Superb article, Mike. Very interesting. Where exactly do these modders come together with their ideas? There is a very active audiophile community at Audio Circles . My SqueezeBox2 was hotrodded by Bolder . The following is my audio rig, no CD player, no preamplifier, very quiet PC as music server t...

Which DVD burners are known to fit with a standard ATX PSU in place? Short drives such as Lite-On and Sony would give you plenty of space to work. I believe the Chenming is a better case out of the box if noise considerations are important to you. Its case and PSU fans are very quiet and some poste...

What about the Aspire X-Qpack: Seems like it has a lot of silent pc potential. I am just concerned to all of the references to defective or damaged brand new cases. I believe the similar Chenming MATX-118 is better out of the box, with what looks like a medium-speed 120mm Yate Loon that is very qui...

I haven't had time to write a post regarding my Chenming MATX-118, which is similar to the Aspire but way better in terms of noise; over at Sudhian there are a lot of posts on both. Do a search on Aspire and Chenming.

No problems with the handle, it easily supports my Zalman 7000.

There is a new alternative out there for SPCR fans. Out of the box, the Chenming MATX-118 is superior to all of those in terms of noise, cooling design, internal space and functionality; the case fan is a 120mm medium-speed Yate Loon and the 80mm PSU fan is also very quiet. Mine hasn't gotten above ...

Yeah, but read the text too. You need to remove the backplate that is glued to the MSI board. Not a nice thing to do and probably immediately voids your warranty. Tibors, I received my MSI RS480 board a couple of days ago and today I began installation. Removal of the factory backplate is a must to...

I don't know if this is old news, but ATI has a SouthBridge driver for this motherboard on its website. It would be interesting to see if it improves USB performance.

pony-tail wrote:Did you notice that there does not seem to be any driver or bios updates on their website for their motherboards?
Or any other downloads for that matter!

That's why I decided to buy the MSI RS480.

The link doesn't work. Edit it and delete .

I apologize if I hurt any feelings here, but there wasn't any intention on my part to do so (next time I'll use the Smilies). I am glad to read that you tried the utility I mentioned. It was clear to me that the utility existed because I had also read the Tom's Hardware review.

Yeah, but read the text too. You need to remove the backplate that is glued to the MSI board. Not a nice thing to do and probably immediately voids your warranty. I understand this is normal and even required with several boards when installing an aftermarket CPU cooler as some backplates, for exam...

Thanks for the info Pooh-Bah, I think I'll take my chances with the MSI unless the new Gigabyte GA-K8A480M-9 appears soon and delivers on the promises. I don't intend to overclock.

Chang wrote:Oh yeah, if you're looking to use the nice mATX S939 RS480M2-IL (like I am), it's listed as incompatible with the Zalman 7000.

Are you going to believe Zalman, or your own lying eyes? It does fit (scroll down and see the picture).

The video card is also located right above the chipset, making a simple replacement impossible. I'll probably try modding a passive chipset heatsink. ** 4/25/05 update - passive Zalman chipset heatsink is installed. I added a small low-speed fan too. The NF4 gets very hot.** Thanks for the review. ...

A good read but I'm afraid the review is almost as emasculated as the SilentBIOS fan control system. You're excused because, as you say, Aopen's website is so badly designed (and in need of regular updates, I might add), but right here you would have found a precious little utility (motherboards -->...

Aspire says maximum heatsink height is 2.75 inches (70mm), therefore a Zalman 7000 fits easily.

A standard ATX PSU will fit provided a short CD/DVD drive like a Lite-On or Sony is used; SeaSonic S12s would fit perfectly, including the cables coming out from the left side (viewed from the front of the case)!

I like the In Win S523T . Good design and silent 120mm PSU fan. I had almost decided to purchase that one for my first build when I found the new Chenming desktop case which seems to be better for my purposes. Now I have to wait until it shows up at dealers. The Chenming-made Aspire is already selli...

For TV it has both component (as good as HDMI) and S-video, plus DVI output for a monitor. I'm starting from zero to build my first computer and now this board is my first pick for a small, quiet computer, inside either Aopen's great-looking H360 case or in the In WinV523T , provided the exhaust fan...

This Chaintech will work and is only $53; there are similar ones from Leadtek and Albatron but they aren't in stock at Newegg at this time.

No, that's not the one I'm talking about. CompUSA also sells it, but it has a unique front-to back convex shape, it's wireless and comes bundled with a mouse.

I am a keyboard nut and have tested practically all the keyboards out there. Almost all of them are mushy, even the MS Bluetooth, but I found one exception, the new Compaq keyboard . Positive and silent unless you are a hard typist, but then it becomes even more positive and solid to the touch in a ...

I have a few questions:

Are there two models, 855 and 855-II?

Did you read this review? It appears their sample was very quiet.

Are you using Aopen's SilentTek II software? That would certainly help with fan control and noise. You can download the latest version at Aopen and try it.

Val

The Nexus is the one usually recommended. This thread deals with this specific replacement (BTW, the answers to my two questions are yes and yes).

For my first build I am trying to decide between an Antec Sonata II and the SN95G5 and would like to know if the Nexus 92mm fan you're talking about is the same as this Nexus case fan.

Is the ICE fan/Nexus replacement procedure straightforward enough for a clumsy newbie like me?

Thanks