[eMilk]

Is there an even cheaper DIY build solution that'll match the price/performance of the ND22?

Keeping in mind that components in Denmark looks to be about 40% pricier, I'm interested in knowing if the DIY route is still feasible - keeping up with the previous system requirements.

Also, thanks for helping me out eskro, really appreciate your help!

[eskro]

http://forum.xbmc.org/showpost.php?p=809101&postcount=8

[eMilk]

Touché. I'll keep watch on various auction-sites for cheap hardware for the time to come.

Thank you for your help!

[eMilk]

Alright, here's what I've come up with on my own, and I'm pretty close to hitting the 'order' button:

Build #1: (the auction-build - used items)
Case+PSU : ML02 Silverstone (120 watt PSU)
Mobo+GPU: Zotac GeForce 9300 M-ATX
CPU: Intel E5400*2.7 GHz
RAM: 4GB Kingston HyperX
FAN: Scythe BIG Shuriken
HDD: WD20EARS 2TB
Pricetag: $490 USD

Build #2: (Fresh-off-the-factory-hardware)
Case+PSU: Antec ISK 310-150 (150 watt PSU)
Mobo+GPU: Zotac GeForce 9300-ITX WiFi
CPU: Intel E5700 3.0 GHz
RAM: Corsair DDR3 2x2GB
HDD: WD Scorpio Black 750GB 2.5"
Pricetag: $590 USD

Would the included PSU's be able to run on the system without any issues? If not, what would be recommendable?
In terms of price/performance, which looks best of the two?

[eskro]

[CPU] Intel Pentium E5700 3.0GHz Dual-Core LGA-775 65W (437,00 DKK)
[MOBO+iGPU] ZOTAC GF9300-K-E LGA-775 WiFi Mini-ITX (864,00 DKK)
[CASE+PSU] HEC 8K01 mini-ITX 120W (457,00 DKK)
[SSD] Kingston 30GB 2.5" SATAII Trim Read:180MB/s Write:50MB/s (529,00 DKK)
[RAM] Corsair XMS3 2GB (1 x 2GB) DDR3 1333Mhz CL9 (191,00 DKK)
TOTAL: (2478,00 DKK = 541.041 USD)

[eMilk]

Woah, thanks eskro! Really appreciate all your help!

Will the 120W PSU be enough to run the system though?
CPU alone looks like it consumes 65 Watt.

[wsume99]

Excuse me Eskro for butting in but the answer to your question eMilk is yes, 120w should be plenty.

And BTW I think you're making the right decision by building your own system. Your proposed build will absolutely kick the crap out of that ND-22 and ensure that you have a very good user experience.

[eskro]

ND-22 is one of the best NETTOP in my opinion, but, nothing beats custom builds....

[eMilk]

Thanks wsume and eskro - appreciate all the feedback.
Definitely going for a custom build.

What is your experiences with noise levels from your custom builds?
Any tips for reducing noise, or a really good low-noise fan? Tips and tricks appreciated.

Once I begin the build, I'll take pictures and share them here, so I can pay a little back to the community. (even though it's probably been done a million times)

[eskro]

as i said,
you can always get a Silent 3rd party CPU Cooler http://ow.ly/1tn2ei
and same for Power Supply, if anything you dislike,
you can grab the external Pico-PSU....

[eMilk]

Are the external picopsu's completely silent, or just silent-er compared to in-case PSUs?
Are they like laptop PSU bricks?
Sorry for all the questions, I promise this'll stop soon - I just don't want to go out and buy something that I'll regret the minute I get it.

[eskro]

Fanless 0Db

[eMilk]

My reaction:


I'll keep this thread updated once I get to the stage of actually building the system.

[wsume99]

Are the external picopsu's completely silent, or just silent-er compared to in-case PSUs?
Are they like laptop PSU bricks?
Sorry for all the questions, I promise this'll stop soon - I just don't want to go out and buy something that I'll regret the minute I get it.

The PSU part that is inside the case is silent BUT some of the external ac adapter bricks do have a fan inside them. I know for a fact that the 8.5A brick that mini-box sells does include an internal fan inside the ac adapter. The fan stays off until you reach about 80% load and then it comes on and it's pretty loud. I know because I have one. However this is not really an issue for me since my zacate doesn't use much power. I never go over 40w. I believe that other ac adapters mini-box sells are fanless.

[eMilk]

Figured it was due time with an update.

I found an Asrock 330HT for cheap (250 usd), so I decided to take the jump, and try my luck with a lower end machine.

It's an ugly box, but it does it job pretty well. Also, it's completely inaudible while watching TV or movies, playing games, or whatever.

Therefore my experience would be similar to what anyone out there using an ION330 machine.

My findings so far:

N64 emulation runs flawlessly in 1280x720 with antistropic filtering and full-scene antialiasing.

PSX emulation using ePSXe works great as long as I'm using P.E.Op.S Soft Driver - also in 1280x720. Enabling frame skipping fixed any issues with lag.
Getting PSX emulation to run properly took some work and research, but I've found that the P.E.Op.S Soft Driver is the way to go on lower-end hardware.

Obviously, all the old school emulators (SNES, NES, Neo-Geo etc) works out of the box, no configuration needed.

Arcade frontends I've tested:
Maximus Arcade (runs, no issues there)
Hyperspin (a bit laggy, unless you disable some of the visual gimmicks)

Steam games I've tested:
* Altitude (runs, full speed)
* Beat Hazard (runs, full speed @ 720p, struggles a little for high-intensity battles on 1080p)
* Braid (runs, full speed)
* Frozen Synapse (runs, full speed)
* Hammerfight (runs, full speed)
* Starscape (runs, full speed)
* Super Meat Boy (runs, full speed)
* Uplink (runs, full speed)
* Zombie Driver (unplayable)


So, my conlcusion: ION330 is okay if you want to play emulators, as long as it's not any more demanding than PSX/N64-level emulation. Any higher than that, you're going to want another machine/system.

If you're looking for a budget solution for retro and indie-gaming, the ION330 is a perfect fit (for me at least).