ECO-1: HTPC/Home Server build log [Minuet 350]

I take it you like gladiator :D
Good one on the hard drives. Hope it all goes well.

You should have looked at getting a board that supports 478 pin core 2 duo laptop chips.
I've got myself a Commell LV 667DC which has a 120 Watt power adapter built in and only needs the input. It can then power the hard drive the optical drive and pcie lane off the board aswell as the built in graphics if needed and the cpu.
I've got a T2600 chip (2.16Ghz FSB667) which has a power consumption of 34 Watts.

If you are looking for low power consumption these boards that support laptop chips are fantastic.
I'm hoping to run a 3470 off the board power aswell as the DVDRW and optical.
I was using a 80GB laptop hard drive, but i'm having a few problems with the IDE cable, so think im having to use a 3.5" sata drive.
 
i would like to know on what options your thinking of going for?.
Hiya Tosk, sorry about taking time to reply but hopefully you got a better ideal of what I'm building now. Depending on how much of a rush you are in I would suggest let be get ECO-1 up and running so testing can begin, then we can draw out conclusions from the end product. I would be very interested to see a similar build using AMD kit as I'm sure that would also rock, however the thing that tipped me towards INTEL is that apart from the regular HTPC duties I am keen to do lots of video editing and I think a Core2 system will be hard to beat in that area?

In essence I think my foundations are good but as always there is scope for improvement. If I'm not happy with the end result then it will be straight back to the drawing board for a redesign! :D
 
Very impressed with the case.
Hello m8,

yes tis a pretty nice case actually, very hard to beat for the price! It's a little cramped in some areas but it seems the bulk of the extra wiring gets shoved away out of sight under the drive bay area leaving the motherboard zone pretty free.

Not sure I like the idea of using it standing on its side, seems a bit weird having the optical drive vertical?. Think I'm gonna be using it horizontally in the normal desktop position.

Also got some ideas for modding but will have to get some thermal testing done first to see how it handles the heat, stay tuned! :cool:
 
Its an interesting project, I don't think I've seen a build approached from this point of view before. Its a shame you can't get those heat-powered fans yet, they'd be perfect for this!
Hiya PK, I'm glad you have subscribed and are interested in the project, its one of those things I mulled over in my mind for ages but never actually got around to doing it. I really need to have a static machine running my TV and stuff because normally everytime I rebuild my main machine I'm without TV, Internet etc so it will be nice to still be able to surf and stuff while I'm tearing my main machine apart.

I gather quite a few folk have a laptop for that scenario and I was tempted to buy one instead of doing this build but I think I personally will get more benefit from having this HTPC and if it works out well then I will start building them for clients and friends.

Btw whats the Heat-Power-Fans all about? sounds interesting? :)
 
you put in a gfx card BUT use the onboard most of the time and only enable in BIOS when you wanna frag?

Would this completely cut the power to the redundant gfx card ?
That sounds like Hybrid-Graphics which is a feature of the new AMD 780G chipset although you would still be restricted by the choice of low-profile graphics cards you could use. In a chassis that accepts normal sized cards them maybe that would be a good option from an Eco point of view. I'm not sure exactly how Hybrid-Graphics works and if it does infact cut the wattage to the second descreet GPU when you are just surfing and stuff?

I seen some early results and they show benchmarks getting better when both IGP & GPU are working togther so there are deffo some good aspects about it. If it does indeed only power the GPU when it needs extra 3D Oompphh that would be idea, I just wonder how much wattage that would use though power both IGP + GPU?
 
the IGP on the 780G AMD boards are supposed to be very good (and capable of xfire if you need a bit more power for gaming) and as you say sticking to an IGP may save you some wattage. But as it looks like you've already bought your mobo perhaps its a moot point. that aside, looks like a great project. I think i'll be following suit....
Yup from what little I read it does appear to work nicely, still plenty of bugs to be ironed out as its brand new tech so that kinda pushed me toward a more mature product, I do like the easy life! :)

Hopefully soon when I've made some more progress I can comment further on the IGP vs Descreet GPU debate. For HD and stuff like that it seems the IGP on the 780G is working fine although I am waiting for the hype to settle a bit to get some more sober opinions, as it stands the technical press gets somewhat over-excited about anything new! :D

There is no way I have the headspace to have approached this project using a new AMD chipset . . . I'm still just getting my head around some of the options on the INTEL chipsets! :o
 
Tbh I would have gone for a 780G as it's fast as IGP's go and has full decoding of AVC and VC-1 via DXVA.
I'd suggest having a look at a picoPSU or two.
Well there is nothing stopping you! would be good to have someone using a 780G to compare results with but as already stated above I'm not really into installing a chipset that is utter bleeding edge but I will read up more on it when I have time (no timer, no time!) I sound like the mad hatter from Alice in Wonderland! :p

That picoPSU looks very interesting, never heard of that before so thanks for the heads up! :cool:
 
This is a really interesting project mate, I will be keeping check on it :)

I am in a similar position with my htpc in regards to searching for low power computing
Hello Agr3sive,

Good to see there are a few of us interested in eco-computing, I thought maybe no one would join me in the thread lol! :D

Hopefully when I made some more progress we will have a better idea of whats good and whats not so good, I tried to give it as much thought as possible before commiting but I didn't speak with anyone about my ideas beforehand because I felt I would be struck down by analysis-paralysis and fail to do any more than just talk about it (and talk some more!).

I'm trying to be a man of action now and just do the best I can then draw my conclusions from the finished result. I don't think I made any clangers so far! :o

Yes I have a nice low voltage cpu to get going with, will make a post on that soon, very similar to yours actually. Its a pity my motherboard only goes as low as 1.1vCore though! :D
 
I take it you like gladiator :D
Good one on the hard drives. Hope it all goes well.

You should have looked at getting a board that supports 478 pin core 2 duo laptop chips.
I've got myself a Commell LV 667DC which has a 120 Watt power adapter built in and only needs the input. It can then power the hard drive the optical drive and pcie lane off the board aswell as the built in graphics if needed and the cpu.
I've got a T2600 chip (2.16Ghz FSB667) which has a power consumption of 34Watts
Well I could only do so much research before it felt like my head was going to explode (like that dude from Scanners!). I have read a bit about that newish form factor that uses laptop motherboards but installed in a smallish low profile PC chassis, can't remember what its called though?

Thing is my Eco-Computing career has only just started and I got a lot to learn and a lot of hardware to play with before I get anywhere near mastering it, its like a different game with a whole new set of rules and items! :o

In essence though this is my first practical test and the proof of the pudding is in the eating. Once I'm finished I will be able to draw my own conclusions and if its not right I can start again, its not a tattoo luckily! :p

[edit] why use a 3.5" SATA drive when u could use a 2.5" SATA drive?
 
That build is one of my favorites on here!

Im plannning on building up a server/hmpc like yours, i will have to keen my eye on this thread.

Keep up the good work, mother nature will thank you! :D
 
Hiya PK, I'm glad you have subscribed and are interested in the project, its one of those things I mulled over in my mind for ages but never actually got around to doing it. I really need to have a static machine running my TV and stuff because normally everytime I rebuild my main machine I'm without TV, Internet etc so it will be nice to still be able to surf and stuff while I'm tearing my main machine apart.

I gather quite a few folk have a laptop for that scenario and I was tempted to buy one instead of doing this build but I think I personally will get more benefit from having this HTPC and if it works out well then I will start building them for clients and friends.

Btw whats the Heat-Power-Fans all about? sounds interesting? :)

Last year I was looking at making a HTPC in my old original playstation, purely for novelty value. I was going to use a nano-ITX board running off an external 200W power supply. I never thought of it as a low power option, and gave up on it in the design stage because it got too expensive. I wonder how long it would have taken for electricity costs to even things out compared to using a larger more power hungry system.

Oh, and here's an article about those fans: Link

PK!
 
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[edit] why use a 3.5" SATA drive when u could use a 2.5" SATA drive?

The motherboard has 44 pin IDE allowing the use of a 44 pin cable.
The cable supports one more 44 pin device and a 40 pin device. (laptop device use the 44 in comparison to the 40 pins of the standard desktop devices)

I was going to be using a DVD drive in the 40 pin and the 2.5" hard drive in the 44 pin, but the cable seems to be faulty and I can't find a cable in this country that allows to 2 devices on it with a 44 pin to the board.

therefore I am having to buy a 44 pin to 40 pin IDE cable for the optical and I will use a 3.5" hard drive due to the only other way to connect a hard drive is via SATA.

If I was looking at buying a new hard drive I would definately get a 2.5" sata drive, but I have a spare 3.5" drive which easily fits the bill.

Long winded answer, but hope it answers the question :D
 
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"What no BluRay??? what kind of HTPC is this???"

Hehe, well the simple answer is I don't own any BluRay disks just yet and the actual drives are still pretty expensive! I am mulling over whether or not this build requires a full time optical drive? I mean for the most part it would be handy but while it isn't being used the drive will continue to drain wattage.

It is possible now to download HD content using iTunes and I'm sure there are others HD content providers. There will also be more and more High-Def content being broadcast over regular Terrestrial-TV. Looking to the future I'm not sure if the optical drive isn't going the way of the dodo.

One solution that may work quite well is using an external eSata drive that can be plugged/unplugged as required, I still got a wodge of DVDs that I like to watch however these are slowly being backed up to DivX using the fantastic Gordian Knot package. Of course there is the question of software installs and in this respect I think an eSata unit could also work quite well.

Anyway in the meantime I will install a regular multi-purpose optical drive until I can research BlueRay drives a bit more. I have no idea at this point what the power draw is of a DVD-RW or BluRay, I wonder if the latter uses more juice?

Had a quick flick through the latest SATA DVD-RW drives and they all look pretty decent, requirements wise I'm not sure if some drives are more green than others (will look into it) but SATA instead of IDE works well due to the SFF space constraints (less bulky cables etc), its also worth making sure the unit is shorter as some drives are still quite long.

So my quick n dirty choice of a temporary drive has to be the SONY DRU-190S Retail, its includes NERO software and has a choice of snap on Bezels (I'm not sure if a Black or Silver drive will look best ya see!). Also the SONY logo on the unit will lend itself to the overall look of a tiny electronic consumer device I am after! :o

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Akio Morita & Masaru Ibuka
 
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Here is my original Core2 Duo processor purchased December 2006, cost me £111 on special offer! The E6400 cost approx £145 and the E6600 cost around £200 so it really was the bang-for-buck CPU at the time. I have pretty much ran it 24/7 since then at between 2800MHz-3200MHz using stock-ish voltages, great overclocking chip but needs a really good FSB motherboard to fly!

I think it was only about two-three months ago when I swapped out the ASUS P5B-Deluxe for the newer P5K-E that I really started to test the chip, I was aiming to run it at about 3500MHz in my gaming system but before I tested its max MHz I thought I would see how the chip ran when undervolted and then work my way up.

I set the vCore to 1.325v (its rated stock vCore) and started priming for 30mins, then I would drop the voltage down one notch and test again. . .

1.325v
1.300v
1.275v
1.250v
1.225v
1.200v
1.175v
1.150v
1.125v
1.100v (minimum vCore setting in my BIOS)


Well I was quite suprised the computer even booted let alone pass prime testing at 1.1vCore?

So then leaving the vCore at the minimal setting I started overclocking the chip to see if it has any headroom in it and managed to get it up from 1862MHz to 2331Mhz, not bad at all.

Having got more into Video-Editing the past few months I am pretty sure that a quad-core is the way to go but from an eco point of view its got to be a quad using the new Yorkfield core, however these are hard to get hold of atm and are also quite pricey! I have looked at the Q9300, Q9450 and the QX9650 and I reckon the Q9450 is the chip for me, just got to play the waiting game now so in the meantime the E6300 gets the job! Once I get to testing the units power consumption I may well take off the overclock to save myself a few watts, we will have to wait and see! ;)

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Behold! the mighty INTEL stock HSF! :D

Seriously though I am using this little thing to get me started, there ain't a lot of room inside the ANTEC Minuet 350 for a real meaty heatsink but once I get the machine up and running I will consider the alternatives, passive if possible!

In its defence though the stock HSF is pretty decent for the task in hand, once you start undervolting a chip it really does not run that hot. The fan running at full speed is about 2.000rpms and is too noisy for a HTPC me thinks, however using the fan options in the BIOS reduces the speed to about 1,000rpms and its almost silent. There is one thing I like about the stock retail design and thats it does give off quite a bit of airflow to the surrounding components like VRMs and the northbridge, in an SFF build that could be quite handy.

If anyone knows of some other heatsinks that are no taller than 80mm then please let me know! :)

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Well the build is underway at last! Got a few more components to detail but I'll come to them later. Why are there a squadron of Tie-Fighters in the picture above? well you can only do so much straight picture editing in photoshop before you start day dreaming! :D

On the whole everything is going well building with the Minuet 350 however . . . I have hit one or two snags and they are both a pain. The main problem I am having and one which lay soley with ANTEC is the the Minuet 350 has no obvious way of mounting 2.5" drives? I should have expected this but to be honest I had my head buried into dozens of white papers and data sheets . . . . oops!

If you intend to use this chassis and are using a regular 3.5" hard disk then you have no problems, the mounting system works very well. There is space for one 3.5" disk directly below the Optical drive and a second possible mounting area next to the optical drive (the space where you could mount a floppy or similar dimension external unit).

I am not using a 3.5" Hard disk but I thought I would show you guys how one mounted anyway, it had me scratching my head for a few minutes (RTM!!).

There are two prongs on one side and two screw holes on the other side, you just install the drive at an angle so that the prongs fit into the two screw holes, you then lower the other side of the drive and secure it with two screws.

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So yeah, very good mounting system for the 3.5" drive users out there but if like me you intend to use power-saving 2.5" laptop drives you are left out in the cold!

This is a serious oversight from ANTEC and they missed a great opportunity here, it would have been really easy for them to either include an alternative set of screw holes for laptop drives or may include an adapter of some sort.

If you don't mind a little modding then I'm sure it would be quite straight forward to adapt the case for the smaller drives but sadly I have no tools so my only hope was to source some 3.5" to 2.5" adapters or get out the gaffer tape (not!)

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So two days later my 3.5" to 2.5" adapters arrived in the post and I eagerly unwrapped them and attached them to my laptop disks, annoyingly they don't work properly with the Minuet 350!!!!!!!! bah what a pain, hard to describe what the problem is but I will take some pictures tommorrow which should illustrate the issue better, a strange one and the adapters work fine with a few other cases I tried?

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Oh well, not sure what to do about mounting the hard disk, will have to scratch my head a little and see if the lightbulb comes on.

On a better note my mini SATA cables arrived today! haha check them out . . . 20cm long (8inches), they should cut down a little on cable clutter!

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DSC-W90 in macro mode, flash forced off and mostly with the camera on full auto!

Cybershot W90 Homepage

[edit] whoops can't link to the Sony page as they sell the camera direct lol! ;)
 
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