Does that front fan hot swapping mean that you can only use their fans? If so seems like a dealbreaker to me.

The removable fan cages can hold any 3-pin 120mm fan. Source (40 seconds in): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wloZAdgd ... re=related

I don't know about the hotter GPUs, but (just FYI) with a 65W Core 2 Duo my Scythe Kabuto (which I mounted the first time with the wrong orientation) worsened its performance about 1-2°C.

Wow, if that is anything to go by for GPUs as well, then no worries!

The vast majority of VGA coolers will have some heatpipes going the wrong way. I think this includes a large number of stock VGA coolers. I still would not worry. Ok MikeC, you the boss :D Should be fairly easy to try though if you have one of theese coolers by tilting the chassi 90 degrees. If I b...

I asked myself the exact same question the other day, and i found this on silverstones homepage QA. http://www.silverstonetek.com/qa/qa_contents.php?pno=FT02&area=usa At the bottom it says: The illustration here shows a VGA cooler that will not work well in the FT02 because the heat source side (tou...

The 140mm fan looks like it is in an odd position, blowing air from the front where there is no intake vent, instead of being position deeper into the case behind the vented side intakes. I can't see where it is sucking intake air from. It looks like there is about a 5mm clearance in front of the f...

Fractal Design is following up the Define R2 with a second and very different case. The Array Mini ITX is a case specifically for the DIY NAS market and a welcome one as far as I am concerned. I dare say it doesnt really have any direct competitors, atleast not any good ones for the silent crowd. Th...

This still bothers me... that no company has picked up the ball and created a really good microATX case for the silent crowd. They've had 4 months since my last post! :roll: I believe this is a real problem, especially now that motherboard makers start to create really luxurious uATX boards like the...

MikeC , I am really greatful for the work you and others involved in SPCR do. Your thoroughness in your reviews and testing is why I keep coming back to SPCR for buying advice. Let me wish for three new coolers to be tested on the new platform. They all have the potential to best the Prolima Megahal...

I mount coolers on my DG45FC using #8 machine screws, nuts and non-conductive washers. You can't tighten them up as much as you can with the stock hardware, but I haven't seen any disadvantage to this. My board is mounted flat in an HTPC, so no issues with the weight of the cooler bending the board...

axee wrote:What about H50's noise caracter? Is pump audiable?

I would like to know this too.

I am currently using the Intel DG45FC miniITX motherboard for my fileserver. The CPU is an Intel E5200, probably one of the most bored E5200 in the world as all it does is serve me files once in a while. Consequently it is mostly idling and does not need any excessive cooling. However I still want q...

This new case from InWin deserves a mention. Although the front is very ugly (personal opinion) it conforms to the majority of my requirements. The case is not yet available but was spotted at CES by AnandTech here: http://www.anandtech.com/tradeshows/showdoc.aspx?i=3710&p=3 Unnamed InWin case http:...

A Corsair rep on another forum said the HX450 would not be replaced. The difference in cost to make a 450w and 650w PS of the same quality and features is negligible. To make money on the low powered ones the price has to be so high that very few are sold. This makes me very sad indeed. Even though...

A low wattage, high efficiency, modular power supply... that makes a lot of sense to me. But now one of the best ones has dissapeared from all swedish retailers, and a quick glance at american retailers amazon.com and newegg.com tells the same story. What is happening to the Corsair HX 450? http://w...

nutball wrote:One thing worth noting about the 3480 though - there are rumours around that it's going to be replaced with an "improved" version at some point in the near future.

That could be fantastic news. Lets hope for built in cable routing and maybe a better PSU. Oh, and a nicer front!

Some very good responses here, thanks everyone for sharing. The NSK 3480 is growing on me more and more. I particularely like that its on the cheap side, so modding it into a usable case does not feel like a big intrusion. Several here mentioned cube sized cases and the two top dogs are probably the...

Modding the NSK 3480 is not a bad idea! I searched and found the thread you were probably referring too. Krick's Antec NSK3480 - behind the tray cable management As far as what a powerhouse for me is; it would be something along the lines of an Intel Quad Core i5 + ATI HD5850. I guess for most peopl...

My next computer is going to be a uATX powerhouse. This should be a computer with a single boot drive (SSD) and possibly, but not nescessarely, a DVD-ROM. I dont think I am the only one that wants to go this route, however I havent found a single case that does it right. In my humble opinion the way...

The sideways HDD trays will block a lot of airflow from those front fans. I agree about that, but its a trade off I suppose. Mounting harddrives the normal direction will instead yield a cable hell inside the box. By the way, I own the P182b and really love it. However I never did understand the be...

Here is a heads up to what seems to be a very well thought out case; Fractal Design - Define R2. I can't wait for a review from SPCR to pick it a part. Fractal Design have taken the good things from the P182 ( space behind motherboard tray, clear front --> back airflow design ) and improved several ...

This might seem like a very specific question, but I am simply looking for an answer to the following. Does the lower intel CPU models draw equally much power if overclocked to the same frequency as a high cost model? Maybee someone has seen some power consumtion numbers on overclocked CPU's? I'm ha...

4) Which boards have decent fan control and/or are compatible with speedfan? The Abit's seem to be the best in this regard, but only the "Pro" version features the uGuru chip. Does the IP35 (non-pro) work with speedfan? Does it have any bios fan control at all? I can answer atleast part of this. Al...

Wow, very nice overcklock. Im considering the same setup, but the board doesnt seem to have a DVI output. Is there something like that in the ascessories if you dont mind me asking?

Right now I have a very old case, to which I have added som basic wheels. Planning to buy the Antec P182 case I would like to know how easy it is to add wheels to it. I've looked at the case at the lokal computershop and it doesnt look all that easy. There are all kinds of things blocking the positi...

I just helped a friend build a system with the GA-P35C-DS3R, DDR2/3 support, and a Q6600. It works great. Fan control was strange. I'm fond of Abit's uguru controls. Even though they're limited to 8v min, if you already have decent low speed fans, it shouldn't be an issue. I vote for the Abit. rybo...

I have a similair problem, a new high pitched whine when I introduced the Samsung 250 Gb to my system. However Im not sure if it indeed is the HD making the noise. As far as I can tell the sound is evident everytime there is activity on the USB-bus. Is that the same problem you have? Unfortunatly I ...

I've tried once again to locate that sound, but its impossible to position in. I've tried turning my head back and forth and all kinds of things. The sounds does seem stronger around the back of the motherboard and im now pretty sure its not the harddrive. My PSU is a Seasonic S12 500W so im really ...

Just bought a Samsung Spinpoint 250 Gb with the Nidec motor. Its comparable to my Seagate Barracuda 7200.7 120 Gb wich is a very good grade. The drive is still the dominating noisemaker over my Zalman 7000B-Cu and VF700-Cu (both on lowest voltage), but I would still recommend it. However, whenever I...

This is something I am very interested in aswell. What are the contestants though? Googling a bit I cameup with 3 similair products:

Smart Drive 2002C
Nexus Drive-a-Way
AC Ryan XTOR Xilencer
MCubed hdd vertical silence

Any others?

I see you are using the Blue Storm yourself. Would you say Protechnic fan is better or worse then the Yate Loon? If nescessary I will fanswap to a Nexus or Pabst fan.