IMO with the power consumption figures I've seen for the G620, it would be fine with a 80/92/120mm fan stuck onto the stock heatsink, even if the stock heatsink is pretty awful.

BTW, if you have another LGA1155 system around (eg some i5) you could possibly take the i5 heatsink off, use it on the G620, and get a cheap but still decent heatsink for the i5 (eg, a coolermaster hyper 212+, they are decent and cost sod-all). Win/win- the i5 runs cooler and probably quieter, has a new heatsink without breaking the bank, and the G620 gets a heatsink that is still farily small but disigned for a CPU with a higher TDP.

No problem. :)

I'm not suprised that even the GT220 would benchmark better in some tests. Even though the GT520 has a faster core, there are other differences-
G210 589MHz core, 64bit memory bus, 16:8:4 (Unified Shaders:Texture mapping unit:Render Output unit), 30.5 watts TDP
GT220 625MHz core, 128bit memory bus, 48:16:8, 58 watts TDP
GT430 700Mhz core, 128bit memory bus, 96:16:4, 49 watts TDP
GT520 810MHz core, 64bit memory bus, 48:8:4, 29 watts TDP

That is the 'retail' GT430 and GT220, the OEM models are different....thanks for making your models numbers simple, nVidia :|

Any game that is bandwitdh or texture mapping unit/render output unit dependant (most modern games) will run quicker on a GT220. When a lot of people have 'multiuse' computers made for HTPC and gaming, the GT220 would probably be a better choice. Since you seem to be building only a HTPC box, who cares abotu game performance? ;)

The major difference aside from the better VDPAU feature set is the TDP. I'd take a GT520 over GT220/GT430 for HTPC use just on TDP alone.

BTW, I'm a logn time fan (LOL) of passive cooled video cards. I've got a 8400GS, 8600GT and HD5450 all with passive cooling.

Evden though the 8400 has a lower TDP than the 8600GT (40watts vs 47watts) the 8600 runs a fair bit cooler, thanks to a bigger and better heatsink design (unless I've got a 'bumpgate' 8XXX GPU) The 8400 I actually have a slow 92mm fan suspended over the card to keep it from heating up to much. The HD5450 (19.1 watts TDP) runs so cool that I can put my finger onto the heatsink and its warm, nowhere near the 'ouch, thats HOT' level the 8400GS gets to.....The ATI card stays cool even when gaming.

These are the cards, so you can check the heatsink design-

http://www.asus.com/Graphics_Cards/N...S_SILENTP512M/
http://www.gigabyte.com/products/pro...px?pid=2604#ov
http://www.powercolor.com/us/product...res.asp?id=356

You can see how tiny the HD5450 heatsink is, and it works just fine. Its easy to forget that you dont have to increase the TDP that much to need a much bigger heatsink and/or fan. hatis why I believe that the GT520 is probably the best choice for a HTPC, even if it didnt have the newer VDPAU feature set.

The only 'problem' with thr GT520 si that its farily new, you need nVidia driver version 270.41.06 or higher to run the card. Not a huge problem in most cases, but some some users of older relases (eg debian stable, *buntu 10.04 LTS, etc.) it could cause issues.

My thoughts exactly. It looks like it hovers around 35W generally, even under high load. 12-16 under low load. With a separate GPU, it should stay fairly low load. I wouldn't even be surprised if it could get by with passive cooling in that state, but why bother when there's so many cheap "silent" fans available to swap.

As to the rest, yeah. I'm pretty sold on the 520 now after doing some more research. Especially for $30. I was hesitant with a $50+ card, especially if it was going to put out another 50W of heat and mean more case fans, but a grand total of around 50W for the whole shebang? No sweat. I've even heard that running a system this low-powered can make the PSU almost operate as a cooling component as well :).

I shouldn't have any issues with drivers. Planning on a fresh Ubuntu or Debian base and also on trying openELEC out (just want to see it, but I'm probably going back to a full linux build for the other benefits).

Can't wait :).

You may have seen these reviews before, but I'll give you a link just in case you havent. Xbitlabs has some of the best power consumption tests I've seen-

G620 power consumption-
http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/cpu...0_7.html#sect0

Warning! Test system has a ATI Radeon HD 6970, its not going to be helping the power consumption at all, they use about 20 watts at idle. Also, 'system power consumption, 100% load' is 100% CPU laod, not CPU + GPU. Which makes sense, the 6970 has a TDP of 250watts @ 100% GPU load.

G620T power consumption-
http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/cpu...t_8.html#sect0

Pity that the normal G620 power consumption readings are not as full as the G620T (or as good as the xbitlabs reviews normally are for that mater). From everything I've read, the G620T isnt a huge improvement over the G620,a nd the power consumption for a G620 wont be that much higher than the G620T.

Since you are looking at such a low power draw, and havent bought a case yet, this is well worth considering-

http://www.silentpcreview.com/article601-page1.html

Hard to get quieter that totally fanless PSU. You would might still need a fan, somewhere, but they are quieter if they are buried deep in the casing than they are close to the outside. You also have 100% control over the fans used that way (and if you havent checked silentPC for the fan reviews, do it. Great site)

*edit- dont forget that power supply efficiency drops of when you get to a low % of total avaible power. Modern efficient power supplies rernt as bad for this as they were in the past, but using a 500watt power supply when you require somewhere around 25-50watts could drop the efficiency down from 80+ to 70, 60 or even 50%, depending on the brand of power supply you get.

Even with my much higher power consumption system, the PSU fan makes a big difference. (Phenom II X2 550, sometimes unlocked to X4, with 4GB DDR3, 8600GT, 1 x 80GB seagateSATA I + 1 x 1TB WD 'Green power' SATA II HDD, SATA DVD-RW). Even if I have a 120mm exhaust fan running, it makes a fair amount of difference, with the 120mm fan off the PSU fan makes up to 10-15C difference.

I was looking at picoPSU's, but I don't know if it's the best idea when adding a discreet GPU. Total system power is certainly going to be low (below 80W), but there's startup spikes and the recommended draw for the card itself says it needs a 300W PSU. On top of that, most of them didn't have all the cables necessary. It doesn't /look/ like the 520 would require a 4pin plug, so that might help.

They're also pretty expensive (comparatively). You're talking $50+ for the PicoPSU from most places, then another $40+ for the power brick. Even bundled together, often $80 or more.

Comparing to something like this guy:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817151086

So here's the "final" system I'm looking at:

CPU: Intel G620 - $70
Mobo: ASRock H61 - $70
RAM: DDR3 1033 Kingston - $22
SSD: OCZ Vertex 3 - $75 (after rebate)
GPU: Asus GeForce 520 - $33 (after rebate)
PSU: Seasonic SS300ET - $40
Case: Not sure, but thinking this one: Silverstone ML03B - $60

Free shipping on a 30 day trial thing at newegg on everything but the case :)

Keeps me just under $400 (after $15 in shipping, that's about $385 after rebates).

I'll grab a couple of 80mm silenX case fans (I've used them before, $10 each and very quiet) and probably this Scythe HSF.

Those will get me up above $450 unfortunately.

The GT520 wont 'need' a 300 watt power supply, thats just nVidia being conservative and allowing for the differing designs of power supplies (a '500watt' power suply from a few years ago have very different 5v/12v rail outputs to a 'modern' 500watt power supply).

GT520 doesnt use the extra PCIe power (its 6/8 pins BTW. PCIe can provide up to 75 watts throught the PCIe slot, its not needed on low power draw cards.

The pcioPSUs are less than $50 complete from the manufactuter-

http://www.mini-box.com/s.nl/it.A/id...=8&category=13

There is also this @ newegg-

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817129006

Still, I can see why you might want to avoid them, it would'nt be much fun to get a low powered PSU and find that it cant start the system. I dont think you would have that problem, but I cant know for sure.

Its not what I would get, but looks like it should do the job just fine.

Two things I should mention- I'd probably rather have the Scythe SCSK-1100 over the Scythe SCKZT-1000.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16835185097

Heatsinks that use heatpipes like the SCKZT-1000 (eg, not heatsinkage on the 'base' of the cooler, just a flat block with heatpipes going up to the radiator area) tend to run hotter than heatsinks with fins on the base and some heatpipes moving heat from the base to higher in the fins. The SCSK-1100 would also let you mount bigger fans, the SCSK-1000 is pretty much limited to a 80mm fan (using the stock fan position anyway). The only advantage of he SCSK-1000 is that is uses a quieter fan stock.

It wont make a huge difference though.

Also, the ML03B has power supply mounted so that the fans face toward the bottom of the case, with airflow holes going though to under the case. I've never liked that setup, because IMO it makes eeh case a dust magnet. Dust always gets under things like HTPC cases, and when the fan draws from under the case, it just sucks all the dust into the case.

It also means that you wont be getting any cooling effect from the PSU fan.

I didn't think I saw the connector on there, but wasn't sure. Either way, I agree ... I was hoping to find a 150 or 200W PSU, but they just don't seem to make them these days. The 300W is about as low as I could go and still have a quality, quiet PSU.

Actually, no. That's one of the ones I was looking at. That's just for the DC-DC component. You still need the brick, and if you got that one, you'd need a 120W brick (which isn't super cheap). The "bundle" from them with this adapter is $70. On top of it, you'd definitely still need a SATA adapter, and depending on the case / layout, you might need some extenders. So probably another $10 or so. I think the 120W would be fine, but comparing $80 to $40 on a system that's already $450, I don't think I can do it :).

That's certainly interesting, but I think 85W max might be cutting it close for power up. Like you said, hard to know for sure, but I've seen others with a similar setup report roughly 90W spikes on startup.

And this is why I post here :). What would you change? As long as the overall price goes down or stays the same, I'm all ears ;).

That's a good comment, though I'm holding off on the HSF until later mostly because of the board. The comments on the SCSK specifically mention one of the micro-ATX ASRock boards as having the memory almost not fit under the heatsink (and they did end up /under/ it, AKA: you'd have to remove the HSF to change memory ... not so good). So I'll see what the board dimensions look like before making a final decision on the HSF. Overall, not too worried about cooling in this puppy, though ;).

I did read that, and I don't like it either. Also why I'm holding off on the case (besides general "fitting" issues that could crop up).

I just found the "Apex" cases the other day that come with a 275W Flex PSU. So that actually might be a cost savings. Have to read some more reviews, but if that looks better, it'd save me about $50 on this build.

C'mon, man! Don't leave me hanging with a statement like this! :). You've given me some really good advice and counter-points to think about, some of which I hadn't known.

So what would /you/ change if you were building the system? Or is it all stuff we covered already?

Sorry, been a bit sick for the last few days, wasnt really up to thinking, let alone posting.

If it was for myself, I'd get an AM3 board + CPU, proably a Athlon II XII 2X0u (250u, 260u, 270u) 25watt TDP CPU...provided that I could find one and they werent stupidly expensive. Mainly because I've got a fair few AM2+/AM3 baords and CPUs already, and I generally perfer socketed CPUs if possible.

If I was building it for someone else, or I had more money than I do, I'd go for an intel atom or AMD fusion (E-350) board. Should work out to be about $20-55 cheaper than the G620/H61 CPU/board setup. Added advantage is that the intel atom or AMD fusion setups are avaible with passive cooling 'stock', output even less heat than the G620 (E-350 is 18watts TDP!).

I'd probably also try the E-350 without a video card. I'd expect that a GT520 would be easier to setup and get playing well with low CPU use (via VDPAU) than the E-350 would with XvBA/VAAPI, and its likely that the E-350 wouldnt work with XvBA/VAAPI without artifacting, etc. at all. Still, given some devlopment time, the E-350 should work with XvBA/VAAPI at some point in the future....and is possible that it would right now, with the 'right' distro and/or a lot of work.

I would probably get a smaller, slower SSD. Or possibly even run from a USB 2.0 flash drive, or better yet USB3.0, firewire, firewire 800 or eSATA flash drive. Sure, the SSD will help your boot times, and that is an advantage, but it wouldnt be worth the extra cost. For me anyway.

Also, I would at least consider building a case. Its fairly easy to do, and if you were using an miniITX board and low heat CPU you would have far more options than anything you could buy from a store. But I'm the sort of crazy who does things like that...

You can still get PSUs in the 150-250watts range, just they are hard to find, and a lot of them are really dodgy. For example, you can find this at newegg-

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811147137

150watt PSU....but its rosewill, and from everything I've heard about rosewill PSUs I wouldnt touch one with a bargepole.

Apex, not the best name around. I'd need to dig to figure out just how bad/good the apex PSUs are now. Not as bad as rosewill, but still....

Nah, its $45, and it does have the power brick. But thats the 65watt model, to get the 102watt model you are right, its $70.

You shouldnt need a SATA adapter, its got one (+1 PATA power as well). with most cases/boards, you shouldnt need extenders.

BTW, I'm pretty sure that I've seen reports that you can just get the picoPSU and use laptop power bricks. Sorry, too brain-dead to track that down for now.....

Well ... hope you're starting to feel better! I got pretty sick over the holidays as well. Bad times.

I've only got a couple comments to make since a good amount of it we've already covered, but thanks for the response!

I'm skipping ATI mostly for the massive complaining I still hear about XvBA and VAAPI. You're 100% right that it /might/ work and I do believe over the next year or so, it probably will be pretty good and stable. In the mean-time, though, I don't want to spend a bunch of money for something that I end up screaming at. Just too risky at the moment when this is a box that needs to perform one function flawlessly to be useful at all.

But the point is well taken, and I'll take a closer look at AMD's E-350 and the Atom processors. I've nothing in particular against their processors, and if it's up to $50 cheaper than a G620, lower TDP, and still a dual core (would be trading a 2.0 to a 1.6, I think in that case), well ... it's worth looking at! I'm nearly 100% sure I'd need a separate GPU at that point, though (per comments about ATI mostly, plus it being a lower powered chip in general). Newegg seems to only sell it as a combo, but it's with some decent ASUS mobo's, among others, so that might be ok. Only $20 cheaper for ATI, but Atom seems much cheaper. I'll have to do some research to see if it can handle what I'm throwing at it. Heard some reviews that the smaller chips (Atoms and such) just weren't enough to do full video decoding, even when coupled with a separate GPU. So I'll look into it a little more.

For the SSD's, I was starting with a smaller, slower SSD, but the difference in price between a small, slow SSD with bad reviews and this one was about $15 after the rebate. Much more than that and I'd stick with smaller as well. USB 3.0 and eSata are still just as expensive for external drives, and I've had trouble in the past running a system complete off a flash drive. Maybe they've fixed that since then, but ... well, like I said, this system needs to be fairly flawless and stable to be useful at all.

On cases ... man, I'd love to build a case, but I now live in a small apartment in the city and all my woodworking and metalworking tools went away. I'm also not very artistically inclined, so my work, while highly functional, has tended to look like crap compared to the polished AVR / PS3 I'd be setting it next to :). But I'm glad folks are out there still building them!

That's exactly what I found as well ... that the low power PSU's I could find these days were mostly crap. I don't expect much out of the Apex PSU either, but the reviews /generally/ are saying it's stable and quiet. For $50 including the case (which is cheaper than most of the other cases by themselves), I figure worst case, it lasts a year (or gets RMA'd, which is fine) and then I have to get a more quality PSU. Still just as cheap or cheaper than a separate case / PSU combo.

Yes, I noticed the sata power a little later, but as to the bricks, looking into it, I found that most bricks are 65W (give or take), so you /can/ use them with the picoPSUs, but there's no point connecting them to a 120W (or 100W+) picoPSU. For those, there's only a few, semi-specialized bricks ... like the ones they sell on their site.

It's definitely unfortunate, because it looks like a good solution otherwise. But at $70+, I'd be saving a tiny amount of power, minimal heat, and minimal sound over a $40 PSU. I didn't quite see it for this build. Maybe after (if) the Apex PSU blows its guts all over the shelf.

This should be a fun project. I've already learned a ton compared to building rigs that are more office or gaming specific.

Feeling a bit better now, thanks. No problem on the response, I really like hardware (obvious, isnt it?) and helping people build systems.

Its a pity that XvBA/VAAPI is still buggy, AFAIK. I actually bought an ATI 5450 just to play with XvBA/VAAPI (and becuase it was cheap as hell, and very low power) but it didnt run in my media boxxen, the motherboard/chipset its running will not run with a PCIe2.X card. Doh! I will get it running on a media box sooner or later, but untill that happens I've just going from other peoples info.

Warning, you cant really compare the atom or fusion CPUs to a 'full power, mainstream' CPU. Sorry, this is the only place I know about where you can get direct, single figure comparison between pretty much all the CPUs around now. Passmark has issues, but it gives you an idea, at least...

Atom D510, 656 CPU marks-
http://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu_look...10+%40+1.66GHz

Atom D525, 711 CPU marks-
http://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?...25+%40+1.80GHz

AMD E-350, 728 CPU marks-
http://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu_look...?cpu=AMD+E-350

Compare that to the G620, 2461 CPU marks-
http://cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cpu=...20+%40+2.60GHz

Or an Athlon II X250, 1718 CPU marks-
http://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu_look...hlon+II+X2+250

I dont think you would have trouble with an intel atom or AMD fusion CPU, the athon 64 3000+ I use for a media box only gets 491 CPU marks-
http://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu_look...lon+64+3000%2B

I was actually thinking of running from a USB 3.0 or eSATA flash drive, not an external HDD. I've never had many issues with running from a USB drive, not that I do it much, but fair enough. ;)

The stupidly high cost of HDDs now makes SSDs look more attractive, but then you've got sod-all space from your media. Copying back and forth from USB drives is fine, but it would be nice to have a big 1-2TB 'Green power' drive in there. They are pretty quiet, but not really 'silent'. Then your HTPC is a backup for your media as well (unless you've got 2TB+ of media, which isnt that uncommon).

LOL, I was actually thinking of something far less work and more of a 'down and dirty, fast build' setup, not making a piece of art. It would be easier (and chpeaer, not by much) to use an mircoATX or miniITX board, with the picoPSU (less mounting problems) in a biscut (cookie) tin, or even a plastic storage container. I've even considered the back of a monitor chopped off with some base glued in to support the motherboard.

If you used a plastic storage contianer, it should be do-able with a sharp knife, and/or a couple of drill bits (you wouldnt need the drill), a few standoffs, some wiring, and maybe superglue. :D

I've had nasty problems with 'flex' ATX PSUs. Its not really a PSU standard (its a motherboard form factor).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FlexATX

Pretty hard to compare the apex PSU, seasonic PSU and the pcioPSU for noise levels without hearing them yourself, under load.

I'd be very suprised if you only got a 'minimal' reduction in sound levels from the picoPSU over the apex (it might be true of the seasonic though, seasonic makes some great stuff and tend to be pretty quiet). It would really depend on your ears, noises that one person finds 'horribly annoying' another person might not notice at all.

If there wasn't some risk involved (eg, you dont know 100% for sure that the picoPSU will work with your setup without actually powering it up) and there wasnt the 'maybe ugly case' issue if you built your own, I'd really push the picoPSU + homemade case idea. Cheaper than buying a case + PSU.

But that risk is what would put me off, not the minimal savings. Blowing $45-70 on something you cant use would really kill your budget. It would piss me right off if it happened to me.....

Yeah, it's tough to compare ... I certainly have run into that. And I have only anecdotal evidence, but what I was reading from other users on the XBMC hardware forum is that the Atoms just didn't provide enough power to do full 1080P on a graphically intense movie. Now, this could have been for any number of reasons ... they had their setup wrong, they were running other meters in the background, or hell, they were running it out of a zip file. I don't know. I just kept reading issues with some of the lower strength CPU's, especially the Atoms.

Strangely enough, the Fusion chips tended to do better in general, even when the relative speeds / passmark / windows "experience" ratings were similar.

Well, I do have a lot of media (moving my DVD / Blu-Ray collection to full digital), but even aside from that, I'm using a NAS attached to a server in a separate room. I've got an Ubuntu server for some web development / java development work I do, and attaching a raided NAS was trivial (so heat / noise there is inconsequential). So my first "test" is going to see whether my wireless G network can handle the load. I suspect it can (that's 54Mbps, for something that's going to transmit at approximately 25 - 30 Mbps), but if not, I can also test it wired real easily and verify it's a network bottleneck ... then I'll have an excuse to upgrade to N ;).

You know, I've used the motherboard shipping box as a "case" before for short periods of time, but never seen the "tupperware" case done up :). Sorry ... not for my living room :).

Though I did think of getting just some lexan / plexi-glass kind of plastic. You can heat mold much of it and could pretty easily make a nice looking case. If you don't want to see inside, you just use a smoked or dark color. Even ABS plastic is easy to use in this way. Only issue with any of the plastics could be static buildup ... so you'd want to have a grounding layer. I also thought about building one out of one of those old radio / phonograph wooden cases. There's a lot of neat looking "cases" you can find at an antique store!

Even cooler (to some), just build it into the table or entertainment center itself. Into a drawer or under a glass tabletop area. Easy to get to that way.

But I'm not that ambitious at the moment ;).

Indeed. I was thinking the exact same thing. So what I have available right off the bat for comparison is a fairly quiet 500W PSU from my main box. I'll see how loud the Apex PSU is, and at least initially it'll be functional, but for $40 shipped, I couldn't even beat the price of the case by itself. I won't feel bad if I have to get a separate PSU. First, of course, I'll mod the fans in it myself!

Bingo. I think the PicoPSU would work, but I'm not willing to bet $70 on it in a cheap build. Like I said ... after maybe a year, I'll add that to the cost. I'm also hoping they keep working on the bricks. Some of the ones for the higher power requirements come with fans built in, which is fine, but I hear those fans are kind of noisy ... and it's not even inside your case, so it's even louder. (I think that was for the 120W brick, not the 100W brick). It'll also give me the opportunity to test and see how much power draw I actually have, then I can see if it's a viable solution.

I would guess that it would be Atoms using the intel video chip (bluegh!) or with the wrong setup.

Odd that the fusion chips do better, maybe because of more technically advanced users getting them? Or they are using XBMC with windows, UVD (Universal Video Decoder) works well.

A NAS, high on my list of 'things to get when I have more money'.

I really have no idea if 'G' will handle the load, I avoid wireless. Not a single wireless card, USB adapter, or even router in this house.

I never liked the old radio cases, not my thing. I think I'd rather use a 'tupperware' case over having to much around with ABS plastic.

I've though about the whole 'case into the entertainment center' idea, but I've scrapped that now. I'd build something with VESA mounts and hide the box behind the monitor/TV, and just get a USB extension cable so I dont have to reach behind the TV/monitor to put files onto the media center.

As for the plastic storage container case, I've done it once for a friend. Easy to work on, I waited longer for the glue and spray paint to dry than it took to get it prepared. I'd have one myself if there wasnt a lot of cases just still around here. Probably not for everyone, even though there is a huge range of plastic storage containers avaible.

*note to self- get a move on with swapping the media boxxen guts from the cheap case into the antec sonata* :D

I wanted to give a status update here since you've been so helpful, and also ask a question (since you've been so helpful) :).

First ... the build was definitely overkill, but I'm kind of ok with that.

Final results show that with full streaming 1080P, both processors hover around 5% utilization. Heat is 34ºC on the chip and 28ºC in the case. The two main fans (CPU and case) are running at 1500RPM's each. XBMC claims memory usage is only 300kB and I've disabled swap and seen no issues. Frame rates are no problem, and I haven't seen any tearing (after I adjusted it). I'm not sure if I can detect how hard the NVidia card is working ... only metric I know how to gather on that one is the temperature, which isn't increasing.

The thing boots directly into XBMC (loaded on top of Ubuntu 11.10 with the standalone client) in about 8 seconds and shuts down in about 5 seconds. I can control it with my phone (fun!).

So all in all, pretty successful for a fairly cheap box. Oh, speaking of the box ... since I'm not using any 3.5 or 5 inch drives, I was able to take out the rack that holds them. Looks a little silly inside with this motherboard taking up half the space and nothing else in there. I double-sided-taped the SSD to the side of the box (inside, of course) since I didn't feel like having all that restrictive mounting gear in there for just one drive and I didn't feel like going out to get a 3.5" to 2.5" bracket. Working great. :)

Now, the problem I'm having is the audio. The motherboard sends 2.0 audio out the headphone jack just fine, but I can't seem to get the HDMI audio off the NVidia card to work.

I posted a LQ thread about it here and haven't gotten an answer yet. It seems to be something to do with ALSA not recognizing the card? But I'm guessing there.

My main computer uses monitors that can take HDMI (I think), but I've got to dismantle a few things to get them ... I plan to try that this weekend in case it's something silly about NVidia needing to "recognize" a monitor on that port before it'll play sound through it. I was hoping to send sound via the HDMI and video through the DVI cable until I get the new TV in.

The only times UI've used HDMI is has been video only, or video + audio.

I'll post what I think on your other thread, it makes more sense IMO to post there than to tack my thoughts onto this thread. ;)