Asus E35M1-I passive cooled itx board

[cw-kid]

This was the main review I read here but I did read several. To me this mobo has everything you could possibly want from an iTX HTPC. Plus I am a bit of an AMD/ATI fanboy.

[milli260876]

AMD/ATI blows... 2 graphics cards both erroring out during my HTPC life.
Intel Core i3/5/7 FTW

[cw-kid]

AMD/ATI blows... 2 graphics cards both erroring out during my HTPC life.
Intel Core i3/5/7 FTW

I hear you I've built quite a few HTPC's based on the Intel platform and like them. But I've had little issues with my current AMD/ATI HTPC at home.

[dduk]

AMD/ATI blows... 2 graphics cards both erroring out during my HTPC life.
Intel Core i3/5/7 FTW

I hear you I've built quite a few HTPC's based on the Intel platform and like them. But I've had little issues with my current AMD/ATI HTPC at home.

I can see where this thread is going !

I've got a mixture of ATI 5450 and Nvidia cards here. I prefer the colour depth and image of the ATI cards, but I find the Nvidias are much more predictable coming out of sleep. For the most part, the ATI cards have been great, but their driver releases can be terrible.

I've not tried any of the intel devices yet. The only i5 I have is in my server and that's been relatively reliable, except for the occasionally strange explorer issues.

[cw-kid]

Looks like there might be some current issues with the Fusion / Zacate platform and Arcsoft TMT5

http://www.arcsoft.com/forum/forum_post ... based-htpc

[Cafe.Racer]

Bump - how are you getting on?

I'm thinking about:

asus-e35m1-m-pro

[cw-kid]

I didn't go for an AMD Fusion spec in the end, I went for an Intel Sandybridge i3 and bought one of those passively cooled cases from Tranquil PC.

So far so good now I have hopefully fixed the BSOD I was getting with the Corsair SSD, a firmware update for the drive seems to have resolved it, I hope!

[dduk]

I didn't go for an AMD Fusion spec in the end, I went for an Intel Sandybridge i3 and bought one of those passively cooled cases from Tranquil PC.

So far so good now I have hopefully fixed the BSOD I was getting with the Corsair SSD, a firmware update for the drive seems to have resolved it, I hope!

I'm now giving the E35M-I's replacement some serious consideration. With the exception of an additional 50Hz on the CPU, the HDMI out is v1.4 making usable for 3D blu-ray. It's crazy that the E35 didn't have the HDMI 1.4 on it as the chip on the APU is a Radeon 6xxx which all have 1.4 on the dedicated cards.

I just want my next HTPC build to be completely, 100% silent - no fans and an SSD.

Stuart, presumably your i3 has a fan on it?

[cw-kid]

NO fans, its totally passively cooled, has a big heat sink built in to the design of one side of the case and two internal cooper pipes strap to the top of the CPU. Have a look at the Tranquil PC bare bones here.

I am using a 65w Intel 2nd Gen i3 2130 I think it is.

Its not the cheapest HTPC I've ever built but silence is golden when compared to my old Micro ATX sized AMD based HTPC that had several noisy fans inside it.

What's the AMD E35 replacement called? I've not read anymore about them lately.

[dduk]

NO fans, its totally passively cooled, has a big heat sink built in to the design of one side of the case and two internal cooper pipes strap to the top of the CPU. Have a look at the Tranquil PC bare bones here.

I am using a 65w Intel 2nd Gen i3 2130 I think it is.

Its not the cheapest HTPC I've ever built but silence is golden when compared to my old Micro ATX sized AMD based HTPC that had several noisy fans inside it.

What's the AMD E35 replacement called? I've not read anymore about them lately.

The E35's replacement is the cleverly-named E45- Asus website. Apologies for not linking in my previous post.

It's only recently been released and I've yet to find a website where it's available for anything other than pre-order.

That Tranquil case looks excellent. I may will consider it. I especially like the laptop-style power supply available. I've just had a quick look at an Intel PDF and it confirms the HDMI port is v1.4.

Actually, I'm now REALLY tempted by this. Throw W7 Embeded on an SSD on it and it could be an excellent machine.

[cw-kid]

Yeah I am pleased with it, Tranquil don't supply an internal IR however, you can buy them from Tanquil PC but they are like 45 quid or something daft, you can buy the proper CIR IR for Intel Media boards on eBay here but they are from the USA. Tranquil threw me in a free internal IR as I bought an OEM sample with none of their logos on it and got a free 4GB RAM chip as well.

I bought the processor and some other parts off AWD-IT online but they didn't have the CPU I ordered in stock even though their site said it was, we then agreed on another model and then they sent me a different model to what was agreed, so I ended up with a CPU with the HD 2000 GPU and not the HD 3000 GPU.

I would recommend the following Intel processors:

Intel i3 2125 or Intel i5-2405S

The Intel media board is a DH67CF.

I've not got a 3D TV so can't comment on the HDMI 1.4 but the board supports it I think.

[dduk]

Yeah I am pleased with it, Tranquil don't supply an internal IR however, you can buy them from Tanquil PC but they are like 45 quid or something daft, you can buy the proper CIR IR for Intel Media boards on eBay here but they are from the USA. Tranquil threw me in a free internal IR as I bought an OEM sample with none of their logos on it and got a free 4GB RAM chip as well.

I bought the processor and some other parts off AWD-IT online but they didn't have the CPU I ordered in stock even though their site said it was, we then agreed on another model and then they sent me a different model to what was agreed, so I ended up with a CPU with the HD 2000 GPU and not the HD 3000 GPU.

I would recommend the following Intel processors:

Intel i3 2125 or Intel i5-2405S

The Intel media board is a DH67CF.

I've not got a 3D TV so can't comment on the HDMI 1.4 but the board supports it I think.

Excellent. I'll give this some serious thought and research. Do let us know if you encounter any issues with it.

[cw-kid]

The only issue I've had was with the Corsair Force 3 60GB SSD and Windows blue screening allot. Since I updated the firmware on the drive, its not done it since, touch wood.

The CPU temp runs between 45-57 and the PCH (Chipset) temp seems to run around 70

The SSD makes a massive difference to boot times and resumes from S3 Sleep instantly.

[Cafe.Racer]

Not enough slots on the E45, for me anyway.

Silent is good, PicoPSU, passive cooled and only case fans is the way to go I think. That E35 will do me, I like buying just off latest spec; it always feels like you're getting a bargain