Gunslash

I had another thread here, but here's one in regards to the completed HTPC
has the following components:
XFX MI93007 AS9 LGA 775 NVIDIA GeForce 9300 HDMI Micro ATX Intel Motherboard
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813141015

Scythe SCSK-1100 100mm Shuriken Rev. B 3 Heat Pipes CPU Cooler
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16835185097

SAMSUNG Spinpoint F2EG HD154UI 1.5TB 5400 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822152175

Western Digital Caviar Blue WD1600AAJS 160GB 7200 RPM 8MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822136075

APEVIA Black SECC Steel / Aluminum X-MASTER-BK/500 ATX Media Center / HTPC Case
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811144231


I threw in an old E8600 I had around and 4GB Ram on Vista 32.
The OS is installed on the WD drive, and the samsung is my media drive. WD runs at around 34 degrees, and the Samsung at around 28 according to HD Tune.
I am still amazed at how slim the cooler actually is and also how effective. At stock speeds CPU idles at 27-29 and when playing a video it's in the mid-high 30s. I haven't done any prime95 runs yet to see what the max temp is...but I don't expect it to go past mid 40s.
I used a Corsair 620 watt PSU I had around the house.
On the motherboard, the HDMI audio/video works flawlessly. After installing everything on the monitor, I shut the PC down and just plugged in the HDMI cable to the tv from the PC. One the first boot, audio and everything displayed fine without any tweaking. I had a few issues later with video quality after I started playing with nvidia drivers, but that's fixed now.
BLURAYs play fine, 1080p video's good too...no stuttering at all.
Using Mediaportal with Streamed MP skin and MPC codec for video decoder. I set my TV refresh rate to 24hz (Sony Bravia 52'' 1080p 120hz) and everything is very fluid. I still have to eliminate a few occasional tears here and there that I didn't have when I was using my other HTPC running an ATI HD2600XT card.
The GPU idles in the 80s, load I've seen go as high as 94. To the touch, it hardly feels that hot...I dunno if the sensor's wrong or maybe I have damaged nerve ending in my fingertips
only issue I have right now is with XFX website, I am trying to get a new BIOS that allows overclocking for this board ( I actually want to undervolt, this chip was great for OC when I used it, but was also really really cool & stable with much lower voltages), but their support page has been down for days...

here are some pictures:

Case getting ready for the installation


The motherboard


Look at how slim this cooler is


All set up


test Run


Completed


Stuff

The Duke

Looking good!

And, you got to have "STUFF"

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Gunslash

argg finally updated the mobo BIOS, but it is very limited. I can't play with the voltages to make it run cooler, this is somewhat disappointing

soon enough I think I might just swap my old P35 DS3P mobo in there ( the case takes regular ATX boards as well)

AMG

Nice build, Gunslash. Just wondering, you ever tried OCing on that Scythe cooler? How well did it perform?

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We Are Gr33n Machine

Gunslash

Not sure if I can overclock through this BIOS, I tried looking but can't find anything other then ram timings...