[Elecraft] new computer advice suggestions for using with a K3

[Nicklas Johnson]

I built my own last PC, and though it isn't RF-quiet, it's pretty close,
but partially by serendipity.  The only thing "noisy" about it are the
ethernet ports, and some big snap-on chokes have greatly mitigated that
problem.

The way I stumbled upon a fairly quiet PC has to do with some design
motives that I had.  What I wanted was an audibly-quiet PC that used very
minimal power.  Quite by accident this also resulted in an RF-quiet PC.

Here's what I bought: a horzontally-oriented "home theater PC" case from
Antec; these are designed to contain audible noise well, and they're also
quite sturdy, and, more importantly for us, metal all the way around.  The
exact case I bought is no longer on the market, but there is probably an
equivalent successor to it.  Mine is an "NSK2400".

In this case I mounted a micro-ATX Intel motherboard.  They only make a few
micro-ATX boards, and you sacrifice a little bit of raw processing speed
and expansion slots for a compact form factor and, more importantly, lower
power consumption.  The good news is that their recent micro-ATX boards
have a ton of USB slots, so although you have fewer PCI slots, you also
don't need many, especially if you can get by with the integrated video.
 I'm not much of a gamer, so I just use the on-board video, and it is fine
for everything I've ever wanted to do.  It would probably not be that great
for playing a full-motion first-person shooter game, but it'll run HRD or
FlDigi/FlRig just fine.  The motherboard I'm using is an Intel DQ67SW,
though it is now several years old, and something newer/better is probably
available by now.

After a while, I blew the power supply that came with the motherboard, and
at that time I replaced it with a "green" Antec power supply.  These have
higher efficiency, and, it seems, less noise.  They also seem to be
grounded properly.

So my suggestion would be to build a "home theater PC" or look for one
pre-built in a nice steel case.  It's a bit more work to build your own,
but if you built a K3, putting a PC together should be totally doable...
and this way you get to be choosy about your components.  Then get one of
the many USB-to-DB9 cables available out in the wild for your serial ports,
or get one of the PCI serial port boards to put in.  I doubt you'll have a
very easy time finding any motherboards these days that still have DB9
headers or connectors.

Of course the big downside to building your own PC is that you have to buy
a copy of Windows if you want to use it, though OEM versions are available
online for a bit less than what the consumer versions cost if you don't or
won't require Microsoft support.

Hope this helps,

   Nick





On 10 August 2013 05:59, Goldtr8 (KD8NNU) <goldtr8 at charter.net> wrote:

> Gents,
>
> I wish to get a new computer for the shack and want to have one that is RF
> quiet and has real serial ports.
>
> I am guessing that others have purchased some PC’s recently and would have
> some suggestions on some that are HAM friendly with a K3.
>
> I use a K3, KAT500, W2 and HRD for rig control.
>
> Any thoughts suggestions before I purchase something would be greatly
> appreciated.
>
>
> ~73
> Don
> KD8NNU
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