The other possible reason is as a troubleshooting method if your computer blue screens a lot. Most of those are caused by either bad memory or power issues.

I think you might be pleasantly surprised by an i5 NUC... Take a look at this reviewer on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/review/RCKYMZK2JPY3I/ref=cm_cr_dp_cmt?ie=UTF8&ASIN=B00F3F38O2&nodeID=541966&store=pc#wasThisHelpful Just pick up an mSATA SSD (840 evo?), low voltage memory, and you're golden for ...

Since this would be an ideal case for a server and decidedly not ideal for a gaming box, I think Silverstone made a mistake by having that cutout for a GPU and having the entire affair removable; I bet those two issues are what cause the vibration issue. The case would be much more solid without tho...

Wow, that's quite a find that these drives do have head parking enabled? I must say I doubt it. I am considering buying the Red's for my ZFS raid system, but really need to know if this headparking is audible or not. I dont' need extra noise every 8 seconds. It's not a matter of noise; ZFS is quite...

I'm surpised that no one's compared this to the Raspberry Pi. Sure it doesn't have anywhere close to the performance of this box, but at $35, it can run XBMC & play H.264 movies at 1080P. Max power draw is 700ma @ 5V.

http://www.raspberrypi.org/

Here's another thought that would satisfy both camps: Use a RamDisk ! If you have 4g or more, you could assign 1.5 gig or so, set aside 1gb for the ramdisk and then use the rest for IE/Mozilla temp files. That way you have the best of both worlds. I found this on a forum discussing large Photoshop f...

I believe that the better performance for the x3 has to do with its superior overclockability and more L3 cache per core. Therefore, single-threaded or dual-core only apps would do better on the triple core Phenoms.

intx wrote: price difference is like $30.

The only true AM3 boards are $140+, or they are "AM2+/AM3" which means they are really AM2 boards (DDR2 memory, etc.).

REAL AM3 boards

Fakes

If you want to get an SSD, also be sure to compare them against the new ESATA thumb drives that are out now. They have comparable performance to an SSD, and are mounted in your os just like a Hard drive (no funky OS install worries).

If you're looking AMD, then get the 740/780G motherboard. The graphics on the motherboard can drive 1 or 2 monitors (depending on the board), and you can add an ATI graphics card to drive 2 more. The dedicated card you get wouldn't need a whole lot of horsepower, so you could get a passive card as w...

If you were to control it with a potentiometer (like a fanbay, but for that size you might need something with a higher Amperage capacity), it might work better by starting at full, then dialing it down after running. I'd really doubt that it would start at 5v, or even 7v reliably, but that's just m...

You might want to try using SpeedFan instead. The program you're using may set a different "true" load for 10%.

I seem to remember from a review SOMEWHERE on SPCR that the clear plastic frames tend to be very stiff, so that's probably the cause of the increased vibration.

Why oh why Nexus, didn't you just make it white on black?!

Did you notice any power reduction with Hybrid Power enabled?

The SPCR review found only marginal power savings with the dedicated card switched off...

I can also vouch for Lenovo, owning a T400 for about 5 months now. The loudest part of it is the hard drive (I have the lower processor speed with IGP). The fan may run at low speed sometimes (I can feel air moving, but can't really hear anything...), but the 5400 hard drive seek is a muted "cruncy"...

I have a T400, and it's GREAT! Noisewise, it's very quiet. My wife's old Toshiba has a really loud fan on it, but the fan on my Thinkpad is just about inaudible (I think I might be able to hear it under load if the background noise is very quiet). Probably the loudest part of it is the 5400rpm hard ...

Another thing to consider carefully is if it really needs to be fanless... With a wireless card, you could put a quiet computer in a closet since you're planning to RDP into it.

Besides, fanless retail computers are big $$$ (at least for the performance you get).

I have intermittent Tinnitus, and it's a very distinct sound. Louder computers tend to set it off (partly what brought me here), but I can easily tell the difference. It is a relatively high pitched, and very tonal sound. The desktop I used to have at worst had a quiet broadband "rushing air sound" ...

Umm... $8 more can get you a brand new one that is guaranteed to have your mounting method...

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6835185046

I second that Nomoon. <rant> The story about the guy Palin fired was because he *refused* to fire an Alaska state trooper who threatened the lives of Palin's father, and Palin herself, before she was governor. This guy had a record of tasering his son, DRINKING IN A PATROL CAR... Wooten was his name...

Aside from reinstalling, there's actually not much if any additional hassle. EDIT: besides the issue of ACQUIRING the 64 bit os... I simply "borrowed" a corporate install CD from my company. Using Vista 64 bit, the only headache that I found was the driver signing issue. Even then, I only ran into t...

UPDATE: Listed on eBay

Lower price: $399 Starting Bid

Case temps: Idle (all fans turned low): all (CPU, GPU, SYS, HDD) sitting ~39C. wPrime (multithreaded): CPU hit 55C without adjusting fan speeds. 3DMark 06: GPU hits 55C running low fan speed. Hard drives got to 45C doing large file transfers. The system fans run at 800rpm, and dial up to 1200. The S...

The GP line's 5400/7200 is a misnomer. They run at 5400 100% of the time. I read a review about the drive... I don't remember if it was SPCR's review or somewhere else.

That said, the large size of the platter makes the slower rotational speed less noticeable than older 5400 drives.

Thanks for the explanation. There shouldn't be any problem with putting both the Samsung and a Pioneer 116 on the same PATA/IDE cable, right? Is the Samsung generally known for good single-layer CD burning as well? I actually anticipate burning a lot more CDs than DVDs, since my wife is a musician ...

Motherboard: Yes, it is a very high end motherboard... Originally cost about $275... 4 SATA ports (the black ones) are 3.0Gb/s, RAID capable, controlled by Southbridge. The blue SATA ports are 1.5Gb/s, also RAID capable, controlled by a dedicated controller. eSATA anyone? Gigabit LAN and Firewire, ...

A bit of topic, but why would you want to purchase a DVD-ROM? DVD writer is dirt cheap in recent days. Get 2 different writers to complement the deficiency that individual writers hold. Interesting point. What deficiencies would that Samsung have that I'd need to remedy? It has dual-layer support, ...

http://images6.theimagehosting.com/100_1266.046.th.JPG http://images6.theimagehosting.com/100_1275.54c.th.JPG http://images6.theimagehosting.com/100_1276.7d9.th.JPG http://images6.theimagehosting.com/100_1277.th.JPG http://images6.theimagehosting.com/100_1278.bc6.th.JPG http://images6.theimagehosti...

UPDATE: LISTED ON eBay I completed this computer about 18 months ago, but now I want to sell it and get a laptop instead. This computer is a silent powerhouse. I have followed SPCR for about 5 years now, and this computer shows it. When all the fans are turned down (they *only* get turned up for gam...