Zotaz Mini-ITX quiet vs. grunt?

Forums › Home Theatre (including HTPC and EPG Collector) › Zotaz Mini-ITX quiet vs. grunt?

markf1man

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#72467 26-Nov-2010 16:39

Hi, I'm starting to investigate some options for a HTPC. Ideally at the end of the day I want a one box solution - freeview pvr, bluray, media player, internet

I've seen someone suggest this setup which is largely passively cooled, removing the power supply from the case and using the external brick. Although I saw someone else suggest the Zotac included fan should be used as the heatsink gets very hot.

ZOTAC IONITX-A-U ATOM DUAL-CORE 1.6GHZ/ MCP7A-ION/ A&V&GBE/ MINI ITX MOTHERBOARD W/ 90 WATT PSU
AYWUN A1-8989 BLACK MINI-ITX CASE

Another possility is more processing grunt but more cooling requirement

ZOTAC GF9300-G-E CORE 2 QUAD/ GEFORCE 9300/ A&V&GBE/ MINI ITX MOTHERBOARD
+ a pentium dual core or core2duo

Any comments on the relative merits?
Does anyone have a system similar to either of the above?

sbiddle

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#409970 26-Nov-2010 16:47

CPU speed isn't the major issue - the GPU is.

vinnieg

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#409978 26-Nov-2010 17:05

I have that exact same setup! Works well, until my Western Digital green power broke :(

But works fine for:
- Streaming to PS3
- Running videos/Music videos on Win7 Media centre
- Internet browsing

Can be a tad slow if doing multiple tasks, but if you want a PC that uses 15-30w Max of electricity and completely passive(i use one CPU fan runnning at low speed) it's a good choice :)

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

markf1man

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#409992 26-Nov-2010 17:44

@sbiddle
I was looking at the ION or GF9300 for the GPU as I'm not sure of the Intel HD with a Zotac i3/i5 board. But with the CPU - is the Atom up to it? I guess one possibility might be if I wanted to convert (transcode) video to another format on the HTPC box? (or transcode & stream to a 360)

@vinnieg
Thanks. I take it you have the atom setup? Do you transcode to the PS3 or convert to other formats (e.g mp4/h264)?
These are the places I saw the atom setup mentioned and pretty sure I came across it in these forums (probably your setup!) but didn't bookmark.
http://images.gpforums.co.nz/showthread.php?threadid=396769
http://redevil.o-bot.com/mpc/?m=200911

Dingbatt

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#410148 27-Nov-2010 09:40

Don't use an Atom/ION based system if you are going to try and run FreeviewHD on MediaPortal. It can't handle it.
Strangely enough it coped perfectly well with FreeviewHD when running W7MC.

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vinnieg

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#410156 27-Nov-2010 10:03

@vinnieg
Thanks. I take it you have the atom setup? Do you transcode to the PS3 or convert to other formats (e.g mp4/h264)?
That's correct, I was using PS3 Media Server to handle MKVs, most are fine to play, it'll handle the Matrix MKV in 720P fine, but struggles with 1080P transcoding

It'll handle all formats(with the right codecs) in Win7 Media Centre and record Freeview too, but MediaPortal as said will struggle as will running XP or Vista, you definitely need Win7 on there :)

Since Vista is slow already...and XP doesn't really support hardware based GPU decoding

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

PANiCnz

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#410194 27-Nov-2010 12:45

I have an ASUS M-ATX LGA775 motherboard with the Nvidia 9300 chipset coupled with a Celeron 420 and think its a great combination. The 9300 handles any HD files I throw at it and the 420 handles the XBMC frontend with out issue. If anything I'm considering a small SSD to improve the responsiveness of the interface.

markf1man

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#410371 28-Nov-2010 12:05

Thanks for the heads up for media portal. I was thinking of using W7MC.

How big of an issue is noise with the HTPC's? Is getting it down to none or 1 fan the way to go?

I'm still not sure about the Atom. It doesn't quite seem the right fit to me with the performance tradeoff - After all I'm not trying to run this from a battery. Is there an inbetween option? ie. can you get a mini-itx (or maybe even micro-atx) motherboard with a mobile processor and chipset? eg. like a i3-350M or maybe even an ultra low voltage mobile i3? I suspect even that would comfortably outperform an Atom. Looking on Wikipedia desktop i3 73W, mobile i3 35W, ulv i3 18W, Atom 8W

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PANiCnz

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#410394 28-Nov-2010 13:26

A desktop i3 is fine powerwise, especially when at idle. If you really concerned about power have a look at AMD. One of there low power dual cores coupled with the 880G isnt that much more power hungry than Atom. Slap a decent HSF on it with a low RPM fan and it will be quiet also.

Regs

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#410507 28-Nov-2010 23:03

if you use the right i3 then you can use the embedded gpu features of the processor. if you use a chip that doesnt support it, or an AMD, you will need either a board with discreete gpu, or a add-in gpu. using the gpu features can save you a bit thermally

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mummybot

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#410749 29-Nov-2010 16:08

I use the ION for mediaportal, blu-ray playback and torrents.

It took a lot of configuring, but now it runs great. I like it because it is nearly silent, only fan is the psu.

But if I had to do it again I wouldn't use the ION. Its too border line. When mediaportal runs the thumbnail generator in the background I drop frames on live TV.

I like the AMD setup, especially if you don't need itx.

my 2c

markf1man

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#410763 29-Nov-2010 16:38

Thanks for the replies.

That seems to be the thing with HTPC - lots of ways of doing it but none really jump out as being the ideal solution. I having been doing some more reading.

It appears there is a dual celeron ulv ION itx board coming out, but doesn't appear to be a big step up from the atom/ion combo
http://www.silentpcreview.com/zotac-ionitx-pe

Anandtech weren't that impressed and suggested that a Clarkdale (i3 etc) processor is a much better option all round.
http://www.anandtech.com/show/3869/zotac-ionitxpe-can-intels-culv-processors-reinvigorate-interest-in-nvidias-ion/1
One poster suggested that undervolting an i3 is the way to go "I have undervolted systems very non-aggressively (mind the prefix 'non') and gained over 12W difference in load power: that is still 20W idle power, but just 38W under load"

I still think a i3 ulv or mobile chipset/processor would be an interesting combination for a compact HTPC.

I hadn't thought about AMD. Yet more options to read about!
Maybe I should look around for a nice compact matx case? Suggestions...