I built a new iTX HTPC a while ago now but I thought I’d share my build on the blog. The HTPC is based around the Tranquil PC bare bones ixLS chassis and motherboard.

Components List:

  • Tranquil PC bare bones ixLS chassis
  • Intel DH67CF(B3) iTX motherboard
  • 4GB DDR3 RAM chip
  • Intel i3 2125 CPU
  • Sony BC-5600S Blu-ray Slim slot drive
  • Corsair Force Series 3 60GB Sata3 6Gbs Solid State Drive (Operating System)
  • Western Digital WD20EARX 2TB Caviar Green SATA3 6Gbs 3.5” Hard Drive (Data)
  • 120Watt 12Volt 10Amp External Power Supply brick

Software List:

  • Windows 7 Ultimate 64 bit
  • My Movies 4.02
  • Arcsoft Total Media Theatre 5
  • Slysoft AnyDVD HD
  • Shark 007 Codec Pack V3.1.6
Product Description

Bringing beauty, power, efficiency and reliability to your desktop. Designed from the ground up, to provide a reliable and fan less cooling system for the power user, the ixLS Power PC can process any application with ease.

The ixLS PC, often used as the basis of the ultimate media centre, or an exclusive desktop PC – build yours to your own specification with this bare bones kit.

High definition video, complex 3D rendering, or just writing a letter – just do it. Fit your choice of 2nd Generation Intel Core Processor – any version delivers stunning performance.

Initially I had big problems with Windows 7 blue screening allot and there was no real indication as to why? There were no memory dump files being created by Windows and the error message on the actual blue screen wasn’t helping. I first thought it was a heat problem? This being my first totally passively cooled rig I naturally thought it was heat related, but after contacting Tranquil PC support and going over the heat temps shown in the Bios and in the Intel hardware monitor program, it seemed it was not over heating at all.

I then eventually figured out that the problem was with the Corsair Solid State drive and I found on their forums many other users having the same problems. I found a firmware update for the SSD and since I updated the drive it has not blue screened ever again.

The Tranquil PC chassis is beautifully made and my HTPC is totally silent which is a big improvement over my old Micro ATX ATI/AMD based HTPC which had several fans in side of it. Silence really is bliss.

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The system is very fast it boots from shutdown and launches Windows Media Center in less than 10 seconds and it resumes from S3 Sleep mode instantly. The Solid State drive really does make everything feel much snappier. Its not the cheapest HTPC you can build but the quality does really shine through. I just wish I had one in every room in my home! Blu-ray’s play seamlessly in Windows Media Center / Arcsoft TotalMedia Theatre. The Blu-ray optical drive is the only thing that makes any noise if I play a disc, however with the Blu-ray discs ripped to the Home Server and streamed over the local network the Blu-ray optical drive is not used and so silent.

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One thing I don’t like is Tranquil PC do not supply in the price of the barebones package an internal IR receiver. As this was a demo unit Tranquil were good enough to throw in a free IR receiver. However they do not use the proper CIR Receivers for these Intel Media motherboards. But instead the supplied IR receiver connects to an internal USB header and not to the dedicated CIR (Consumer Infrared Receiver) header.

I do have one problem with the IR receiver that is installed at the moment and that is the Windows Media Center discrete Power On/Off commands in the Logitech Harmony software do not seem to work 100% with the HTPC. I think I will buy one of these CIR’s off eBay and see if that works better?

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Overall I am happy with my new HTPC, its certainly the nicest one I have personally owned in my own home! Although I have built many nice top end HTPC’s for clients.

www.phaze1digital.com

9 thoughts on “Fanless Sandybridge iTX HTPC”
  1. Was about to ask what the TV card you installed was but then realised that it was a stock photo from Tranquil that you used there.

    Looks a nice case, I like the fact that the whole of one side comes off – less hassle squeezing everything into that dinky mini-ITX form factor.

  2. missed this post as I thought from the title it was another tranquil advert.

    I do like the look of these machine, people tend to go on about the price but they do look really well made.

    Is this the first ssd you’ve used with medai center? I suppose it’s not something notice in a htpc but was curious about the sata 6b/s and general medai center use, i suppose it doesn’t really make a difference.

  3. I don’t think you will notice a massive difference from sata 2 @ 3gb/s and sata 3 @ 6gb/s however the SSD makes a big difference and windows seems allot quicker loading to me. I’ve just found out who manufacturers these fanless cases and it’s not Tranquil but another company.

  4. I built one of these myself, but included a tuner. I’d prefer to have my tuners in WHS2011 but I can’t make DVBLink work in WHS2011, so any links to a how to would be appreciated!

    I use the CIR device bought from ebay and I can thouroughly recommend it. Works 100% with my (various) MCE remotes.

    This really is a great media centre machine, and fits in well with the rest of my AV kit

  5. Peter do you use a Harmony remote control with the Intel CIR ? Particularly interesting in the Windows Media Center SE device in the Harmony database and the discrete PowerOn / PowerOff commands rather than using just PowerToggle. For some reason the internal IR I currently have doesn’t work reliably with PowerOn / PowerOff commands and I’ve had to use PowerToggle which means some times it gets mixed up and turns off then it should turn on and vice versa.

    Tomson look at this thread to find out more about these fanless cases not supplies by Tranquil PC:
    http://www.thegreenbutton.tv/forums/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=541&start=20

  6. @tomson

    I bought this gadget which simply lugs straight in to the header on Intel board in the Tranquil kit.

    Here’s the link (ebay UK)
    http://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_nkw=IR+Receiver+CIR&_sacat=0&_odkw=IR+Receiver+w%2FCable+for+Intel+CIR&_osacat=0&_trksid=p3286.c0.m270.l1313

    @cw-kid – no I only currently use standard MCE remotes.

    The very similar case listed on the ‘green button’ looks very good, however when you factor in the various bits that come with the Tranquil kit – especially the motherboard, its not a lot cheaper. However were I doing this again I’d certainly have a serious look.

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