I’m a big fan of eSATA drives. Going from 2.5â€

A. If you aren't happy with the level of noise/heat from a 3.5" drive then a 2.5" model is a good option. You lose performance, but that may not be noticeable in normal desktop use. B. The SATA cables are exactly the same. C. I've used 2.5" drives for years in a few different desktop PCs, so far I h...

No self-respecting audiophile snake oil salesman will claim that their product can silence your PC. They will only claim to make it sound better, as evidenced by judicious techno-speak and a paucity of research. You don't not know that that particular green with which you're to rub around the edges...

I would have to say there's at least as much snake oil and rip-offs in the PC market; 1kw PSUs, case fans that supposedly blow 70CFM at 8dBA, etc etc etc. These are the kinds of scams we are very familiar with on SPCR. I can see your point. I was thinking of the seemingly non-functional audio produ...

Your comments are immanently reasonable and I personally agree it's wise to regard some of the more esoteric products with suspicion, although not all products are snake oil and there's nothing to preclude some of them from working as claimed, even some of the more unusual ones. There have been cas...

How do you decide which music to listen to? That's hardly the same as trying to determine differences in sound quality. It's like the difference between deciding which computer game is more fun to play, and determining which graphics card gives you a higher frame rate and visual quality. While the ...

Re: blind testing, that's something I'm not in favor of. Blind testing would seem to be the ideal method for "proving" something one way or the other, but it's fatiguing and hence confusing and it doesn't reflect the way we actually listen to music, which is indeed subjective. I have no doubt that ...

The difference between any MP3 (or LAME, or OGG, etc.) and the original is typically astronomical. If you're not hearing a difference, let alone a large one, it's exposing the limited resolution of your equipment and / or your setup. The listening tests I've seen, such as the various blind tests at...

Firetech, where can I find compatibility listings? What I'm seeing on this Thermalright page: http://www.thermalright.com/a_page/main_product_hr05.htm Sorry, i was responding to Steve_Y and his Asus M2A-VM NB problem. I don't think the S2H is listed there under Motherboard Compatability List link. ...

If the stock NB cooler provides stable, healthy temperatures for the board in a given setup, however, then this shouldn't matter. Based on my experience with the Asus M2A-VM HDMI, a small NB cooler on a 690G is a definite cause for concern. I experienced very poor stability until I went to a fair a...

In my experience the 1200RPM version starts reliably at 5v. Even in a very quiet environment that'll be close to inaudible.

Considering the ticking issue with the 800RPM version; the 1200RPM model seems like an obvious choice.

I have problems when playing back WMV files: the output looks very surrealist, just big moving green, red, yellow and blue pathces on the screen (LG L1710B at 1280*1024, DVI connection). To me that sounds like an issue with the codec rather than problem with the hardware or drivers. I've tried a va...

I also tried undervolting using CrystalCPUID, but found two major issues: 1. CCPUID did not kick in until the system booted up. Between power-up and system boot up, the power consumption surged and peaked at over 100W. With undervolting in the BIOS, the consumption never went above 70W. While this ...

charonme wrote:I wanted to use the 1200rpm sflex too, but I was worried it has even higher starting voltage than the nexus. Doesn't it?

My S-Flex sample starts at 5v without any problems, while my 120mm Nexus doesn't start reliably at that voltage.

I used a 1200RPM Scythe S-Flex myself. Mainly because of concerns about the life span of sleeve bearing fans when used horizontally in a fairly hot environment. I connected it to an external fan controller rather than using the PSU's fan header. Running at 800RPM it's definitely quieter than the sto...

I've never found a particularly quiet external 3.5" drive, an external 2.5" drive should be a bit quieter.

The alternative is to get a longer cable and place the drive further away, or place it inside something that would block some noise.

I've played around with surround sound, but whether it was due to the recordings I tried, or because I'm so used to stereo, I just didn't find it a particularly pleasant experience. An interesting novelty rather than something that actually made the music more lifelike and enjoyable. Personally I li...

Does Windows 2000 do everything XP can if you have Service Pack 4? What if you try to run a program or use an MP3 player that only has mention of XP (and Vista) support? Does anyone know? I keep trying to find the answers through Google but not having much luck. I used Windows 2000 for over 5 years...

-Compatibility: since the SATA/power connectors look the same, I can't see any reason why there should be any physical incompatibilities. In any case, I may be wrong, so can I use the normal SATA power connectors, or even the 12V connectors with a SATA power converter? 2.5" SATA drives use exactly ...

Where I'm coming from is having read the reviews of the Icy Dock and Antec MX-1 enclosures, it seems that the former results in significantly increased noise with no lowering of temperature whilst the Antec lowers temperature significantly but still with an increase in noise over the bare drive. No...

Steve_Y: AS far as I've understood undervolting, then I have to sacrifice the auto-throttling that C'n'Q provides. CrystalCPUID has its own equivalent of C&Q; you can set a different multiplier and voltage for different levels of CPU load. There's an article about it here at SPCR: http://www.silent...

That should work fine, but have you checked that none of the available enclosures will suspend the drive? That isn't something I've ever tried as I don't use suspend mode, but the externally powered eSATA enclosures I've used do turn off the drive when the PC is shutdown. Maybe some of them (at leas...

At stock speeds I'd have thought a large cooler like a Scythe Ninja could passively cool that easily. I know you said that you don't want to mess around with undervolting, but you might want to have a look at CrystalCPUID. It allows easy undervolting from the Windows desktop and in my opinion is wor...

I'm going to guess that undervolting sacrifices C&Q? CrystalCPUID basically gives you configurable Cool and Quiet. Compared with the stock C&Q settings, the undervolting offered by CrystalCPUID reduced my X2 3600+ power consumption by around 10W at idle and around 20W under load. My older 90nm 3600...

I'm not sure if the coil whine I've experienced is due to my 430W Seasonic PSU or my Asus M2A-VM motherboard. Fortunately it rarely occurs in normal use so is something I can tolerate. I've mainly noticed it when testing the system using Prime 95. Loud coil whine stops and starts intermittently when...

WTF? In what way does using PATA versus SATA hamper it's potential? You know how many PATA devices are out there already, and are still being produced? I know people think Tutti-Frutti is the flavor of the week and anyone who doesn't have it, is a Luser, but really! The problem is that a lot of new...

AMD Awaymode? To be honest I've never heard of it. Nice to know that it isn't some kind of hardware fault. As for the weird video problem you're having, I'm afraid I can't be much help. I've tried a few different video formats on my PC and they all play without any problems. I imagine most people he...

I wonder how much power that system actually uses? Certainly not enough to stress a decent 400W PSU I'd have thought. It's funny to see the old misconceptions about power supplies still dragged out on forums. Like the idea that a higher maximum output will automatically make the PSU run cooler and m...

We were still experiencing some flickering even after install the Zalman ZM-NBF47. So we decided to install the Thermaright HR-05. The installation was much easier. To be honest I’m very surprised that the HR-05 could actually fit. To me it looked like it couldn’t be angled to avoid the heatpip...

I've had a go at improving the little northbridge heatsink with some spare ramsinks. Here's a shot of the stock northbridge cooler: http://img70.imageshack.us/img70/9751/beforegg1.jpg And here it is after its rather Frankensteinian makeover; with 10 Swifttech ramsinks stuck on it: http://img55.image...