HTPC C2D in NSK1300... frustrated!

[Webfire]

I just finished putting together a new HTPC for our kitchen. But I'm not happy at all. Well at first the components:

Asus P5B-VM
Intel Core 2 Duo E6300, stock cooler
Kingston 1GB Value Ram
Gigabyte Geforce 7300 GS
Seagate Barracuda 7200.9 160GB 8MB SATA II low noise (ST3160811AS)
TechniSat SkyStar 2
Antec NSK 1300

To summarize my experiences yet, it's hot, "power hungry" and not quiet at all.
I will change the stock cooler of the Core 2 with my old modded Zalman 7000 AlCu but I need the right mounting so I have to wait for that. I might have put a little too much AS5 on the CPU right now, but I'll change that when I mount the Zalman. Right now the CPU Temperatur with ASUS Probe is 56°C in idle.
So there is still a few things to improve and optimize for the CPU cooler.

But the main problem is the high power consumption. I don't understand why this system consumes 105W in idle.
A short calculation:
C2D 26W XbitLabs
Geforce 7300 GS 8W XbitLabs
Seagte Barracuda 8W Seagate

That's 42W without the mobo, so let's say 60W altogether. Even if the PSU has a low efficiency I don't see why the system uses 105W. Even my old rig (Link) with a Athlon XP 2500+ is using only 90W in idle without any QnC or EIST.

I'm guessing the Geforce 7300 GS is using a lot more than the 8W in the Xbitlabs review. It gets so hot, Nvidia driver is showing 90°C. I don't think it can get that hot with 8W. The cooler isn't that small. But I have to admit the air flow in this case is pretty minimal.

I hope someone has some ideas concerning the power consumption and improving my rig.

Edit: I'm on a vacation for 12 days. So I can't answer until friday next week. But suggestions for my problem are always welcome.

[Swede]

Did you find a solution to your problem? Or are you still not happy with the NSK1300?

[nzimmers]

doesn't the P5B-vm come with integrated video??

maybe ditch the 7300Gs and just try the integrated video, or if you keep the card, see if you can disable the onboard video so it's not using power

[Webfire]

doesn't the P5B-vm come with integrated video??

maybe ditch the 7300Gs and just try the integrated video, or if you keep the card, see if you can disable the onboard video so it's not using power

Well the P5B-VM has onboard video but only a vga output. DVI looks a lot nicer with the EIZO 24". That's why I wanted to use the 7300GS.
With the onboard video it was running okay and the heat problems weren't to big. But I wasn't satisfied so I made some major changes.
Bought a new mainboard, Aopen i945GTm-VHL and the Intel Core 2 Duo T5500. The Aopen board has integrated video as well but also a DVI output. No need for an extra video card now.

It's a lot better now. Lower temperatures and DVI output. I haven't had the time yet to check the power consumption and do a little bit of tweaking. But it is a nice solution now.

[drZymo]

Just so you'd know. The P5B-VM does indeed have no DVI ports. There are however DVI add-on cards for motherboards that use the 965 chipset, called ADD2 cards. They are nothing more than just a PCIe card with one or two DVI ports. No fancy hardware. Wintec and Asus are just two of the many companies making such cards.

More information can be found on Intel's website about this.
http://www.intel.com/support/graphics/i ... 013296.htm
(It might seem only for the 915 chipset but a whole range of chipsets support these cards, including the 965 set).

And one example is a card from Wintec, available at Newegg.com for 33 dollars.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6815133002

This might be helpful for other people.

[Webfire]

Just so you'd know. The P5B-VM does indeed have no DVI ports. There are however DVI add-on cards for motherboards that use the 965 chipset, called ADD2 cards. They are nothing more than just a PCIe card with one or two DVI ports. No fancy hardware. Wintec and Asus are just two of the many companies making such cards.

More information can be found on Intel's website about this.
http://www.intel.com/support/graphics/i ... 013296.htm
(It might seem only for the 915 chipset but a whole range of chipsets support these cards, including the 965 set).

And one example is a card from Wintec, available at Newegg.com for 33 dollars.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6815133002

This might be helpful for other people.

Thanks for the info. Too bad I already changed everything. But my other PC is happy about the new (old) Core 2 duo =) And the lower power consumption of the mobile cpu in the nsk is helpful as well.
I read about the ADD2 cards but I wasn't sure if they work on every mainboard, only saw them from one manufacturer. I had a look if they are avaiable in Germany but couldn't find anything so I dismissed the idea.
But it's good to know that this would be a possibility.