[mythtv-users] The elusive silent myth BE/FE box [in search of]

[Justin Johnson]

On Tue, Aug 23, 2011 at 11:52 PM, Matt W <mwood23 at gmail.com> wrote:
> On Sat, Aug 20, 2011 at 12:10 AM, Epinephrine Junky
> <epinephrine_junky at beadon.ca> wrote:
>>
>> Any suggestions on a case or CPU cooler?  Am I spending too much time and
>> money on this?  (hint the answer is yes)
>> Anything I might have overlooked?
>>
>
> i, too, am really bothered by noisy PCs and noise level was a major
> consideration for my combo FE/BE box, which sits in an entertainment
> center underneath and a bit in front of the flat panel display.  the
> front of that entertainment center is steel mesh, so great for
> cooling, but bad if the system is noisy.
>
> someone else on the thread mentioned Arctic Cooling as a possible
> video card cooling idea.  I use a passive-cooled video card (not the
> AC one, that would barely fit in there... you need a big case for that
> one) in my FE/BE combo and it runs a bit warm but so far no
> performance affecting issues.  the case has one intake fan near the
> drives and two small (60mm) exhaust fans at the back.  plus the power
> supply has its own fan of course.  like all fans, if you can get the
> 3-wire ones and the mobo is compatible, they will spin slower and make
> less noise if the system isn't running as hot.
>
> I love Arctic Cooling's cpu coolers.  They really are very quiet, and
> very affordable.  I don't know why AC doesn't get more play.  Make
> sure you haven't disabled speed stepping / powernow etc etc in your
> linux distro as well as on the motherboard.  the ACPI and linux kernel
> support for this sort of thing is very mature these days and shouldn't
> be defeated.
>
> someone also mentioned hot DIMMs being an issue; that's true, try to
> spend a few more bucks on RAM with built in heat spreaders.  not too
> pricey these days.
>
> if you don't mind buying new drives, try 5400/5900/"Green" drives as
> your large data drives.  I use them on my system and don't see any
> major i/o latency issues.  use xfs to help overcome possible i/o
> latency due to slower platter RPMs.  slower drives save a few watts
> and throw less heat back into the system.  SSD is getting cheap enough
> now where you could use that as your OS drive; one less drive = less
> noise, less heat, and less power usage.
>
> -Matt

This thread inspired me to do some research on CPU coolers, especially this:

> For a heatsink, I use a Scythe Ninja 2 with a 1200 RPM 120mm fans attached. You can
> run a dual core 45mm CPU without a fan on a Ninja but quad cores need a fan when
> loaded.

I see all over the place people recommending the Scythe Mini Ninja for
"passive" cooling in an Antec Fusion case, since it sits so close to
the case fans. Unfortunately, the heatsink is no longer available
anywhere. Does anyone have any suggestions for a similar solution? I
think the clearance in the Fusion is ~118mm.

--
Justin