Tag Archives: silent mini PC case

HDPLEX Fanless Silent PC Review

HDPLEX H3.SODD Fanless PC with ASROCK motherboard, i3-2125 CPU, SSD

Original review from HDPLEX fanless HTPC case forum

Finally had time to put my HDPLEX H3.SODD passive HTPC case together yesterday. Used an ASROCK motherboard, i3-2125 CPU, & SSD. All went well except 2 issues.

1. The Power & LED cables provided were just short of being able to reach the connectors on the ASROCK H67M-ITX which is on the extreme corner of the motherboard. Didn’t have any spare ones around so had to splice in a couple more inches to reach the connectors.

2. System didn’t power up. After removing un-needed components, with no success, I tried a spare ATX power supply I had and it booted right off. After a couple of voltage measurements, I found the power harness was at fault. Most of the wires coming off the 12 pin connector have a single wire which is spliced off into multiple wires. The Yellow wire was the exception where the tried to force 2 wires into the 12 pin connector. One of these wires was not making contact. I removed the second wire and spliced it in further up the wire and everything started to work.

H3.SODD fanless PC case

System is working fine now. Idle power hovering in the 38-42 range with 50’s under peak load. Need to finish up loading Windows 7 32-bit and hook it up via HDMI to my TV.

HDPLEX Fanless Silent PC Review

HDPLEX H3.SODD Fanless PC with Zotac mini-ITX board Intel Core CPU

Original Review from HDPLEX fanless HTPC case forum

HDPLEX H3.SODD fanless PC case Installation questions, suggestions, and Pictures
Larry, thanks a million- no, wait, that’s not enough, thanks a billion! Everything is absolutely beautiful, so much so that I had to get my hands dirty IMMEDIATELY- couldn’t wait till Friday afternoon. Build is almost done, pics to follow within a day or two. Already powered up, and sure enough (unsurprisingly), silent. No temps to report yet since I’m still assembling last pieces, probably finishing tomorrow.

Re: packaging- absolutely top notch! Instructions are good, each major piece is in its own individual baggie with appropriate screws so you know EXACTLY which parts are used to mount the PSU to the case, or the heatpipe securing plates to the side panel, or the heatsink to the CPU- all manufacturers should strive for this level of organization. Top-notch work again, Larry, thanks again!

H3.SODD HTPC fanless case

H3.SODD HTPC fanless case

HDPLEX Fanless Silent PC Review

HDPLEX H3.SODD Fanless PC with Zotac Z68-ITX WiFi (Z68ITX-A-E) Core i5 2500T

Original review from HDPLEX fanless HTPC case forum
Hello,

Here’s my new toy:

H3.SODD silent passive HTPC case with Zotac Z68-ITX

And it’s made of:
H3.SODD Fanless Chassis, with 80W Open Frame Fanless PSU
Zotac Z68-ITX WiFi (Z68ITX-A-E)
Intel Sandy Bridge Core i5 2500T 2.5GHz 6MB 45W 32nm Quad Core
G.Skill Kit Extreme3 2 x 8 Go PC12800 Ripjaws X CAS10
Samsung SSD (MMDOE28G5MPP)
M4-CT064M4SSD2Crucial m4 2.5-inch (M4-CT064M4SSD2)
WD Scorpio Blue (WDC WD2500BEVT-7)

It’s going to run either VMware ESXi or Joyent SmartOS.
Not sure yet… I still have to test a few things.

Thanks HD-Plex for this great enclosure!

HDPLEX Fanless Silent PC Review

HDPLEX H3.SODD Fanless PC i7-3770T ASRock Z77E-ITX 128 GB Samsung 830 SSD

Original Review from HDPLEX Fanless Computer case forum

ictures (I hope) of my build in the public album and where it will sit in my AV rack – H3 at top, current blu ray player to go to bottom.

Build is

HDPLEX H3.SODD fanless PC case
i7-3770T
ASRock z77e-itx
8G Samsung green memory (very low profile – recommended)
128 GB Samsung 830 SSD
Sony Blu-ray (cannot remember model)

I have improved the cable management slightly since the pictures.

H3.SODD fanless PC with ASRock Z77E-ITX

H3.SODD fanless PC with ASRock Z77E-ITX

Idle temperatures (after 1 hour of idling) are +18C over ambient (39C) which I am happy with. However, if you are prepared to stick a slow running 80 mm fan (900RPM or less) on top of case that will come down by about 3C for very little noise.

If building again I would want to make a couple of changes. Move the SSD to under the blu ray (velcro is wonderful) and extend my cable management mod all the way up the right side of case for a cleaner build.

HDPLEX Fanless Silent PC Review

HDPLEX H3.SODD Fanless PC with ASROCK Z68M-ITX Core i3 2125 Ceton USB Turner Crucial Ballistix 4GB

Original review from Missing Remote

I just finished building a fanless HTPC. Here are my components:

HD-Plex H3.SODD Fanless HTPC Chassis
HD-Plex 150W Fanless Power Supply External
Internal IR receiver with MCE Remote Control(RC6) (from HD-Plex)
Lite On 4ETS slot loading bluray combo drive (from HD-Plex)
OCZ Solid 3 SATA III 6Gbps 2.5″ SSD 60GB
SAMSUNG Spinpoint M8 HN-M101MBB 1TB 5400 RPM 8MB Cache 2.5″ SATA 3.0Gb/s
ASRock Z68M-ITX/HT
Crucial Ballistix 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10600)
Intel Core i3-2125
Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
Ceton InfiniTV4 USB
Once I got all components that I ordered through HD-Plex, Amazon and Newegg The assemply was pretty traight forward. HD-Plex had good documantation on mounting the heatsink and heatpipes for cooling.

The only issues I had was; I had to move my SSD due to conflict with the eject button; The wires for power button and LED is streached to a maximum because of the placement of connectors on the MB (see picture)

After installing and configuring Win7 MCE, the biggest challange was to get Time Warner to understand what they needed to do. What I could have done on the phone with TW in five minutes (assuming I talked to a sensible person) took them 3 hours on site. Most of the time on the phone. Anyway, at the end they did wha I asked them to do and everything worked. Including the SDV.

Now I enjoy up to four channels in paralell (live and record) and no noise from my home theatre. I also have a Pioneer AV receiver and Panasonic Plasma TV connected with HDMI.

After a couple of weeks using this setup, the max temperature I have seen on the CPU is 58 degrees C.

My next project will be to build another system as extender for the bedroom.

I can recommend this setup to anyone that can build a PC.

(BTW, the HD-plex HTPC replace a PS3, Tivo and Netgear media player)