What video card for Freeview|HD once AGAIN.

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#200084 9-Mar-2009 12:59

browned:
I have a Zalman VNF100 on my MSI 8600 GT, it is not made for the 8600 series card but fits and works well I have 67 degree max temps when watching Freeview | HD. If fits nicely into the Silverstone GD01 MXR case which is a very similar layout to the LC16. The MSI card originally came with a bulky thermaltake silent cooler that did not fit into the space available because of the 5 1/4 drive bays.

Unfortunately the Zalman is no longer available, or at least not made by Zalman anymore.

cheers
db

That was one of the ones I looked at (did not realise it had gone end of life) but the reviews it got were average so I did not try and get it. Sounds like it performs better then the reviews implied.

Media centre PC - Case Silverstone LC16M with 2 X 80mm AcoustiFan DustPROOF, MOBO Gigabyte MA785GT-UD3H, CPU AMD X2 240 under volted, RAM 4 Gig DDR3 1033, HDD 120Gig System/512Gig data, Tuners 2 X Hauppauge HVR-3000, 1 X HVR-2200, Video Palit GT 220, Sound Realtek 886A HD (onboard), Optical LiteOn DH-401S Blue-ray using TotalMedia Theatre Power Corsair VX Series, 450W ATX PSU OS Windows 7 x64

browned

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#200110 9-Mar-2009 13:44

Nety:
browned:
I have a Zalman VNF100 on my MSI 8600 GT, it is not made for the 8600 series card but fits and works well I have 67 degree max temps when watching Freeview | HD. If fits nicely into the Silverstone GD01 MXR case which is a very similar layout to the LC16. The MSI card originally came with a bulky thermaltake silent cooler that did not fit into the space available because of the 5 1/4 drive bays.

Unfortunately the Zalman is no longer available, or at least not made by Zalman anymore.

cheers
db

That was one of the ones I looked at (did not realise it had gone end of life) but the reviews it got were average so I did not try and get it. Sounds like it performs better then the reviews implied.

Pretty sure it is end of life, but check around it may still be available, also check it can fit onto a 9x00series card as it was made more for the the 6, 7 and 8x000 series.

I have a couple more fans in my case than you, I have 2 x 92mm (@700rpm) in front of the hard drives to draw air in past the hard drives and one directs onto the Zalman heatpipe 600w PSU. The 2 x 80mm at the rear, and one times 80x15mm on the side next to the cpu also drawing air out of the case. Noise is not a worry with this setup, but if I was bothered by it I would change the 2 x 80mm silverstone units at the back as they are the loudest.

cheers
db

Home Server: AMD Threadripper 1950X, 64GB, 56TB HDD, Define R6 Case, 10GbE, ESXi 6.7, UNRAID, NextPVR, Emby Server, Plex Server.
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Nety

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#200117 9-Mar-2009 14:14

I am currently poor so can't really look at getting one anyway + have to start saving for Windows 7 however much they are going to sting us for an upgrade to that. I have a 8500GT so GPU location would not be a problem.

ajst2duk

170 posts

Master Geek

#200847 12-Mar-2009 16:25

Just thought I would chip in with my experiences, I use a Grandia (silverstone) case which is pretty tight and using a passive 9600GT. The case temps used to frighten me at first, with GPU running around 70-90 and blipping above 100 when the kids played a game.
The two things I did to get temps down were:
installed a 120m silent fan inside the case secured by blu-tack that blows air past the vid card (quietly)
replaced the system HD with an SSD - runs silent & cool, media HD is a 1.5TB one that only spins up when its needed.
It's as close now to perfect as I can get it, very happy. I also had twin case fans & only 1 mobo header, so I tried a few resistors until I foound one that spun it down to near silent, so two exhaust fans on full time with one spinning up on the rare occasion that the kids play a game or I transcode .ts flies.

AJ

I'm just a crazy newbie?
My HTPC: www.jenkin.net/HTPC.htm
Silverstone grandis, E8200, Corsair2GB, Seagate 1.5TB + OCZ 30GB SSD, ~~HD3870XT~~ 9600GT Passive Vista HP Hauppauge HVR2200/USB 500T Corsair HX620 modular PSU, Pioneer BDC-S02BK Blu-Ray, Gigabyte GA-G33M-DS2R, Logitech MX Air Citipulse DA2.03E USB DAC

limegreen

103 posts

Master Geek

#200848 12-Mar-2009 16:41

ajst2duk:
It's as close now to perfect as I can get it, very happy. I also had twin case fans & only 1 mobo header, so I tried a few resistors until I foound one that spun it down to near silent, so two exhaust fans on full time with one spinning up on the rare occasion that the kids play a game or I transcode .ts flies.

AJ

What line did you put the resistor in? I went for Red, as depicted in this Zalman adaptor
http://www.zalman.co.kr/DataFile/product/ZM-F1_04_b(0).jpg
but I'm not sure it's working. It's either not slowing it, or it's slowed it down to a place that it's not much quieter. That said, now that I look at that image, the Zalman is rated at .25 A, and I think the Silverstone's are .12A, which might have an effect.

HTPC: Silverstone LC16-MR Silver, Corsair VX450W PSU, AMD X2 5200+, 2Gb RAM, Gigabyte MA-770 DS3 Mobo, ASUS 9400GT Silent, 1TB Western Digital HDD, 1TB Samsung EcoGreen, 1.5TB WD external; LG DVD Writer, Hauppage HVR2200, Hauppage T-500, 2xArtical Cooling PSD fans
Work: ASUS UL30A w/ 27" external 1080p LCD display
Workhorse: AMD 3600, 1Gb RAM
Phone: Samsung Galaxy S II on Telecom XT

aktonin

4 posts

Wannabe Geek

#201317 15-Mar-2009 19:24

How did you play Sky Sport HD over a computer?

RustyGonad:
A couple of things:

1. If you only want SPDIF audio, just take it straight off the motherboard. I can't see any reason to feed it into HDMI, and then feed it out of your TV and back to your amp again. Feed the SPDIF to your amp, and run two channel back to your TV from the amp if you really want it, although if your using 5.1 you really should just turn off the TV sound altogether.

2. HDMI to DVI adaptors - there is no difference in picture quality between DVI and HDMI. Once you get over the fact the you don't get to use a HDMI to HDMI cable, everything else remains the same. You can also buy some nice clean DVI-HDMI cables from PBTech and other places for under $20, that way you don't have to use an "adaptor". I think theres still an invisible perception out there that if its not HDMI all the way it isn't as good.

Nvidia cards:

Running on Windows 7, using Media Center, tested with both Freeview HD, and Sky Sport HD, stock default drivers.

XFX Onboard NVidia 8200 @ 1280x720p - no perceivable frame loss.
XFX 8500GT Passive @ 1920 x 1080p - no perceivable fram loss
Palit 9400 GT @ 1920x1080p - no perceivable frame loss

I haven't tested the newer onboard solutions yet, but based on past experience they should go just fine. There are some driver, software, setup caveats attached however... For example the 8200 really struggled using Vista, however they are fine on Windows 7. Windows 7 has made some big gains in efficiency here.

Unless you really want to make more heat, and use a bit more power there is really no point in going to the 9500, or anything above.

Mighty Ape

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RustyGonad

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#201322 15-Mar-2009 19:58

aktonin: How did you play Sky Sport HD over a computer?

RustyGonad:
A couple of things:

1. If you only want SPDIF audio, just take it straight off the motherboard. I can't see any reason to feed it into HDMI, and then feed it out of your TV and back to your amp again. Feed the SPDIF to your amp, and run two channel back to your TV from the amp if you really want it, although if your using 5.1 you really should just turn off the TV sound altogether.

2. HDMI to DVI adaptors - there is no difference in picture quality between DVI and HDMI. Once you get over the fact the you don't get to use a HDMI to HDMI cable, everything else remains the same. You can also buy some nice clean DVI-HDMI cables from PBTech and other places for under $20, that way you don't have to use an "adaptor". I think theres still an invisible perception out there that if its not HDMI all the way it isn't as good.

Nvidia cards:

Running on Windows 7, using Media Center, tested with both Freeview HD, and Sky Sport HD, stock default drivers.

XFX Onboard NVidia 8200 @ 1280x720p - no perceivable frame loss.
XFX 8500GT Passive @ 1920 x 1080p - no perceivable fram loss
Palit 9400 GT @ 1920x1080p - no perceivable frame loss

I haven't tested the newer onboard solutions yet, but based on past experience they should go just fine. There are some driver, software, setup caveats attached however... For example the 8200 really struggled using Vista, however they are fine on Windows 7. Windows 7 has made some big gains in efficiency here.

Unless you really want to make more heat, and use a bit more power there is really no point in going to the 9500, or anything above.

There's another whole thread on it somewhere in here...

Effectively using the following:

Hauppauge HVR4000 DVBS2 tuner card
Jaycar Reader (reads your 45XX Sky Card)
DVBDream + NDSCam (decodes the signal)
DVBSBridge (feeds decoded signal to Media Center)
BSE EPG Tool (does the guide)

Once its setup its all invisible to Media Center. Works a treat.

cshaun

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#201373 16-Mar-2009 09:30

Interesting didn't know you could get SKY-HD working so transparently.

Finally started building HTPC. The CPU cooler fits! Had a huge scare, cause it was soo close and the case lid didn't seem to want to close. But it actually has about 1 maybe 2 mm clearance. So it's definitelly a better chose than the Ninja Mini.

What I'm sitting on right now, is which way to have the PSU (suck air from the side or inside the case. Think I'm leaning towards inside. What are you guys doing? Mobo comes right up against the PSU so there will be a few low profile cards near, but the vent on the ouside of the case is a bit restricted anyway.

Is there any issue with using the second PCI-E 2.0 slot on my mobo for the video card? Does it not do full 16x where the primary one does? (Not clear in manual). Then even if it does 8x... being PCI-E 2.0 doesn't that baiscally mean it's as fast as 16x 1.0...? Ideas?
If the video card cooler does fit (to close to call without actually mounting the damn thing GRR. The brace/bar on the LC16M would definitely be in the way - so my options are either leave the brace off the case and have it in the primary PCI-E 16x slot or put it in the secondary (mobo has 2).

Last very small thing is I've got 2x WD Green 1tb drives. Figured I should put one each side. Thinking middle of the three available slots? Mostly cause of air spacing. Any thoughts on that?

limegreen

103 posts

Master Geek

#201377 16-Mar-2009 10:07

I have PSU taking from inside (as does someone else with the LC16M). Currently only have 1 drive, but it is middle on one side, and had assumed that I'd put the next one on the other side BUT, at the moment, the other side serves as a great place to tuck all the spare lengths of cable which keeps stuff looking tidy (just a thought). If I do go for two on one side, I'd probably top and bottom. At the moment, temperature has not been an issue in my setup.

cshaun

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#201899 18-Mar-2009 13:07

Just letting you guys know. It FITS!

Asus 9500GT in a Silverstone LC16B-MR.
1-2mm clearance for both HR-03GT and XT-S963 (case doesn't quite have the same height as a normal case).

Pretty happy with that. Very close, but doesn't even touch the lid. The bar across the case would need to be removed if video card is in it's usual slot. I've put mine in another PCI-E 16x slot so I can keep the bar.

Would strongly recommend the Asus 9500GT + HR-03GT for people looking for decent video card. Has HDMI/DVI/VGA and spdif passthrough for HDMI. 9500GT doesn't cost much more than 9400GT performs way better (not that it's needed for video) but has the same power usage and thermals. Just the additional cost of the HR-03GT that makes things a little expensive - but it's going to perform better than any stock fanless video card heatsink...

And the XT-S963 perfarms a fair amount better than the Ninja and in my opinion easier to work with. Quiter. 92mm fan with rubber attachment grommets instead of wire. So definitely the better choice.

Might look around later for somewhere more useful to post this info.

ajst2duk

170 posts

Master Geek

#202505 21-Mar-2009 15:13

limegreen:
ajst2duk:
It's as close now to perfect as I can get it, very happy. I also had twin case fans & only 1 mobo header, so I tried a few resistors until I foound one that spun it down to near silent, so two exhaust fans on full time with one spinning up on the rare occasion that the kids play a game or I transcode .ts flies.

AJ

What line did you put the resistor in? I went for Red, as depicted in this Zalman adaptor
http://www.zalman.co.kr/DataFile/product/ZM-F1_04_b(0).jpg
but I'm not sure it's working. It's either not slowing it, or it's slowed it down to a place that it's not much quieter. That said, now that I look at that image, the Zalman is rated at .25 A, and I think the Silverstone's are .12A, which might have an effect.

Hii there - not sure it matters, red is fine. Maybe try two in series (in a row) ?? or try a slightly higher resistance? I had to play around with a few before I found on ethat had the right combo of fan speed vs noise

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limegreen

103 posts

Master Geek

#202507 21-Mar-2009 15:47

ajst2duk:

Hii there - not sure it matters, red is fine. Maybe try two in series (in a row) ?? or try a slightly higher resistance? I had to play around with a few before I found on ethat had the right combo of fan speed vs noise

Thanks. Yeah. I was thinking about uprating the resistance. It's a LONG time since I've really had to think about this, but if I assume the Silverstone fan is half the power (and current) of a Zalman fan, then that will change the amount of resistance required to drop the voltage to 7V, I think. I'll probably have a play when I put in the next terabyte next week!

cshaun

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#202555 22-Mar-2009 01:23

Is it really worth all the effort dropping the voltage of the silverstone fans, when you can buy fans that are half the noise with the same air flow and pressure... ?

Time and effort you're putting into it is just giving you a quieter fan with the trade off of decreased performance. Just doesn't really seem worth it.

Silverstone fans definitely by far the loudest thing in my case... CPU and video card heatsink doesn't even feel warm to the touch after usage. Will do more tests in the next few days.

limegreen

103 posts

Master Geek

#202598 22-Mar-2009 12:46

cshaun: Is it really worth all the effort dropping the voltage of the silverstone fans, when you can buy fans that are half the noise with the same air flow and pressure... ?

It's absolutely not worth the effort. The case was cool enough and quiet enough without the second fan plugged in, so by far the simplest option would be just to unplug it again. Dropping the voltage is really just for the challenge/fun; and I guess if I was going to leave the fan permanently idle, I should probably wall it up anyway.

cshaun

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#202642 22-Mar-2009 19:07

Yeah probably would be a good idea 'walling' it up. I closed off the side vent with some plastic sheeting from a takeaways container... Though didn't realize at the time the vent by the PSU was longer than the PSU and is now sucking in air.

Those two case fans are surprisingly loud... Corsair PSU far quieter.

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