290x Lightning as an HTPC card?

[lavaheadache]

Recently picked up a Silverstone ML07 to replace my antec mini 120 case.

I was just looking for something slimmer and this thing looked promising.

The Hardware




Msi Z87i gaming AC
I5 4690k- Thermalright axp-100r
2x4 Crucial Ballistix low profile 1866
Samsung Evo 120 gb
Silverstone 600 watt sfx psu
Msi 290x Lightning



As you can see the card is a monster compared to the case.... will it fit? Just so it is clear, the card gets mounted upside down. Not how it is shown in the picture



This power plug gets in the way of the card sincee the Lightning is much taller than a normal card So I unscrewed and pulled it allowing the card to drop in..... barely



here she is from the under side


Now what I did to mount the power plug was take a bunch of motherboard stand-off's to raise the height of it in a secure manner




The end result is fantastic. The card runs warmer than it does in a regular case with good airflow. About 84c verse 71c in a good case. Now the worrying part is that the case itself gets hot to the touch, lol.

The cpu stays nice and cool because directly about the heatsink is a 120mm fan mount with I have a high quality Enermax fan blowing into the axp 100r. Overclocked to 4.5 the cpu doesn't break 65c running Prime.


--update--

So while making this thread it got me to thinking about how I could possibly improve air flow and tried something out. Basically what I did was rotate the cpu fan around and the top mounted Enermax so they could hopefully act as exhaust fans....

The result was nothing short of incredible. All of a sudden my load temps top out at 71c now for the Lightning and the fan never even ramps up. I'm getting the same results as I did in my carbide air 540 main box. The results are so good I suspect because how close the lightning sits to the vents on the bottom effectively giving it completely fresh air from out side the case while a ton of the heat generated by the card is being pulled straight out the top. Best part is that my cpu temps haven't changed dramatically while gaming. Maybe if I were running prime and furmark I would be singing a different tune but this setup is now flawless in my eyes.

 

[tential]

So what made you pick an r9 290x for an htpc build?
What's the use case for this build?
Also why not a gtx 970 for a case that size?

Also what is the htpc room this is hooked into (tv/projector sound system etc.) and how's the noise from the case?
How'd you mount the video card like that?

 

[lavaheadache]

I went with the 290x cause I already had it. I had a reference 7970 in the old case but this one could take the Lightning so I went with it. If I replaced my main rig's Titan Z I would stick that in there just for kicks.

The rig is hooked up to a 1080p tv. Basically the Lightning allows me to run mostly any game with 4xAA and achieve 60 fps. Obviously games like Crysis 3 won't do that but the trade off's are minimal.

The rig mainly runs Netflix and kids movies but every now and then I get to game on it.

If you want to know how I mounted the card check out a review on the case. It has a pci-e riser system and detachable tray. Pretty sick case.

Under load the card has to ramp up the fans because there isn't much help from the case feeding the card. The noise isn't terrible though cause you are playing a game and the noise from that is much louder than the noise the system makes.

Listen, my build isn't posted to be picked apart about what card choice I went with. I don't mind people speculating what I could have went with if I were to buy a card but it needs not go futher than that. I would trade the card for a better solution but I'm not hard set on it since the card will likely get replaced in time anyway when big Maxwell comes out or 390x.

 

[tential]

I went with the 290x cause I already had it. I had a reference 7970 in the old case but this one could take the Lightning so I went with it. If I replaced my main rig's Titan Z I would stick that in there just for kicks.

The rig is hooked up to a 1080p tv. Basically the Lightning allows me to run mostly any game with 4xAA and achieve 60 fps. Obviously games like Crysis 3 won't do that but the trade off's are minimal.

The rig mainly runs Netflix and kids movies but every now and then I get to game on it.

If you want to know how I mounted the card check out a review on the case. It has a pci-e riser system and detachable tray. Pretty sick case.

Under load the card has to ramp up the fans because there isn't much help from the case feeding the card. The noise isn't terrible though cause you are playing a game and the noise from that is much louder than the noise the system makes.

Listen, my build isn't posted to be picked apart about what card choice I went with. I don't mind people speculating what I could have went with if I were to buy a card but it needs not go futher than that. I would trade the card for a better solution but I'm not hard set on it since the card will likely get replaced in time anyway when big Maxwell comes out or 390x.

I was genuinely curious and was not attempting to pick it apart.

Just some questions to understand what was going on(as to whether the parts were already own or purchased just for this, etc. ).

Thanks for answering the questions will help me out in my next htpc machine as to what is feasible in such a case. More ideas now as to things that can be done!

 

[KaRLiToS]

Great rig Lava.

Must get the job done really well.

 

[lavaheadache]

Great rig Lava.

Must get the job done really well.

Thanks... So while making this thread it got me to thinking about how I could possibly improve air flow and tried something out. Basically what I did was rotate the cpu fan around and the top mounted Enermax so they could hopefully act as exhaust fans....

The result was nothing short of incredible. All of a sudden my load temps top out at 71c now for the Lightning and the fan never even ramps up. I'm getting the same results as I did in my carbide air 540 main box. The results are so good I suspect because how close the lightning sits to the vents on the bottom effectively giving it completely fresh air from out side the case while a ton of the heat generated by the card is being pulled straight out the top. Best part is that my cpu temps haven't changed dramatically while gaming. Maybe if I were running prime and furmark I would be singing a different tune but this setup is now flawless in my eyes.

 

[Gikaseixas]

That's some sick HTPC :thumbsup:

Loved the ghetto power plug arrangement. Challenging builds such as this one gives me the most satisfaction.

 

[lavaheadache]

Thanks. I love making builds like this. Right from the get go when the ITX form factor was gaining traction in the enthusiast gaming market I got a woody thinking about how much of my junk I could shove into a little box I'm willing to bet this 600 watt silverstone could get away with powering my Titan Z too. With my overclocked 4790k and overclocked Z I see just about 600 watts peak. Now if I dialed that down some I bet I would be in the 525 watt range and right on the money for this build. I actually would be keeping the i5 in the itx rig anyway dropping power requirements.

I have no need for it now but it would be cool once the up and coming big dogs come out and the Z is bounced out of my main rig.

 

[skipsneeky2]

I like the small package build.

 

[Attic]

Awesome. That GPU matched with a 4690k will be perfect for 1080P.

My first thoughts when reading begining of thread was that you could undervolt the lightning, but looks like you have temps under control. Undervolting grants massive power/heat savings on the 290x's and you can maybe try for a 1000c/1500m, the lightning should offer better options than other cards for giving different volts to core and mem (iir on other 290x's the volt adjustment affects both).


How about the Power Supply? Oh, nvm 600w sfx, will dig on that.

 

[SystemVipers]

Love the way you snuck that 290 into that small space, i am putting one into a air 240 and it just barely fits.

 

[guskline]

I love these threads. lavaheadache ingenuity!

 

[Headfoot]

Looks like all the hand wringing saying you shouldnt go above the terribly priced 960 is totally unjustified if you have the ingenuity to put a build together right.

That's a tiny case, using one of the fastest 290xs, and you get really solid temperatures. Case closed. Really well done.

 

[wand3r3r]

If you can put a 290x lightning in there you could use any custom card on the market. Good to know.

Cool build anyway.

 

[lavaheadache]

a couple weeks ago I pulled out the lightning to sell it to a friend. I'm trying to get my hands on a new card for my main rig. If I do get a new card I'm going to put my Titan Z in the htpc... I can feel the hate already =)

 

[tweakboy]

It wont work. JK JK. glad you sorted it out!

 

[Headfoot]

I'll be interested to see what your temps are if you do

 

[Silverforce11]

Undervolt it, lower clocks to 900, set power limit -50%, fans won't be ramping up at all, save about 100W on the GPU but won't lose much performance.

 

[omek]

What Silverforce said. The lightning is already stock overvolted by about something like +40mV (iirc).

I would find your ideal core and memory clock first and maybe even use the standard 290x clocks 1000/1250. Downvolt accordingly. If you use 1000/1250 you may be able to shave off beyond -75mV given that card is stock overclocked to 1080, stock overvolted and to add to that (depending on the quality of the silicon) the voltage out of the box may be running higher than needed for the stock overclocks. After you set your targeted clocks and find the stable undervolt for those clocks, mess around with the power limit (which I believe is also jacked up over 100% out of the box).

I was able to shave -19mV off my stock clocks of 1040/1300 on my Tri-X 290x and minus 1-2*C, it's not much but reducing the factory overclock to the reference 1000/1250 may allow the card to undervolt beyond -50mV which would be substantial and yield me another minus 3-5*C, 5-6*C all-in-all.

 

[tweakboy]

How does it crash. do you get blue screen or not ?