Proposed i3 HTPC unit

[jangyman]

All clear now...thanks very much!

So, looks like I won't need to make any more purchases...just need to wait for the gear to arrive...anticipation is killing me.

[Andy]

Originally Posted by jangyman

All clear now...thanks very much!

So, looks like I won't need to make any more purchases...just need to wait for the gear to arrive...anticipation is killing me.

I know what that is like lol ... I'm picking up the rest of my parts tomorrow morning from NCIX. Can't wait!

[jangyman]

Hey folks!

Ok, I went to pick up the case and PSU Friday night and built the machine Saturday - I'll post build photos and commentary soon. I have a couple of issues I'm dealing with at the moment:

Low USB transfer speed
After loading Win7-32bit, I proceeded to start copying media files from an external drive (NexStar CX enclosure w/ WD Scorpio Blue 500GB drive - all SATA II/USB 2 compliant), but my data transfer rate was a mere 30MB/s, whereas USB 2 should support speeds up to 480MB/s. The BIOS version is up to date...is there something else I should be doing to bring the data transfer speed up? Driver of some kind?

CPU overheating
Well, after 4½ hours of data transfer, I started looking through the BIOS to find out if I could adjust USB settings, and I noticed my CPU temperature was a whopping 104ºC! Naturally POST wouldn't let me start up at that temperature, so now I must purchase a cooling unit. The Intel i3 550 chip comes with a pretty basic unit that I saw in Canada Computers for $10. After assembling the parts I took a rough measurement of the headspace in the case, and it looks I have about 4"/10cm to work with. I saw a few candidates for better cooling units with large fans, but they would get pretty close to the top. There are perforated openings on the top, but not directly above where the cooling unit would be, so I guess my question is how much space is sufficient between the fan and the top cover to allow for air flow? Any other suggestions you may have?

Thanks all for your input!
-j

[_dangtx_]

30 mb/s on usb2 is decent

Universal Serial Bus - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

HornetTek Rhino 2.5'' SATA to USB Enclosure - Bjorn3D.com

on the cpu temps, somethings very wrong. stock cooler stock volts etc should be 50-60c i think..

[MAK]

104C is hot. One of my HTPCs runs at 26C, the other at 50C.

You might find that an average low profile cooler might be tight in your case. It seems that there is not enough airflow to blow the hot air out of the case (the hot air is just circulating round and round, getting hotter...) or the CPU and the cooler are not mounted correctly.

You do have thermal paste between the CPU and the cooler on top of it? And the cooler is properly mounted with no gaps? Just asking.

If you cannot solve the issue of airflow, have you thought of one of these? I like the idea (Corsair Cooling Hydro Series H50) but I don't know how good they are. I originally thought of using it when I put together one of my HTPCs but stopped because of the price.. but now they're on sale(in the link above). The only issue is you need to see if you can fit the radiator outside somewhere.

EDIT: Canada Computers and Corsair mention that this is for sockets 1366 and 775, but on the Corsair website and on the Corsair forum they show the H50 is compatible with the 1156 socket as well.. anyone have more info on this?

[Stock]

That's crazy temps...make sure you install the stock heatsink properly as the others said. There's no reason for an i3 to be running anywhere close to that.

[jangyman]

Thanks for the comments, folks!

Re overheating, I will pull the box open tonight and take a look at the installation. The heatsink comes with a solid paste on the base that I imagine melts into a goo once the temps rise. I will buy some paste and a more heavy duty cooling unit today. Another factor may be that there's a baseboard heater behind my home theatre setup. Perhaps I could put something (piece of cardboard?) under the HTPC and extend out to the wall so the heat doesn't hit the until directly. I'm in a rental apartment, so some days the heating's low and some days high...can't control, and there's really no better place for my setup. But at the rate I'm buying electronics, I'll never own a house :(

Re low USB2 transfer speed. After some research (and via links sent by Dang), I've learned to accept the ~30Mbps max - thx! I will buy an enclusure that has an eSATA interface, since my case has a connector on the front panel. The ~66% improvement in speed may sooth my impatient nerves :) ...I guess I just have a problem with the spec stating a 480Mbps throughput and the reality being only producing a fraction of that. I guess I should just be happy that I'm healthy and warm

Again, I'll post pics of the setup, but the files are so large, as my newly acquired DSLR won't produce smaller sized pics. I wonder what the best way to post would be...I'll probably get a Picasa account and post a link.

Thanks all!
-j

[MAK]

Originally Posted by jangyman

Thanks for the comments, folks!


Re low USB2 transfer speed. After some research (and via links sent by Dang), I've learned to accept the ~30Mbps max - thx! I will buy an enclusure that has an eSATA interface, since my case has a connector on the front panel. The ~66% improvement in speed may sooth my impatient nerves :) ...I guess I just have a problem with the spec stating a 480Mbps throughput and the reality being only producing a fraction of that.
-j

Actually, it is not as bad as you suggest. The USB 2.0 transfer speed is 480 Megabits/second, not Megabytes. Since 8 bits=1 Byte, simply speaking the maximum transfer speed is less than 60Mbytes/sec. With transfer issues, overhead etc... the 30MBytes/sec you're getting is OK, I guess.
But the eSATA is going to make a big difference... transfer speed will jump to 1.5 or 3.0 Gbit/sec.

[jangyman]

D'oh!...you're right! Silly oversight on my part - I remember coming to that realization long ago, but looks like I'm doomed to forget and relearn these things repeatedly...this aging thing sucks! :)