Thank you so much for your replies so far - I probably should have been more specific in my original post, it's just my computing life, like my real life, is in a state of flux making it hard to determine what I need or want, which yeah, I realise makes it hard to get good advice. My comment "Basica...

G'day all, Having been so helped by SPCR'ers 6 years ago and so satisfied with the quiet results from my bought-in-2005-silenced-in-2006 PC, I haven't upgraded since - just been enjoying quiet computing for light computing tasks. However it looks like I finally need to upgrade as Grumpy can't handle...

It is a great card and article, and all I have to offer is a request to fix this spelling mistake:

"For those obsessed with silent computing, adding a high-end graphics card without some kind of quiet, third party cooler, is propesterous."

I would suggest "preposterous" and a spell-checker . . .

Yeah interesting news for sure - thanks as always for keeping us up to date from a silent perspective. I have been waiting for years for SSD's to get seriously mainstream, with Intel doing this it's going to force the issue quickly. Everyone has known the bottleneck has been HDD's for ages, even wit...

yeah, what wrong said is right . . . this is better than virtualisation in that a simul multi user in the one OS on the one PC is even more efficient than a virtual PC running on the same PC and having one user in each.

fans dont just stop with no visible or audible warnings beforehand. never seen it or heard of it happening. they start making noises way before they fail. so its not like one day your playing your favorite online game and with no warning your cpu fan just stops for no reason. it just doesnt happen ...

I thought I'd read an article here, possibly by fmah, (in his fanless / passive cooled "reference" article? ) but although searches show a hit the page isn't available any more. Maybe it's been archived or something . . . it had a fair bit of detail of someone building heatpipes from copper pipes an...

It would be great if the CPU list could be updated with some of the latest CPU models - Core 2 Duo's and AMD's Dual Core's etc . . . I am looking at building a new standard PC for a friend and was looking for a specific thread posted by a newbie a while ago (maybe a year) asking "what components etc...

You could go a lot lower PSU than even the 2 you mention. My PC (A64 3500+ / 1 GB RAM / 2 x WD SATA II 250 GB HDD's / 6600 GT / Gigabyte K8N Ultra9 mobo / DL DVD-RW / 5 x fans initially / 5 x USB devices) draws <100W through my AC power measuring device. I know your CPU is slightly higher and GPU mi...

Thanks for your input ecto - I think if there is a bit of longitudinal airflow (as I intend to place them in a 5.25" bay and draw air through the heatsink gap) it should be fine (link a cpu tower style heatsink). The bottom one is a bitch to DIY due to the number of folds. The top one is simple, one...

I first became interested in quieting PC's about a year ago when I bought 2 new A64 3500+ PC's and was subjected to 5 fans going full-bore. Since then I have become somewhat obsessed with the idea of silent computing - (my definition of silence as opposed to 0db is "at least below the ambient room n...

Can anyone at SPCR say how the weight is distributed in the heatsink? One thing that initially attracted me to the Ninja was a couple places (SPCR included) commenting how most of the weight seemed to be in the base. Maybe someone who has a Ninja and someone who has an Infinity could place it on so...

Wow... now that's a dissapointment. I tought that: 1) the Infinity could be used passively 2) given it's bigger, heavier and all that it would perform better than the Ninja Glad I bought 1 extra Ninja in prevision for my new computers later this year. They do seem to be harder to find now.... 1) It...

I bought 5 x Nexus 120mm fans, and to be honest, the 2 I have tried so far (at 12V) aren't that impressive - quite a lot of thrumming like they are off-balance and wobbling. Could be a bad batch but I thought Nexus cherry-picked YL's? I don't think they "cherry pick" them so much as have YL make th...

I just bought & installed a Scythe Infinity heatsink on my Athlon64 3500+ and it's cooling it passively no problem (30 deg C) with a 12V Nexus 120mm case fan and a never-ramps-up 120mm PSU fan. I went for the Infinity over the Ninja as the Infinity is a bit cheaper ($69 vs $89 AU$) and I figured it ...

Chris, First, thanks for the excellent article. Your attention to detail is terrific and is definitely worthy of a prominent posting in the DIY section. Second, I would like to know which specific applications you use, or intended to use, when designing the PC around the Intel CPU. I have no doubt g...

Dear All, I am organising the creation of a new Data Centre for a SME Down Under. ~100 users / 4 server racks / 2 comms racks + expansion capacity. As they are an SME budget is modest, and I am after 90% of the bang for 10% of the buck . . . or in this case 90% of the "silent bang". I know this foru...

I'm surprised no-one has pointed out that ipod's (and MP3 players in general) music quality is crap, and listening to crap quality music at loud volumes sounds even worse to me than at low volumes (despite the oft-repeated mantra that people prefer, other things being equal, louder music eg AB speak...

I had the power supply replaced under warranty. All has been well for over a week - blissful peace and quiet at last. I forgot to mention before it was my office PC doing that, I reckon that particular HP model was pretty well designed for a normal office ambient noise level it was "noiseless" - les...

Hi everyone (first post) :) First, many thanks for such a wealth of information provided in articles and on these forums. I have been lurking and reading (nearly) everything for the last few weeks, and it's been terrific to see so many low/no cost solutions using common materials to the silent + coo...