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I'm spending an oddly large amount of time picking out a motherboard for my HTPC.
I think I've settled on the Silverstone LC17 case simply because it's probably got the best cooling (lots of 80mm fans instead of, say, 1 80mm and 1-2 60mm). The only downside is it has no VFD. Is there a good alternative with VFD?
Anyway, this brings me to motherboard. I already know I'm going Athlon 64. I've done some research and come across this list of passively cooled motherboards.
One of those I'm sure would be a good bet but looking at tech specs got me to thinking about fan connectors. Having Cool and Quiet seems to be the way to go but I'll have that with any of these options and my Venice CPU.
Most motherboards mention 3 fan connectors. 1 would be CPU. Are the other two for anything else?
One motherboard in particularly (DFI Lanparty Ultra-D) actually has 5 fan connectors. Would this be worth getting considering the case I want to get has 5 fans? Can you hook up several fans to one connector? A Thermaltake case I had that (sort of) allowed that.
The goal here is for it to be quiet enough so it's not noticeable when music or TV is playing.
The Abit AN8 Ultra seems to be interesting but apparently hard to get.
The Asus A8N-SLI Premium is easier to get but is rather expensive. I'm not sure I need a motherboard that good for this.
I'm considering just getting the Gigabyte K8NF-9. This has 3 fan connectors I think. Only downside I see is the (minor) problem of not having an optical SP/DIF (coaxial only).
All these motherboards seem to have some flavour of Realtek 5.1 sound. What's the best onboard sound solution?
I have the Abit AN8-Ultra. It actually has 6 fan connectors. They are all controllable for what temp they cut in and variable speed in the BIOS.
I use two of thenm to power my case fans so they only cut in when needed. Helps keep them quiet. You can download the manual from here if you want see how it works.
THE AN8-Ultra is being phased out I believe. I had some trouble getting mine, but it was worth it. The AN8-SLI is essentially the same board but with the ability to run dual coupled graphics cards. About $50 dearer, I think, and you won't need the SLI for an MCE box. If you are in Sydney, I got mine from ARC computers and they might have a couple left.
As to VFD, I have the LC10M and, quiet frankly, I'm not over impressed with the VFD aside from having the IR sensor internal. The display is a bit too small to read across the room.
<edit> Fixed up a mispost as I read the previous post wrong.
I would go for the DFI Board. Im currently using the LANPARTY UT nF3 250Gb. No need to load any drivers if using SATA or Raid as the OS Drive, it just detects and off it goes. Plus as talked about in other threads the DFI allow you to control the audio volume from within MCE if using S/PDIF into an external receiver which it seems most other motherboards dont.
Good Luck
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UNEED X-11 Case, DFI LanParty UT NF3 250GB, AMD 64Bit 3500+, 2 x 1GB DDR 400 GEIL, GeForce MSI 6600GT, SilenX 600W iXtrema Pro PSU, 1 x 200GB SATA 40GB = OS 160GB = Backup, 2 x 200GB SATA striped array 400GB Library, 2 x Divico FusionHDTV Pros, ZALMAN CNPS7700-CU, Minitar MN54GPC-R Wireless Adaptor, Pioneer A09 DVD Burner, Shintaro Internal Card Reader, Vantec Stealth 80mm case fan, MS MCE Keyboard, LG 60" DLP Rear Projection, DENON AVR-1803 Amp, JBL 125SAT Speakers.
Veritas...don't know if you have made your MB selection or not....I now have a similar setup - Silverstone LC17 and an ASUS A8N-SLI Prem board which so far is working well. The case has 2 fans by default (??) the MB has 2 case fan power connectors however due to layout I have only connected 1 of the case fans. I could connect the other case fan with one of the extension cables that came with either the Zalman PSU or MB - can't remeber which.
At this stage I won't be installing any more fans as the system runs cool enough and I don't want too much noise. FYI I was able to fit a Zalman CPU CNPS 7000B cooler and a Sparkle 6600 GT with Zalman VGA cooler in with no issues. I you have another PCIE card then there is very little or no room for it in the PCIE slot (x4) with the Zalman VGA cooler installed. Good luck.
At this stage I won't be installing any more fans as the system runs cool enough and I don't want too much noise.
I'm not familiar with your MoBo, but if it's similar to mine you can set the fan cutin twmperature in the BIOS for each fan connector. if this is the case, I would recommend connecting that second case fan and setting it to come in above normal operating temp. That way you still keep it all nice and quiet as the fan usually won't run, but it is on standby to give some extra cooling if things do start to get overly hot. A bit of insurance.
