UPDATED - Zotac 9300 with 771 Xeon, NextPVR, Raspb Pi

[Biscuit]

Couple of years ago i built my parents a Media Centre out of bits from my old one and a few new parts. The specs are:

ZOTAC GeForce 9300-ITX-WiFi (S775)
Intel Celeron E1200
2GB DDR2 RAM
750GB Samsung Spinpoint
320GB WD
A+ ITX case

Here are some snaps:










Their main complaint is that its too noisy and i think they had a few issues with heat.

Now there isnt a real budget as such, but as it will be coming out of my pocket (at least initially) i would like to keep costs down.

Step one:
I have this SSD that i bought and never used, so that can go in there to replace the smaller drive


Im thinking i should also get rid of the questionable PSU and use an external AC/DC brick and pico PSU, i might need to fashion some kind of rear plate to cover the hole where the PSU was.
Change the CPU cooler
Perhaps another 2GB RAM

Im also gunna stick this thing in there so it can be used as a decent HD PVR, its a Blackgold 3630



Might need to put some new coax cable from his dish though as he accidently cut through the existing stuff with shears :/

So what do people think and what are the recommendations for parts, bearing in mind clearance with this motherboard is a bit of an issue!

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Check my mini-ITX build thread with that same motherboard. With an E3300 and the same motherboard with an SSD,it was consuming around 60W at the wall. I suspect a decent 90W picoPSU and power brick would be fine.

With the PSU out of the way,the cooler won't be an issue then!!

That Xigmatek cooler I mentioned should be fine in the LD963 version.

This cooler is expensive but would also do the job:

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/noctu...oogle+shopping

[Biscuit]

Check my mini-ITX build thread with that same motherboard. With an E3300 and the same motherboard with an SSD,it was consuming around 60W at the wall. I suspect a decent 90W picoPSU and power brick would be fine.

With the PSU out of the way,the cooler won't be an issue then!!

That Xigmatek cooler I mentioned should be fine in the LD963 version.

This cooler is expensive but would also do the job:

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/noctu...oogle+shopping

I was wondering about the addition of the BGT card though, that will need to draw quite a bit of juice from the motherboard as it throws volts up the coax to power the LNB.

I think i was a bit more concerned about clearance of the RAM chips and the side of the case rather than height. A lot of the coolers have things sticking out in all directions which is a bit of a problem for this motherboard, you are kinda limited to 'within the four holes' if you see what i mean?

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

I was wondering about the addition of the BGT card though, that will need to draw quite a bit of juice from the motherboard as it throws volts up the coax to power the LNB.

I think i was a bit more concerned about clearance of the RAM chips and the side of the case rather than height. A lot of the coolers have things sticking out in all directions which is a bit of a problem for this motherboard, you are kinda limited to 'within the four holes' if you see what i mean?

The Noctua does not have that issue. It is designed to have the same footprint as the Intel stock cooler and is only 37MM high.

[Biscuit]

Yeah its lovely, £35 though, Eeek! It also doesn't list 775 as compatible?

Any reason not to go for this?
http://www.scan.co.uk/products/160w-...streacom-cases

Given i will be making a custom backplate for where the PSU used to be and that can mount the little DC adaptor?

What happens with pico PSUs when you overload them? Just thinking about what my dad is like with his USB devices.

2GB of DDR2 is ~£20-25 which is a bit wounding

Edit:
Another HSF option?
http://www.scan.co.uk/products/akasa...s775-1155-1156


Would you say picking up a cheap low power 775 CPU would be worthwhile? Probs some bargains to be had in the pentium/celeron/C2D world?

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Your right!! Not for socket 775.

However,I did my own DIY solution.

I got one of these 1U heatsinks relatively cheaply:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Akasa-High...item43aa798474

I then plonked a fan over it. Sorted!!

However,if you ditch the PSU,you can use a taller cooler anyway.

The Scythe Big Shuriken will fit with some fiddling though:

http://www.avsforum.com/t/1111996/of...#post_16990873

That thread actually might be useful to gander though.

Edit!!

Another cooler:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/StarTech-1...item2c6888c144

Second Edit!!

The picoPSU should be more than enough IMHO.

A few other alternatives:

http://linitx.com/viewcategory.php?catid=157

http://linitx.com/viewcategory.php?catid=151

[Biscuit]

LinITX is a much better source for PicoPSUs!

I did another little edit while you were typing

Main question is, do you reckon its worth getting a slightly better CPU for it off ebay or something?

Also, any reason not to go for some of the really cheap akasa coolers? I have had good results with Akasa fans (currently have 2 of their new Piranha ones in my main PC)

Im wondering if one of the 92mm tower coolers would work, as once the main heatsink is lifed over the componants, there is less of a restriction, as long as in one of the dimentions it doesnt stick out too far, this could be avoided by rotating the cooler though. Might be good to have airflow over the motherboard that you get with the top down ones though.

i could potentially drill out bigger holes on the side of the case and do side to side cooling with some slim n small fans aswell.... optionssss

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

I had an E4300,but replaced it with an E3300,because it actually seems to be one of the lowest power consumption socket 775 dual core CPUs. Temperatures also went down as a result.

That Akasa cooler might do the job too.

[Biscuit]

I think i might mount the SSD underneath the 5.25 and 3.5 bays at the front of the case, as its just wasted space at the moment!

Should give me more space to work with around the board and allow a bit more airflow too.

[Biscuit]

2GB Corsair PC6400 RAM ordered from Amazon - £19.98
Intel Celeron E3300 CPU ordered from Ebay - £22

Think im gunna get that £10 akasa cooler and also mod in a fan/grille (£2-3) to the top of the case and have a 120 blowing down onto the GPU/Northbridge and BGT 3630. Hopefully i can just use one of the many fans i have kicking about here rather than buying one but if there is clearance issues i will get a slip stream.

PicoPSU XT and 150W Brick from LinITX = £74

Total = £125-130

Bit more than i wanted to spend but the bulk of that is the PicoPSU and i knew it would be costly.

Think i might also spray the bottom chrome bit of the case black aswell as it looks a bit tacky as it is.

[Biscuit]

I have placed the order for the PicoPSU aswell now

[Biscuit]

So the pico psu, ram and cpu are on their way.

I did some measuring today and I think a 120mm fan and that akasa cooler (62mm high according to scan) might work pretty well.


Might make the cables to the DVD drive a little tricky but i think it could work! I'll be in a company car in manchester next week so I'll pop up to scan at some point and pick up the bits from there. The tesco there is also the only place I know of that stocks my favourite chillie sauce so i can get some of that aswell!

Quite looking forward to playing with my dremel again, haven't used it since I did this to my 650D

[Biscuit]

CPU RAM And the PicoPSU all arrived now


I don't have a pic of the PSU as its at home now, ill make sure to get one tonight.

[istanbul2013]

i could potentially drill out bigger holes on the side of the case and do side to side cooling with some slim n small fans aswell.... optionssss

[Biscuit]

This thing was sat gathering dust for ages. I actually fired it up and got it running again this past weekend. Put a windows license on there, installed NextPVR, battled with the windows firewall settings and its now streaming channels to my Kodi devices. Raspberry pi 2 makes an unbelievably cheap and efficient front end.

I also stumbed across a thread somewhere about modding socket 771 Xeon CPUs to work in 775 motherboards and they can be picked up for like £20!

I grabbed a E5440 without really considering power usage with the PicoPSU, do you think I'll be safe with a 80w TDP Xeon?

[shaithis]

You'll probably be cutting it rather close on the 120w Pico, although probably still fine. The beefier Picos should be no problem.