Thank you very much for your interest in my build.
First of all, sorry for my bad english...
My main interessts in this build where:
1. Ultra Low Power.
2. As cheap as possible
3. As powerfull as possible if it does not affect the first 2 points.
It was essential to be:
1. 0 db, so no mechanical parts
2. Be able to drive 3 screens
3. Work with my Modmic, so i will need a Soundcard for the mic boost.
4. Be able to be driven by solarpower.
So i decided to use these components:
MB: Asrock q1900m (MB and CPU)
Soundcard: Asus Xonar DGX
Videocard: Sapphire Radeon HD5450
PSU: PicoPSU M3 ATX 125W.
SSD: Adata SP900 128GB
RAM: 4 GB GSkill DDR3 1333MHz (2 x 2 Gb)
Case: LC-Power Mini ATX 3001B "Executor"
OS: Win 8.1 with StartIsBack
So lets see the technical specs:
CPU: Intel Celeron J1900 with 4 Cores @2 GHz (but the TaskManager it is 2,37GHz most of the time)
Power: 10 W TDP
GPU: 650Mhz Core, 500 Mhz Memory (DDR3 (i think) 1028 mb inside, 2666 mb with HyperMemory)
Power: 19 W at full load (Its less actually) 6 W @ idle
SSD: 128 GB, Read: 550 mb/s, Write 520 mb/s
Power: 4 W
PSU: Possible input Voltages: 6 - 24 V (for a short time under 4 V are possible)
It is designed to use the dirtiest energy you can find. So it ts stable even at car starting sparks.
efficiency: 94% at about 12-15V and 50% load
Max Power: 125W constand (150W peak)
I get about 13 V from a normal trafo lying around in my flat. The losses are damn high and i will replace it soon with a better trafo.
What did this cost me?
MB: 50 €
RAM: 30€
GPU: 36 €
Soundcard: 32 €
ATX PSU Adapter: 4 €
DVI Adapter: 4 €
Adapters for the Power: about 5 € all together
PSU: 55 €
SSD: 54 €
Case: 16 €
Alltogether:
286 €
So its all passive cooled. Dont you have Problems with the heat?
Well.. Not really. Even tho the case is very cheap, it isnt very bad for passive cooled builds. My temps are:
(Room temperature 23 °C, temps measures with Asrock A-Tuning and the Catalyst Control centre, Power measured with Powermeter with all losses of the PSU, at every test i drove 3 screens with open thunderbird, taskmanager, firefox and the measurement programs)
The power consumption is a bit "high" because i used the crappiest trafo i have so there is the possibility to decrease it.
Normal usage:
CPU: 38 °C (102 F)
MB: 36 °C (96 F)
GPU: 70°C
Power: 24 - 27 W
The GPU temp is a bit hot, but its not unhealthy hot i think.
10 minutes Prime 95 inplace large ftt's (max power consumption):
CPU: 46 °C (114 F)
MB: 37 °C (98 F)
GPU: 70 °C
Power: 37,1 W
10 minutes Prime 95:
CPU: 46 °C (114 F)
MB: 37 °C (98 F)
GPU: 70 °C
Power: 35,7 W
10 minutes gaming CounterStrike:
CPU: 43 °C (109 F)
MB: 38 °C (102 F)
GPU: 89 °C
Power: 38,4 W
PC Off:
Power: 3,7 W (Because of the bad trafo)
And its 0 db right? So no sound at all?
Well, in a normal working position you can't hear anything. But if you hold your ear at the case, you can hear the PSU a ridiculus little bit feeping. But it's quite nothing.
What about the normal usage? Can you work with it?
I use this pc for working. I often use Eclipse for working with java for my university, firefox with a few (about 10) open taps and thunderbird and this works fine. Its not ridiculus fast, but its really fast enough to be productive.
The biostime is 4.1 seconds and the bios needs about another second or two but you can decrease it to almost nothing with "fast boot" but i don't need to use it.
Sometimes i play CS Source or watch videos at FullHD with Amazon Prime, and listen to musik and do other normal stuff and this works quite fine. Just when i watch films with Prime, there isn't much free computing power to do much else.
When playing CS Source in offline mode, you can't really play with more than 7 bots because of the limited CPU-Power but it's not a gaming machine so thats totally fine.
You use 3 screens? How?
I use the integrated intel GPU for my right monitor and the Radeon for the middle and the left ones. You have to change one thing in the bios but then it works great. I just have HDMI inputs for my screens so i use the 2 HDMI's from the dedicated GPU and the integrated and one DVI to HDMI Adapter from the dedicated GPU for the last screen.
Do you have other problems or things you dont like at your build?
Well, yes. Sometimes i get a bluescreen because of the crappy drivers for the GPU's when i switch my 3 screens for using the other PC (i can switch it when both PC's are on, but i dont do this very often cause of the bluescreens.
Additional there is no USB3 Port at the Motherboard for the Front of the case but i may will buy a card for that.. Soon you will se Pictures of the inside. There is a mess with cables and unfixed modules so it's not (yet) really portable but i will fix this soon.
Beside this, its a very nice build and i am happy to use it every day.
You talked so much, what about some pics?
Sure, here you are:
Thats my case. Its very, small, cheap and looks nice. At the top of the Case there is kind of a mesh thing, so the warm air can be exhausted automatically and i dont get that much problems with the heat.
So lets take a look inside
The trafo is in the right upper corner. Its just there and i dont really fixed it.
Here you can se the GPU above the Soundcard. There isn't much space but the temps aren't that scary that i would have to do something about it. The only thing is, that the Soundcard can become about 66°C hot (measured with IR thermometer) and i asked ASUS about this and it's a bit to hot for the card, but personally i dont think it will die soon.
Thats the main reason why i dont overclock my GPU because there is simply wuite no airstream for the heatsink. Otherwise it would run stable at 690MHz (Core) and 890 MHz (Memory) if i remember correctly.
Thats another interessting thing about the Case. It passes this cable through the case from the back to the front for installing the PSU there. Because i use a Trafo inside, i created this Adapter:
There i plug in my trafo and i get a normal car plug from it, so i need another adapter for the Pico PSU. Here it is:
This two cables go to the Pico you can see here. It has just 20 Pins so i needed another Adapter to use it with the 24 Pin MB.
The Pico just flyes around in the case like the trafo and thats not perfect. Unless is works just fine, i will fix this in future.
So this is it. My first Ultra Low Power, Low Budget and 0db PC comatible with Solar power and able to use 3 screens.
If i got additional money i will try to set up the solar power system. But first i have to finish my third build (Codename NASty "MAGGI 0" and thats ridiulus expensive for a studend like me. But if you want to hear about when i finish the solar setup, please just reply this and i will inform you then ^^)
Thank you very much for reading this. If you have any questions, i would love to answer them.
