Cases and Motherboards....oh my!

[srothwell]

OK.... looks like something fried in my mediaserver. So I'm just going to replace the MB, processor.

But I want to buy a good QUIET and COOL case. A year ago, I bought an Antec Overture..... what a piece of crap. In my nice, air-conditioned house this summer I found the CPU running at 97C!!! As soon as I took the cover off, it cooled off and the cover has been off ever since.

Since the CPU is behind the TV, I really don't need a "media-looking" PC. Any old case with room for 3 hard drives and a normal ATX MB will do.

Any suggestions?

Also, I remember people talking about what MB's to NOT get (i.e. chipsets messed with Sage and PVR cards). I'm going to replace with a Sempron 64.

Again, any suggestions?

Thanks!

Stacy

[mkelly4ca]

A Koolance case would be very quiet and very cool, although it may be more than you want to spend...

[ke6guj]

Originally Posted by srothwell

Also, I remember people talking about what MB's to NOT get (i.e. chipsets messed with Sage and PVR cards). I'm going to replace with a Sempron 64.

They were talking about VIA chipsets, http://forums.sagetv.com/forums/show...hlight=chipset . Get an nForce board for that sempron and you should be fine.

[teknubic]

Your mobo/proc may not be the problem. After a lighning strike took out a friends computer, he threw $300 worth of parts at it until he found it was the modem. He took the modem out (wasn't needed anyway) and the thing fired up.
I suggest replace nothing till you figure out what's fried (unless you've already been given the green light from the wife, of course -- then by all means -- upgrade)

[dvd_maniac]

In my nice, air-conditioned house this summer I found the CPU running at 97C!!!

If this is the case, then you should upgrade something. I didn't think CPU's could get up that high without permanently frying. That's like 270F

My p4 3.0 was running at 47C idle. I changed the stock fan to a Zalman CPU HEAT SINK FAN . Now my CPU runs at 23C idle and 36C full load.
And is SUPER quiet...

[Menehune]

I like my Antec SLK1650. $65us at newegg.com
I have it horizontally on the table, with my LCD flat panel on top. 120mm case fan in the back and a 80mm fan on the antec PSU.
The 3.5 internal drive cage has mounting positions for three HDs and the HD holes are grommeted. I can rarely hear my HD access the drive and no drive whine at all.

The case fan feels like ambient to me, the mobo "cool-n-quiet' is constantly at it's lowest speed.

BIOS reports the CPU at 53C using a stock AMD HSF and an ambient of 24C, so it's not too bad although SiSoft Sandra reports the temp at 183C

[m0ng00se30]

I'm running this case from Silverstone.

http://www.silverstonetek.com/products-tj06.htm

I love the case... with 3 HDs you should be in good shape. Its not a extremely expensive, but it is kinda big if you want it behind the TV. It does a good job of keeping Proc, and Mem cool. You need to pick a good PS with a big underside fan to pull air out of the rest of the case. Best case I've owned.

--Mike