I am also curious about this (Bump!)

Brilliant, thank you!

This'll be my first time doing this, so please forgive me if I'm worrying needlessly. I'm replacing the HSF on my Sapphire Radeon 9800 Pro (it's been really noisy for too long now). How do I get the stock HSF off? Is this pretty much correct? http://www.quietpcusa.com/vgainstall.html Should the card...

Ooh, I was wondering this too. I think I'll try that Sharpie trick. Thanks!

Hola All, I've joined as =TangoCharlie=! I haven't been folding in a long time, but I figure I might as well put this new PC to some good use, as opposed to just letting it wait around for me to play COD2. And I suppose as a little thank-you for being such an awesome community while I whined about h...

I'd be interested to hear people's thoughts on this, too - I have a 7800gt, and it practically stretches from the back of the case (duh) to the front drive cages. Factoring in its slot location (A8N-SLI Premium), it effectively divides the case into an upper and lower half. I'm wondering if I should...

I have that Seasonic PSU, and the only downside is that it's so quiet, you'll realize how much noise all your other components are making. The cabling is not too hard to tuck away if your case has room for it.

Ha ha, I gave my old sticks back to NCIX for a new pair, and so far (knock on wood) the system's performing perfectly!
Sincere thank yous to everyone who offered advice and support!

Now all I need to do is quiet the damn thing. Heh heh.

GeezerMan wrote:I mailed it back via DHL from Texas to California

Ah, yes. I would be shipping from Vancouver, Canada.

I don't suppose the person you spoke to was W. Willis?

Looks are subjective, of course, and I prefer the looks of the Lian-Li Heh heh, there's actually one of their top-of-the line models that is just gorgeous. Though the 150$ price difference sort of put that model off my list. I was offered an A4 revised power supply when I sent my A3 back last week....

I also haven't read all the posts in detail, but when I think of what I would like to fill the role you've described (and I'm not being cheeky here), I think a Mac Mini would fit the bill. Especially now with Boot Camp. Of course, you may need an external HDD for that, but I believe LaCie makes some...

It is definitely a weird RAM problem. I finally got around to swapping the RAM. Initially I had one stick in slot A1 and the other in B1. Just Stick 1 in Slot A1: - passed the memory test, a bit slow to load, but booted without issue. - 2nd time, booted without issue again. Just Stick 2 in Slot A1: ...

I had an Antec NeoHE 430, as part of a P150. I had read this thread before purchasing it, so I'm not surprised or anything... but now I want to return it and I find out that I'm to pay for the shipping. I don't think it's worth the time or cost RMAing it, which is a shame since it's a pretty poor mo...

fastturtle : I'll try that. Last night, with just one stick in slot A1, the system did two cold boots without any apparent problems. I will try some more combinations tonight. I'm not absolutely sure I have enough power, though considering everything I heard regarding hype around wattage ratings, I...

Just stuck my head in with a flashlight... I'm not sure exactly what I'm looking for as far as "bad caps" go, but everything looks clean and properly connected.

Alright, in the BIOS i notice that the board has a "quickboot" feature, which "skips some tests". I turned it off, and now the machine runs the memory test that we all know and love. It takes a while to go through the 2GB, but for the first boot, I get a "Memory Test Failed" message! The second boot...

Update: I've run Mersenne Prime from 12:30 to 3:00, and all tests passed successfully. This was off a warm boot.

Also, thank you for the link to that UBCD. The thing's fantastic!

Edit: I'll try it on a cold boot and see what happens.

I'll give that a shot. N00b question, though: Prime 95 is the same as "Mersenne Prime Test", correct? Also, the machine doesn't seem to have trouble running stably (admittedly under everyday tasks) after the third boot - I just wish it would work the first time. Though I suppose stress-testing it wo...

I have my HDD loaded on the P150's soft'n'squishy trays... they're really, really squishy washers between the metal parts, so I have a hard time believing it's that much noisier than using the bands. Umm... what about consolidating the drives to fewer, larger drives? They're getting cheaper and chea...

Hello all, this isn't a silencing issue, but this forum has been so informative during my pc-building experience that I thought I'd give it a try. Also, I've posted the same topic in the Anandtech forums - I think that's bad etiquette, so I apologize. So, I'll try to summarize this as quickly as pos...

This is pure subjectivity (almost), but I'm ready to swear by Seagate. They've been loveley to me, lasted longer than any other component in my PC, and I have two stacked on top of each other with poor ventilation (stupid case). The IT guys at a studio I worked at said the WDs in their servers would...

I have a single Panasonic floppy mounted in mine, using (if I recall correctly) the sides to screw the drive to the tray. It sticks out quite a bit, so yes - I suppose the faceplate is doing the rest of the work. Though I can't imagine it's much. There was a bit of side-to-side play with the drive l...

Wow. Quick! Ha ha, Mike - you must get a dozen emails a day from folks asking for help. I think I'll *gulp* take it down to the local Geek Squad and ask them to trouble-shoot the parts, starting with the PSU. Man, do I ever feel like a suburban housewife. I suppose that you would recommend a Seasoni...

[Edit] Okay, it DOES actually boot, but it's completely unpredictable and unstable. My mistake. Hello All, So, last week I bought the parts and I started my first PC build - a system very similar to Mike C's "Torrid Thailand" PC without any of the fancier quieting equipment. P150, A8N-SLI Premium, A...

Have you checked this out? http://www.silentpcreview.com/article30-page1.html

My understanding is that as long as it's supposed to fit the socket type, and it clears all your mobo (and other) components, it'll work.

Right?

Hmm. That's a shame... I'd like to build and X2 system and be able to utilize Cool'n'Quiet... From your post, Tibors, you make it sound as if newer mobos may be more compatible with CnQ than older models. Or does X2 pose a problem universally? It makes sense... two cores, so how do you adjust the po...

Ooh, hey - Just wanted to say thanks, Mike, for the excellent article. Eerily similar to a system I'm planning on building.
Cheers!

Hmm... read about this one in a thread two threads below... It's expensive, and I certainly don't plan on taking advantage of the SLI, but at least it should be quiet!

http://www.ncix.com/products/index.php? ... omoid=1006

I'm having the exact same problem - I'm trying to find a good mobo for an X2 4400+. DFI and Asus NF4 Ultra boards all seem to have various problems, nevermind the cooling/noise horror stories. I'd love to pick up an Epox 9NPA+ (great reviews, and it actually comes with a serial port and firewire), e...

Well, no, and I don't very many other folks will be using QT to... um ... distribute media. It's just an example. I'm thinking of some unknown mystery HD codec.

Thanks for the heads-up on Socket939, darthan. That's probably a good idear.