The SilverStone LC-11 is an interesting enclosure. It's unconventional up-side-down motherboard placement, use of well placed low-rpm 80mm fans (60mm fans are evil!), low profile, and overall look made me like it alot. It can take a Mini-ITX or Micro-ATX motherboard. This would be a great enclosure for a Micro-ATX Pentium-M or Turon based system.

The Serener GS-LO1 was my other choice. It's use of an internal DC-DC power supply with external fanless 120W power brick are nice and keeps part of the power supply heat outside of the case. The most important part of the case is it's fanless heat-pipe design. Made specifically for the EPIA motherboard series the enclosure includes replacement passive heat-sink/pipes for the motherboard. The enclosure includes a custom mounting tray for a 2.5" HD and slim CD/DVD drive. The tray has 2 40pin PATA connectors positioned to plug directly into many EPIA motherboard and a custom connector that plugs directly into the power supply eliminating cables completely! Unfortunately the SP series EPIA motherboards have the PATA connectors in a different location than earlier motherboards so the tray can be used, but with cables.

I almost selected the SilverStone case until I realized how deep it is. It would hit the back of the shelf under my TV and extend out over the front of the shelf more than an inch. I settled on the Serener case instead.

Other parts

A spare 512MB DDR-1 DIMM from the bin of spare computer parts was fine. A slim Toshiba DVD-ROM (model SD-C2712) with black faceplate was selected and because the enclosure's tray isn't compatible with the SP motherboard's PATA connector placement a slim-DVD adaptor bracket is needed. Add a wireless keyboard and mouse and that's it.

Assembly

The enclosure places the motherboard at the back. The DVD/HD tray has been removed the reveal the front-panel PCB and DC-DC power supply at the front of the case. The DC-DC power supply includes a 20-pin ATX power connector, one large 4-pin, and one small 4-pin connector (which only has 5V). The main 20-pin cable is reversible so the 4-pin connectors can attach to either end. A small black DC power cable runs to the back left of the case. The front panel PCB includes a 1394 port, 2 USB, audio, power LED, disk LED, reset and power buttons. The enclosure includes a 120W 19V DC power brick. It is passively cooled and sealed (no vents).

EPIA SP13000 with stock cooling	Rough fit in the enclosure	The enclosure's power brick

First step, remove the CPU's heat-sink/fan as well as the North and South bridge heat-sink.

The enclosure includes a stick-on passive heat-sink for the south bridge and the larger heat-sink/heat-pipe attaches to both the northbridge and CPU. The NB/CPU heat-sink is held to onto the motherboard with two plastic tabs that snap into the motherboard's existing mounting holes. The heat-pipes are connected to another block that screws into the side of the case. You need to attach the heat-sinks to the motherboard first, then place everything into the enclosure. This is very difficult as the heat-pipes hit the side of the case as you slide it into a horizontal slot in the side of the case.

WARNING: I suspect that once installed it will be impossible to remove the motherboard from the case without causing damage. I haven't tried this yet, but the plastic tabs that keep the heat-sink attached to the motherboard can only be released by pinching them from underneath the motherboard. In addition, the heat-pipes snap into a slot on the side of the case. It's unfortunate Serener make the motherboard this difficult to install and remove.

Heat-sinks removed	SP13000 installed in enclosure

As expected the included HD/DVD tray doesn't line up with the PATA ports on the SP so it's off with the tray's PCB leaving just the metal part. Install the DVD drive, attach power and a PATA cable and that's it. Note the the PATA cable is a tight fit considering the connectors on the motherboard and bracket are offset by about an inch and reversed making for some creative folding. The tray's PCB is a great design idea but it's too bad it can't be used with the SP.

Tray is incompatible with SP13000	Top of the tray (DVD/CD)	Bottom of the tray (2.5" HD)

PCB removed from tray	DVD drive installed

On with the top of the case and assembly is complete. The SP13000's IO panel includes a full set of analog audio ports, a RCA output port for either digital audio or composite video, S-Video out, 2 USB, Ethernet, VGA, RS232 and 2 PS2 ports.

Assembly complete	The rear IO ports

Installation was easy. I needed to connect the power brick, VGA to the TV, LAN, wireless keyboard and mouse to the PS2 ports, and both analog and digital audio to the receiver.

Installed under TV	Rear connections

Setup

Booting

The SP13000 can network boot using a PXE ROM. Select LAN boot from the BIOS config and it boots by first DHCP'ing and then obtaining boot code via TFTP using information in the DHCP response. The boot code then TFTP's a kernel and executes it. Use NFS for a root filesystem and no hard drive or flash media is needed to boot or run.

OS Install and Graphics

The system was setup with a Debian GNU/Linux install and 2.6.12 Linux kernel. XFree86 4.3.0 with a Unichrome PRO CVS snapshot driver was needed. The TV is connected via a VGA cable allowing the machine to output the TV's native resolution of 1280x720@60Hz. The VIA integrated graphics can output this resolution but it's not in the list of VESA resolutions are presented to the X driver by default. An additional ModeLine directive was needed in the XF86Config-4 file to output 1280x720@60Hz.

ModeLine        "1280x720" 74.50  1280 1344 1472 1664  720 723 728 748 +hsync +vsync

(II) VIA(0): Manufacturer: SAM  Model: 1a6  Serial#: 0
(II) VIA(0): Year: 2005  Week: 10
(II) VIA(0): EDID Version: 1.3
(II) VIA(0): Analog Display Input,  Input Voltage Level: 0.700/0.700 V
(II) VIA(0): Sync:  Separate
(II) VIA(0): Max H-Image Size [cm]: horiz.: 110  vert.: 62
(II) VIA(0): Gamma: 2.20
(II) VIA(0): No DPMS capabilities specified; RGB/Color Display
(II) VIA(0): First detailed timing is preferred mode
(II) VIA(0): redX: 0.640 redY: 0.330   greenX: 0.300 greenY: 0.600
(II) VIA(0): blueX: 0.150 blueY: 0.060   whiteX: 0.312 whiteY: 0.329
[...]
(II) VIA(0): Supported Future Video Modes:
(II) VIA(0): #0: hsize: 640  vsize 480  refresh: 85  vid: 22833
(II) VIA(0): #1: hsize: 800  vsize 600  refresh: 85  vid: 22853
(II) VIA(0): Supported additional Video Mode:
(II) VIA(0): clock: 74.5 MHz   Image Size:  1107 x 623 mm
(II) VIA(0): h_active: 1280  h_sync: 1344  h_sync_end 1472 h_blank_end 1664 h_border: 0
(II) VIA(0): v_active: 720  v_sync: 723  v_sync_end 728 v_blanking: 748 v_border: 0
(II) VIA(0): Supported additional Video Mode:
(II) VIA(0): clock: 65.0 MHz   Image Size:  1107 x 623 mm
(II) VIA(0): h_active: 1024  h_sync: 1048  h_sync_end 1184 h_blank_end 1344 h_border: 0
(II) VIA(0): v_active: 768  v_sync: 771  v_sync_end 777 v_blanking: 806 v_border: 0
(II) VIA(0): Monitor name: SAMSUNG
(II) VIA(0): Ranges: V min: 56  V max: 85 Hz, H min: 30  H max: 61 kHz, PixClock max 80 MHz

$ lspci -vt
-[00]-+-00.0  VIA Technologies, Inc. CN400/PM880 Host Bridge
      +-00.1  VIA Technologies, Inc. CN400/PM880 Host Bridge
      +-00.2  VIA Technologies, Inc. CN400/PM880 Host Bridge
      +-00.3  VIA Technologies, Inc. CN400/PM880 Host Bridge
      +-00.4  VIA Technologies, Inc. CN400/PM880 Host Bridge
      +-00.7  VIA Technologies, Inc. CN400/PM880 Host Bridge
      +-01.0-[01]----00.0  VIA Technologies, Inc. S3 Unichrome Pro VGA Adapter
      +-0d.0  VIA Technologies, Inc. IEEE 1394 Host Controller
      +-0f.0  VIA Technologies, Inc. VIA VT6420 SATA RAID Controller
      +-0f.1  VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82C586A/B/VT82C686/A/B/VT823x/A/C PIPC Bus Master IDE
      +-10.0  VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82xxxxx UHCI USB 1.1 Controller
      +-10.1  VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82xxxxx UHCI USB 1.1 Controller
      +-10.2  VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82xxxxx UHCI USB 1.1 Controller
      +-10.3  VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82xxxxx UHCI USB 1.1 Controller
      +-10.4  VIA Technologies, Inc. USB 2.0
      +-11.0  VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8237 ISA bridge [KT600/K8T800/K8T890 South]
      +-11.5  VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8233/A/8235/8237 AC97 Audio Controller
      \-12.0  VIA Technologies, Inc. VT6102 [Rhine-II]

$ lspci -vtn
-[00]-+-00.0  1106:0259
      +-00.1  1106:1259
      +-00.2  1106:2259
      +-00.3  1106:3259
      +-00.4  1106:4259
      +-00.7  1106:7259
      +-01.0-[01]----00.0  1106:3118
      +-0d.0  1106:3044
      +-0f.0  1106:3149
      +-0f.1  1106:0571
      +-10.0  1106:3038
      +-10.1  1106:3038
      +-10.2  1106:3038
      +-10.3  1106:3038
      +-10.4  1106:3104
      +-11.0  1106:3227
      +-11.5  1106:3059
      \-12.0  1106:3065

Nothing like logging into the TV	Overlay is from the TV's menus	Yes, it's a real computer

MythTV

MythTV's frontend was installed. Communication to the backend is done over the LAN. The frontend menus fill the full screen at 1280x720 resolution.

Main menu	Live TV and program guide	Status of frontend and backend

When viewing 4:3 480i content MythTV can either display it as 960x720 with black bars on each side or can zoom (preserving aspect ratio) or stretch (distort) to fill the screen. You can switch modes while viewing with the 'w' key. This is useful if a 16:9 production is broadcast in 4:3 with black bars on the top and bottom of the 480i broadcast (making it 360i). In the default mode MythTV will add more black bars on the side producing a black box on all 4 sides. When this is encountered you can switch MythTV into "4:3 zoom" and it will expand the 16:9 360i data to fill the full 16:9 720p screen. This crops off the broadcasted black bars at the top and bottom.

A normal HD recording in: 16:9 1080i out: 1280x720	A normal SD recording in: 4:3 480i out: 960x720 (w/ bars)	16:9 content broadcast in SD in: 4:3 480i (16:9 at 360i) out: 960x720 (16:9 at 960x540)	MythTV's "4:3 zoom" mode in: 4:3 480i (16:9 at 360i) out: 1280x720 (16:9 at 1280x720)

Performance, Power Consumption, and Cooling

Power consumption was measured at the A/C outlet using a P3 International Kill-A-Watt power meter to capture the full power consumption including power brick and internal DC-DC supply. CPU usage was measured using top. CPU temperature was read from the vt1211 SuperIO sensors once steady state was reached.

^*1 Frontend was playing a recorded MPEG2 video at 7000 kbps, upscaled from 528x480i to 960x720p at 30fps.
^*2 Xine was used to play a DVD from the DVD ROM. Xine was running in full screen mode upscaling the MPEG2 video to 1280x720p resolution.

The first thing to notice is the power brick appears to have power factor correction given the excellent power factor measurements of >0.95. While on, the entire system draws between 19W and 30W depending on CPU usage. At full CPU usage the 79 C CPU temperature is higher than I'd like but given that the 2 typical uses run the CPU at only 50% this isn't likely to be a problem. The 79 C reading was only reached after running the CPU at 100% continuously for more than a minute.

Displaying HDTV content through MythTV is a bit choppy and the CPU hits 100% usage. I suspect the pre-release CVS snapshot Unichrome Pro X driver is to blame. Unichrome Pro isn't supported in the normal XF86 or X.org distribution which makes using this chipset quite a hassle.

Power consumption at full load