Need advices for a GA-6KIEH-RH (case, psu, fan)

[romainp]

Hi Guys,
This is the first time I use this forum and I love what silentpcreview do.
But because those days I feel lost about all the different cases, psu and fan things I really need your help.
Here is my situation:
I have bought few years ago a system from logicsuppy based on a GA-6KIEH-RH motherboard and a morec case. The psi is an external one.
I have use mainly this system to test and play with xen in my home networking.

Right now I suspect my external psu to fail and I feel that I have to give the main board a new psu, case and maybe a cpu fan.
Of course my main goal is that the system should be as silent as possible.

On top of this, because my first goal is reach (testing xen), I would like to change this motherboard for a more robust system based on a mini itx motherboard but this time with a Core I5 - SandyBridge solution.

So what case can I buy to use my old mobo for now and later a brand new one?
What are your recommandation for:
- silent mini itx case for a GA-6KIEH-RH motherboard
- silect psu for my GA-6KIEH-RH
- silent cpu fan for this GA-6KIEH-RH code 2 dua mobile cpu (maybe : coolermaster EPN41 FCS 01?)

And
- silent case for a sandybridge mini itx motherboard
- silect psu, fan, etc for this kind of system?

I have check this site http://www.itxgamer.com/tools/compare/ and some review and for a home xen server (5 vms at the same time) how do think about the GA-H55N-USB3 and an intel core i5-750?

Any advices will be more than welcome!

[guises]

That Gigabyte board looks pretty great. If you wanted to stick with low power mobile CPUs, AOpen has a board that looks good, the s760GXm-S. I've had a couple of AOpen boards in the past and really liked them, but they have a tendency to use loud, active, chipset coolers. So you should expect to replace that.

For a case, you don't mention anything about size. Fractal Design has a couple of nice looking cases available this summer (June?) the Define Mini and Arc Mini. They look nice and have quiet-minded features and probably won't be excessively expensive, but they're larger than it looks like you really need. Anandtech recently had a mini ITX buyer's guide with some smaller case recommendations. You could check that out if you're interested in something petite:

http://www.anandtech.com/show/4282/nett ... yers-guide

Check out the last page there for something sorta like what you're doing.

Can't help you with the cooler, sorry, don't know that much.

[HFat]

I have bought few years ago a system from logicsuppy based on a GA-6KIEH-RH motherboard and a morec case.

What case is that? Some Morex cases are great for fanless systems. A mobile C2D could in principle run fanless and is a rare and fairly pricey item. If you've got a potentially fanless system that works, I'd try to sell it before gutting it.

Right now I suspect my external psu to fail and I feel that I have to give the main board a new psu

Suspect? You should make sure! If the "psu" has failed, is it the board in the case, the brick or both?

how do think about the GA-H55N-USB3 and an intel core i5-750?

Do you need that much power or not? Which CPU features do you need? If you don't need much, it would be easier and a lot cheaper to build a silent system with a 35W dual-core Sandy Bridge for instance.
You also need to decide what you want for storage. Some cases only have room for one or two 2.5'' drive while other cases give you more options.

[romainp]

That Gigabyte board looks pretty great. If you wanted to stick with low power mobile CPUs, AOpen has a board that looks good, the s760GXm-S. I've had a couple of AOpen boards in the past and really liked them, but they have a tendency to use loud, active, chipset coolers. So you should expect to replace that.

For a case, you don't mention anything about size. Fractal Design has a couple of nice looking cases available this summer (June?) the Define Mini and Arc Mini. They look nice and have quiet-minded features and probably won't be excessively expensive, but they're larger than it looks like you really need. Anandtech recently had a mini ITX buyer's guide with some smaller case recommendations. You could check that out if you're interested in something petite:

http://www.anandtech.com/show/4282/nett ... yers-guide

Check out the last page there for something sorta like what you're doing.

Can't help you with the cooler, sorry, don't know that much.

In fact I first buy this system to play with xen with a not so big system. My primary goal was to have a small but powerfull system where I can use Xen and that will be very low in term of noise.

Logic supply make some ver good system specially if you are looking for silent one.

For the case and the psu, I will not go again with the external psu. I am pretty sure I can found a quiet and cool mini itx case and psu.
Looking on the net I found this case with the psu of 300W (which will be very enough for me) that I some very good review:
Ca you tell me what do you think about it:

http://www.silverstonetek.com/products/ ... 5&area=usa

[romainp]

What case is that? Some Morex cases are great for fanless systems. A mobile C2D could in principle run fanless and is a rare and fairly pricey item. If you've got a potentially fanless system that works, I'd try to sell it before gutting it.

The case was : http://www.logicsupply.com/products/t_3500_142w. And it is not so fanless meaning that the external psu maybe some noise that could be the same as an internal one in a minit itx case.

Suspect? You should make sure! If the "psu" has failed, is it the board in the case, the brick or both?

Well, it's because when I power on the system, the motherboard have a green light but sometimes the cpu fan stop or not work at all and the system hang after some times (no power)


Do you need that much power or not? Which CPU features do you need? If you don't need much, it would be easier and a lot cheaper to build a silent system with a 35W dual-core Sandy Bridge for instance.
You also need to decide what you want for storage. Some cases only have room for one or two 2.5'' drive while other cases give you more options.

Well, the firt system was to play with xen and some technics. Now that I am confortable with my solution, I want to use a more robust (but still quiet) system.
Because I use 5 VMs and some mysql databases I need a more powerfull cpu and more ram available.
I will reuse my old core 2 mobile system as a web server of course, maybe with this case

http://www.silverstonetek.com/products/ ... 5&area=usa

I will use:
- 5 VMs and some mysql databases
- I will use Samba for file shareing
- Need a robust and fast hard drive solution (raid 1) for let say at least 2To of data, backup will be done using external esata drive

For the motherboard this one seems interesting: http://www.gigabyte.us/products/product ... x?pid=3783

Can you tell my what do you think and if you have some good advices for me?

Thank again.

[HFat]

http://www.logicsupply.com/products/t_3500_142w

I bought one of these on sale and the PSU's fan was noisy (more than a quiet heatsink fan should be). But it almost never spins up with a low-power system if the brick is put somewhere where it can breathe.
I imagine you could mod or replace the brick. If you think it's going bad anyway, you could try wiring another brick to the connector. I still think it would be a shame to use such a system (it beats an Atom) for anything else than a client. In any case don't throw the case away! It's a nice case and even if the internal PSU is failing, you could probably fit it with a new Morex PSU or maybe another pico-style PSU.
But make sure it's not the motherboard which is going bad first. Some bad boards look like they're lacking power until you replace them with a good board.

Because I use 5 VMs and some mysql databases I need a more powerfull cpu and more ram available.

Any modern mainstream CPU will be more powerful. But how much more powerful do you want it to be? And how much RAM do you want? The number of VMs is practically irrelevant nowadays and databases don't necessarily need a whole lot of horsepower either.
In case you didn't know, Intel segments its market by not giving VM extensions to all CPUs so you should also think about what VM extensions you really need as I stated above.

The board you picked is probably good as long as you don't want ECC. But there are lots of people here with more knowledge and experience with H67 boards...

Need a robust and fast hard drive solution (raid 1) for let say at least 2To of data

So you need two 3.5'' drives. Do you want to suspend them?

[guises]

Need a robust and fast hard drive solution (raid 1) for let say at least 2To of data

So you need two 3.5'' drives. Do you want to suspend them?

I've actually been looking to put together a mini NAS system and the only decent cases that I've been able to find that support more than one 3.5" drive are the previously mentioned ones from Fractal Design and the Lian Li PC-Q08. Fractal Design has another case, the Array R2, that seems like it'd be perfect, but reviewers have panned it:

http://www.silentpcreview.com/fractal-array

So if you've heard of any others I'd be interested in hearing about them as well.

[HFat]

I don't know what's your definition of decent.
There are few mITX cases offering more than two internal 3.5'' bays plus a 5.25'' (Lian-Li and Morex have such cases to my knowledge) but if you only want two drives and don't want to suspend them, there are a lot more choices. Apex has a cheap case which takes three drives and which was reviewed by SPCR for instance (it's also rebranded and sold by Thermaltake I believe).
There are also cases which have room for more drives than they're supposed to take.

[guises]

The Apex case isn't exactly what I had in mind, but it gets points for being super cheap. I might be able to make that work, thanks.

[ces]

1. The apex case only has room for a 50mm cpu heat sink, maybe even less. But if you are using an external PSU you should have about 100mm of head room then.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6811154091
(on sale for $39.99 right now)
http://www.silentpcreview.com/article905-page1.html

2. Lan Gear has a real nice mini-itx case... but you will have to stuff your 2G into a single 3.5 drive plus two 2.5 drives. Built like a tank and has superb cooling.
http://www.lan-gear.com/langear-miniITX

3. If you are going to continue to use your current motherboard, and you can hold your breath for 9 months... the new Ivy Bridge will run on a 1055 board. It will be about 20 to 30% more powerful.... but here is the kicker... core for core it will use one half as much power as the Sandy Bridges.

It will permit you to pack a lot of chip with a small PSU.

A two core Ivy Bridge will likely be almost as powerful as the four core i5-750 you are talking and will probably run on 1/3 to 1/4 the CPU wattage.

4. Take a look at this for a small cooler low profile after-market cooler that will fit almost anywhere:
Scythe Kozuti CPU cooler, 40 mm tall incl fan
viewtopic.php?f=8&t=62016

5. Have you looked at the Lian Li Q11?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6811112313

[romainp]

Hi guys,
Sorry if I was pretty silent those days,

Ok, I have finally opted out for a Silverstone Sugo SG05B and I am very please with it.

First I tought to change only the external 'plex' psu from my morex but for what I see the price could be pretty hight.
I have check around the web and this web site and found that this case for mini itx have a 300w psu which is powerfull enought form my core 2 duo mobile.

The case is pretty silent and well done. I will have room to add some discs (at least a second 2,5" 500G).
Only drawback: the blue led flashing are really painfull when the server is in a cupboard and all is dark in there
The cooling is great also, much more that the morex I had first.

I will post soon some update or question for the next server I plan to buy