HTPC with Core 2 Quad Processor Q9550 LGA775 build help.

[saayinla]

Hi All,

Pulled this processessor at work from an old Server with 4Gb of PC2 667 Ram, thinking of using it for an HTPC build, but looking for the smallest Case possible with an ITX Case??? if possible LGA 775. Fanless CPU coller if possible and silent power supply.

Overall my question is, is it worth it really as this build is just an impulse build based on the availability of both items above.

Please advise.

Thanks in advance.

 

[Grimley]

I think you'll find it hard to find a Mini itx motherboard TBH (zotac used to do them) Micro ATX shouldn't be a problem.

 

[saayinla]

I think you'll find it hard to find a Mini itx motherboard TBH (zotac used to do them) Micro ATX shouldn't be a problem.

I think M-ATX should be fine, any pointers would be appreciated. Thinking of getting a proper HTPC Media Centre Case actually. Would this be a problem you think?

 

[Grimley]

Small & Fanless with that CPU will be difficult.

my suggestions on what to buy (Cheapest & Small & Quiet)

YOUR BASKET
1 x Seasonic G series 360w '80 Plus Gold' Power Supply £52.99
1 x Silverstone Milo ML03 HTPC Case - Black (SST-ML03B) £47.99
1 x Raijintek Pallas 140mm Low Profile CPU Cooler £33.95
1 x Asus GeForce GT 210 SILENT Low Profile 1024MB GDDR3 PCI-Express Graphics Card £16.99
Total : £165.42 (includes shipping : £11.25).



The G series is quiet (Well my 550W version is anyway) Every Seasonic PSU I've bought has been quiet, a feature I insist on.

The card has an HDMI output, which consider an essential for HTPC & will take the load off the CPU for media playback, blu-rays in particular if you plan on going down that road, good luck with that.

Storage I'll leave down to you, I'm still researching on what HDD to buy for my HTPC as I'm getting smart failure readings on the Samsung 500GB thats in there right now.

Optical = Pioneer = never let me down.

 

[sastusbulbas]

I tried one of those CPU's in an HTPC once, Silverstone Grandia GD02, with an Asus Gene motherboard, 4gb of ram, a Powercolor HD5750 passive cooled and Corsair HX-450w modular PSU, 1.5tb WD Green hdd. Samsung Bluray drive, was my 1st bluray player.

I chose a Silverstone NT01 cooler, tried passive and it was just overheating, even with two rear Sharkoon SE 80mm case fans and two 60mm fractal fans on the cooler. Ended up putting the old E8500 dual core back in there.

The PSU was silent, the Sharkoon 80mm SE rear case fans were silent, but when it got hot the fans ramped up, and the case had little ventilation with no filters. Though it was a low thrum you could hear from the couch. Usually when playing games n such it heated up, remained silent with movies.

If you want more motherboard options you can go for the GD09 by Silverstone, in the past I had a full MicroATX Lascala L13 I think it was, whole PC with a gaming GPU fitted in that. But these days I would go for something a bit more user friendly.

With a reasonable motherboard you could go all out and have a respectable HTPC that was pretty capable for an old S775 system.

YOUR BASKET
1 x Palit GeForce GTX 750TI KalmX SILENT 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £119.99
1 x Seasonic 400w FANLESS '80 Plus Platinum' Modular Power Supply £99.95
1 x Western Digital Caviar Green 3TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (WD30EZRX) HDD £84.98
1 x LG BH16NS40 16x SATA Internal BDRW - Retail £69.95
1 x Silverstone Grandia GD09 Home Theatre Server Case - Black (SST-GD09B) £49.99
1 x Kingston 120GB SSDNow V300 Drive SATA 6Gb/s 3 2.5" (7mm height) Solid State Hard Drive - (SV300S37A/120G) £46.99
1 x Cooler Master Seidon 120V Ver. 2 AIO CPU Cooler £39.95
Total : £521.40 (includes shipping : £8.00).



Not definitive on the cooler fitting, it may well depend on how much room you have with component choice, but google shows similar builds with AIO's fitted. If your running the CPU stock it should be fine.

Of course you can go cheap too, it takes 120mm fans, just get the cheapest quietest models you can, you could try a Noctua NH-L9i cooler or similar with 775 mounting.

YOUR BASKET
1 x Silverstone Grandia GD09 Home Theatre Server Case - Black (SST-GD09B) £49.99
1 x Western Digital Caviar Green 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (WD10EZRX) **SINGLE PLATTER** HDD £44.99
1 x Palit GeForce GT 730 SILENT 2048MB GDDR3 PCI-Express Graphics Card £44.99
1 x Noctua NH-L9i CPU Cooler Low Profile - 92mm £34.99
1 x Antec VP350P 350W 85% Efficient Continuous Power Supply £31.99
3 x Scythe Kaze Jyuni 500RPM Slipstream 120mm Fan £7.99 (£23.97)
Total : £240.53 (includes shipping : £8.00).

 

[Deus Ex]

getting a compatible mitx 775 board might be tricky/dear, but the pc would be plenty potent enough for a htpc. Considered using a pi and streaming from your main desktop instead though?

 

[saayinla]

getting a compatible mitx 775 board might be tricky/dear, but the pc would be plenty potent enough for a htpc. Considered using a pi and streaming from your main desktop instead though?

Thanks for the info. I actually just got a pi-2 , just set it up today in the bedroom pretty impressive, thinking of getting another, probably stream like you said as I have a dedicated proliant Server in the loft for back up media storage, so just need a device to serve the media to the living TV etc.

 

[saayinla]

Small & Fanless with that CPU will be difficult.

my suggestions on what to buy (Cheapest & Small & Quiet)

YOUR BASKET
1 x Seasonic G series 360w '80 Plus Gold' Power Supply £52.99
1 x Silverstone Milo ML03 HTPC Case - Black (SST-ML03B) £47.99
1 x Raijintek Pallas 140mm Low Profile CPU Cooler £33.95
1 x Asus GeForce GT 210 SILENT Low Profile 1024MB GDDR3 PCI-Express Graphics Card £16.99
Total : £165.42 (includes shipping : £11.25).



The G series is quiet (Well my 550W version is anyway) Every Seasonic PSU I've bought has been quiet, a feature I insist on.

The card has an HDMI output, which consider an essential for HTPC & will take the load off the CPU for media playback, blu-rays in particular if you plan on going down that road, good luck with that.

Storage I'll leave down to you, I'm still researching on what HDD to buy for my HTPC as I'm getting smart failure readings on the Samsung 500GB thats in there right now.

Optical = Pioneer = never let me down.

Thanks for the time and effort, this seems really reasonable. Was looking around this price point earlier as I would really like to keep the processor and not flog it on.

 

[Avalon]

Take a step back and decide what you need it to do and what you want it to do (they may not be the same). If it's simply to stream local/LAN content then a Pi will do that easily. If it's to stream online sources such as Navi-X etc then the extra grunt the Pi2 is a good shout.

If that is your main usage then i'd struggle to see why on earth you'd hang on to a power hungry quad that gets given a run for it's money by an i3 in many instances, where as a Pi2 will run on a fraction of the power silently and take up much less space. If you want to do more advanced stuff like run background downloads via your chosen method and file serving/network services then by all means consider something like a NUC, you'll still see reasonable money for the Q9550 which go towards funding the above.

 

[Audigex]

Yeah you're really going to struggle doing low power and/or fanless with one of these old Yorkfield chips: they were pretty power hungry even by 2008-09 standards.

As Avalon said, ask yourself what it will do that a Chromecast or Raspberry Pi won't, then decide if you have other uses that require the extra grunt.

If you don't mind the fan and want to run a Minecraft server, for example, it could be a good compromise.

 

[saayinla]

Take a step back and decide what you need it to do and what you want it to do (they may not be the same). If it's simply to stream local/LAN content then a Pi will do that easily. If it's to stream online sources such as Navi-X etc then the extra grunt the Pi2 is a good shout.

If that is your main usage then i'd struggle to see why on earth you'd hang on to a power hungry quad that gets given a run for it's money by an i3 in many instances, where as a Pi2 will run on a fraction of the power silently and take up much less space. If you want to do more advanced stuff like run background downloads via your chosen method and file serving/network services then by all means consider something like a NUC, you'll still see reasonable money for the Q9550 which go towards funding the above.

Yeah you're really going to struggle doing low power and/or fanless with one of these old Yorkfield chips: they were pretty power hungry even by 2008-09 standards.

As Avalon said, ask yourself what it will do that a Chromecast or Raspberry Pi won't, then decide if you have other uses that require the extra grunt.

If you don't mind the fan and want to run a Minecraft server, for example, it could be a good compromise.

Thanks for both, really reasonable.