Build me a PC "Mac Mini"

[bangraman]

I've been playing with heatsinks, fans etc until I can hear them whirr in my sleep. Extensive work also with calculator means that I can tell you how much a quiet-ish PC costs without thinking. It is possible to get quiet, but not at the same cost / dimensions. Most of the cases / PSU combinations were a disaster. The Antec was one of the worst in the end, because it gives you so much hope when you turn it on. However after it's been on for half a day, the PSU is up to full operating temperature and it starts going like a jet engine. The fan moves little air so the in-case temp is very high... and all this with a 2.5" drive. I've swapped heatsinks in inaccessible places so often that I've already killed two processors through over-application of pressure when mounting / removing Cu coolers. I've got multiple cuts from heatsink fins and bad case finishing.


I'm giving up. For all sorts of reasons, IMHO the Mac Mini is king for audiocentric living room use as a low-cost, silent source (especially with an external USB interface), although good 'see it big' options are few. CenterStage is looking to become a good free option.


bangraman has left the thread

 

[Mercuttio]

As the poster said, the mac mini absolutely aces the Antec in every way possible. I've actually built and modded a few of these Antecs... people fall in love with the little cube and simply must have it. Unfortunately, they're fairly counterproductive in the long run, if you're just looking at pure specs...

With 300 coming from the power supply, the Antec gives people the impression that they'll be able to put a decent GFX card or a nice sound card in it. However, this really screws up the internals, due to the heat problem... everything the case does to "run silently" (which is a laugh riot on its own) insulates it. Never have I seen a case so coated in plastic. This little punk gets hot even WITHOUT a GFX card. I've had to slice open at least two of these and pop in blow holes on the sides to air out the PCI and AGP cards. As soon as you try to properly cool this thing, it sounds like jet frigging engine.

The mac mini, on the other hand, can't be beat. My buddy has one and is a film major... he does plenty of editing and working in Adobe After effects. Even after a long session, the mini still feels fairly cool to the touch; and stays silent throughout the ordeal.

 

[PYROTAK]

Quote:

Originally Posted by grawk So far, the only thing these systems have over the mini is speed. They're bigger, noiser, less featureful, and uglier. And since the mac mini really is fast enough for HTPC needs, it's hard to argue these behemoths are a better choice...

well i for one enjoy playing games on my 60 inch lcd projection hdtv.

so my ideal htpc would be in the 1500 dollar catagory

shuttle amd 64 barebone + amd 64 3500+ + 1 gb of ddr2 + 250 gb hd + nvidia 6800ultra + liteon 16x dvd-ram= happy me

spending 900 bucks on a htpc that cannot play any games seems like a waste to me. i built a high end rig that can play doom III at over 50fps for only 900 bucks and that was 2 years ago.

 

[bangraman]

Quote:

Originally Posted by PYROTAK so my ideal htpc would be in the 1500 dollar catagory shuttle amd 64 barebone + amd 64 3500+ + 1 gb of ddr2 + 250 gb hd + nvidia 6800ultra + liteon 16x dvd-ram= happy me

Cooling that rig to be an HTPC as opposed to just a small very noisy PC would add quite a bit more.