New build: low wattage (<20w) idle, totally passive, gaming HTPC

Stinger53 · 4 Apr 2012 at 11:01

build looks good

saitrix · 4 Apr 2012 at 17:41

chippy08 said:
Thanks will test mine when its sorted hoping for much better than the ****py psu i have now that uses 19watts with just power running to it.

Definitely will be interested in your results as I still fancy an A6-3500.

chippy08 · 6 Apr 2012 at 13:49

saitrix said:
Definitely will be interested in your results as I still fancy an A6-3500.

my Brick has arrived just waiting on the pico now.

JP1911 · 6 Apr 2012 at 19:32

Im also looking for a pico psu n brick in the uk if anybody has any recommendations/ trusted ebay sellers. Iv seen a few but am unsure of quality and efficiency.

Amp34 · 7 Apr 2012 at 20:16

That looks very interesting, just a shame the Thermal Max is 65W not 95W. I'm looking for a small stylish case for my main desktop build which I'll probably stick an i5 in....

I'm not sure if the non passive case will do it. With the 80mm chassis fan and a low profile/noisy CPU cooler it may get noisy.

I'm guessing there is quite a performance gap between the AMD used in this an the i5?

Ben Cole · 7 Apr 2012 at 20:28

Great build. Thanks for sharing.

Methanoid · 8 Apr 2012 at 10:34

Bigsy said:
Case has 1x2.5" 1x5.25" and 1x 3.5" (with rubber mounts) but there is room for more if you want to get creative .

Is it possible/easy to install a 2nd 2.5" directly under where the first goes. I dont want a 3.5" (I think) but dont want to use that space (and presumably it needs a mount) as some mobos only work if you DONT use that space.

cokecan · 8 Apr 2012 at 11:47

I did recently have 2x Samsung 1TB M8's in the 3.5 bay of mine. I had them mounted in a Kingston 2.5 to 3.5 adapter that I got with an SSD that allows you to mount 2 drives in the 1 space.

It did work but I've found my HDD's were getting a bit toasty, especially with an ODD on top of them and no airflow. One of the drives had started to drop out from my raid array and randomly reporting as 0gb in size so I moved it to the proper 2.5" mounting bay in the case. So far temps are much better and I've had no dropouts.

Methanoid · 8 Apr 2012 at 11:49

cokecan72 said:
I did recently have 2x Samsung 1TB M8's in the 3.5 bay of mine. I had them mounted in a Kingston 2.5 to 3.5 adapter that I got with an SSD that allows you to mount 2 drives in the 1 space.

It did work but I've found my HDD's were getting a bit toasty, especially with an ODD on top of them and no airflow. One of the drives had started to drop out from my raid array and randomly reporting as 0gb in size so I moved it to the proper 2.5" mounting bay in the case. So far temps are much better and I've had no dropouts.

So... what about one on top of the other in the 2.5 bay? Even cable tied?

cokecan · 8 Apr 2012 at 11:56

I had considered it but I don't think there is enough clearence under the lid of the case for a 2nd HDD.

Looking at it you could possible mount one int he bay properly and one underneath the 2.5" bay, theres certainly enough clearence from the bay it self to the IO shield. At the minute I've used that space for tidying cables

Methanoid · 8 Apr 2012 at 11:58

cokecan72 said:
I had considered it but I don't think there is enough clearence under the lid of the case for a 2nd HDD.

Looking at it you could possible mount one int he bay properly and one underneath the 2.5" bay, theres certainly enough clearence from the bay it self to the IO shield

Yes, thats what I meant. So would it be a cable tie mount you reckon? Or some other option?

I'm thinking, two Momentus XT hybrids, one for one OS and one for the other.

cokecan · 8 Apr 2012 at 12:00

The 2.5" bay is literally just panel of metal with 4 holes in it for screwing the drive down to. Cable tying would probably be your best bet there

You could quite easily use the 3.5" bay though with an adapter like I am. theres plenty of clearence above the CPU block

JP1911 · 9 Apr 2012 at 11:05

could anybody help me work out what wattage pico psu im going to need for my setup please as the psu and case are the last things i need, i have a asrock h67 itx/ht, G840 cpu , 1.35v ram, sony 5600s slot load blu ray drive, 64GB M4 SSD. Depending on the case there may also be an extra 2.5 mechanical drive and a tv tuner, probably the blackgold BGT3620.

Bigsy · 9 Apr 2012 at 11:27

Personally I think an 80w would be fine, even if it became borderline with added bits, knocking a little voltage off the cpu/ram/NB can bring total wattage down quite a bit.

Having said that 120w picos can be had for so cheap I don't see a good reason not to buy one.

_Alex_ · 9 Apr 2012 at 16:37

Hi,

This looks great, thanks for sharing this build.
I am looking for something similar (low idle power, but still enough cpu-power available for some more heavey stuff).

One question (just to be sure): Are we talking about the ASUS F1A75-I Deluxe motherboard? Or is the 'deluxe' version another version? I am asking since there is a review here that states 50 watt idle power:

http://www.anandtech.com/show/4833/asus-f1a75i-deluxe-review-llano-and-miniitx/4
Completely different setup though: they use like a 1000 Watt PSU, and extra Graphics as far as i see, so that clearly might explain the 30 watt difference in idle power, but i would like to be sure...

Thanks,

Alex.

chippy08 · 9 Apr 2012 at 16:53

Bigsy used the ASUS F1A75-I Deluxe but with a pico psu and power brick.

_Alex_ · 9 Apr 2012 at 17:11

chippy08 said:
Bigsy used the ASUS F1A75-I Deluxe but with a pico psu and power brick.

Thanks, thought so but wanted to be sure...
Use a picopsu myself in current setup to power an old asus M2V underclocked motherboard, and power consumption dropped by 15 a 20 watt ( to 40W idle with picoPSU).

Bigsy · 9 Apr 2012 at 18:55

Indeed I used the deluxe, the 19.5w was idle at desktop with everything enabled on the mobo (wireless, BT, audio, lan etc) and with a wireless dongle for keyboard/mouse in a usb port. Also:

*A6-3500 was overclocked to 3.65Ghz (but it gets automatically down clock to ~1ghz and reduce volts at idle by the mobo).
*4gb running at 2100Mhz, standard volts
*64gb Crucial M4

And nothing else, no mechanical drive or dvd rom etc.

Legion · 9 Apr 2012 at 19:28

JP1911 said:
could anybody help me work out what wattage pico psu im going to need for my setup please as the psu and case are the last things i need, i have a asrock h67 itx/ht, G840 cpu , 1.35v ram, sony 5600s slot load blu ray drive, 64GB M4 SSD. Depending on the case there may also be an extra 2.5 mechanical drive and a tv tuner, probably the blackgold BGT3620.

Buy a 120w mate.
The BGT3620 uses 20w if you have both satelite feeds running/recording.

_Alex_ · 9 Apr 2012 at 21:39

Bigsy said:
Indeed I used the deluxe, the 19.5w was idle at desktop with everything enabled on the mobo (wireless, BT, audio, lan etc) and with a wireless dongle for keyboard/mouse in a usb port. Also:

Great, thanks, looks like I might try this mobo as well. It really is hard to get some good numbers for comparison of various mobo's... (for example, I will not be needing wireless or BT).

Just out of curiosity: Did you try switching off wireless, BT , etc and remove the dongle to see how low it could get?

A.