i would definitely recommend an ATI solution. They video is suppose to be a little better than Nvidia but I've never made a direct comparison. I would also recommend their newest line of cards in the X-1?00 series as ATI has made some adjustments in their architecture that should increase video perf...

you should do some reading on the different types of materials that are used as sound insulation and figure out exactly what type it is that you need. A decent reference for this can be found in the McMaster-Carr catalog on page 3298 (accessible via their website). Its also a decent place to start y...

if you are seriously considering installing some sort of foam absorber on top of your vinyl layer you might want to check out the stuff from mcmaster-carr. I know that they are a little pricey but their stuff is good, and it even gives you the measurments comparing asphalt with vinyl. The vinyl come...

I would recommend 2 things regarding this setup. Budget systems are great and all and prices have really fallen in recent years but budget and usable lifespan don't usually go together. You are certainly right to think about Vista compatibility but unfortunately Vista compatibility comes at a heftie...

I think many of you misread the original help request...but its partially my fault as i was a little unclear. I currently have an Asus DVD-E616P2 and an Asus DRW-1608P as my 2 optical drives. Although I can tolerate the occassional seeks, the problem I have is with the playing of DVDs and audio CDs....

I honestly don't have any experience with AC coolers and fanmates...but i'll give my 2 cents worth regarding your choice. I'd personally go with the AC choice for main reasons: 1.) cooling efficieny: the way the AC coolers are designed they are able to cool both the GPU as well as the memory (on the...

Firetech- Quote: I went the route of closing off the GPU grill and retaining the CPU grill but I removed the plastic adapter pieces for the CAG. I am currently in the process of installing acoustic 'stuff' and we'll see what kind of difference that makes. ~best of luck ot you! Did the tube not fit/l...

I am looking for a way to reduce the seek and idle spin noise of my optical drives. Though not the quietest drives around the noise during seek is somewhat irritating. I believe that most of the noise is coming from vibrations either against the case or from the entire drive itself. I was wondering ...

the CAG hole for the CPU definitely lowers case temps but I'm not exactly convinced that it lowers CPU temps more than 1º C on my machine anyway. It does however keep case temps down about 2º C. With the CPU overclocked to 2.6Ghz I noticed a drop on the CPU of about 2-3º C. With regards to your NB a...

with regards to your raptors...how high a temperature do they reach? I am almost using the open air technique (with just a fan filter w/o the front fan) and the highest I've seen my raptor temp reported in speedfan is 28º C with an ambient between 20-22º C. My hard drive cage is positioned right in ...

Case: it might be worth checking out the slk-3000 as it come highly reviewed and recommended by patrons of this site, and myself. CPU: I would personally upgrade that 3800+ to either a 4400+ or a 4800+. I say this because these chips have 2x1mb L2 instead of the 2x512kb L2 which would increase perfo...

definitely go with a combination of all 3 where space permits. Each of the 3 components serves its own distinctive purpose. On the first page of that mcmaster catalog is an explanation of how each of those 3 contributes to minimizing your perception of sound. it is generally regarded that aluminum c...

you should defenitly check out the section for cases on the main page that can be found here . As far as a tower goes the preference around here seems to be in the mid-tower line, the likes of the anted p-180/150 and the slk-3X00 series. Your 2 priorites for temps and quiet don't exactly go together...

Whats with the desire for a integrated solution anyway. They use processor power to run the graphics and use system memory as graphics memory. So the two most important system resources are going to be used to generate your graphics and will cut down performance of apps. I would just go with a stand...

You've done pretty much everything that people on this site do in terms of silencing techniques. One thing to remember though, silence is achieved more easily through components and not other silencing techniques like ducting etc. although it can help some. I would recommend you look at acoustic foa...

I was wondering what the range of temperatures people are reporting on the NB using both passive and active cooling. In particular with a MSI K8N Neo4 platinum. I previsouly had it overclocked to 2.6Ghz (237x11) with Prime95 stable for 12+ hours on both the 11x and 5x multi. I have since made some c...

I would certainly go with cutting out the rear fan grill and replacing it with a standard grill in light of your cat situation. I even went so far as to take my dremel and remove every other ring to allow increased airflow and less turbulance. This mod greatly cut down on the noise from my system an...

I would personally switch to an AMD system. I would almost guarantee that it runs faster than a similar P4 system and would probably run cooler. The TWD of an X2 vs a P4-dual (whatever the codename is) is definitly less. I think the numbers I remember reading are the intel at like 105 and the AMD at...

you should really check the height of those anchors because there isn't a whole lot of space beneath the mobo. I initially thought about useing anchors such as those but decided against it becuase I thought that they might cause the wire to be too high and hence touch the mobo. And besides...how oft...

I would just find some decently sticky tape and just tape the wire behind the mobo. Its a nice clean solution and unless the wire is extremely large of the tape job is extremely crappy it should never touch the mobo. If you're really worried you could use a wide width tape and then tape the entire l...

It might be a ram problem. Try reseating the modules after cleaning the slots using compressed air to blow out all the dust. Make sure they are in nice and tight. Then....run memtest for at least 30 minutes or 1 pass through the entire 8 tests. If it turns up an error, try increasing the voltage to ...

I was wondering what people thought about removing the intake fan and just increasing the exhaust fan airflow and how it would effect system temps as well as noise. The rationale behind this is that the intake fan has a open path to allow sound to escape since the front grille is cut out. This is al...

I don't think the tape would do anything to help with noise unless you used 20 layers and that would probably be unrealistic. In order to dampen a panel weight must be added to stiffen it up. If you're looking for a cheap way of doing it, vinyl tiles were used in this thread or this thread and a few...

tumlehund...in regards to you last post: I'm not the most into music editing and recording but I can verify that most onboard sound sucks. I've had 3 mobos that I've used the onboard sound on and it doesn't compare even to an old creative SB sound card. I used an older computer with a SB audigy 2ZS ...

dual channel mode does make quite a bit of difference on my rig with regards to the benchmarks scores. I think vertigo might be refering to the difference between 1T and 2T settings. Anyhow, thats for debate somewhere else. The onlt difference I would point out is that getting 1gb sticks means that ...

I can confirm what the others have said. I don't personally have the fan controlled via SpeedFan or any other utility but I don't really have a problem with the noise, and it seems pretty quiet to me. Its not the loudest thing in my case anyway...even while gaming. I might have some 'super' quiet......

i have a 3700+ San Diego (in my sig) with a stock multi of 11x and a stock speed of 2.2Ghz. I'm trying to boot at 10x because it makes the memory stable in both normal and CnQ enabled because they are multiples of each other and that doesn't make the memory run faster than its capable of with CnQ en...

I get the same result as other...my CPU runs cooler than my chipset with CnQ enabled. With CnQ I run about 26/28ºC (cpu/chipset) and without I get 28/28ºC and thats with my CPU overclocked 300Mhz to 2.5Ghz. Those temperature are with the ambient of 22º but I've seen my CPU run below the system on id...

thanks for the replies people. I'm not sure you all understand my problem though. I've tested the OC at the speed posted above and in my sig and it's stable for a few hours (at least) on Prime95. I then restart my system and enable CnQ in the BIOS (previously not enabled). I then restart to apply se...

I've got a small problem with enabling CnQ via the BIOS...when I enable it my system no longer boots to windows in a regular startup mode. I can boot into safe mode though. It goes through the loading windows screen and then switches to a solid blue screen (windows error screen) with nothing exept e...