This is brilliant! I just pulled the trigger on a very quiet gaming system and was on the look out for a silent video card to stick in it. I am considering this card, their 5750 version, or a passive BFG 9800GT. I am hoping that this will fit for sure in an Antec Solo. I would *really* like to know ...

Is the case made of the same material? Are we allowed to add dampening materials? What color is the case? What is the heat sink, and how much clearance between the HS and the case fan?... This whole thing is a hypothetical, and a rather poorly defined one (poor in the sense of loose, not criticizin...

A larger case will generally allow a bigger and more efficient heat sink which will require less air flow, and thus lower fan speeds and less noise. I'd have to say that larger cases generally offer a better chance of being quieter. However, it all also depend on other factors, such as the design o...

physics... So the physics seems to show that this smaller case with same 40CFM fan drops air temperature inside the case by 1,46C ! I did some more calculations in OOcalc, it seems that the same steady +5,58C is reached in this smaller case with a 34 CFM fan. That would mean -15% in fan speed. Or f...

I can't imagine that case resonance counts for much if the components are good components. I suppose that would be true :) One more thing I came across - the idea of higher velocity of air through the case. Basically, with all cooling components being the same, the smaller case would replace the ai...

All other things being equal, that might be true. That is, if you're moving the exact same components from a smaller case to a bigger one made of the same materials, then you're really just adding space where sound can resonate. But, in practice, it's never that simple. Bigger cases give you more o...

Well, I've recently come across information which seem to suggest that by using a smaller case is better for a quiet system than using the same components in a larger case. I was curious to find out more information on why this is (or if it isn't true) and what reasons a smaller case would be a bett...

perhaps it's time to get over the amd fixation? Perhaps it is you who is on the Intel bandwagon. Jay has given me great advice based on the information that I've provided, and actually suggested going with Nvidia over ATI this entire time. How is he guilty of favoring AMD over Intel? The only thing...

Here's a few tips if you think you'll stick with XBMC... With linux and VDPAU you can build a HD-capable machine for cheap (Phoronix.com)! Something like the build in that article will be larger and consume more power than the Aspire Revo, but it can be as cheap (or cheaper). Thanks for the great t...

Instead of a media streamer, another option is something like the Acer Aspire revo... With XBMC Live it essentially becomes a much nicer, more powerful network media streamer. It's 2x the price, but XBMC may make it worth it. You can evaluate XBMC on your current hardware. If you're already running...

Whoa swoody - going a little crazy on the 'submit' button? Well you know, I'm just trying to raise my Post Count, lol. I think I may have mistaken the 'Reply' button for the 'Edit' button :( the O!Play is ... quirky. I really can't recommend it over the WDTV Live... the WDTV Live has a MUCH nicer i...

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for that purpose, intel is a better bet than amd, it'll bitstream audio over the hdmi connector, among other things: http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=1172451 there is nothing on the amd platform that is comparable, but as we've seen in this thread, you can lead a horse to water, but ...

So why are you fixated on AMD? A dual-core Atom Pine Trail meets or beats all of your criteria for $80, that includes both the CPU and MB. If the included graphics aren't snappy enough, add a PCI or PCIx graphics card of your choice. Mainly it would be how upgradeable the system would be. With the ...

Measured with Kill-a-Watt: 1W off 86W peak while booting 56W sitting idle @ WinXP desktop 61W playing unaltered 1080p AVC blu-ray rip w/MPC-HC Average rip takes me about 45 minutes. This is straight ripping to MKV containers (no transcoding). This is really a function of your optical and HDD speed....

There are compromises to this method (of course!). Just a few: You can't sit down and instantly watch a blu-ray disk. You have to rip it first. This used to bother me, but doesn't anymore - ripping means I get to exclude all the menus, trailers and warnings. Ripping means I get to use whatever soft...

...I even have an old laptop mobo folding 24/7 caseless. It's basically just the mobo, ram, CPU and HDD sitting on my desk and it runs a very minimal CLI version of Debian. It doesn't exactly wow crowds with it's processing power, but it beats sitting under my bed due to a broken display :) LOL - b...

Sorry - I mis-spoke there. I wrote PWM but meant VRM, as in the MOSFETs that handle voltage regulation for the CPU. Two totally different concepts. Ah, ok. That makes more sense. I was scratching my head wondering if PWM really made a difference :) You can use Ubuntu for 99% of everything you want ...

Hello to you as well, neighbor to the north :) That said, obviously some chipsets use less power than others. So focusing on chipset might help you determine which motherboard consumes the least power. Look for newer fabs, etc. Additionally, I think boards with fewer PWM phases use less power, so in...

I'm interested in building a low powered system that is still very capable However, I want this setup to use as little power as possible. I want to go with a 45w AMD dual-core CPU, and I would prefer to run this system from a pico PSU. I am not positive yet if I will be using an AM2, AM2+, or AM3 ch...

Well thanks for the info! I guess the heatsink and fan are doing their job well enough if the fan noise really doesn't increase. That's very good news I'm feeling even more favorable about the HR-01 now!

I bought one and put it into the computer I just built for my wife as the CPU heatsink fank (Thermalright HR-01 Plus). On the PWM CPU Fan header in that Intel DP45SG, it normally runs at about 450 RPM. I can't hear it at all. I'm very happy with it. Ah, very nice. I was thinking of using mine for a...

I basically agree with what everyone else has said so far. It's a great, silent fan when the RPM's are turned down. If you are looking for real silence, I would not recommend getting this fan unless you have a PWM header that you will be hooking it up to, or a fan controller. I had to use this fan o...

Graphics: EVGA GeForce GTX 275 I'd like to get a quieter VGA cooler as well. Wow, I'm really suprised nobody else has mentioned this, but you may want to look into an HR-03 VGA cooler from Thermalright. They do a great job at keeping your graphics card much cooler than the stock coolers, and they'r...

nomoon wrote:For what it's worth, I suspect that passively cooling the CPU may not be quietest solution. See this thread.

Jason

That's this thread

Wayne - Also, are you running a fanless PSU? You had made a note that there was only one fan in the case, but I'm not sure if you excluding the PSU fan, or if yours is fanless. Thanks again!

Wayne, thanks for your setup details :) That's similar to how I was hoping to run mine. I was thinking about running the hr-01, though, and having the fan just mounted on the case itself, and running it off the CPU header for PWM control, just like you did. Of course I always cut out the steel mesh ...

...one fan near it? Does the cook put the ingredients into the soup, or near it? The airflow must go through the heatsinks, not around them. A fanless PSU makes sense only if the computer is fanless. One fan can cool the CPU and the PSU. But two slower fans may make less noise. Well what I'm saying...