slothmeister said:
what sort of temps are you getting on it, what spec are you running in it?
What cpu fan is that, could you fit a bigger one in?
Thanks
Its an A64 3200+ stock 2.0 @ 2.4. so thats 3800+ speeds. Temps <45 under load, its on folding 24/7.
The cpu fan is a d12sl-12 120mm, on a thermalright xp-120, which is one of the few 120mm fan heatsinks that will fit.
The fan is undervolted, i'd estimate it runs at about 7v.
The only reason its not overclocked higher is that i have to take the voltage up a massive amount for a small gain above 2.4, and i don't want to do that as it runs 24/7 and i want it to last a long time.
You couldn't fit a bigger cpu fan in it because 120mm fans are about the biggest there are, and you really couldn't fit a bigger heatsink in it.
The thermalright si-120 and all the other '120' derivatives are all too tall at about 9cm exc fan, whereas the xp-120 is 6cm exc fan so it fits perfectly with room for airflow.
There are loads of 2nd hand xp-120s around if you have a look.
I can't see theres much of a need for a better cpu cooler, you'd have to be mad to base an htpc build around something netburst based, and everything else can be cooled and clocked with an xp-120 fine, its an old heatsink but the performance isn't that far away from todays high performance tower heatsinks.
Regarding the specs, its a foxconn board with some stupid long name consisting of meaninless letters and numbers, and its the only motherboard i could find which was socket 939, and has hd audio, and has onboard graphics with dvi, and has overclocking options with voltage and frequency adjustment. I know of no other board which has all this.
Foxconn seem to use the same bios for all the variations of this board so if you're looking for an am2 board and you want one with overclocking options with voltage and frequency adjustment foxconn is a good place to start looking.
Most mAtx boards like this with integrated graphics don't have any overclocking options at all, let alone voltage adjustment.
Its also got an hgst 250gb hdd, lg all format burner, nova-t 500 tv card, netgear wireless card. Stock case fans and psu.
If you want any more info let me know.
Skyline said:
Is the front on the Fusion actually metal?
I believe its brushed alu, yes.
The front on the nsk scratches very easily so thats a very good reason to look at the fusion.
squiffy said:
In a HTPC, front volume control dial is useless. You won't use it, as you'll control the volume from the remote. How often do you get up to adjust volume on the TV? (remember non remote control TV days) If your TV has volume use that instead.
VFD is useless too. Get the cheaper 2400.
It's a good case for the money, plenty of space for standard PSU, cable routing, all PCI slots and large CPU cooler.
I agree about the volume control, however it makes it look much better, same with the vfd.
What do you mean about space for a standard psu? The included antec one is superb, i can't see why anyone would want to replace it. Most htpc cases take standard psus i think.
There isn't room for large cpu coolers, if there was the case would be huge and ugly. When buying a cpu cooler to go in this case you do have to buy it with the case in mind, no tower coolers and only select 120mm fan coolers will fit.
The biggest thing i like about this case is the cooling, dual 120mm fans vs the pathetic noisy 60-80mm fans that are used in rival htpc cases.
If i was doing this again i'd go for the fusion purely for the better looks, and i'd put an energy efficient variant of the x2 3800+ in it, and i'd probably get one of those
little abit boards.
