AOpen EZ18 Questions. One at MikeC

RaNDoMMAI · Post by **RaNDoMMAI** » Tue Jul 13, 2004 2:46 pm

Hey guyz

I have several question regarding the EZ18

1. On newegg, it says it only supports FSB 333 and RAM up to 333. Does this make me not able to use PC3200 RAM?
Also, I want to put a mobile barton 2400 in it, would i be able to put the FSB to 200 and the mult to 11 and get a 2.2ghz out of it?

2. Does this have SATA on the mobo? why would the EZ65 have it and not the EZ16, shouldn't the only difference be athlon vs intel?

3. In the AOpen aritcle thread, someone mention that the 220PSU might not be enough for high end vid cards and high end CPU, Can this thing support a radeon 9800?

4. in the article itself, it said that there is a EZ65 in blue, i cant find this anywhere. Did they not make blue ones? Can i buy different case covers from AOpen like shuttle has?

5. This is mainly at MikeC or anyone who has tried both. If you could pick between the Shuttle' "Zen" or the Aopen EZ65 which would you pick in terms of noise?

The AOpen site didnt really answer any of these questions?

I hope someone here can help

TIA
~RaNDOM

Post by **MikeC** » Tue Jul 13, 2004 3:35 pm

re - the mem: I'd think it would default to 333 and run the PC3200 at that speed. Unless it has unofficial support...

Seems to me you'd want to download the manual and look through it for the tech details. Not sure about a 9800. What would you want one in a small quiet box? Don't think it's a good choice. The hottest I'd go is with a 9600XT maybe. If there's a fanless one. You can't std Zalman/VGA Cooler -- no room.

As for the XCube vs. Zen for noise, it's the latter -- by a nose... an Om?

Fact is: One less fan. The one in the AOpen PSU is thermally regulated so if you have hot components or a lot day or a big load, it has to speed up. When both PSU and CPU fans are slwo, there's not much difference between the two wee boxes.

For versatility and finish, the AOpen is better.

RaNDoMMAI · Post by **RaNDoMMAI** » Tue Jul 13, 2004 4:19 pm

Thx for the quick repiy MikEC

I am really interested in the AOpen and i would love to get the one you have for sale but i REALLY want a black one, acually a blue one would be super sweet.

Do you think AOPen sells covers? if so, can you replace the front of the XC cube?

I emailed them asking this but i got no answer back at all and i see nothing about covers for sell on the aopen site.

Thx
~RaNDoM

flyingsherpa · Post by **flyingsherpa** » Sat Jul 17, 2004 2:28 pm

i searched in vain for a long time trying to find any color other than black or white. the aopen web site / press release mentions many more colors, but no one has them. i bet they only released those in asia or something. i'm not aware of anyone selling different covers for them either. i highly doubt they would do that. it would be non-trivial to take the front plate off.

anyway, i ended up getting the black EZ65. i actually had the black EZ18 but it was damaged during shipping and then Newegg was out of stock for a looooonnnggg time so i decided to go intel instead. i do remember that there were quite a few differences between the two. the heatsink on the 18 was much lower quality and the fan was louder (though it looked like the same fan model on the 65). i don't think it has sata either. in any case, i built the 65 for my parents and they loooove it ("its so small!"). its not nearly as quiet as either of my rigs, buts its quieter than the duron compaq it replaced. mostly fan air noise, no real whining.

RaNDoMMAI · Post by **RaNDoMMAI** » Sat Jul 17, 2004 4:58 pm

How much fan noise are we talking about?

Like can you hear it from a meter away?

~RaNDoM

flyingsherpa · Post by **flyingsherpa** » Sat Jul 17, 2004 6:02 pm

RaNDoMMAI wrote:How much fan noise are we talking about?

Like can you hear it from a meter away?

~RaNDoM

yes, easily. and its not just the cpu or psu, its really both (tested using the FingerMark fan stopping system). i thought about swapping the cpu fan out with a zalman zm-op1, which i think would work even though its an 80mm and the stock is 70mm, but i never tried it. i think a more serious modder would have decent success by replacing both the cpu fan and the psu fan with zm-op1's. though the psu fan swap looks like it would a tad harder than any ATX psu fan swap due to the restricted space and pre-routed power cables going everywhere.

i had a p4 2.0 in there w/ onboard vga, so it was hardly taxing the thermal abilities of the system, but it would still get noticeably louder when just doing SETI@home for 10 minutes or so. the noise is pretty decent though, just air whooshing, but a die-hard SPCRer would not find it acceptable (i would not have it as my main rig in stock form).

edit: i should add that i love SFF systems, but if i was forced to use one as my main rig, i think the only acceptable one (in terms of quietness) would be a modified Zen. the others just have too many small fans. these fans can be quieted somewhat, but not made inaudible. i've played w/ the EZ65, EZ18, and biostar ideq 200V, so i haven't used them all, but from what i've read these are about the quietest anyway.

RaNDoMMAI · Post by **RaNDoMMAI** » Sat Jul 17, 2004 6:23 pm

thx for the input flyingsherpa

I was really considing getting the AopeN.

But i am too use to my machines that i cannot handle any noise at all.

I have only had a change to see one sff and althought it was quiet, it was just not quiet enough for me.

I have just two more questions for ya

this fan noise, is it always on or only on when you are using the system alot? what about just web browsing?

thx
~RaNDoM

overscan · Post by **overscan** » Thu Aug 05, 2004 2:26 pm

I've got an EZ18 I'm using as a PVR box.

When you first turn it on, the fan gives a huge whine, but once the BIOS pops up it goes very quiet.

The EZ18 system is under my TV. I can't hear it at all from my sofa unless the hard drive is being pounded, when I hear the drive a little. You can hear something a little when you get very close, but I am very happy with it. (I have a SLK3700BQE-based main system which is also pretty quiet). Its not usually using more than 30% CPU time when being a PVR however.

My mainissue with the EZ18 stems from the insufficient airflow over the hard drive. I have a 160gig Samsung in there and it was running constantly at 45-47C.

So, I've put a quiet 80mm fan in pushing air over the hard drive, which is now idling at about 31 deg. Space is VERY tight however. If such a thing as a slimline fan is available, I'd get one

My other issue is the built-in TV output is TOO DARK! Quality is acceptable, but its just DARK. So, I put a spare Radeon 9200 (no fan!) in which has much better TV output.

Overscan

flyingsherpa · Post by **flyingsherpa** » Thu Aug 05, 2004 2:58 pm

overscan wrote:I've got an EZ18 I'm using as a PVR box.

My mainissue with the EZ18 stems from the insufficient airflow over the hard drive. I have a 160gig Samsung in there and it was running constantly at 45-47C.

So, I've put a quiet 80mm fan in pushing air over the hard drive, which is now idling at about 31 deg. Space is VERY tight however. If such a thing as a slimline fan is available, I'd get one

overscan,
a slim 80mm fan works great, see my EZ65 fan mod. You can actually get the cover back on easily with this.

overscan · Post by **overscan** » Fri Aug 06, 2004 1:30 am

I can get the cover on fine with a standard 80mm Coolermaster fan. Its supposedly 25 dB at 2600rpm, so I am using a spare Zalman fanmate to slow it down until its pretty much silent.

burcakb · Post by **burcakb** » Fri Aug 06, 2004 5:21 am

Randommai, it was me who questioned the capability of the AOpen PSU. The guy in that case was planning to put in a graphics card that was drawing a lot of 5V power as far as i recall. Otherwise there shouldn't be a problem, they did put an AGP slot there after all.

I've been eyeing the wonderful EA65 AV version but I'm loath to spend tons of money on Intel. I wish they'd bring about an AMD version.

As for the EZ18, it uses the nforce2-GT chipset with the integrated VGA which does DDR333 with onboard VGA, and DDR400 with the onboard VGA disabled. At least that's what the manual says. Download it, there are several pictures, etc there but not the technical info we'd like

RaNDoMMAI · Post by **RaNDoMMAI** » Fri Aug 06, 2004 7:28 pm

Hey guyz

I ended up getting a silver zen shuttle after all.

I switched out the stock fan for a panaflo L1A at 6~7V and i suspended the HDD.

It is uber silent expect when i am using the HDD alot, then i hear seeks.

i'm not to sure what to do about the seeks.

MikeC thinks i should get a 80gig notebook drive, but i dont have anymore money for one and i dont want to lose the 160gig HDD =/

but anyway, i am very happy with the zen, it is not as quiet as my main rig but it is quite exceptable.

~RaNDoM