HTPC Upgrade

Post by **Eric D** » Wed Jan 13, 2010 8:22 pm

The motherboard in my HTPC (Intel D945PSN) seems to have taken a shit.

I need to replace it, but being on a limited budget I really need to think things through. I use my HTPC for Blu-ray, viewing photos, and my music library.

Two ideas so far are...

Get an Atom 330 ION based mini ITX motherboard and stick it in there. I can use my existing RAM.

Get a LGA 775 based board with a cheap wolfdale and still use my current RAM.

Right now my HTPC is liquid cooled, and the Atom platform appeals to me as I think I can go back to air cooling.

However, the additional performance of the wolfdale may be worth sticking with the liquid cooling and maybe even sticking with my current video card as well.

I have plenty of space to work with...

bretti_kivi · Post by **bretti_kivi** » Wed Jan 13, 2010 10:30 pm

atom + ION. Seen the review of the Revo and XBMC?

Bret

Post by **Eric D** » Thu Jan 14, 2010 7:21 am

The Revo is a system though, and I just need a board.

I like the Asus AT3N7A-I with an Atom 330 and ION.

scottn29 · Post by **scottn29** » Fri Jan 15, 2010 8:29 am

Hey Eric, where did you get those fittings on the back of the case for the water cooling? I need some. Did they come with the case or your cooling kit? I have a Danger Den kit and just drilled some holes on the back and mounted the radiator on there. Would be alot nicer if I had some of those fittings. Sorry to take it off topic

Post by **stipud** » Fri Jan 15, 2010 8:37 am

bretti_kivi wrote:atom + ION. Seen the review of the Revo and XBMC?

Bret

Hmmm $300... that's tempting, if only so I won't need to have my laptop hooked up to the TV anymore.

Though I don't have cable at all so I am less concerned with DVR/TV and more with torrenting and video playback.

Post by **Eric D** » Fri Jan 15, 2010 9:05 am

Try this for the fittings...

http://www.koolance.com/water-cooling/d ... =62_60_104

I don't remember which ones I bought.

I had some brass plates machined at work for the fittings in my case. I removed the rear fans and put in the plates and fittings in their place.

When done with the plates I had another company polish them for me.

My computer has actually changed a lot from these photos. I got rid of the sound card, graphics card and wireless card. I now use an ATI 4670 wth HDMI out for video and audio to my HDTV.

Post by **VW337** » Sun Jan 17, 2010 5:16 pm

Take a look at the ZOTAC ION boards. Pretty nice, RAM may not be compatible however.

Post by **Eric D** » Sun Jan 17, 2010 9:00 pm

Well, I found out my old RAM is too old. I also found out HDMI support with WinXP on a lot of these newer boards is not always the best.

So I broke down and got an ASUS P43 motherboard.
An Intel Celeron E3200 processor (slowest wolfdale I could find).
And 2GB of new DDR2 800 RAM.

The celeron is 2.4GHz, but I hope to get it to 4Ghz on my watercooling. Even if I only bump the FSB from 800 to 1066, I will still have a 3.2Ghz computer which outperforms any other computer I have.

I just ordered the parts, so when they come in and I get the system back together I will report on the celeron and if is sucks or not.

Misfire · Post by **Misfire** » Sun Jan 17, 2010 11:52 pm

I would have gone at least with the Wolfdales in the 2 duo's. I understand the requirements for HT are different from a Gaming rig, I just haven't been a fan of the Celeron in years. I know you can over clock the hell out of them, all my friends surely did, but why not just buy a CPU at the faster speed. That way you are not over-clocking a CPU not designed to run at the higher speed? But I must admit, I am not a believer in overclocking. I know most of my friends are, I just haven't witnessed the "Great" effect of it. Just my Opinion.

Though I am thumbs up on the Asus MB, thats the brand I run. Very stable, easy to setup, and reliable.

Post by **Eric D** » Mon Jan 18, 2010 10:02 am

I have been overclocking for years. My first overclock was a Celeron 366MHz up to 550MHz. At that point it would benchmark better than any Pentium 3 on the market due to its on die cache, whereas the P3 had off die and slower cache at that time.

Everyone has mixed feeling on the Celeron line, that is for sure. But, there have been some legendary Celeron chips, along with some horribly crappy ones.

I had originally intended to get a Pentium E5200, but then stumbled across the Celeron E3200. The Celeron looses half the cache of the Pentium, but it adds virtualization support, which is something I might actually end up using. I could not justify the significantly higher cost of a Core 2 Duo.

As far as overclocking in general, keep in mind all of these Wolfdale core processors are actually the same. When they are manufactured, Intel tests them and bins them based on the speed they can do. They then cripple portions of them. I am sure everyone of them has the 6MB of cache, but it is disabled on the lower end processors. Now, Intel sells way more of the slower chips than the faster ones. To meet supply demands they cripple and slow down plenty of better binning chips to keep the budget market fed. Overclockers bank on this hoping to get a great chip at a great price.

Post by **fuzzysnuggleduck** » Mon Jan 18, 2010 10:45 am

I just booted up my old dual Celeron 400MHz system today because I needed to check about 9 old HDDs for data.

Ah, I loved this machine.

Abit BP-6 motherboard, it was king of inexpensive dual boards!

Post by **Eric D** » Mon Jan 18, 2010 2:20 pm

I still have most of the same old Celeron 366 computer I had from back then. I have to keep it, my Linear-X audio analysis equipment uses ISA slots. I have an LMS and a RTAjr in the system.

Abit BE6 motherboard
Intel Pentium 3 1000EB in a slotket, declocked from 1GHz down to 750MHz to work with the boards 100MHz FSB.
ATI Radeon 9800 Pro graphics card. WAY overkill graphics for the speed of the rest of the system.
512MB OCZ PC150 SDRAM (great overclocking RAM from back in the day)

The BE6 is just as old as the BP6, and still works great. I even still have the box and the manual from the board as well.