New build: low wattage (<20w) idle, totally passive, gaming HTPC
- Thread starter Bigsy
- Start date
Soldato
Definitely will be interested in your results as I still fancy an A6-3500.
my Brick has arrived just waiting on the pico now.
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?
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?
Soldato
Great build. Thanks for sharing.
Soldato
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.
Soldato
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.
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.
Soldato
So... what about one on top of the other in the 2.5 bay? Even cable tied?
Soldato
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
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
Soldato
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.
Soldato
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
You could quite easily use the 3.5" bay though with an adapter like I am. theres plenty of clearence above the CPU block
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.
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.
Having said that 120w picos can be had for so cheap I don't see a good reason not to buy one.
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.
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.
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).
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.
*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.
Buy a 120w mate.
The BGT3620 uses 20w if you have both satelite feeds running/recording.
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.