Pico PSU ? So far it looks as though I could comfortably power this system with a 120W Pico PSU......but have I missed anything ? ...

Thanks...those comparisons look encouraging. I have found a couple of fanless AC/DC converters from a UK company which should work with the PicoPSU-150; 150W and 180W - I'll call them Monday. http://www.relec.co.uk/product743.html http://www.relec.co.uk/product744.html Oops....that should be 180W a...

@Electrodacus Let me know if that is still working a year from now. When I was a security guard and spent alot of time in my car I went through 3 ac inverters. The first one blew out when I upgraded my laptop. The next went up in lots of smoke after working for a year with no problems. My last one s...

If you don't need them you can do one of the following. Root the wires to where they should go if you were using them and then zip tie them in place. This normally gets them out of the way pretty nicely. (this is my preference) Stuff them in an empty disk drive bay. Or if you want to get fancy. Get ...

I can give you my system for comparison. MB: 785gm-e65 CPU: Athlon II x2 240 Ram: 2x2GB DDR3 HD: 2.5" Fujitsu 120GB IDE DD: Sony Blu-Ray Drive (full sized) PSU: Electrodacus's 130W DC-DC adapter with salvaged 90W 24V NEC brick. Power measured at outlet using Seasonic Power Angel. Max (Prime95 + Furm...

In defense of 785g I like my MSI 756gm-e65 pretty well. As long as your system doesn't need more then one fan or you are willing to get a fan controller its great. Unlike some other boards this one allows undervolting while still using C'n'Q. I guess some people with special needs might go with some...

I don't understand this obsession with passive CPU coolers. A low RPM fan at 5V is virtually inaudible and will make a noticeable difference in your CPU temps. For me its more of a design challenge then anything else. I have tried a couple times to make a totally passive system using relatively nor...

Concerning grounding. the most important concern is safety. With an ordinary system that has a internal PSU, an internal fault in the PSU could result in the rest of the metal case being live at 120V or 240V depending on your country. To prevent this they put in a grounding wire which connects the b...

I ordered all the components a couple of days ago, made a few changes: - CPU: AMD Sempron X1 140 (I am planning to unlock the second core, and undervolt the CPU) - CPU cooler: Scythe Ninja (hopefully this is good enough for passive cooling) - 4GB DDR3 RAM: 2 sticks of 1.5V DDR3 1333MhZ, will try to...

Why are you trying to run a fanless CPU with a fan cooled PSU? Why not? Many people run their setups this way, including me. The CPU fan is often a much larger source of noise than a PSU fan due to the usual stock speed. Also, in most ATX cases, the CPU is usually located very close to the exhaust ...

That connector list almost looks like a totally different product page. I am inclined to believe that they got the certification for the brick and the person who buys the product is personally responsible for choosing the correct connector. Given that you can buy many bricks without any connector th...

I also run my 240 at 1.175V. Anything below that was unstable. I also noticed when testing the 250 SPCR undervolted to 1.175. I wonder what is magic about that number. The board you found looks nifty though I for the price I think I might have gone over to the intel camp in order to go mini-itx. May...

Hey all, I am building a HTPC so the motherboard is flat and I am drawing air from the bottom of the case (motherboard mounted upside down). This is so I can put a duct for the cpu but it won't be sucking hot air from my amplifier on top and stuff wont get dropped in the vent. I wanted to know what ...

A couple questions... Is your brick UL listed? Was the connector put on their by FSP or by someone else? The FSP brick is UL listed and "tested to comply with FCC standards". Here is a link to its web page: http://www.fsp-group.com.tw/english/1_product/2_detail.asp?mainid=5&fid=96&proid=426 It inde...

There are lots of 8A+ bricks (like the popular FSP 12V 12.5A one), and I find it strange that a company such as FSP would mount a connector with a maximum spec of 8A to a brick that is capable of handling 12.5A. I was thinking about replacing the 2.5/5.5mm-connector with a 2x2 mini-fit connector, s...

I believe that usually undervolting on AMDs at least will disable Cool'n'Quiet, though that may or may not matter all that much depending on what you're doing and the levels you end up at. My MSI 785gm-e65 w/ Athlon II 240 did not disable Cool'n'Quiet when i undervolted it. I can clearly see the mu...

However I never did understand the benefit of having a separate chamber for the PSU. All good PSU's except maybee the Antec NeoPower and the Antec Signature series has the fan facing donwards and is closed in the direction of the airflow. If anything the chamber will block hot air from the harddriv...

I believe that is the case but there is a caveat. Even if the 240e is a undervolted 240 AMD may have tested the chips to see which ones unervolt the best and made those 240e while the ones that did not undervolt as well were designated vanilla 240. So even if the 240e is just an undervolted 240 you ...