[trigeek37]

hello all,

a buddy pointed me to this forum, and I have been looking for a while, and I finally regestered...


here is my plan: I want an ultraquiet HTPC for movies & streaming audio - quite is the number one plan, if it can play games, that is ok, but I am willing to sacrafic performance for quite, but sound/video quality is also very important - it will be used in my home theater room


case: I am building my own case - it will be very, very quiet


motherboard: socket 370 - something Micro ATX w/ on board 10/100, 3 PCI slots, AGP slot, no on board sound or video, and it has to work with remote controls & remote keyboards - I plan on using 815 chipset


processor: socket 370 celeron - probably 1 gHz or so... I will go slower if I can get it running with a heat sink in stead of cooling fan on the processor


RAM: 512 MB (or whatever the motherboard max is) 133 MHz 168 pin RAM


video: planning on using either a Radeon 7200 or 7500... probably 7200 cause it does not come with a fan


audio: 1st big question - do I need an expensive board with 96/24 processing if my reciever has this already? or can I use a generic sound card with digital out?


DVD: quiet as possible, performance is not very important

CD-RW: this will not be used much, but I want one anyway

HD: WD - either 60 or 80 GB I have read some conflicting info - are Seagates indeed the quietest IDE drives?


Power Supply: how much power will it take to run all of this? and what are the quietest power supplies out there?


that is about it... any thoughts would be greatly appreciated - and thanks in advance.

 

[Namlemez]

If you are using your receiver to decode audio, you could get away with something like the Zoltrix Nightengale Pro 6.


For the DVD drive, investigate ones that you can use software to slow them down. I think Pioneer supplies this as well as some other vendors. Seagates are pretty quiet, but anything in a well-insulted case or inside one of the drivesilencer boxes is quiet. New 5400rpm drives also tend to be quiet.

 

[EricN]

I built a completely silent htpc (no fans and no drives) but it requires a separate media server on the network. If a server is not an option, you may still be able to try some of the things I did:


Drive noise

-Ditch the hd and network boot. This requires a WfM NIC that supports PXE and a PXE server on the network.

-Even if you do go with a hd for booting, run all apps and store all content on the network.


Fan noise

-Get rid of the fans. This means added case ventilation, bigger heatsinks, and cutting down heat production

-P3 Tualatin 1.2G running at 900 and 1.250v is fine with just a large heatsink.

-Replace all heatsink/fan combos with large heatsinks...mobo controller, video card, etc.

-Remove the PSU cover **DO NOT OPEN COMPUTER WHILE PLUGGED IN***

-Get a quality PSU and load it as lightly as possible, this allows you to forgo a PSU fan

-No unnecessary or occasional use components. Put that CDRW in a different machine. No floppy drive.

-USB keyboard/mouse running from a separate, powered USB hub.

-Provide adequate ventilation in your AV rack.



Please be wary of the heat. The CPU and PSU fans are more critical than you might think, and removing them requires major changes. If you aren't willing to part with that component you might occasionally use, you will need to live with fan noise.

 

[trigeek37]

thanks for the replies...


-I plan on having as few fans as possible... the CPU will hopeulyy not have one, and neither will the video card.

-the keyboard/mouse will be USB, and not attached except during loading

-I really want a CD-RW, and the CD-RW & DVD will be behind a door that will close very tight, so there should be little escaping noise there.

-I plan on using a HD even though I could run it off my network

-I will only have case fans if the temp gets too hot

-the case will have lots of sound absorbing material on the inside, and it will be sealed very tight to minimize noise


any recomdations for quality/quite power supplies?