About to step into the deep end and build my first VDR box. In fact 2 of them at the same time both with the exact same specs.
All parts are going to be new.
New CPU's are a lot more confusing than the simple days of single cores at fixed clockspeeds.
My question is what CPU should I chose for good noise reducing , heat reducing solutions.
For processing power and cost I am looking at AMD AM2 4000 and Intel Duel Core E2140 and Intel core2 Duo E4400. I am open to other suggestions as long as they can currently be purchased in store.
Since the system will be spending 95% of it's time idle I want a CPU that can drop down to the slowest possible clock speed with the least power consumption. I will also be using temperature controlled fans to keep it real quiet and any other ways I can find to drop down power and noise.
Advice on the best CPU choice would be much appreciated.
hi,
covert covert writes:
About to step into the deep end and build my first VDR box. In fact 2 of them at the same time both with the exact same specs.
All parts are going to be new.
New CPU's are a lot more confusing than the simple days of single cores at fixed clockspeeds.
I can't help on the choosing CPUs part, but I can share my experience with a P4 for a VDR. The thermostatic control fans reduce noise, but are not really silent. I replaced both the power unit to a totally fanless one, and my CPU cooler is Scythe Ninja Rev B, which is totally silent (had a Zahlman AlCu7000 if I remember correctly, before).
Then I have an additional 120mm fan running slowly inside the box, but that I cannot hear outside.
The most noise right now comes from my Seagate Barracuda hard drives, which are pretty quiet, but still noticeable. Especially one of them which has probably bad bearings.
I also tried throttling / underclocking the CPU to reduce heat, but my MB starts an annoying whining noise if I do that, so I could not use that.
But my advice, if you really want to reduce noise in a VDR, is to go for fanless choices.
If you don't do other processing, any current desktop processor would have enough processing power. For Full HD it could be different, though.
yours, Jouni
I have quite much CPU power and still system is noise less (ok, if you put your ear agains computer you can hear something..
* Ione Scorpius P20 Media Center Keyboard * Asus P5B emolevy Emolevy Intel:in LGA775-socket * SilverStone LaScala SST-LC20S-M HTPC ATX. VFD-screen and iMON remote control * Samsung 500GB T166 7200RPM SATA (2x) * Intel Core 2 Duo E6300, 1.86 GHz, Socket 775, FSB 1066, 2MB Cache * Antec Phantom 500 - 500W ATX v2.01. * Kingston HyperX 512Mt 800MHZ DDR2 Low-Latency CL4 (2x) * Noctua NF-R8 Silent 80mm (4x)
On 8/21/07, Jouni Karvo jouni.karvo@tkk.fi wrote:
hi,
covert covert writes:
About to step into the deep end and build my first VDR box. In fact 2 of them at the same time both with the exact same specs.
All parts are going to be new.
New CPU's are a lot more confusing than the simple days of single cores at fixed clockspeeds.
I can't help on the choosing CPUs part, but I can share my experience with a P4 for a VDR. The thermostatic control fans reduce noise, but are not really silent. I replaced both the power unit to a totally fanless one, and my CPU cooler is Scythe Ninja Rev B, which is totally silent (had a Zahlman AlCu7000 if I remember correctly, before).
My natural progression will be to chose a fan solution after choosing a CPU. Thanks for the tips about fan less. I will seriously consider it.
Then I have an additional 120mm fan running slowly inside the box, but that I cannot hear outside.
The one single large fan running slow seems to be a common theme for VDR. It must be a winning solution.
The most noise right now comes from my Seagate Barracuda hard drives, which are pretty quiet, but still noticeable. Especially one of them which has probably bad bearings.
I also tried throttling / underclocking the CPU to reduce heat, but my MB starts an annoying whining noise if I do that, so I could not use that.
But my advice, if you really want to reduce noise in a VDR, is to go for fanless choices.
If you don't do other processing, any current desktop processor would have enough processing power. For Full HD it could be different, though.
I want it to do some DivX encoding at night to save drive space so I will want the grunt there when I need it.
Thanks for your advice.
yours, Jouni
vdr mailing list vdr@linuxtv.org http://www.linuxtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/vdr
covert covert a écrit :
My question is what CPU should I chose for good noise reducing , heat reducing solutions.
The most efficient CPU are still the VIA ones... Low power, very low heat, very low noise. There are lots of EPIA mobos (Mini-ITX for factor) with fanless CPUs around. With these, you get only one PCI slot, but everything is integrated on the motherboard. Using a good laptop-like power block (efficient and fanless), you can have a really silent setup (one slow fan for the whole system).
For processing power and cost I am looking at AMD AM2 4000 and Intel Duel Core E2140 and Intel core2 Duo E4400. I am open to other suggestions as long as they can currently be purchased in store.
Since the system will be spending 95% of it's time idle I want a CPU that can drop down to the slowest possible clock speed with the least power consumption. I will also be using temperature controlled fans to keep it real quiet and any other ways I can find to drop down power and noise.
Drop noise: * suspend the disk drive with rubber bands * carefully design the air path inside the case
On 8/21/07, Nicolas Huillard nicolas@huillard.net wrote:
covert covert a écrit :
My question is what CPU should I chose for good noise reducing , heat reducing solutions.
The most efficient CPU are still the VIA ones... Low power, very low heat, very low noise.
I will have a look at these.
There are lots of EPIA mobos (Mini-ITX for factor) with fanless CPUs around. With these, you get only one PCI slot, but everything is integrated on the motherboard. Using a good laptop-like power block (efficient and fanless), you can have a really silent setup (one slow fan for the whole system).
At least 2 PCI slots is a must. I want 2 x DVB-S, 1 x DVB-T, 1 x Analog TV. I plan to do this with 1 all in one card and a single Skystar2 for the second DVB-S tuner.
For processing power and cost I am looking at AMD AM2 4000 and Intel Duel Core E2140 and Intel core2 Duo E4400. I am open to other suggestions as long as they can currently be purchased in store.
Since the system will be spending 95% of it's time idle I want a CPU that can drop down to the slowest possible clock speed with the least power consumption. I will also be using temperature controlled fans to keep it real quiet and any other ways I can find to drop down power and noise.
Drop noise:
- suspend the disk drive with rubber bands
- carefully design the air path inside the case
Nice tips. I especially like the idea of rubber bands.
-- NH
vdr mailing list vdr@linuxtv.org http://www.linuxtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/vdr
On 8/21/07, covert covert thecovert@gmail.com wrote:
On 8/21/07, Nicolas Huillard nicolas@huillard.net wrote:
There are lots of EPIA mobos (Mini-ITX for factor) with fanless CPUs around. With these, you get only one PCI slot, but everything is integrated on the motherboard. Using a good laptop-like power block (efficient and fanless), you can have a really silent setup (one slow fan for the whole system).
At least 2 PCI slots is a must. I want 2 x DVB-S, 1 x DVB-T, 1 x Analog TV. I plan to do this with 1 all in one card and a single Skystar2 for the second DVB-S tuner.
You can use two PCI cards with VIA mobos by using a PCI riser with two slots. I had such a solution with two DVB-C cards.
But if you want crunch and muscle, VIA is definitely not the way to go. For Intel side I can share you the information that E4*-series is better in the way that they allow you to use multiplier 6, which results with standard fsb to 1200MHz when idling. For example E6300 will idle at 1600 MHz. But you should also take care when choosing the motherboard, because undervolting is the most efficient way to reduce heat and some mobos (namely all Asrocks) do not allow undervolting.
-Petri
On Tue, 21 Aug 2007, Nicolas Huillard wrote:
covert covert a écrit : My question is what CPU should I chose for good noise reducing , heat reducing solutions.
The most efficient CPU are still the VIA ones... Low power, very low heat, very low noise. There are lots of EPIA mobos (Mini-ITX for factor) with fanless CPUs around. With these, you get only one PCI slot, but everything is integrated on the motherboard. Using a good laptop-like power block (efficient and fanless), you can have a really silent setup (one slow fan for the whole system).
VIAs are good, but if you need more processing power then you need to get Amd or Intel.
I have following setup and it feels quiet enough, mostly thanks to the case design.
Case is Antec's NSK-2400, cpu is AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+ EE, cpu cooler is Thermalright SI-97A, motherboard is Asus M2NPV-VM and hard drive is WD caviar SE16.
The case has two 12" fans on the side, just next to the heatpipe cpu cooler. So, no need for fan for the cpu cooler. Case fans are "tricools" and I run them in the lowest speed.
I can't hear anything from the machine from one meter away.
With Turion cpu you could drop one case fan out.. I haven't tested, maybe I could also. My cpu uses 65W of power and if I remember correctly turions use something like 25W.
For processing power and cost I am looking at AMD AM2 4000 and Intel Duel Core E2140 and Intel core2 Duo E4400. I am open to other suggestions as long as they can currently be purchased in store.
Since the system will be spending 95% of it's time idle I want a CPU that can drop down to the slowest possible clock speed with the least power consumption. I will also be using temperature controlled fans to keep it real quiet and any other ways I can find to drop down power and noise.
Drop noise: * suspend the disk drive with rubber bands * carefully design the air path inside the case
Look the design of Antec's NSK-2400 (or fusion). I think that's very good for air flow.
Marko
covert covert wrote:
About to step into the deep end and build my first VDR box. In fact 2 of them at the same time both with the exact same specs.
All parts are going to be new.
New CPU's are a lot more confusing than the simple days of single cores at fixed clockspeeds.
My question is what CPU should I chose for good noise reducing , heat reducing solutions.
For processing power and cost I am looking at AMD AM2 4000 and Intel Duel Core E2140 and Intel core2 Duo E4400. I am open to other suggestions as long as they can currently be purchased in store.
Since the system will be spending 95% of it's time idle I want a CPU that can drop down to the slowest possible clock speed with the least power consumption. I will also be using temperature controlled fans to keep it real quiet and any other ways I can find to drop down power and noise.
Advice on the best CPU choice would be much appreciated.
vdr mailing list vdr@linuxtv.org http://www.linuxtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/vdr
I think AMD's are perfect for this since they consume less than Intels at low load. I have a Sempron 3200 on a mobo with Nvidia 7050 and HDMI onboard together with an 80W picoPSU. This gives me a fanless VDR frontend that draws only 30W from AC mains during TV replay and cost about €200. And at night it gives enough power to do as much h.264 encoding I need. I guess you'll want DVB cards and disks in your box, but I prefer to have them on my server in the attic. If you wait just a few weeks you'll have 65nm Sempron's to give you even more processing power per Watt.
/Magnus H
Magnus Hörlin schrieb:
covert covert wrote:
About to step into the deep end and build my first VDR box. In fact 2 of them at the same time both with the exact same specs.
All parts are going to be new.
New CPU's are a lot more confusing than the simple days of single cores at fixed clockspeeds.
My question is what CPU should I chose for good noise reducing , heat reducing solutions.
For processing power and cost I am looking at AMD AM2 4000 and Intel Duel Core E2140 and Intel core2 Duo E4400. I am open to other suggestions as long as they can currently be purchased in store.
Since the system will be spending 95% of it's time idle I want a CPU that can drop down to the slowest possible clock speed with the least power consumption. I will also be using temperature controlled fans to keep it real quiet and any other ways I can find to drop down power and noise.
Advice on the best CPU choice would be much appreciated.
vdr mailing list vdr@linuxtv.org http://www.linuxtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/vdr
I think AMD's are perfect for this since they consume less than Intels at low load. I have a Sempron 3200 on a mobo with Nvidia 7050 and HDMI onboard together with an 80W picoPSU. This gives me a fanless VDR frontend that draws only 30W from AC mains during TV replay and cost about €200. And at night it gives enough power to do as much h.264 encoding I need. I guess you'll want DVB cards and disks in your box, but I prefer to have them on my server in the attic. If you wait just a few weeks you'll have 65nm Sempron's to give you even more processing power per Watt.
Have to agree here :) With AM2 the Athlon 64 EE SFF (35W)* is a nice option - or the new BE 2350 with 45W. Other options are Socket 754 with the Turions and sempron mobile with 35W resp. 25W depending on the model (This i have running).
* EE SFF is imortant as the EE has 65W TDP. * the availability of all options except the BE is not that good i guess - don't think you will get it at the store around the corner. * VIA CPUs are not midrange but low range processing power * for processing power per watt the two athlons will be the best i guess
I have made the choice for a BE 2350 since finding a eesff cpu in Australia is very difficult.
Thanks for the help. Now I can go find a suitable motherboard.
On 8/22/07, Steffen Barszus st_barszus@gmx.de wrote:
Magnus Hörlin schrieb:
covert covert wrote:
About to step into the deep end and build my first VDR box. In fact 2 of them at the same time both with the exact same specs.
All parts are going to be new.
New CPU's are a lot more confusing than the simple days of single cores at fixed clockspeeds.
My question is what CPU should I chose for good noise reducing , heat reducing solutions.
For processing power and cost I am looking at AMD AM2 4000 and Intel Duel Core E2140 and Intel core2 Duo E4400. I am open to other suggestions as long as they can currently be purchased in store.
Since the system will be spending 95% of it's time idle I want a CPU that can drop down to the slowest possible clock speed with the least power consumption. I will also be using temperature controlled fans to keep it real quiet and any other ways I can find to drop down power and noise.
Advice on the best CPU choice would be much appreciated.
vdr mailing list vdr@linuxtv.org http://www.linuxtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/vdr
I think AMD's are perfect for this since they consume less than Intels at low load. I have a Sempron 3200 on a mobo with Nvidia 7050 and HDMI onboard together with an 80W picoPSU. This gives me a fanless VDR frontend that draws only 30W from AC mains during TV replay and cost about €200. And at night it gives enough power to do as much h.264 encoding I need. I guess you'll want DVB cards and disks in your box, but I prefer to have them on my server in the attic. If you wait just a few weeks you'll have 65nm Sempron's to give you even more processing power per Watt.
Have to agree here :) With AM2 the Athlon 64 EE SFF (35W)* is a nice option - or the new BE 2350 with 45W. Other options are Socket 754 with the Turions and sempron mobile with 35W resp. 25W depending on the model (This i have running).
- EE SFF is imortant as the EE has 65W TDP.
- the availability of all options except the BE is not that good i guess
- don't think you will get it at the store around the corner.
- VIA CPUs are not midrange but low range processing power
- for processing power per watt the two athlons will be the best i guess
vdr mailing list vdr@linuxtv.org http://www.linuxtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/vdr
covert covert schrieb:
I have made the choice for a BE 2350 since finding a eesff cpu in Australia is very difficult.
Thanks for the help. Now I can go find a suitable motherboard.
Asus M2NPV-VM - on vdr-portal.de this board has been on of the recommendations (usual topic over there - but mainly german except exceptions ) For Heatsink i plan to get a scythe ninja mini (good for desktop housings.
bye
Steffen
Steffen Barszus wrote:
covert covert schrieb:
I have made the choice for a BE 2350 since finding a eesff cpu in Australia is very difficult.
Thanks for the help. Now I can go find a suitable motherboard.
Asus M2NPV-VM - on vdr-portal.de this board has been on of the recommendations (usual topic over there - but mainly german except exceptions ) For Heatsink i plan to get a scythe ninja mini (good for desktop housings.
bye
Steffen
vdr mailing list vdr@linuxtv.org http://www.linuxtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/vdr
Yes, that's a good choice. I have however replaced mine with an Abit AN-M2HD, which I recommend. /Magnus H
Thanks again. The Asus M2NPV-VM looks like a great choice for me since it is easy to get in Australia.
I am looking at the AN-M2HD now and it also available in Australia.
The Asus has Composite out and the Abit has HDMI. I have VGA, RGB, S-Vid, HDMI inputs on my TV.
In order of best to worse for quality ?
VGA HDMI RGB S-Video
The Abit also has the newer 7050 vs the 6150 on the Asus.
The Asus has the extra module for HDTV output while the Abit has HDMI attached to the board.
The big question is does the 7050 chipset provide any extra acceleration in Mpeg2 encoding / decoding to the 6150 ?
So many choices and so many factors.
On 8/23/07, Magnus Hörlin magnus@alefors.se wrote:
Steffen Barszus wrote:
covert covert schrieb:
I have made the choice for a BE 2350 since finding a eesff cpu in Australia is very difficult.
Thanks for the help. Now I can go find a suitable motherboard.
Asus M2NPV-VM - on vdr-portal.de this board has been on of the recommendations (usual topic over there - but mainly german except exceptions ) For Heatsink i plan to get a scythe ninja mini (good for desktop housings.
bye
Steffen
vdr mailing list vdr@linuxtv.org http://www.linuxtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/vdr
Yes, that's a good choice. I have however replaced mine with an Abit AN-M2HD, which I recommend. /Magnus H
vdr mailing list vdr@linuxtv.org http://www.linuxtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/vdr
covert covert schrieb:
Thanks again. The Asus M2NPV-VM looks like a great choice for me since it is easy to get in Australia.
I am looking at the AN-M2HD now and it also available in Australia.
The Asus has Composite out and the Abit has HDMI. I have VGA, RGB, S-Vid, HDMI inputs on my TV.
In order of best to worse for quality ?
VGA HDMI RGB S-Video
HDMI VGA RGB S-Video
is the order. HDMI is digital und should those provide best quality (equals to DVI.
The Abit also has the newer 7050 vs the 6150 on the Asus.
The Asus has the extra module for HDTV output while the Abit has HDMI attached to the board.
The big question is does the 7050 chipset provide any extra acceleration in Mpeg2 encoding / decoding to the 6150 ?
I think both provide mpeg2 decoding avveleration - XvMC ....
So many choices and so many factors.
Yes but its good that there are recently choices :)
Kind regards
Steffen
HDMI VGA RGB S-Video is the order. HDMI is digital und should those provide best quality (equals to DVI.
My list is a bit other way round, as beauty of the picture is in viewers eye.
S-Video Composite RGB Component VGA HDMI/DVI
Don't get me wrong, as already years ago I have played with HDTV stuff, and naturally with DVI-based to my projector. Problem is that DVB-C / DVB-T is so bad quality signal (in Finland at least), lots of blocking artefacts so it looks very lousy. By using DVI (and probable upscaling to 720p/1080i) picture gets to sh*t. So I abandoned the idea 2 years ago. (VDR-Xine with DVB-C & DVB-S when Euro1080i/HD1 was open for all).
So best non-HD output would be S-Video (and composite) which hides the blocking and picture errors, and gives stutter free output of the program. RGB starts to show more MPEG features. With Component/VGA/HDMI you probably need to use computer-based output, and I haven't seen stutter free output.
With this I mean X server config, you cannot get exactly 50Hz output, but you can get 50.04Hz output. That might lead to micro stutter on picture.
But the list I quoted is the best order in terms of video connection quality, but not the best picture quality for viewer.. :-O
I've been running a Shuttle SK43G with 2.2Ghz AMD, silentPC fan, silent 250W psu and replaced all the mobo fans with heatsinks for 3 years.
time to replace. The fan is still quiet, but now the case vibrates a little, and the whole thing runs about 61 degrees - which isn't ideal.
I'd like to go fanless and cool. What I like about the shuttle is it's size. The 1x PCI is fine, as is the VIA unichrome VGA & s-video out.
Any ideas on a small compact fanless (DEAD quiet) case & motherboard??
----- Original Message ----- From: jori.hamalainen@teliasonera.com To: vdr@linuxtv.org Sent: Thursday, August 23, 2007 9:21 PM Subject: Re: [vdr] Mid range CPU choice
HDMI VGA RGB S-Video is the order. HDMI is digital und should those provide best quality (equals to DVI.
My list is a bit other way round, as beauty of the picture is in viewers eye.
S-Video Composite RGB Component VGA HDMI/DVI
Don't get me wrong, as already years ago I have played with HDTV stuff, and naturally with DVI-based to my projector. Problem is that DVB-C / DVB-T is so bad quality signal (in Finland at least), lots of blocking artefacts so it looks very lousy. By using DVI (and probable upscaling to 720p/1080i) picture gets to sh*t. So I abandoned the idea 2 years ago. (VDR-Xine with DVB-C & DVB-S when Euro1080i/HD1 was open for all).
So best non-HD output would be S-Video (and composite) which hides the blocking and picture errors, and gives stutter free output of the program. RGB starts to show more MPEG features. With Component/VGA/HDMI you probably need to use computer-based output, and I haven't seen stutter free output.
With this I mean X server config, you cannot get exactly 50Hz output, but you can get 50.04Hz output. That might lead to micro stutter on picture.
But the list I quoted is the best order in terms of video connection quality, but not the best picture quality for viewer.. :-O
vdr mailing list vdr@linuxtv.org http://www.linuxtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/vdr
Simon Baxter a écrit :
I'd like to go fanless and cool. What I like about the shuttle is it's size. The 1x PCI is fine, as is the VIA unichrome VGA & s-video out.
Any ideas on a small compact fanless (DEAD quiet) case & motherboard??
* mobo : compact + fanless = VIA (new EX is really well suited for a VDR; someone already talked about this one on the list) * case : Antec Fusion / NSK2400 (http://www.silentpcreview.com/article698-page2.html), the bare case is available anywhere at ~90€ (http://www.ldlc.com/fiche/PB00038035.html) * a really silent power supply is laptop-like : PicoPSU (http://www.thinkitx.com/alimentations-80-10-c.html) + AC-DC block. * a single slow silent fan can cool all that
(~60W peak power from the wall on my VDR : VIA C3 1GHz + HDD + running DVD + hardware MPEG2 decoding + 1 DVB-S PCI + 1 DVB-T USB) (48VA full load on my home server, with 2 x HDD, EPIA EK-8000)
Simon Baxter a écrit :
I'd like to go fanless and cool. What I like about the shuttle is it's size. The 1x PCI is fine, as is the VIA unichrome VGA & s-video out.
Any ideas on a small compact fanless (DEAD quiet) case & motherboard??
- mobo : compact + fanless = VIA (new EX is really well suited for a
VDR; someone already talked about this one on the list)
- case : Antec Fusion / NSK2400
(http://www.silentpcreview.com/article698-page2.html), the bare case is available anywhere at ~90€ (http://www.ldlc.com/fiche/PB00038035.html)
- a really silent power supply is laptop-like : PicoPSU
(http://www.thinkitx.com/alimentations-80-10-c.html) + AC-DC block.
- a single slow silent fan can cool all that
Nice setup - but the case is too big for me. I have a single glass panel shelf, the case can be 11.5" deep maximum......
Simon Baxter a écrit :
Simon Baxter a écrit :
I'd like to go fanless and cool. What I like about the shuttle is it's size. The 1x PCI is fine, as is the VIA unichrome VGA & s-video out.
Any ideas on a small compact fanless (DEAD quiet) case & motherboard??
- mobo : compact + fanless = VIA (new EX is really well suited for a
VDR; someone already talked about this one on the list)
- case : Antec Fusion / NSK2400
(http://www.silentpcreview.com/article698-page2.html), the bare case is available anywhere at ~90€ (http://www.ldlc.com/fiche/PB00038035.html)
- a really silent power supply is laptop-like : PicoPSU
(http://www.thinkitx.com/alimentations-80-10-c.html) + AC-DC block.
- a single slow silent fan can cool all that
Nice setup - but the case is too big for me. I have a single glass panel shelf, the case can be 11.5" deep maximum......
I went for a heavily customized CD player... Count 1-2 days drilling and cutting to fit the mobo inside, with all planned before that.
Le mercredi 05 septembre 2007 à 13:10 +0200, Nicolas Huillard a écrit :
Nice setup - but the case is too big for me. I have a single glass panel shelf, the case can be 11.5" deep maximum......
I went for a heavily customized CD player... Count 1-2 days drilling and cutting to fit the mobo inside, with all planned before that.
http://www.silverstonetek.com/products/p_contents.php?pno=lc11m&area=usa
http://www.silverstonetek.com/products/p_contents.php?pno=lc19&area=
My option would be the latter with a second hand PSP as remote ($150 - compare to a new Logitech Harmony...) for vdradmin via WiFi
Tony
-
covert covert -
JJussi -
jori.hamalainen＠teliasonera.com -
Jouni Karvo -
Magnus Hörlin -
Marko Myllymaa -
Nicolas Huillard -
Petri Helin -
Simon Baxter -
Steffen Barszus -
Tony Grant