Zotac H55-ITX WIFI / Origen AE M10 HTPC Build

At The Gates · 1 Jun 2010 at 22:30

Really nice case. It's just what i've been after. £300 though :/ Tempted....

Are you using the internal MPC-HC decoders to playback 1080p? Was considering an i3 530 for all HD playback - don't want to pay for an extra gfx card. I use CoreAVC though.

mremulator · 7 Jun 2010 at 20:43

At The Gates said:
Really nice case. It's just what i've been after. £300 though :/ Tempted....

Are you using the internal MPC-HC decoders to playback 1080p? Was considering an i3 530 for all HD playback - don't want to pay for an extra gfx card. I use CoreAVC though.

Actually no. In addition to the K-Lite Codec packs (32/64-bit) I have also registered the MPC MKV splitter (Gabtest), MPC mpeg filter and MPC Audio Renderer filters in Windows. This way I can use WMC7/Media Browser and get HD audio bitstreaming and MKV support etc in WMC7. Obviously ffdshow is also required (comes with K-Lite).

MPC HC is actually really good for 1080p, however, if you want to enable any shaders (sharpen complex for example) you'll require an ATI HD 5570 at the very least or else you'll get dropped frames.

BTW... CoreAVC only supports Nvidia CUDA, so you'd be better off using MPC/ffdshow (DXVA).

mremulator · 7 Jun 2010 at 20:52

SimonR said:
You will struggle to get a HD and an SSD into the case. Oh and you willneed a Zalman fan mate for the case fan. It runs at full speed and is a little noisy (not so much the noise of air over the grill)

Mushii

I've got an Intel 80GB SSD in mine... no problem. It just screws to the back/left side of the case through the holes illustrated in the manual. Not at all obvious, however, it fits in nicely.

In fact, picture shows my old WD Velociraptor, which is actually larger than the SSD I replaced it with.

SimonR · 7 Jun 2010 at 22:14

I agree you can get an SSD OR a HD but I think that you will struggle to get both in there at the same time

Mushii

Borden · 7 Jun 2010 at 22:17

If you're not going to be moving the case around a lot you could always blue tac an SSD somewhere. It's not like they have any moving parts, it could easily sit in any number of places in the case.

SimonR · 8 Jun 2010 at 02:09

Borden said:
If you're not going to be moving the case around a lot you could always blue tac an SSD somewhere. It's not like they have any moving parts, it could easily sit in any number of places in the case.

I have an M10 case and you will struggle to find somewhere to blu-tac a second drive. If you have no card in the pci-e slot you may get away with piggy-backing two drives

Mushii

marc512 · 17 Jun 2010 at 20:09

dare you to try and watercool it.

mremulator · 19 Jun 2010 at 08:04

marc512 said:
dare you to try and watercool it.

Not going to happen. Not with this case anyway. Just not enough room unless you go for an external rad.

harryc · 5 Jul 2010 at 22:56

hmmmm £300 for that... tempted

Omar · 8 Jul 2010 at 23:37

mremulator - Does the VFD on the case stay on (displaying the date and time) when you shutdown the machine? Mine does and I'm not sure whether that is expected behaviour (i.e won't burn-out the VFD) or whether it's because I connected the ATX cable the other way around from what was indicated on the manual, due to the VFD power cable not reaching due to the motherboard layout (Gigabyte GA-H55N-USB3)

Omar · 20 Jul 2010 at 12:37

Anyone know whether the above is normal behaviour?

Destination · 20 Jul 2010 at 20:50

Try an extender on the cable perhaps?
No exp with that case.

mremulator · 21 Jul 2010 at 19:08

Omar said:
Anyone know whether the above is normal behaviour?

This is normal and can be controlled via the iMON control panel.

Omar · 21 Jul 2010 at 20:23

Thanks for the reply

Deleted member 77746 · 7 Aug 2010 at 11:31

How much for the case, damn expensive for something so little. I sent them an email telling them what a rip off their price is for the case, lol not that it will do much of a difference but 100-150 yes, not 300+ for a case that small no chance.

whipitrnd · 7 Aug 2010 at 11:55

thats sweet. love the front screen with all the details of pc etc

mremulator · 20 Aug 2010 at 19:08

For all that liked this build... wait until next week when I'll be unveiling something pretty special. In fact, I'm going to be as bold to say it's going to be the best looking, fully featured, custom Mini-ITX rig anyone has seen to date! 3 months worth of work and it's going together this weekend. Stay tuned

zealot · 24 Aug 2010 at 15:24

Any update on your project ?

Omar · 28 Aug 2010 at 18:00

The Intel stock cooler that came with my i3-530 is a bit noisy in the M10 case, anyone managed to find a suitable replacement cooler? If I remove the stock thermal paste and replace it with some Arctic Silver (or equivalent), is it likely to make much of a difference?

I managed to find a good replacement for the standard M10 case fan which is a lot quieter: Papst 612 F/2L 60x15mm

mremulator · 30 Aug 2010 at 12:12

Omar said:
The Intel stock cooler that came with my i3-530 is a bit noisy in the M10 case, anyone managed to find a suitable replacement cooler? If I remove the stock thermal paste and replace it with some Arctic Silver (or equivalent), is it likely to make much of a difference?

I managed to find a good replacement for the standard M10 case fan which is a lot quieter: Papst 612 F/2L 60x15mm

Does not exist. We need a Scythe Shuriken Rev.B with the depth of Rev.A. The fan is too big on Rev A and the depth of Rev.B is 5-6mm too deep. Fan size is perfect though.