Asus Pundit replacement

Henk Poley · Post by **Henk Poley** » Mon Aug 01, 2005 12:02 pm

I'm currently running a MythTV system on an Asus Pundit with a 2.4GHz Celeron (P4 core). But I'm not quite happy with noise levels.

What would you recommend as a "drop-in" replacement for the Asus Pundit?

My current system is basicly:
- Asus Pundit barebone (built-in video, audio, networking)
- Celeron 2.4GHz
- 512MB DDR RAM
- Terratec Cinergy 600 (PCI tv card)
- 120GB P-ATA harddisk
- DVD drive (almost never used)
- PS/2 keyboard/mouse
- TV connected with S-Video

Any of the above could of course be replaced (except the TV

), but I hope you understand I would rather like to re-use as much as possible.

AZBrandon · Post by **AZBrandon** » Sat Aug 06, 2005 8:47 pm

Well, since you don't need an AGP board and are only running a very low power processor, the Shuttle Zen with it's fanless external power supply would likely be about the best way to go, and you should be able to transfer everything over to that, leaving only the Pundit itself behind. There's an article on the site describing how to make the Zen extremely quiet, which if I remember correctly consists mainly of replacing the stock fans.

I also own a Pundit as my almost never-used webserver / network storage system, and have been thinking of getting a Zen and transferring everything over. If you go that route, let me know since I'd be interested in hearing from another Pundit owner how much quieter a stock Zen is when you use them back to back.

Hifriday · Post by **Hifriday** » Tue Aug 16, 2005 9:43 am

I also have a Pundit running a Celeron2.2. I found it to be low noise and on the most part inaudible placed next to the TV 6 feet away. There are only two fans in the system, and for me the CPU fan runs very quiet, but the PSU fan seems quite a bit louder. You may consider modding the PSU fan before giving up on your Pundit.
If that's not an option, then I would agree with AZBrandon that the Zen with its fanless PSU would make a good candidate.

Personally the Pundit didn't work out for me as it was unable to playback some multimedia slideshows with transitions/audio smoothly so it's been donated for office work. However mine is the very old version with the Sis chipset.

Aleksi · Post by **Aleksi** » Tue Aug 16, 2005 12:14 pm

Hello Hifriday,

My brother has the older Pundit also, I'm supposed to go the there in about a 1½ weeks to see if it could be made a bit quieter.

Do you know if the Asus Pundit's PSU could accomodate a thicker (25mm) fan, does the PCB inside the PSU touch the current thin (15mm) fan?

It will be interesting to see what I can do about the noise, he's got a huge DVB-card that is supposed to go OVER the cpu fan, it is making some noise because the card is so close to the CPU fan. I think I'll try to make some sort of a vertical CPU fan mount and duct to ease the noise.

Hifriday · Post by **Hifriday** » Wed Aug 17, 2005 6:05 am

Do you know if the Asus Pundit's PSU could accomodate a thicker (25mm) fan, does the PCB inside the PSU touch the current thin (15mm) fan?

Actually the PSU fan is a 80x20mm. It is mounted on the inside side of the PSU (ie next to the CD-ROM). There is a open slot in the PSU casing for the fan simply to slide in. Maybe you can get a better picture from here even though it is the newer -R the PSU layout is similar. Here is another Pundit silencing thread.

If you want to use a 25mm fan, you could mount it outside of the PSU assuming you have a short CD-ROM (like the ASUS) or otherwise snipping the PSU grill should also allow you to attach a thicker fan but you would lose the original screw holes.

Replacing the PSU fan should make the system quieter, however be careful to monitor the temps as it already runs warm with the stock fan. Do let us know how it goes.

Aleksi · Post by **Aleksi** » Wed Aug 17, 2005 9:02 am

Hi,

thanks for the answer. I've been reading those Pundit threads earlier and googling, but I somehow thought it had 80x15mm PSU fan in it. That's good to know.

The reason why I was asking is, that I think the DVD-drive used is "normal" length, so unless I use an Panaflo FBL it will have excess noise created due to the proximity of the DVD-drive and cabling.

But I'll try to fitting a 25mm thick fan in there primarily, probably go with a 80M1A for that one.

forgieboy · Post by **forgieboy** » Tue Aug 23, 2005 9:40 am

Hmmm... I've got a Pundit-R (Different to an old Pundit?) and my PSU has a 80x15mm fan...

I don't know how similar the old Pundits are to the 'R's, but with my 'R', I swapped in a 80x15mm Evercool EC8015M12CA in the PSU (and hardwired it to 5V). I also pulled off the CPU fan/duct thingy and put a SilenX 80x25mm low speed fan on there, and used some foam to do the job that the removed duct was doing.

With these two fans and a 2.5" 80GB Scorpio wrapped in bubble wrap (8)) my Pundit-R is as quiet as can be. (I can only JUST hear it at 4am when I go to bed if i put my head right next to it - I'm really anal about noise, I can hear my ipod across the room loading up the next few songs, the pundit-r is quieter then the pod) I'm just waiting on the 2.8C northwood that I ordered to replace my 2.4 CeleronD (far too hot for the performance it gives), then my Pundit-R will be complete