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Passive HTPC overkill

tbmatuka
By tbmatuka
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I've been planning on building a decent HTPC for years, and finally I did. When our old DVR died and I needed a storage/development server I figured why not do it all in one box and have some fun while I'm at it? You can find more info on why I chose a particular component on my blog. Unfortunately, no sponsors on this build, so Pretty much all of the money went into the components and the case was built on the cheap :)

 

Configuration:

 

Multimedia:

 

Case parts:

 

I couldn't find a cheap case that was designed for what I needed (a passive HTPC with a big ATX PSU, a bunch of HDDs) so I decided to build one out of "wood" (MDF and plywood). Corners and rubber legs are from a shop that sells spare parts for amplifiers.

 

Here's a pic of most of the components before they went in:

Most of the components

 
All the components mounted to a board:

Topless

 
Almost finished product:

Case closed

 

ToDo:

  • replace the old HDD that's inside now with a couple of new 3TB WD Reds
  • paint it or maybe just varnish it. I have a small can of nice race-car red prepared for this build, but I might just apply a nice clear coat of varnish

Let me know if I forgot to mention anything :)

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Nice man i love to see passive builds :D ! can you do some benchmarks?

The Y.E.T.I. is in progress?Whaaat? (modding aproach&build log)->http://linustechtips.com/main/topic/355618-project-yeti-first-build/

[READ THE COC BEFORE POSTING][Check twice cut once][NZXT rules:D][Dremel is Love Dremel is Life][COOKIES ARE GREAT][LOGIC]

 

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I've been planning on building a decent HTPC for years, and finally I did. When our old DVR died and I needed a storage/development server I figured why not do it all in one box and have some fun while I'm at it? You can find more info on why I chose a particular component on my blog. Unfortunately, no sponsors on this build, so Pretty much all of the money went into the components and the case was built on the cheap :)

 

Configuration:

 

Multimedia:

 

Case parts:

 

I couldn't find a cheap case that was designed for what I needed (a passive HTPC with a big ATX PSU, a bunch of HDDs) so I decided to build one out of "wood" (MDF and plywood). Corners and rubber legs are from a shop that sells spare parts for amplifiers.

 

Here's a pic of most of the components before they went in:
 
 
All the components mounted to a board:
 
 
Almost finished product:
 

 

ToDo:

  • replace the old HDD that's inside now with a couple of new 3TB WD Reds
  • paint it or maybe just varnish it. I have a small can of nice race-car red prepared for this build, but I might just apply a nice clear coat of varnish

Let me know if I forgot to mention anything :)

how have you got that tv tuner thing setup? stupid question whatrs a passive build? no fan right?

Check out my current projects: Selling site (Click Here)

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Nice man i love to see passive builds :D ! can you do some benchmarks?

The box is running Linux, so I'm not sure which useful benchmarks I could get from it :D I do plan on running Steam in-home streaming when I get a wireless controller, but I expect that won't be an issue unless it overheats :D

 

how have you got that tv tuner thing setup? stupid question whatrs a passive build? no fan right?

It's a DVB-T tuner that I just plugged into my building's antenna setup. It runs pretty much out of the box on Linux and I have it set up with MythTV for now. The only components in this build that move are the HDDs, which can't really be avoided at this cost, but WD Reds should be pretty quiet. There are no fans on the CPU, GPU, PSU or the case itself :)

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Another one is following me on the path of pure silence! Nice build.

I have a few tips for you:

 - Your ventilation holes looks pretty smal. If your components gets het you need to drill some more.

 - Be sure to mount the HDD's with rubber decoupler to supress vibration. Otherwise it turns your wooden case into a speaker ;)

 - If you have coil whine you can add some sound dampening material inside the case (but don't block the ventilation holes). You don't have to spend money to get it, every foam that fit will work.

Mineral oil and 40 kg aluminium heat sinks are a perfect combination: 73 cores and a Titan X, Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Oil

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Another one is following me on the path of pure silence! Nice build.

I have a few tips for you:

 - Your ventilation holes looks pretty smal. If your components gets het you need to drill some more.

 - Be sure to mount the HDD's with rubber decoupler to supress vibration. Otherwise it turns your wooden case into a speaker ;)

 - If you have coil whine you can add some sound dampening material inside the case (but don't block the ventilation holes). You don't have to spend money to get it, every foam that fit will work.

This case doesn't have a rear panel, it's completely open. That should give it enough room to breathe, especially since I doubt I'll be running it under full load.

 

I don't have much choice about the HDD mounts since it was difficult enough to find 6-32 screws that can even reach the cage. If the new drives end up making any noise, I'll figure something out :)

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This case doesn't have a rear panel, it's completely open. That should give it enough room to breathe, especially since I doubt I'll be running it under full load.

 

I don't have much choice about the HDD mounts since it was difficult enough to find 6-32 screws that can even reach the cage. If the new drives end up making any noise, I'll figure something out :)

Yes without a rear panel the temp shoud be fine.

For the HDD's you can also use a soft washer.

 

Looks like you know pretty good what you are doing! Go on :)

Mineral oil and 40 kg aluminium heat sinks are a perfect combination: 73 cores and a Titan X, Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Oil

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