First try and some questions! (Heat and CPU usage)

[greminn]

Hi There,

Just new too all this and finding it LOTs of fun! I have a couple of questions regarding my first HTPC build - just to make sure that its working as expected.... (running Windows MCE 2005 and the Nvidia PureVideo Decoder). The HW is:

- Gigabyte GA-K8N-SLI, which has onboard S/PDIF out and works well!
- Athlon 64 3700+ CPU (with standard cooler)
- 2GB Kingson RAM
- Gigabyte gForce 7600GS
- 20GB HD (I know, i know, 2 x 200GB on their way!)
- Plain-jane DVD ROM (nice and quiet!!)
- Zalman HD135 Case (I love this!!!)
- Hauppauge HVR-3000 connected to my sky dish for freeview (New zealand)
- wifi for connection

All the drivers are the very latest for everything. Everything is running quite nice. I have a Zalman CNPS7500-CU CPU cooler and some ultra quiet rear case fans for the case on their way as well as some more storage space (as noted above).

My questions are the following:

1). Currently when watching live tv, my CPU is running at approx 30-40 % usage... Does this sound about right? I thought that the TV card had a decoder on it that takes most of this?

2). The CPU temp is running at 45 degrees C after a couple of hours of watching. CPU fan is running quite slow for noise sake. Does this sound about right?

3). The ambient case temp is around 38-40 degrees C (as reported by one of the case sensors - Again, i have the case fan running at only 15-20% here - its def pulling hot air from the case tho!) Does this sound too high?

4). Can someone recommend a ultra silent DVD ROM with CDR capability?

Notes for anyone that is interested... im really impressed with the zalman HD135 case. It worked pretty much perfectly with MCE2005 and was a breeze to setup. Just got to get the thermals correct now... Ive got everything running on pretty much silent, you can only hear the case with the sound off.

Answers or suggestions are very welcome and much appreciated!

Thanks

Simon

[arran]

CPU utilisation is not too bad, I get around 30% with a dvico fusion plus single tuner on a dell gx240 2 gig machine. If I swap the dvico with a hauppauge nova t, I get about 50%. I found that different versions of the video driver (with a GForce 6200) resulted in different CPU utilisation, generally older was lower.

As for the cpu and case temp, sounds normal to me.
Not sure about the other question

Arran

[AlbyZ]

Originally Posted by greminn

Hi There,

1). Currently when watching live tv, my CPU is running at approx 30-40 % usage... Does this sound about right? I thought that the TV card had a decoder on it that takes most of this?

2). The CPU temp is running at 45 degrees C after a couple of hours of watching. CPU fan is running quite slow for noise sake. Does this sound about right?

Simon

Have a look at my post, to work out which codec is active on your PC and my XP2000+ runs at about 30-35 degrees C, but then my utilisation is only 10% (which is where yours should be), I suspect your using CPU to do the decoding.

Alby

[behrad]

hi greminn,

I am also interested in this case. Can I please ask what $$$ you paid for it?

[drewhiggins]

Hey Gremmin, how are you? Here's my answers to three of your questions.

1). Currently when watching live tv, my CPU is running at approx 30-40 % usage... Does this sound about right? I thought that the TV card had a decoder on it that takes most of this?

Mine is about 50-60% so you're alright. The temp and CPU are fine, nothing to worry about - I get about the same as you on a lesser system.

4). Can someone recommend a ultra silent DVD ROM with CDR capability?

I'm pretty sure they're all CDR compatible. Any of the cheap Samsung ones as well as LGs are quiet enough. An ultra-silent drive would be hard to get because they have to make noise at some point - when loading a disc.