The header does look like a proprietary dell connector, I've never seen anything like this on a p3 board before. Have you though in getting larger, single drive? Something like a WD green power. I know it`s a cost you`d like to avoid, but it will save you a lot of trouble, not to mention it will be ...

They are cooler and quieter but not as fast. A 7200rpm laptop drive like the one you linked to is a little slower than a desktop equivalent. Another option would be a 3,5 inch western digital green power. While still a little slower than most higher end drives it would give you more storage for your...

Airborne idle noise is usually higher frequency, more like whine/hiss than hum. The quiet drive can be effective at reducing it, though I doubt this is what you are hearing. By your description it sounds more like vibration noise, especially since it disappears while holding it. Open cell foam like ...

Is that heatsink behind the rear fan an hr05? What is it connected to?
Got lots of aluminium in there

I agree that many of those "green" technologies are not so green in practice. Very often the problem is that manufacturers will offer what they can sell as "green" and not what really is. It`s not all about the environment either, it`s nice to sometimes focus on the core function of a product and do...

Hello and welcome to SPCR Both power supplies are known to be pretty robust so I doubt they are the cause of the problem. Sometimes the sata power connectors can be a little unreliable, I would make sure they make good contact with the drives. I also happen to have a similar problem at boot-up. In t...

Is it true that powering on/off the computer this way puts more stress on the electronics? A possible alternative would be to power it on using the keyboard although you would loose the small power savings by keeping it out of standby (powerbar switched off).

Let me see, scanner, speakers and router all have 12v power adapters, so it should be possible with a wide range of peripherals.

Even before xen replied I was mot thinking the author cheap as I had the same doubts... I would get rid of my ancient socket a platform no matter the cost. The problem is that for each improvement in quality, there is hardly half an improvement in power/manufacture efficiency. We need increasingly m...

Whether it is cost efficient or not depends on the math you use. Electricity here is more expensive, and 50$ per year over a course of 7 years (that`s for how long I`ve had my computer except the vga and hdd) negates the price premium of a notebook over a desktop. Plus you also get a small lcd scree...

The seasonic mentioned should be a good buy though the corsair is just as efficient at low load despite the higher rating. The tri cool fans are a bit too fast even on low but maybe you could drop their speed further using the motherboard controls. Otherwise the solo is a good choice, made of thick,...

Certainly, you have more control over the noise level of a desktop. But even though I`m pretty paranoid about noise, I have come across some laptops that many people in this forum could live with.
Unless I go for a gaming rig, my next computer will be a laptop.

Nice build. I have a rather similar setup except that the air enters through the back of the case (laptop hdd needs no cooling).
Completely sealing the front and using sound deadening material helped me silence the disk drive, might sound like overkill but at 4am I could hear it ...

Take a look at this thread, it`s rather interesting: http://www.silentpcreview.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=42833 After reading this, I was wondering if it`s worth building a pc from parts when you want to achieve low power consumption. Sure, there are some needs a laptop can not always satisfy such a...

I think you could remove one of the front fans, air will still find it`s way in. And to encourage some more airflow at the rear, you could remove a couple of pci brackets. This should help cool the vga. As for the disk vibrations, I also used foam and I wasn`t really pleased with the results. I ende...

One more vote for the skythe ninja though I would prefer a thermalright hr03 in this lian li. The 8400 & 8200 seem like better value to me, especially when there`s so much room for oveclocking. I suggest looking at this thread http://www.silentpcreview.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=36172& , it might gi...

You have quite a few candidates: the stock cpu cooler, the stock vga cooler, the psu and finally the stock antec case fans! You could easily undervolt the case fans. There is a zalman adapter that gives you 2x5 volt fan headers, quite cheap too. Just remeber to put the antec fans on "high" before fe...

Maybe it`s just that those people do sleep at night
In the morning a zalman cooler at full blast could be inaudible, depending on where you live or work.

I agree that as long as you have a couple of case fans (to cool the motherboard and hard disks) you lose the advantage of watercooling when it comes to dust. It would make sense to cool cpu/vga and chipset with water so you that you don`t have to deal with fans in the case at all. You could only use...

Your board looks pretty frugal so it`s hard to imagine that changing it will save much energy if at all. But it might allow you to undervolt a little more. Did you try running crystal cpu?
A laptop disk drive might save you another 5 watts and a pico psu a little more.

I don`t see the need to put a fan on the cpu h/s, the exhaust fan alone should be enough. Do use an exhaust fan though, while the fan in the psu alone should be able to cool your system, it will do so at increased speeds and noise. I recommend a skythe sflex 12 cm fan or a yate loon sleeve bearing e...

I do not have any hands on experience with an athlon be so it`s only an indication, but anything up to 60c should be a safe temperature.

I agree with Neil, if my 600rpm case is enough to cool an athlon xp, a core 2 can be certainly cooled in the same way, especially when mated to a ninja.

If you don`t use a fan controller, the yate loons will need about 5 volts to match the speed of the skythe fans @ 7v which is possible using the 5v adaptors by zalman.

I have both fans at home and I don`t think you should notice a difference at similar rpm. Getting the yate loons will save you enough money for a fan controller so why not go this route.

I don`t disagree with the sideways hdd cage, I provides some extra space for the video cards. I would like it to be removable, besides the existing one doesn`t seem to contribute to case stiffness.

I`m disappointed about the PSU mounting, especially after having seen the PC7 +III series from Lian Li.

I imagine that with a 120cm fan the Ultra could cool a little better but the SI128 should come very close. It also depends on how slow you intend to run you fans. At very low speeds a top down h/s doesn`t contribute that much to motherboard cooling. If you use a tower heatsink you could use an under...

I had the same volcano h/s on my athlon. Originally the fan worked at more than 3000 rpm. After some years of exposure to dust it now only reaches 1500! (and making nasty sounds in the process). So you are right in thinking of replacing it, although I would double check if cpu overheating is the rea...

You could, but you would need a good heatsink as well. I did once try to cool my athlon xp with a 1500rpm 8cm fan on an old school alu heatsink but unfortunately it overheated under load. Now I have a heatpipe heatsink on my cpu and the 12cm case fan @600 rpm is enough to cool it even in summer. It`...

If available, a core duo 8200(2,66ghz) or 8400(3ghz) would be a much better buy. As for the motherboard I would suggest a gigabyte p35 ds3r or an abit ip35pro.