hockeyrcks9901

Since I have been having such a hard time getting MBM5 to work, I think I may have to give up on it. I currently have two programs that will monitor temperatures and they are the included EasyTune6 that came with my Gigabyte motherboard and the software made by CPUID called Hardware Monitor. Currently they read totally different numbers for temperatures. EasyTune6 reads my load temps at around 56*C and it only displays one temperature for the CPU temp. Harware Monitor reads my temperature as being around 43*C and it displays three temperatures (for 3 core processor). EasyTune6 also displays the system temperature at around 45*C while Hardware Monitor displays it as being one of three values measuring 45*C, 56*C, and 52*C. Now, which of these two programs do I trust to be the correct temperatures? I've been leaning towards trusting the Gigabyte software seeing as it was designed for their motherboards but I'm not sure. Also, I don't think Hardware Monitor can be right because it is reading system temp as higher than CPU temp...

Well, I'm going to try the Scythe 100mm HSF. I almost ordered the 120mm but decided that it was too "iffy" on whether it would fit or not. With that on the way, I'm also not looking into quieting down the intake and exhaust fans. I have three 80mm fans (Antec TriCools) and in order to keep the system temps down, I have to run them on the medium setting which is still quite loud. Any recommendations on 80mm fans that can move some decent air while still being quiet? I would prefer fans that do not have any LEDs as this is an HTPC case and could be distracting. Thanks!

I attached a picture with some measurements to show the kind of room I have to work with. A measurement that you can't see is the height from the motherboard surface to the case door, which is 80mm.

System temperature is in the 30s Celsius and it has two intakes fans blowing right at the cpu cooler. An exhaust fan opposite the intakes and an intake on the PSU that seems to just exhaust out the back of the psu and not into the case. I'll take some measurements of the case tomorrow to give some idea of what room I have to work with.

Just built a new HTPC and it's running great except it's a little warm. Under load it's around 60*C so I'm looking for a small but better than stock. Sound level is not too important because the PC is around 20 ft away from the couch. The case us the Antec Fusion Remote 350 with an AMD Athlon II X3 445. Thanks for any suggestions!

Check it out on your rig where you all ready have professional installed. It gets all the schedules/guide info from the internet for free. No subscription needed.

The new media center in windows 7 is very very very easy to use and setup. It's one thing microsoft got right. There is a section for tv that has sub sections for live tv, recorded shows, tv guide, and one or two others. Then there is a movie section that is also very very simple. I use an add in to make it have some more eye candy and a registry edit to allow it to support .mkv files. Using any media center remote should work as well. I can't think of anything more wife friendly then it to be honest.

Windows 7 Media Center with a couple of plugins is probably the best bet. I use Media Browser to sort through my movies and it's very intuitive. I also use a simple modified registry file to allow it to play .mkv files as they are not supported natively. I hate to reverence another site but there is a huge amount of information at www.avsforum.com There is a tuner card that can decode the encrypted cable stations but it around $400, requires a cable card for each simultaneous recording you want to make and it its on a long back order. It is the Ceton InfiniTV...a simple google search would find it. The other wary of doing it is to use an IR blaster to select the station from the cable box and hook the output of the cable box to a tuner but I'm not sure how simple that is to set up.

I believe this is what you are referring to. Absolutely hilarious.

Well, I've managed to get the load temp down to around 56*C at stock speed by lowing the core voltage from 1.325V to 1.200V and switching the direction of a few fans. That was using Gigabytes provided tool for windows, I'm going to set that value in the bios and try and undervolt the ram as well.

Any suggestion on a decent HSF for a small case?

I totally agree with you...I didn't even need three cores but I went with three because it was a minor cost increase from dual core and has a slight chance of unlocking. My question is not whether it will successfully unlock or not but rather finding the option in the bios. It seems like on these latest MBs, the option has been removed or modified to satisfy AMDs request that it not be there. If I unlock it and it is not stable, I would just set it back to three cores and be happy. Just hoping someone is familiar with the bios on this board and can help me find the option to unlock. The other question I have is about getting a decent CPU heatsink & fan for an HTPC case. I'm going to open my case tomorrow and measure to see if the Scythe Shuriken and Scythe Big Shuriken would fit as I've read a couple good things about them. But I want to get the OCCs wisdom and opinion on good cooling for an HTPC case.

Someone has to have some input on this. I'm currently running the CPU under clocked at 2.8GHz with all three cores rather than just two cores at 3.1GHz. I've found that some people really like the Scyth Shiruken coolers for low profile cases so I'm going to measure my case tomorrow and see if either of those will fit. Also, I'll be doing some wire management and applying AS5 as I wasn't able to get to it yesterday. I'll try and play around more with the bios to see if I can figure out how to unlock the fourth core but I'm hoping someone here knows where I can do this.

First of all, it has been a long time since I've been here. I recently (yesterday) got all the parts for my HTPC and set them all up but I have a couple of questions... Case: Antec MicroFusion Remote 350 Mobo: Gigabyte GA-880GMA-UD2H CPU: AMD Athlon II X3 445 (3.1GHz) Ram: Geil 4GB DDR3 1066 (2 x 2GB) Video: Onboard graphics - I don't do any PC gaming HD: WD Caviar Blue - 1TB 7200RPM TV Tuner: AVerMedia TVHD Duet BD-ROM: Lite-On 4X-BD 8X-DVD 32X-CD I know that the RAM is quite cheap, has horrible timings and speed but I needed to save some money. This build is not going to be overclocked much if at all. Don't need all that power for an HTPC. Now, on to my questions... I have read plenty of information about the possibility of unlocking the 4th Core on some of these AMD chips. I know normally this setting is done by using ACC but I cannot find that in the BIOS. I did find something titled "CPU Unlock" but enabling that does not seem to change anything. Can anyone help in that area? I do not expect the unlock to be successful but why not give it a shot? It would certainly help with encoding the BD. Also, while encoding a BD rip to .mkv format (no media storage server for me yet), I've noticed that the CPU is getting very hot. Right now, using only two cores, the temp is reaching 56*C. When using three cores it is reaching well over 60*C. These temps were measured with the provided Gigabyte EasyTune 6 software ( I am having bigtime issues installing MBM5). I posted a screen shot of the CPU under load encoding a BD rip using only two cores with the temp measurements from the Gigabyte software and HWMonitor. I'm not comfortable with that so I would like to get an after-market cooler of some sort. I am totally lost here as so much has changed since I built my last computer. That was back in the Athlon64 single core days. It becomes even more complicated because of the small HTPC case. Sound is not an issue as the case is 20+ feet away from the couch and TV where we will be watching. I plan on taking this back apart tomorrow and applying some AS5 to the stock cooler and try to do a little better job of wire management but I still think an after-market cooler is in line for me. Tomorrow I am also running the coax from TV to HTPC and HDMI from HTPC to the TV. Please, don't hesitate to ask me for more information. I'll also try and take a picture of the set-up tomorrow: 50" Panasonic Plasma (forgot model #-will add it tomorrow) Sony BD Player (again, forgot model #) Xbox 360 Wii Computer area: HTPC Hannspree 22" LCD Logitech 5.1 (old but works well enough) Logitech el cheapo wireless mouse No-name el cheapo keyboard

File a dispute with your credit card company. I just had to do that with Wachovia over my apartment's online rent payment option...they gave me the money back while I was on the phone with them.