XMBC (Fanless HTPC)
After many years my trusty XBOX no longer cuts it as a HTPC as most of the releases I want are in HD (and why shouldn’t I take advantage of that). After reading many forums and spec-in up numerous units I decided on the following:
- ASUS AT5IONT-I (Motherboard)
- FSP 12V 150W AC Adapter – 2.5mm x 5.5mm Jack (Power brick)
- 12V 150W PicoPSU-150-XT (Mini power supply adapter)
- M350 Universal Mini-ITX Enclosure – Black (Case)
- KVR1333D3S9/1G x2 (RAM)
- CSSD-V32GB2-BRKT (SSD 32GB Hard Drive)
- Hauppauge_MCE_Remote_Control_Kit_CBID_92121 (Remote control)
So here are the parts just waiting to be put together – woohoo:
Okay I know the spec if overkill but I wanted a unit that would last me a few years. I installed Ubuntu 10.4 everything was perfect except the temperature, after watching a 1080p film the temp shot up to about 86’c even when the box was idle it sat around 61’c. I decided to bite the bullet and wreck my ‘fanless’ HTPC and go for some added cooling. I landed on this fan:
- SY1212SL12SL (120mm Slim Case Fan 800 RPM)
This was the ONLY slim silent fan I could find, only problem was the size – it would be to big to mount internally due to the size of my case. At this point I was just fed up and wanted a working unit so I decided to do the unthinkable and cut a large hole in my new case and mount the fan externally.
After 30mins or so I was done.
The results after watching a two hour 1080p movie; well see for yourself.
The final result is a PC that boots in under 1.5seconds and completely silent. That’ll do for now.