Recommended Power Supply

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vinnieg

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#269024 1-Nov-2009 14:35

kiwijunglist: passive colled psu will not provide airflow out of the case therefore case may run hotter if it isn't adequately ventilated.

I would also consider psu with large 12-14cm slow moving fan, it's it large and slow it will be quiet and you will also need less case fans going.

Yeah, I believe that's why the Zalman PSU has it's heatsink outside of the case. Definitely would be a problem if it was stored in the usual AV cabinet under a TV eh

I have moved across the ditch. Now residing in Melbourne as a VOIP/Video Technical Trainer/Engineer.

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kiwijunglist

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#269037 1-Nov-2009 15:14

smac: Using warm air to cool a PSU has always seemed counter-intuitive to me. I've made a few cases and have always had the PSU suck outside air, and expel it straight out as well. Separate slow case fan for the internals. My latest case was purchased for a change, and that has the same set-up (Antec HTPC case).

you might be right, my new computer from Computerlounge has PSU sucking air from outside.

If Case Ambient Temp > PSU temp then sucking air from inside computer could be bad for PSU as it would run fairly warm.

If Case Ambient Temp < PSU temp then sucking air from inside computer should be ok

I've actually never seen any articiles or direct comparisons between the two setups.

HTPC / Home automation (home assistant) enthusiast.

smac

309 posts

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#269041 1-Nov-2009 15:36

The reason I've always done it is simply to keep things controllable. Assuming ambient room temp is ok, then this means PSU is fine, regardless of what the CPU or GPU is up to. Just makes the equation more simple. Then just have to worry about GPU and CPU on their own, rather than complicated by things like the PSU fan speeding up (ie noise) just because the GPU is getting warm. Same for HDD's. I think most people don't realise your average HDD doesn't really need airflow, as long as it's not sitting in the same chamber as the CPU/GPU. Same for PSU actually - some under rated and efficient PSU's will actually run fanless as long as they're not getting warm air from somewhere else.

cldlr76

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#269053 1-Nov-2009 16:09

Thanks for the advice, turns out the mother board is poked too so its a good excuse to buy a new machine and fix the old one for one of the kids. Looking at one of these...

http://www.computerlounge.co.nz/systems/htpc_radical.asp

vinnieg

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#269062 1-Nov-2009 16:50

cldlr76: Thanks for the advice, turns out the mother board is poked too so its a good excuse to buy a new machine and fix the old one for one of the kids. Looking at one of these...

http://www.computerlounge.co.nz/systems/htpc_radical.asp

That looks good :) pretty tempted to get one myself or build a similar one in that case. Very sleek indeed.
Do they do black?

I have moved across the ditch. Now residing in Melbourne as a VOIP/Video Technical Trainer/Engineer.

cldlr76

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#269064 1-Nov-2009 16:52

yeah those cases come in black too.

kiwijunglist

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#269078 1-Nov-2009 18:01

is Nova-T (PCI) dual tuner, if not you might want HVR2200 (PCI-E)?
and 1.5TB is similar $/gb as 1TB now you might want to upgrade that?

NB - If you click upgrade/swap parts on the webpage it will cost more than the price difference between the swapped components, however if you email them they will usually do a deal to just charge you the list price difference

HTPC / Home automation (home assistant) enthusiast.

cldlr76

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#269090 1-Nov-2009 20:01

thanks for that, I was looking at the HVR3000 but might go the HVR2200 instead.
I've got a 500gb disk from my old machine full of movies and all the metadata and posters etc so I was hoping to get them to add that in and then I won't have to transfer anything over or redownload the metadata etc.

Nety

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#269091 1-Nov-2009 20:06

smac: The reason I've always done it is simply to keep things controllable. Assuming ambient room temp is ok, then this means PSU is fine, regardless of what the CPU or GPU is up to. Just makes the equation more simple. Then just have to worry about GPU and CPU on their own, rather than complicated by things like the PSU fan speeding up (ie noise) just because the GPU is getting warm. Same for HDD's. I think most people don't realise your average HDD doesn't really need airflow, as long as it's not sitting in the same chamber as the CPU/GPU. Same for PSU actually - some under rated and efficient PSU's will actually run fanless as long as they're not getting warm air from somewhere else.

I had the power supply turned the other way at first so it was pulling air from outside the case but found that left a corner of the case with dead air where the PCI cards are. They seemed to get quite hot so turning the power supply gives that hot air an out. Howerver you are not talking a huge amount of heat it just needed some movement.

The power supplies themselfs do not generate much heat at all so it does not need to move much air at all to keep both the cards and the power supply cool. The CPU and GPU are cooled by the two case fans I have at the other end of the case. However I do have a problem with the GPU because it is passive and only has a heatsink on one side of the card which is away from the fans pulling the warm air from inside the case. Would like the replace it with a card that has heat pipe cooling to the back side of the video card but can't really justify it.

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

cldlr76

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#269092 1-Nov-2009 20:16

BTW where is the swap/upgrade on the page, I was looking for it as I don't need/want th blueray so wanted to see what difference that would make the price. And I wasn't sure what OS it had, assume its Windows 7 otherwise theres not much point having the DVB-T, but I couldn't see a swap/upgrade anywhere

smac

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#269100 1-Nov-2009 21:02

That's the case I bought - I have passive cooling on both the (integrated) GPU and CPU which I think actually helps with the air flow. Nice even stream from under HDD and back of case, through passive heat sinks and out the side. Can't say I've ever given much thought to the PCI corner.....!

kiwijunglist

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#269113 1-Nov-2009 22:12

The swap/upgrade option is called "Configure", but they don't have a link on the HTPC page, just the other systems. Anyways point was that the Configure button was more expensive than the difference in list prices.

HTPC / Home automation (home assistant) enthusiast.

cldlr76

289 posts

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#269332 2-Nov-2009 17:21

These systems don't have an OS installed so by the time you add windows 7 it makes it about the same price as the playtech system. If you've got any thoughts over which is better check out my other post...

http://www.geekzone.co.nz/forums.asp?forumid=84&topicid=45419

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