WIP HTPC(XBMC)/Server Rig

[Arinoth]

Looks like using the stock fan that came with the eco and the application of the IC7 i am looking at temps good 5-10C lower then before.

[Toyoracer]

Actually a nice case Arinoth. I think I would move other fan out too. Little extra room for those cables.lol

[Arinoth]

I dont really see how moving another fan outside will do anything as the one of the left side has nothing near it and the fan on the right side beside the rad has no clearance issues and is one of the reasons the rad is secure where it is without being mounted.

[Arinoth]

Well decided to take some update pictures as a few things have changed. I replaced the stock case fan i was using to pull air off of the radiator and instead installed the stock fan that came with the eco. Temperatures have dropped about 5C at idle as i believe it pulls a lot more air then the stock fan did. Down side is its a tad louder but not that noticeable


Decided i'd try to do some better cable management with what patience i have with doing cable management. It still looks a bit messy but the wires are at least all clumped along the button/to the side and doesnt really get in the way of air flow that much from the left side case fan.







I picked up a used ATI HD 3650 and decided i'd use that as my graphics card rather then on board, give the htpc a bit more strength when it comes to video playback and such.



Well first of all it turns out default fan speed of auto had the fan running at 6% where its idle temperatures were 71C. Seriously, what the hell default fan speed for auto. Anyways, with msi afterburner installed i manually changed the fan speed to 50% and it dropped the idle temps down to about 45-46C. I figured i have a lot of IC7 thermal paste and well this card has been run a few years at horribly slow fan speed i would replace the TIM.



Here it is cleaned off, didn't take pictures of adding the thermal paste to it as i found it would be pointless. I left the thermal pads in since i didnt think i should be replacing those with thermal paste.



Next to do is install and configure XBMC. This thing is almost 100% ready.

[ChuckleBrother]

Look at all dem wires!
(post just to make you happy)

[Arinoth]

Updated last gallery of pictures to have the correct ones taken last night showing my 'cable management''

[cmge]

nice improvement on the cable management

[Arinoth]

Thanks. It looks like with some of my changes this thing idles jumping between 75W and 12W (not quite sure why the meter reads it as such) and the highest wattage i've seen it use so far is 110W when i was running xbmc to snag all the information for my movies/tv shows. This will hopefully be a rather low power htpc/server

[Jackquelegs]

Man I'd really love to see that external rad fan gone. Other than that, things are looking great!

P.S Perhaps throw on a dual slot rear exhaust aftermarket for that GPU, probably help a lot with the case temps

[Arinoth]

There is no where to put the fan internally with the rad. There is not physically enough space between the rad and the motherboard to do anything about it. Uh i haven't noticed any increase in case temps installing the card as well it doesnt produce enough heat with my case fans to cause the internal temps to go up.

Right now i have the 5.25" bay fans disconnected as those suckers are kinda loud to me.