Search found 47 matches
- Wed Jul 29, 2009 8:13 pm
- Forum: Video Cards & Monitors
- Topic: Questions over High Performace Video Card for an HTPC
- Replies: 14
- Views: 7663
I picked up a run-of-the-mill Radeon HD 4890 (the Diamond, non-overclocked version). Stock cooler on it is LOUD at boot but then I don't hear a peep from it - even after gaming for a few hours. I don't know how it manages to be so silent for such a massive card (the thing is a massive beast... pictu...
- Wed Jul 29, 2009 5:14 pm
- Forum: Video Cards & Monitors
- Topic: VGA card power dissipation
- Replies: 136
- Views: 347780
Yes, the Radeon HD 4890 seems to be the current efficiency winner, at least if your goal is playing modern games... which if it isn't... why are you buying a 3D card? I went over the performance numbers and power consumption for about 80 different cards on various review sites, and found not only th...
- Wed Jul 29, 2009 4:14 pm
- Forum: Power Supplies
- Topic: How much will a 300w power supply run?
- Replies: 284
- Views: 1258417
I'm using an Antec Phantom 350, which oddly enough if you google brings you to THIS site because Antec discontinued it! Which is cruel given how amazing this part has been. You can't even visit the support page for it on their site anymore - they've put a Javascript redirect on it to their homepage....
- Sun Sep 16, 2007 9:02 pm
- Forum: Green Computing
- Topic: White power reduction
- Replies: 11
- Views: 11695
This is an important issue with LCDs. Do not use black screensavers - they aren't saving anything! You do save 1watt, but much more importantly you preserve the life of the liquid crystals, leading you to not throw that monitor - or laptop - away as soon. That has a very significant savings to the e...
- Sun Sep 16, 2007 7:37 pm
- Forum: Green Computing
- Topic: is power management bad for your monitor?
- Replies: 20
- Views: 16055
This is not true for LCD monitors. LCD monitors are basically 'instant on' and therefore there is no state change for anything in the monitor and therefore almost no wear and tear from turning on and off. Whoever sold you this was selling you "Whatever's new is perfect," and just like last decade's...
- Sun Sep 16, 2007 6:10 pm
- Forum: Video Cards & Monitors
- Topic: GeForce 8800 Ultra - great silent card potential?
- Replies: 20
- Views: 12817
- Sun Sep 16, 2007 5:50 pm
- Forum: System Advice / Troubleshooting
- Topic: Considering a new (budget) PC
- Replies: 44
- Views: 15712
- Sun Sep 16, 2007 5:44 pm
- Forum: System Advice / Troubleshooting
- Topic: Noisy LCD Monitors (high-pitched backlight whining)
- Replies: 17
- Views: 17465
- Sun Sep 16, 2007 5:25 pm
- Forum: Silent Storage
- Topic: 740ADFD Raptor 74GB vs Spinpoint T166 HD321KJ in Antec Solo
- Replies: 19
- Views: 9427
RAID0 is a contested solution for single-user desktop systems. StorageReview.com has a lengthy article on why they think it's a dumb idea. I used to use RAID0 with 2 36gb Raptors and noticed an improvement in speed especially when loading Photoshop, but the experts say I didn't. So, word to the wise...
- Sun Sep 16, 2007 5:21 pm
- Forum: Off Topic
- Topic: Anyone measure their computer usage
- Replies: 5
- Views: 4430
- Sun Sep 16, 2007 5:20 pm
- Forum: Fans and Control
- Topic: Intel QST?
- Replies: 2
- Views: 2085
- Sun Sep 16, 2007 5:17 pm
- Forum: Cases and Damping
- Topic: P182 Biggest GPU ?
- Replies: 13
- Views: 6112
The P180/182 is freaking massive. If you've never seen one in person I bet it's much larger than you think. And the P182 adds even more steel so I bet it's much, much heavier than you think. With the VGA vent gone I doubt there's a graphics card on the market that won't fit in that case. By the way ...
- Wed May 23, 2007 9:22 am
- Forum: Video Cards & Monitors
- Topic: GeForce 8800 Ultra - great silent card potential?
- Replies: 20
- Views: 12817
- Tue May 22, 2007 2:20 am
- Forum: System Advice / Troubleshooting
- Topic: Recommend a Silent Mouse and Keyboard?
- Replies: 481
- Views: 842972
Surely an optical mouse uses more energy - I mean afterall, a ball mouse is actually getting free electricity - you're providing it. Moving the mouse means your arm is physically turning the wheels and creating the electrical signal that ultimately tells the computer what your mouse is doing. The op...
- Tue May 22, 2007 2:15 am
- Forum: Off Topic
- Topic: How Do I Set the Priority Settings for Mouse, Again?
- Replies: 6
- Views: 4043
The mouse doesn't have its own process, it's one of many items on your computer governed by a driver, and drivers are represented in Task Manager as "Kernel Time." You need to enable Kernel time separately in the View menu. If you see the red bar spiking frequently you've got a runaway driver proble...
- Tue May 22, 2007 12:18 am
- Forum: Quiet Prebuilt, SFF and Barebones Systems
- Topic: Specifying/configuring a media server
- Replies: 25
- Views: 14503
TomsHardware.com is one of the worst hardware review sites online. Stop wasting your time there, it will help you a lot. I've read reviews of theirs on hardware I've had in my system and the details they miss or dwell on are ridiculous, and often just factually incorrect. For hard drives look at Sto...
- Mon May 21, 2007 9:42 pm
- Forum: Silent Storage
- Topic: Best 500GB SATA
- Replies: 10
- Views: 6535
- Sat May 19, 2007 12:32 pm
- Forum: Video Cards & Monitors
- Topic: GeForce 8800 Ultra - great silent card potential?
- Replies: 20
- Views: 12817
What's the point of buying $800+ card if you are going to undervolt/underclock it and therefore lose all of the performance perks? Well, that's the beauty of hardware - sure it costs $800 right now . But people clicking the below link in 6 months will see a dramatically lower price: http://www.goog...
- Fri May 18, 2007 6:40 pm
- Forum: The Silent Front
- Topic: Is there a use for Peltiers in Silent computing?
- Replies: 35
- Views: 30924
SoopahMan - yes you can use it to generate electricity but what for? ... peltiers can be used as a voltage source like batteries, but here we are solely interested in cooling right? For keeping things cool! If the electricity that comes out is fed back into the system to power it, then you reduce t...
- Fri May 18, 2007 6:33 pm
- Forum: SPCR Article Discussion
- Topic: Western Digital drives: Raptor 74 & Caviar SE 250
- Replies: 64
- Views: 65442
I have a 74gb and 150gb Raptor running side by side right now. The 150gb is audible when busy, while the 74gb is almost impossible to hear in my Antec P180. That doesn't mean it's silent, it means the massive steel enclosure that is the P180 blocks out the 74gb one well but the 150gb is just a littl...
- Fri May 18, 2007 6:07 pm
- Forum: Video Cards & Monitors
- Topic: GeForce 8800 Ultra - great silent card potential?
- Replies: 20
- Views: 12817
GeForce 8800 Ultra - great silent card potential?
The GeForce 8800 Ultra is one of those 2-slot cards that doesn't LOOK quiet, but I ran into the following article: http://techreport.com/reviews/2007q2/geforce-8800ultra/index.x?pg=1 Which notes, "Nvidia says the Ultra packs a new revision of G80 silicon that allows for higher clock speeds in a simi...
- Thu Jan 18, 2007 9:29 pm
- Forum: The Silent Front
- Topic: Is there a use for Peltiers in Silent computing?
- Replies: 35
- Views: 30924
I've read up more on Peltier chips and found the primary reason they generally aren't used: they're inefficient. If you have this big GPU heating itself up towards disaster and put a Peltier chip on it, what you're implicitly not doing is putting a heatsink and fan on it - and it turns out most Pelt...
- Thu Jan 18, 2007 1:53 pm
- Forum: Video Cards & Monitors
- Topic: Reduce GPU fan speed?
- Replies: 19
- Views: 12440
I ultimately used RivaTuner to solve this once I figured out the impressively confusing Profiles feature. I'm yet to figure out what appears to be the other Profiles feature that will launch settings automatically in response to temps - right now I just manually switch on the Launcher. If I had the ...
- Thu Jan 18, 2007 1:38 pm
- Forum: General Gallery
- Topic: P180 Success Story
- Replies: 8
- Views: 9671
Just a follow-up to this old thread - first, anyone else build a system with a similar plan? My system continues to run nicely. I've since moved to Los Angeles and even in 110F this minimal cooling solution did the trick. The worst it's gotten is 43C on the hard drives and 80C on the graphics card, ...
- Thu Sep 01, 2005 10:14 pm
- Forum: Cases and Damping
- Topic: P180 + external HDs = A64 X2 system 100% fanless at idle
- Replies: 11
- Views: 5450
- Sun Aug 28, 2005 9:50 pm
- Forum: System Advice / Troubleshooting
- Topic: Upgrading current computer...just want some second opinions.
- Replies: 13
- Views: 5135
I'm running a DFI nForce4 LanParty and its heat is a non-issue. That same board will let you skip bothering to get a soundcard; the risers it uses for the sound ports combined with nVidia's sound (even without SoundStorm) gives me the best audio quality and performance I've ever had. Its primary adv...
- Sat Aug 27, 2005 9:23 pm
- Forum: The Silent Front
- Topic: Is there a use for Peltiers in Silent computing?
- Replies: 35
- Views: 30924
Peltiers are really making the rounds after that Utah science fair article hit Slashdot... . As long as I have the eyes of some people who know something about Peltiers can anyone riddle me this? Would it be possible to use the massive heat created by a GPU to generate electricity? Peltier chips hav...
- Sat Aug 27, 2005 9:17 pm
- Forum: The Silent Front
- Topic: Intel Blows Hot for Cold
- Replies: 4
- Views: 3900
I slam Intel a lot for the awful 197 Watt sucking Pentium 4 Extreme Edition, but really they're a company that tried to make a highly efficient CPU (Itanium) and failed, and so went with clock speeds and anti-competitive practices (Dell payoffs) scraping to survive. Itanium is still their ace in the...
- Sat Aug 27, 2005 8:31 pm
- Forum: General Gallery
- Topic: P180 Success Story
- Replies: 8
- Views: 9671
Natural Convection and Hotter Cards I continue to not be a Thermal Engineer and can check in with my dad again, but this ought to accomplish 2 things, I suspect: 1) Increase the rate of flow of air up the chamber. 2) Increase the temperature of that air as it passes over the remaining parts - CPU, ...
- Sat Aug 27, 2005 7:58 pm
- Forum: Video Cards & Monitors
- Topic: Reduce GPU fan speed?
- Replies: 19
- Views: 12440
Start by monitoring the temps to see what you get without messing with the fan. If you have an nForce board you can do so with nVMonitor - it's a part of nTune, which you can download for free from nVidia/drivers.