2012-05-14, 19:45
Hello community,
Since I read a lot in the board here before I bought my system I want to give something back to the community. Maybe some noob will learn from my experiences with setting up the HTPC of my dreams or sometimes nightmares...
After some reading I decided to go with the follwing setup:
Case: Antec ISK 300-65 (with 120W external brick)
Mobo: ASRock A75 A75M-ITX, AMD A75, Socket FM1, Mini-ITX
APU (CPU incl. Grafikchip): AMD A8-3850 APU, 2.9GHz, Socket FM1, 4C/4T (with boxed Cooler for now) first but now A8-3620 APU (used).
RAM: Corsair Vengeance, 2x4GB, DDR3-1866, [email protected] (unfortunately not low profile -> didn't read enough before ordering)
SSD: Corsair Force3 60GB, SATA-3, 2.5 Zoll
Well that was my initial setup... but not my finale as you will read below...
After a couple of weeks of waiting for my order in my favourite local retailer here in Switzerland I finally got the stuff. Be aware that many of the suggested components here in this board are not available in all countries. Or if available for a ridiculously higher price than in the states. Example... The external brick here in Switzerland cost me 120 Swiss Francs (with is around 120 US$). Such a brick in the US costs around 20 US$. Okay one could import it but you also don't have the right cables then and you pay additional shipping and other costs. Many of the suggested components here also were not on stock at my retailer...
Anyways after I plugged everything together and I wanted to start my computer with a smiling face just nothing happened...
No booting into BIOS or UEFI or whatever... Damn!!! What's wrong now. I already thought that I broke something. Maybe a short?
It turned out that the 120W brick wasn't powerful enough for the A8-3850 (100W) APU.
But I only realized that after a lot of testing with some members of the board here. Thanks to eskro and bluray at this point.
Actually I have to say that initially someone said that the 120W brick with the A8-3850 processor should work. Even though some other member here in the board has it working with a similar combination it didn't work in my case. After some testing with some PSU from an old desktop computer I knew that it really was the my brick that was to weak. Because the system worked with a 160W desktop PSU.
Maybe you can imagine how relieved I was that it was just the brick and nothing serious that I broke.
Well, after some reading I decided to go with one of those small PicoPSU (160W as well) and bought it from ebay. There are offers which include a fitting brick with the PSU. Of course I went for the big one with 192W peak in the first place because I am really sick of underpowering my system by now.
I don't get this anyway. Why is everybody trying to run their system with the lowest possible PSU? If it's true what I learned from this experience is that the systems (CPU, RAM and so on) are not consuming any more power than it really needs anyway. Meanwhile I would go for a 10'000W brick if there was one... It could have saved me a couple of my life years...
Anyway... after another week of waiting for the PicoPSU I finally got this thing in my mail.
So I unboxed it and I deattached the original Antec ISK300-65 internal PSU board. All of the sudden I realized that the plug of the PicoPSU brick was larger then the one of the stock PSU... GREAT!!!
I had to extend the hole in the case with a round file until the new plug fitted through the hole in the case. But I finally got it working. The other great thing about the PicoPSU is that it is way slicker than the stock PSU. There are way less cable in the case thanks to the PicoPSU.
I also had to buy some new screws to attach the PicoPSU plug on the case. The stock ones where to large and didn't fit. I bought 2.5mm by 12mm screws. They work.
Oh yes... one more thing!
In the hassle with the bricks and underpowering my system I also bought a used A8-3820 APU (65W) additionally. Was waiting for this one a week too to arrive here. First I decided to set my system up with my more powerful A8-3850 (100W). After some playing around and installing and stuff I felt that the system is incredibly noisy. Even though it has an external brick. I also made the settings in the BIOS Cool'n Quiet, 50 degrees, Level 5 and stuff. I also adjusted the case fan to the level 1 as bluray suggests all the time. But still the system was way to loud for me. During a Windows virus scan the system sounded like a vacuum cleaner. Totally unusable for an HTPC.
I then gave it a try with the other APU the A8-3850 and it is much, much better. I also think that it is not a good idea to turn the case fan to level 1. I think this is to low. With the case fan on level one the hot air inside the case is not transported outside of the case good enough. So the hot air get stuck in the case and the CPU fan turns on even louder. If I have the case fan on level 2 the all in all noise is remarkably more quiet. The case fan is very silent anyways. Therefore it also seems that the 100W APU produces way more heat than the 65W APU. So I will go with the less powerful but more quiet APU here....
Of course I could by one of those Skythe CPU fans. But unfortunately I made the mistake and did not buy low profile RAM. That's why a Skythe fan in my case doesn't work for now. Maybe I'll buy some new RAM someday and also another CUP fan. But for now I try it with the boxed fan.
Meanwhile I just finished setting up windows 7 (ultimate) with XBMC. I didn't attach it to the TV yet. It's still in my office on my monitor where I set it up. But tonight will be the night!!!
But one problem I already ran into...
It seems it has some difficulties to play mkv's with DTS-HD MA tracks. I installed the HD-Audio XBMC and I think I set it all up correctly. But when the DTS-HD MA track is chosen the movie plays in slowmotion. When I switch to normal DTS in the same movie then it works flawlessly. Any idea anyone?
I hope my experience review here will help the one or the other and I would appreciate any comments.
Below I attached some pictures of my setup.
Jarjar
Since I read a lot in the board here before I bought my system I want to give something back to the community. Maybe some noob will learn from my experiences with setting up the HTPC of my dreams or sometimes nightmares...
After some reading I decided to go with the follwing setup:
Case: Antec ISK 300-65 (with 120W external brick)
Mobo: ASRock A75 A75M-ITX, AMD A75, Socket FM1, Mini-ITX
APU (CPU incl. Grafikchip): AMD A8-3850 APU, 2.9GHz, Socket FM1, 4C/4T (with boxed Cooler for now) first but now A8-3620 APU (used).
RAM: Corsair Vengeance, 2x4GB, DDR3-1866, [email protected] (unfortunately not low profile -> didn't read enough before ordering)
SSD: Corsair Force3 60GB, SATA-3, 2.5 Zoll
Well that was my initial setup... but not my finale as you will read below...
After a couple of weeks of waiting for my order in my favourite local retailer here in Switzerland I finally got the stuff. Be aware that many of the suggested components here in this board are not available in all countries. Or if available for a ridiculously higher price than in the states. Example... The external brick here in Switzerland cost me 120 Swiss Francs (with is around 120 US$). Such a brick in the US costs around 20 US$. Okay one could import it but you also don't have the right cables then and you pay additional shipping and other costs. Many of the suggested components here also were not on stock at my retailer...
Anyways after I plugged everything together and I wanted to start my computer with a smiling face just nothing happened...
No booting into BIOS or UEFI or whatever... Damn!!! What's wrong now. I already thought that I broke something. Maybe a short?
It turned out that the 120W brick wasn't powerful enough for the A8-3850 (100W) APU.
But I only realized that after a lot of testing with some members of the board here. Thanks to eskro and bluray at this point.
Actually I have to say that initially someone said that the 120W brick with the A8-3850 processor should work. Even though some other member here in the board has it working with a similar combination it didn't work in my case. After some testing with some PSU from an old desktop computer I knew that it really was the my brick that was to weak. Because the system worked with a 160W desktop PSU.
Maybe you can imagine how relieved I was that it was just the brick and nothing serious that I broke.
Well, after some reading I decided to go with one of those small PicoPSU (160W as well) and bought it from ebay. There are offers which include a fitting brick with the PSU. Of course I went for the big one with 192W peak in the first place because I am really sick of underpowering my system by now.
I don't get this anyway. Why is everybody trying to run their system with the lowest possible PSU? If it's true what I learned from this experience is that the systems (CPU, RAM and so on) are not consuming any more power than it really needs anyway. Meanwhile I would go for a 10'000W brick if there was one... It could have saved me a couple of my life years...
Anyway... after another week of waiting for the PicoPSU I finally got this thing in my mail.
So I unboxed it and I deattached the original Antec ISK300-65 internal PSU board. All of the sudden I realized that the plug of the PicoPSU brick was larger then the one of the stock PSU... GREAT!!!
I had to extend the hole in the case with a round file until the new plug fitted through the hole in the case. But I finally got it working. The other great thing about the PicoPSU is that it is way slicker than the stock PSU. There are way less cable in the case thanks to the PicoPSU.
I also had to buy some new screws to attach the PicoPSU plug on the case. The stock ones where to large and didn't fit. I bought 2.5mm by 12mm screws. They work.
Oh yes... one more thing!
In the hassle with the bricks and underpowering my system I also bought a used A8-3820 APU (65W) additionally. Was waiting for this one a week too to arrive here. First I decided to set my system up with my more powerful A8-3850 (100W). After some playing around and installing and stuff I felt that the system is incredibly noisy. Even though it has an external brick. I also made the settings in the BIOS Cool'n Quiet, 50 degrees, Level 5 and stuff. I also adjusted the case fan to the level 1 as bluray suggests all the time. But still the system was way to loud for me. During a Windows virus scan the system sounded like a vacuum cleaner. Totally unusable for an HTPC.
I then gave it a try with the other APU the A8-3850 and it is much, much better. I also think that it is not a good idea to turn the case fan to level 1. I think this is to low. With the case fan on level one the hot air inside the case is not transported outside of the case good enough. So the hot air get stuck in the case and the CPU fan turns on even louder. If I have the case fan on level 2 the all in all noise is remarkably more quiet. The case fan is very silent anyways. Therefore it also seems that the 100W APU produces way more heat than the 65W APU. So I will go with the less powerful but more quiet APU here....
Of course I could by one of those Skythe CPU fans. But unfortunately I made the mistake and did not buy low profile RAM. That's why a Skythe fan in my case doesn't work for now. Maybe I'll buy some new RAM someday and also another CUP fan. But for now I try it with the boxed fan.
Meanwhile I just finished setting up windows 7 (ultimate) with XBMC. I didn't attach it to the TV yet. It's still in my office on my monitor where I set it up. But tonight will be the night!!!
But one problem I already ran into...
It seems it has some difficulties to play mkv's with DTS-HD MA tracks. I installed the HD-Audio XBMC and I think I set it all up correctly. But when the DTS-HD MA track is chosen the movie plays in slowmotion. When I switch to normal DTS in the same movie then it works flawlessly. Any idea anyone?
I hope my experience review here will help the one or the other and I would appreciate any comments.
Below I attached some pictures of my setup.
Jarjar