I've just changed the hardware in my box to be able to record HD programs.

This is my config
Ahanix Dvine 4 case. (I switched the original PSU for a Seasonic S12-500 and I removed the small fans which extract air from the case. They were too much noisy)
Asus M2NPV-VM
Samsung 512 MB DDR2 667.
Athlon64 X2 4600+ with original fan.
2 Hauppauge PVR 150.

I'm planning to buy a HDHomeRun to get OTA HD. I want to be able to record a HD program, a SD program and watch recorded one in the same time.

I think the CPU is powerful enough to do these tasks without any problem.

The problem is CPU's fan which is too much noisy. I want to get the box as quiet as possible.

I'm looking at 3 replacement heatsinks:
- Artic Cooling Freezer 64 Pro
- Scythe Ninja revision B.
- Scythe Infinity.

I don't know if the last two ones can enter in the case. They are HUGE.
But for all the them, I want to keep them at the lowest RPM I can.

I think I could downclock the CPU to get it cooler.

Do you think it's possible to do what I want ?

Sure you can. What's more important to heat production is actually your processor core voltage (vcore). Have a look at the overclocking guide I wrote a while ago for more (except you'll want to underclock your machine.

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Ok I'm gonna take a look.

You might be limited by that MB as I haven't seen much in the way of adjustments for OCing. But I will be watching to see what you can do. Maybe they've updated the BIOS since I checked.

Also you might be a little light in RAM for HD as the onboard video uses some of the RAM. But you can always cross that bridge later.

Yes, I think I could spend some money in more RAM.
I entered in the bios just once and don't even know whic bios revision I have. I bought the MB and CPU in used conditions one week ago. Moreover I have to get a VGA cable to plug to my HDTV. Now I'm using DVI -> HDMI cable and I have no signal (picture) until the nvidia driver is loaded.

Do you know how to active DVI at boot instead of VGA?

A nicer CPU fan would help, particularly one with a variable-speed fan. Mine works great, came with a variable-speed controller. It's a Zalman, I think. IIRC, it's from the Dragon 1.0 spec.

The motherboard can control the speed of the fan and I have a Zalman controller as well. The question is .. Can the heatsinks I'm looking at enter in the case. They are huge.

Artic cooler is cheaper than two others, but I can't find any "noise" review for it.

I'm not sure, I haven't seen that problem. I'v used DVI and it works at boot.

I've been happy with this one http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6835106073 Not nearly as big as many of the others out there, but be sure to check the specs/clearance. I enabled "Q-fan" control (something to that effect, not in front of my M2NPV-VMs at the moment) which makes it very quiet.


I'm using S-Video and DVI -> DVI on my frontends with these boards. Check your video settings in the BIOS again, I made no changes to get video out working during post/bootup.

How lucky you are!
My HDTV stays black until the nvidia logo appears.
Same with my old 17" CRT monitor. So I can't enter the bios to modify settings

Underclocking a cpu can help reduce heat somewhat, and reducing core voltage is a part of that, but it is not likely to produce huge gains for you.

A lot of it depends on your specific chip, just like overclocking does.

As far as how slow a cpu can be and do what you want- that depends in large part on the other hardware: hardware encoder cards can get pretty warm, and a motherboard that is in a system running at full tilt (software encoding with high cpu usage and drive use, etc) will also heat things up a bit.

Not sure about your case cooling but this may be an area you want to try and improve: everything will run better if the air inside the case is cooler.

General rule of thumb with cooling:
big, slow fans are quieter
Air IN low and in front, out high and in back (or by the power supply for non-standard cases. )

thank you for advice !

I disabled Q-fan because I use a Zalman controler to set the CPU's fan speed.

I may remove the zalman controler and enable Q-fan. I will see.

FWIW I have a similar setup, but I opted for the X2 4800 65W processor. I got tired of my Prescott P4 heating up the room! The new box is waaaay cool, if you dig me.

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Sounds like you will need to set the "Reset CMOS" jumper on the motherboard - See the manual for that.

BTW, my BIOS settings are as follows:

AMD "Cool 'N Quiet" = Auto
RGB/TV Display = Auto
TV Mode Support = NTSC-M (yours will depend on locale)
Q-Fan Controller = Enabled