Month: June 2006

Puget Delivers a Quiet Core Duo PC

Puget Custom Computers is a system builder with emphasis on the Custom in their name. If you can think of it, they can build it for you. Last year, they watercooled a Pentium M and a high end gaming video card for us in a well-cooled system that was 100% fanless. This time around, they’ve

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ASUS Terminator 2 T2-AE1: Mod-friendly Barebones System

It’s a socket 754 system that’s a bit long in the tooth, but no one said old technology couldn’t be quiet. The Asus T2-AE1 is a tidy package that looks good and is shockingly inexpensive. Can it be quiet as well?

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AOpen’s Core Duo Flagship i975Xa-YDG motherboard

The i975Xa-YDG is AOpen’s most ambitious MoDT motherboard, designed for Intel Core Solo/Duo with ATI Crossfire dual graphics card capability and a host of performance oriented features. It also has a standard socket 478 heatsink retention bracket, which means big, quiet aftermarket performance heatsinks can be used. Is this a perfect motherboard for the green-conscious,

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WD Caviar SE16 500GB: Big Low-Noise Champ?

The search for a quiet high capacity hard drive continues with Western Digital’s 500GB Caviar SE16. SPCR’s favorite drives are rapidly disappearing as the Samsung Spinpoint P80 and the Seagate Barracuda IV fade further into obscurity; the market has long since moved on from our single-platter 40GB and 80 GB favorites. So far, no high

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External Seagate Drives: A Portable 2.5″ and a Pocket Drive

You only have to put up with the noise of a portable drive when you’re copying to and from it — not whenever your computer is running. On top of that, many portable storage devices employ quiet 2.5″ or smaller drives that are inherently quieter than the full-size ones in your PC. They’re just so

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VGA Coolers: Thermalright V1 Ultra, Zalman 700 & 900, AC Silencer 5 v.3

High-end VGA Cards are a major source of heat, so most silencers know to avoid them if they want quiet. But, what about people who need a high end video card? Gamers can’t seem to do without them… and increasingly, they want quiet, too. That’s where aftermarket VGA coolers come in. Like CPU coolers, VGA

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