Month: October 2006

Antec EarthWatts 430: Green Computing Hits Mainstream

Antec’s Earth Watts is not the first envronmentally friendly power supply we’ve looked at but Antec’s market clout is considerable, so the release of the Earth Watts suggests that Green computing is going mainstream. What makes it environmentally friendly? Why efficiency, of course. The Earth Watts is 80 Plus certified, and it comes in relatively

Read More
blog image

SPCR Power Supply Test Rig, v.4 (and v.4.1)

A little over a year after our last major update, we’ve made changes extensive enough to consider this the fourth iteration of SPCR’s power supply testing system. PSU reviews have been popular bread-and-butter articles at SPCR for years, partly because of our close attention to detail, fundamentally sound test procedures, good test gear and thorough

Read More
blog image

Bill’s Recycled, Fanless, Silent Woodbox Computer

An English electronic engineer who likes making things, Bill Todd made many modifications, and created a new wood case to take this modest old Pentium III system far along the road to silent nirvana. His ingenious journey involved recycling and creating of all kinds of parts including old electronics heatsinks, home-made damping gel packs, scraps

Read More
blog image

mCubed’s HFX mini: Fanless HTPC “heatsink case”

mCubed delivered a complete HTPC system in a HFX mini case to Christoph Derndorfer, our eager European correspondent. His review of this classy, sleek low-profile, high end, fanless “heatsink case” finds there’s more to silencing than fanlessness.

Read More

be quiet! Dark Power Pro 430 power supply

In all the noise generated by all those who wish to grab a bite out of the expanding quiet computing pie, it often seems that the number of really quiet products hasn’t grown that much. There’s just a lot more “quiet” marketing BS to wade through. Thankfully, this “be quiet!” Dark Power Pro power supply

Read More

Seasonic Goes High End Gaming with the M12

Seasonic is going after the high end gaming market with the M12-700, a modular power supply that has everything: 80 Plus certification, 700W capacity, four PCI express connectors, and Seasonic’s excellent reputation for noise. Oh, and a >$200 price tag to match. Is there an M12 in your future?

Read More
blog image

Icy Dock’s eSATA Enclosure

eSATA drive enclosures are potentially useful for silencers because they allow the boot drive to be placed remotely for the ultimate in acoustic isolation. Icy Dock makes nothing but hard drive enclosures, and they have one of the first eSATA enclosures on the market, a most stylish device some people wouldn’t want to hide.

Read More
blog image

Superquiet Superclocked DIY Core 2 Duo System

Chris Thomson returns with a Core 2 Duo upgrade of his quiet PC, greatly overclocked with carefully chosen high performance parts, modified judiciously, and meticulously ducted for maximum airflow and cooling with minimum noise. It’s another magnum opus on the current state of DIY, enthusiast, air-cooled, high performance, silent computing.

Read More