My final build

[r1chard]

Arkay's been great about editing my old post, but I thought I'd re-post because it's ended up a little confusing

Case: Antec Fusion v2 Remote Black
Power: Corsair VX-450 450W
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-MA78GPM-DS2H mATX
CPU: AMD Athlon 64 AM2 Dual Core CPU 4850e
RAM: Corsair TWIN2X2048-6400 2GB C5DHX
CPU Cooler: Scythe Ninja Mini
Optical Drive: ASUS DRW-2014L1T 20X DVD±R/RW SATA LightScribe
Storage: Samsung 750GB 7200rpm SATA II HD753LJ
Tuner: AverTV DVB-T 771

Components were selected based on price and quietness. Thanks to the Scythe cooler there's only three slow 120mm fans in the system - the case and the Corsair PSU. The case has rubber mountings for the HDD. The ASUS DVD drive - which is apparently already pretty quiet - will be set to run slow with some simple hdparm settings.

Everything except the cooler is coming from cpl.net.au. The Scythe is coming from pccasegear.com.au

Total system cost: $856! (this doesn't include the tuner which was $70 three years ago)

I'll be installing mythbuntu and XBMC.

[scottb721]

Nice, I just ordered the same CPU and MB today from Umart.
Also got a Samsung 500GB HD and Pioneer DVD-RW. All up $371 plus delivery.
Shipped out this arvo :-)

My previous experience with Pioneer OEM burners lead me to discover an option to have it slow the disc speed down when playing DVDs after giving it the firmware of the retail version. Hopefully that functionality is still available.

[r1chard]

Originally Posted by scottb721

My previous experience with Pioneer OEM burners lead me to discover an option to have it slow the disc speed down when playing DVDs after giving it the firmware of the retail version. Hopefully that functionality is still available.

hdparm is a standard Linux command whose -E option has worked with every drive I've tested it with so far

There's also the setcd command which is usually an additional install ("sudo apt-get install setcd")

Additionally you can use hdparm to ask a HDD to be quiet using the -M option.

[StarTV]

r1chard,

Does Linux support the graphics of this motherboard? From the little reading I have done I thought Nvidia is the way to go with linux. Curious as I have the gigabyte 780 chipset MB.

[scottb721]

Originally Posted by r1chard

hdparm is a standard Linux command whose -E option has worked with every drive I've tested it with so far

I'll be using my XPMCE.

[r1chard]

Originally Posted by StarTV

r1chard,

Does Linux support the graphics of this motherboard? From the little reading I have done I thought Nvidia is the way to go with linux. Curious as I have the gigabyte 780 chipset MB.

I believe it'll be fine. There's some people having issues with HDMI but I'm not going to be using that.

[r1chard]

Well the build was fun, as always. A couple of things:

0. It's awesome. It's whisper quiet and it looks pretty damn good.
1. The case's manual refers to a POWER LED cable that doesn't exist. There was another unlabelled cable with an IDE-style power connector on it, so I assumed that was the power LED and hooked it into the PSU. That worked
2. There's a POWER SWITCH lead from the power button which you're supposed to plug into the front panel system in order to enable power control from the remote. I couldn't get the damn thing to actually reach, so it's a close-up power-down for me
3. I got mythbuntu install booting on it, but had to stop when I had no idea what to configure my remote as. I'll be posting in the other forum area about that.
4. I'll never buy a non-modular PSU ever again.

Photos of the build to follow tomorrow. Too late for flickr'ing tonight.

[mrcurly]

It may be worth checking the Antec site for current details on their front panel connectors.

I noticed a number of mistakes in the supplied case connector doco for my fusion Max remote, that was related to the routing of cables for the remote power on/off, the Antec faqs were far more up to date and clarified the connections..

Cheers,
MrC

[arkay]

Originally Posted by r1chard

3. I got mythbuntu install booting on it, but had to stop when I had no idea what to configure my remote as.

No need to stop, mythbuntu control centre lets you change the remote at any time. Just have to work out if yours is supported out of the box.... See other thread.

But you can certainly continue with the build.

Cheers,

Arkay.

[r1chard]

Here's the photos:

http://flickr.com/photos/richard_jones/tags/pcbuild/

@mrcurly: I checked the Antec site on your advice and I did the right thing with the POWER LED cable. I'm still not sure I'll be ever able to get the remote control power button to work tho.

@arkay: ok, tonight I'll let the install proceed and look into the remote once it's done.

[StarTV]

I have the the cheaper antec case and also used the mini ninja cpu heat sink. Did you find it fiddly to install the heatsink? Took me a couple of attempts to clip the bastard in. I was afraid of damaging the mother board.

I've kept the two fans and set them on the lowest speed. They recommend in the manual not to run them under five volts but I added a zalman fanmate and got them turning slowly. A nocuta 80mm fan was used to replaced the original PSU fan. Now the loudest part of the rig are the HDD's which are pretty quite. Very happy!

CPU temp at idle hovers around 32degC with ambient temp of ~ 22degC. Running HD tv and on a slightly warmer day it's around 38-40degC. HDD's about 29-31degC.

Looking forward to see how mythbuntu turns out for. May end up doing the same thing.

[r1chard]

Originally Posted by StarTV

I have the the cheaper antec case and also used the mini ninja cpu heat sink. Did you find it fiddly to install the heatsink? Took me a couple of attempts to clip the bastard in. I was afraid of damaging the mother board.

I've no concern giving the thing a good push as long as the mobo is sitting flat on a table with the packaging foam underneath.

This one was a little tricky as there's a high heatsink quite close to one side of the processor - I had to shove the clips around a little after they were on to get them both about even on the board mount.