My Silent HTPC build experience

Earlier this year, I got tired of my old AMD Opteron 170 (pre AM2) and decided to upgrade to an i7 gaming rig. In doing so, I basically bought a whole new computer and my old AMD sat in a pile in the corner for a while.

My brother found it, felt sorry for it, and decided to put it back together with an SSD drive he had "left over" from a big order at his work. I was amazed at the boot time and how you notice when there's no hard-drive whirs or clicks. So I stole my computer back and repackaged it into an HTPC. Here's the specs:

Here's what was in my previous build:
ASUS A8N-SLI Deluxe
AMD Opteron 170 (Socket 939)
2 GB Corsair DDR2 800
Zalman 9500 CPU Cooler
Thermalright Fanless Northbridge Heatsink
Zalman 600W PSU
Hauppauge 1600 Dual Tuner (analog tuner is sorta useless now)
HP 32X DVD burner

And here's what I added:
Cooler Master Hyper Z600 CPU Cooler ($60)
Cooler Master Sileo Case ($55)
3x Scythe 500 RPM 120mm Case fans (8bB rating) ($12 each = $36)
HIS Radeon 4670 ($110)
Sony 2x BD-ROM drive ($60)

First off, I didn't care about making a small form factor HTPC case. All I wanted was a PC that was dead quiet. The Sileo case came with 800 RPM fans, which were very quiet. But I replaced them with 500 RPM scythe fans. CPU Heat sink was the most massive set of fins I could find in the store that day, so that's why I grabbed the Hyper Z600. The Heatsink comes with a 2000 RPM fan, but I ditched that and mounted the last Scythe instead.

I know what your thinking... is that enough airflow to keep everything cool? Answer: Yes! I stress tested by playing WoW and ripping a DVD in Handbrake. The CPU temp never went above 46C. The case itself has fantastic airflow even with the fans downgraded to 500 RPM. And the case is fully padded, including a rubber seal on the PSU to stop vibrations.

And yes, my system is dead quiet. You need to have everything else in the room off, and be 3 feet from the back exhaust to hear any hum. But it's a very low frequency hum that's barely noticeable.

Complaints: The Blue-Ray drive I bough was crap. You get what you pay for. I got Transformers on Blue-Ray to test the system out, and the drive with wind up and down when the system is idle. The BD disk won't be doing anything, but the drive continues to wind for as long as there's BD disc inside. Normal DVDs are fine, but the noise of the drive starting up is annoying to say the least.

Version 2:
After 2.5 years of being tossed between systems, my PSU finally died last week. And when it died, it took the CPU with it. I briefly contemplated just buying a new 939 pin CPU and replacing the PSU with a new Zalman 500W. But 939s are no longer in production, so an Opteron or FX equivalent costs $300 for outdated tech. Ridiculous!

I had DDR3 left over from my new i7 when I upgraded my ram to 6GB, so had 3GB of 1333 sitting on my desk. So I went back to the store, picked up:
GIGABYTE GA-MA790XT-UD4P ($140)
AMD Phenom X4 810 ($170)
CoolMax 600W Modular PSU

First off, the new CPU runs much hotter. With the same case setup, the load temp is now 55C. I was very surprised by this since the Opteron 170 has a TDP of 110W, while the X4 810 has a TDP of 95W. I thought my core temp would be a bit lower. *shrug*

Secondly, the CoolMax PSU is the cheepest and most poorly made excuse for a PSU I've ever put my hands on and will never buy their brand again. the SATA plugs snapped on my when I attached them to a drive. SNAPPED! The cords are too short to reach around a Midtower case. And I'm only continueing to use it until my new Zalman 500W PSU comes in from newegg.

The CPU is nearly as fast as my i7 920 in terms of ripping my DVDs to my Hard Drive, and the motherboard booted up first try without a single problem... which NEVER happens for me. So I'm very happy with the the motherboard. But I'm not happy with the CPU temp being 10C hotter than my previous CPU, so I'm in the process of undervolting the CPU to bring the temps down. I could just use a proper 1200+ RPM fan for better air flow, but I like the silence of my system far too much and prefer to keep the fans at the lowest speed possible. And apparently 55C isn't really a concern for the chips anyhow.

Another odd thing is that now hulu skips on me. I did not reinstall windows when I changed my MB, I just installed all the new drivers. And now when I watch a show on hulu, it hiccups every minute or so on the stream coming in. Just a random comment of annoyance because I don't want to reinstall windows again until 7 comes out.

So to summarize my Midtower HTPC build:
AMD Phenom X4 810 ($170)
Cooler Master Hyper Z600 CPU Cooler ($60)
GIGABYTE GA-MA790XT-UD4P ($140)
Cooler Master Sileo Case ($55)
3x Scythe 500 RPM 120mm Case fans (8bB rating) ($12 each = $36)
Zalman 500W PSU ($100)
HIS Radeon 4670 ($110)
Sony 2x BD-ROM drive ($60)
HP 32X DVD burner ($50)
Hauppauge 1600 Dual Tuner (??)

Total = $781 (before sales taxes)
I noticed that some of the parts are cheaper on newegg than what I paid for at my local computer store. But that's the price I paid to get them without having to wait a week for delivery.

PS: I made the mistake of putting a SoundBlaster Sound card in there, until I found out that the video card has a build in 7.1 decoder through the HDMI cable. And since I am piping this PC through HDMI to my TV, the sound card was absolutely worthless so I returned it.

When you stole the computer back, did you get to keep the SSD? If so, I hope you have a 2nd HDD for media storage.

$60 is a good price for a BD drive. Too bad it's not working out for you. I recommend the LG brand BD drives for HTPC. I'm very happy with mine.

Is the HIS vid card one of the ICEQ-4 cards? How quiet is the fan?

I undervolted the chip to .950V (1.300V stock), which is happy to sit at 9x200 = 1800MHz (2600 stock). All cores humming at 100% in Prime95 peaks at 49C. Otherwise its idle temp drops to 43C while watching hulu.

Had I chosen differently, I would have bought an Athlon X2 250 or a Phenom X4 905e, both rated at 65W TDP. It would have saved me the task of bothering to undervolt at all. But I'm just happy to get back to cool temps.