Misc stuff for my HTPC

Bought some stuff to enhance my HTPC since it can get pretty warm during gaming. Especially the graphics cards and I feel that CPU fan is not enough to cool the fins. Therefore, I decided to add some more fans in the case where possible to expel hot air faster.

I also bought a fan controller to be mount at the unused 3.5" drive bay. Extra fans will be connected to it and controlled manually. Finally, a couple of 80mm fan filters and hoped that it will cut down on the dust intake by the fans.

Below is the unboxing video:

Misc stuffs bought from Linke computer

By the way, Happy New Year in advance! :)

Palit Geforce 560 Ti Twin Light Turbo 1GB Limited edition

Got my new graphics card finally, it is Palit Geforce 560Ti from Palit. It is a limited edition. Therefore, it is on limited output from the factory. And it is slightly over-clocked by the factory too. However, you can overclock it further by yourself as GTX560Ti to harness its power even more. MSI afterburner is a good software to use, easy and intuitive! 

Anyway, I was deciding between Radeon 6950 and Geforce 560Ti. Although 6950 is faster by default, a overclock 560Ti is able to match the speed of a stock 6950 although the end result is that 6950 is still the champion in this range.

Another reason is the card length of 560Ti, it reference length is 9 inches I think. Radeon 6950 seems to longer with 10.6 inches. With all the manufacturer out there, it seems that Palit makes the shortest card compared to the reference model.

It is a few cm shorter than reference and it suits my Silverstone SG-02F case, the downside I guess will be the 2 years local warranty that is given by the distributor as certain brands gives 3 years warranty. It is really a nice but powerful little card. Below is the unboxing video and some pictures of it.

My unboxing video

 Nice box

 Contents

 Nice design

 4 heatpipes

Short card length

A little mini review:

The light is lit up with a red glow from the two fans, it is nice in a way. However, it will be even better if it comes with a 2 GB version or have some heatsinks on those VRM chips.

On a side note, I got a extra 8GB of G-skill value rams again with this purchase since it the price is still economical. Now end up with a total 16GB of RAM on all 4 slots although my system will not be able to fully utilised it lol. It is there for the "fill up every RAM slots" mentality. Never know when you need the extra memory lol.

HTPC build 2011 part 3/3

Finally, for the motherboard and RAMs. As I don't OC the CPU or anything, it will be better to use H67 chipset compared to Z68 or P67. Also, I was also particular about the board layout, design etc. Having heatsinks on the VRM is a must for me since I feel it will prolong the life of it. Also, I will not be using a K series CPU since I don't overclock, a i5 2400 should suffice for me for my budget.

After all the researching on the different MB brands, I narrowed down to ECS (H67H2-M) or ASUS (P8H67-M EVO). Comparing both of them, they both look good with their individual colour themes and their VRM heatsinks.

ECS is lower cost and short of internal 1394 header and crossfire but ASUS has almost everything on the the board from 1394 (obsolete soon I feel) to crossfire. It even has a 2-port USB and eSATA module compared to ECS only has eSATA module. Of course, the price difference is there.

I wanted the ECS due to cost but the shop (lowest priced among all the shops) that I went to is out of stock for ECS. After some consideration, I decided to get the Asus board instead. And I am pretty happy with it.

Below is my unboxing video:

P8H67-M EVO unboxing

The pictures:

 Contents

 View 1

 View 2

 View 3

View 4

Lastly for the RAMs, as I don't overclock and with H67 chipset, I am limited to 1066 or 1333 rams. It is either Kingston or G-skill value rams for me. I choose the G-skill as it cost lower than Kingston and I shouldn't see any real world difference in them.

The PCB is black compared to Green for Kingston. I bought 2 sticks of 4GB each and it adds up to 8GB. It should be more than enough for Windows 7.

The picture:

G-skill value rams

For my future upgrades, I will be getting a Graphics card, maybe some fans and maybe even more RAMs if the price is good. It is a pity that my old fans can't be used due to size. Will do a post once I bought the stuffs.

Pictures of my HTPC build:

 My HTPC

 i5 2400

 Contents of i5 2400

 nice copper base

 low height

 Comparison with kozuti

 Mount nicely

 Clear VRM heatsinks

 Fans transfer

Assembling

 Close up

Completed

As you can see, the cable management is pretty messy. If you wish to have a neater management, I guess a modular PSU will be more useful but the length of the PSU will be slightly longer.