Assassin's Simple/Beginner HTPC Buying Guide - Page 313

Ok,
I just quoted my build above in cas eanyone was curious what combo I have.. I will go thru the bios and check things out. I am 99% sure I put quick boot enabled and took off the bios boot screen. I am pretty sure I am in ACHI mode as well.

The ........ in the top right of the screen is where it sits at the longest amount of time.

Glad I am not just imagining it.. I actually timed it this am @ 1:20 that is with and without the 1tb sata drive connected.

All that I know is loading is win7 and MS security suite per Assassin's AWESOME guides.

I have that case as well (and like it a lot).

It's pretty easy to cool, but in my view the three stock fans are excessive and a little noisy. I think there are two good approaches. Either buy slower, quieter fans like Noctua NF-S12B FLX (which is what I did), or slow down the three stock fans, either with something like a Zalman Fan Mate, or with three of these: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...xus-_-11996016Then you can power the fans directly off the PSU and slow them down.

Good call on that Assassin.. I am pretty sure I do have it to boot 1st. I thought with no CD it would blip right past instantly, but will check when I get home!

What are acceptable CPU and system temperatures?

This is good practice and should be followed .

However , in my experience on a properly operating system that only shaves off about a second or two in boot times at most. The op say's he is up to a 1:20 boot time on an ssd that should post windows in about 20 secs or so .

I had this happen one time ware I had the cd set as the first boot and when the system booted to the p.o.s.t. screen it would hang at the point ware the system was trying to boot from the cd rom first and then after a long time it would boot from the HD. My issue was a failing sata port on the mother board to cd rom drive . Switched to another port and all was better .If the ssd is in fact the first boot device then try moving that sata cable to another port, if you can. A bad or intermittent sata cable can do this as well . You may not like this but a fresh windows install could fix this as well ( the slow boot that is). Last resort though !

Edit : You could also shut down and unhook your internet connection and disable essentials from starting at boot and re time the process . I'm trying to ask you ware the variable is ... when did it start ? Was it after a software update / firm ware update or adding a new driver or has it done this from day one ?

I could be wrong ... just my .02

-flocko

I have the GD05 with the same fans. I followed page 1 of this thread to change the voltage to 5v and run them slower. To me they are very quiet and it's a great solution.

I just finished my build with The Silverstone gD04 case. It comes with a cable that has a molex connector on one end and 3 fan connectors on the other. Thats what I used. I did under volt the fans to 5v to reduce the case noise. Cooling now is only ok, but the fans IMHO are still too noisy.

Thanks for the tip on the Nexus fans I will have to try them out.

I had it CD 1st. Boot is now about 35 seconds to windows desktop showing 40sec to loaded and no "busy" mouse cursor. BIG improvement. it takes about 15-20 of that just to get past mobo posting, so I will continue to look for things, but I am much happier already..

@flocko - This is the 1st I had paid attention to it, I have only had this rig built for about a week. still tinkering but the load time "felt" long. Now that it is at 35ish seconds I am much happier.

Awesome - thanks Flocko!

Anyone else on here have experience installing windows 7 from an external drive?

I haven't tried this one but I will compare on my Main Rig when I get a chance - http://www.intowindows.com/how-to-sp...indows-7-boot/ and this - http://www.pchell.com/support/how_to...oot_time.shtml

you dont have any USB/eSATA external drives atatched by chance? Depending on size of the external device your boot times could be compromised.

Try running just one case fan off your MB. You get speed control built in.

I'm running the same case and MB. I tried all three case fans off the power supply but that was too noisy, so I tried hooking up one fan along with the CPU cooler just to see what happened.

As I type this, the computer has been on all day and run pretty hard. System temp is 38C and CPU is 24C. These are up 2 to 4C from idling temps. The only case fan I have running is the one on the right, behind the front USB ports. The CPU fan runs about 1200 rpm and the case fan runs about 550 rpm. It's pretty quiet, although the CPU fan has a "trillling" sound to it.

Are the aftermarket CPU fans (recommended by assasin) a lot quieter?

Hi Assassin,

I'm looking at building an HTPC using maybe the i3-2105. I understand that you sucessfully use XBMC in 1080p, but how does it behave if the screen auto-refreshes at 24Hz? I've noticed lots of jerkiness (latest eden version) when I tried it on a work PC that has the i3-2100 (it's ok at 60Hz though). Oddly enough, using a discrete card didn't fix the problem either...strange. MPC-HC works better with 24Hz but some screen tearing occurs.

Anyway, just wondering what your experiences are?

regards.

Any update as to when the usenet/sickbeard guide will be up?

Wow, thanks for the fast reply.

It's funny, I feel like I've gone the full circle with the 24Hz thing. It looks just as good at 60Hz anyway. Perhaps it was just an obsession for a while (holy Grail). But now I'm after low power, low heat playback. Certainly getting rid of the discrete graphics card will make other decisions (case etc) easier.

Glad to hear XBMC works good though.

So I'm guessing there's very little advantage in getting the HD 3000 version over the HD 2000 for XBMC at 60Hz for 1080p?

Thanks again.

Never saw that thanks - and look forward to the new usenet guide also!

Oh. I forgot to ask...when you use XBMC on the i3-2100 system, is DXVA2 enabled? or will it only work via software?

Regards
mark.

Thanks Assassin! You are the man!

For those who have not spent the $20 DO IT!

I have no personal experience with aftermarket CPU fans, at least for many years. My stock Intel fan is not offensively loud in my very quiet basement office where it's sitting right in front of me. It's certainly quieter than my Dell Optiplex work computer sitting right next to it, which in itself is a pretty quiet computer. I have yet to install the HTPC upstairs in our living room, but I assume it will not be too loud based on what I hear now.

I really like my Silverstone GD04 case. It's my first case ever that is absolutely silent; no buzzes, no hums, no creaks, no rattles.

Lembrey,

My boot up time is just over 15 seconds, so you have room for improvement. The only major difference between my box and yours is the Ceton tuner.

Just curious, do you get the graphical Bios screen on your computer? I only get the text screen when entering the Bios. The manual does say you may get either one but doesn't explain why.

I do not see the graphical screen. I do the the old school bois data and then "IDE list" briefly, then it bounces to another screen that I believe is associated with achi saying it may take a moment. That vanishes and 10sec later or so the starting windows and logo appear.

Long term the goal is to not need to restart it and leave it on 24/7 as a DVR, but fast spool would be nice for when it is off.