Search found 50 matches

by scandium
Mon Oct 22, 2007 9:07 am
Forum: Silent Storage
Topic: Confused - Looking for the quietest drive available
Replies: 4
Views: 3889

Re: Confused - Looking for the quietest drive available

What is puzzling me now is that 5400 RPM drives are not discussed here much - what's wrong with them, aren't they made any longer? Not made any longer. I read a lot of good things about the SE16 5000AAKS drive by WD here on the forums, but i understand that it uses some sort of combined interface w...
by scandium
Sat Oct 20, 2007 3:14 pm
Forum: System Advice / Troubleshooting
Topic: Upper Midrange Gaming-Rig
Replies: 19
Views: 8168

Tom's Hardware did an article on it fairly recently http://www.tomshardware.com/2007/09/12/pentium_dual_core/index.html They had the E2160 running stable @ 3.2 GHz on air by raising the FSB to 335 MHz. They used DDR2-800 but ran it at DDR2-880. Board they used was the popular Gigabyte P35-DS3P. Sinc...
by scandium
Sat Oct 20, 2007 2:54 pm
Forum: Silent Storage
Topic: Problem installing XP on WD 500 GB SATA2
Replies: 2
Views: 1960

Thanks for the response. So far we're leaning toward the board/bios/controller. He was using one of the 500s as a non-boot drive before getting the 2nd WD with no problems, and can use either drive without problems provided he boots off a something other than either of these two drives. They also te...
by scandium
Sat Oct 20, 2007 10:54 am
Forum: Silent Storage
Topic: Problem installing XP on WD 500 GB SATA2
Replies: 2
Views: 1960

Problem installing XP on WD 500 GB SATA2

Tossing this out here to pick the brains of any SPCRers that might have either come across this, or have an idea as to where the issue is: A friend has 2 WD 500 GB SATA2 HDs, both are visible and accessible from within Windows XP, however whenever he tries to install XP on either of them it stalls a...
by scandium
Sat Oct 20, 2007 10:34 am
Forum: Newcomers Briefing Room
Topic: Need quick heatsink advice.
Replies: 7
Views: 5186

I'll second the recommendation for the Scythe Katana 2, its what I'm using on my 3.2 GHz P4 641. The HSF is relatively small (compared to other heat pipe sinks), light, quiet, and inexpensive. I likewise bought it to replace the stock Intel HSF, and it is truly night and day... that thing was up the...
by scandium
Sat Oct 20, 2007 10:18 am
Forum: Power Supplies
Topic: The last power supply you will ever need!
Replies: 22
Views: 10215

It would have to have an awful weird curve to be more efficient at real-world loads than a more realistic PSU. I'm all for erring a little on the side of too much power than too little (mainly because I upgrade components often, and don't want to replace my PSU everytime I add say a new video card) ...
by scandium
Sat Oct 20, 2007 10:06 am
Forum: System Advice / Troubleshooting
Topic: Upper Midrange Gaming-Rig
Replies: 19
Views: 8168

Re: Upper Mid-End Gaming-Rig

A.On the CPU side my impression is that AMD gives me better value. Depends. On the upper end of the processing ladder Intel wins by default, simply because AMD has yet to offer anything that competes. On the lower tiers, it depends, in part, on whether or not you're willing to overclock. If you are...
by scandium
Fri Oct 19, 2007 9:08 am
Forum: Video Cards & Monitors
Topic: Good and lower power usage Video Card
Replies: 4
Views: 3167

elec999 wrote:I like Aero and the Dreamscene. I was looking at a dirt cheap Asus using ATI Hd2400 and 256mb.
Thanks
Looks ok to me. They also make a fanless version of this card and the price is pretty good too.
by scandium
Thu Oct 18, 2007 6:17 am
Forum: System Advice / Troubleshooting
Topic: Case Fans Necessary?
Replies: 3
Views: 2428

Stepping is D0. I ran it over night w/ no case fans and temps were 53C CPU and 40C case. Those were from the bios though, I've yet to find any software that reads the sensors on this board. This morning I put a fanmate I had kicking around on the 80 mm exhaust fan below the PSU and ambient noise lev...
by scandium
Wed Oct 17, 2007 10:36 pm
Forum: The Silent Front
Topic: Tom's a bad source for info...
Replies: 16
Views: 12429

Tom's isn't as good as it used to be, but its still one of the tech sites I regularly skim. As with others here, it was the first site I began to visit regularly. In response to the previous post, some of the other tech sites I visit at least now and then (YMMV): Xtreme Systems, [H]ardOCP, and Anand...
by scandium
Wed Oct 17, 2007 10:16 pm
Forum: System Advice / Troubleshooting
Topic: Case Fans Necessary?
Replies: 3
Views: 2428

Case Fans Necessary?

My PC specs: P4 641 (3.2 GHz HT) w/ Scythe Katana 2 HSF Intel 945GZ MB Evga 7800 GT OC w/ AC Silencer 2x1GB Mushkin EM DDR2 w/ heat spreaders Silverstone Element 500W PSU Seagate 7200.9 160GB SATA2 HD WD 250 GB SATA2 HD Phillips DVD-RW Modified full tower case Why no case fans? Transferred the inter...
by scandium
Wed Oct 17, 2007 9:35 pm
Forum: System Advice / Troubleshooting
Topic: Quiet Internet [Storage] Low Budget PC
Replies: 11
Views: 6803

Having just purchased a freezer pro 64, keep in mind it is not the best cooler, although it is a good deal. The real problem is that the stock fan at full speed produces a lot of turbulance noise, mostly due to the fins being too close to the fan and also too close together? Don't know what you mea...
by scandium
Fri Oct 12, 2007 1:33 pm
Forum: System Advice / Troubleshooting
Topic: Rebuild old machine into silent download box
Replies: 9
Views: 4971

I recommended the Scythe Katana 2 in another thread, will do so here as well... very inexpensive, quiet, and its also lightweight (an added bonus).
by scandium
Fri Oct 12, 2007 1:22 pm
Forum: Silent Storage
Topic: Recent Samsung drive failure rates?
Replies: 51
Views: 33888

You have one Samsung drive fail on you and that causes you to dismiss Samsung drives forever? This thinking is just crazy, IMHO. Not just because the drive failed, but because my experience with it was nothing special to justify trying another. At the time the drive failed I was given the option of...
by scandium
Fri Oct 12, 2007 5:42 am
Forum: Silent Storage
Topic: Recent Samsung drive failure rates?
Replies: 51
Views: 33888

After buying a Spinpoint 1614N 160gb, manufactured in Feb 2005, because it was reviewed to be very quiet and then later have it die (bad sectors) a bit more than a year later and just out of warranty, I now make it a point to only purchase Seagate drives with their 5 year warranties. Had the same m...
by scandium
Fri Oct 12, 2007 4:40 am
Forum: CPU Cooling
Topic: Any recomendations? LGA775
Replies: 12
Views: 8060

Given your criteria, my recommendation would be the Scythe Katana2. This is a very lightweight heat pipe cooler w/ a quiet, 100 mm 1600 rpm Scythe fan. Its also inexpensive: I picked mine up to go on my P4 641 for $28 w/ included fan. Much cheaper than the Thermalright XP90, taking into account that...
by scandium
Mon Feb 27, 2006 10:49 pm
Forum: CPU Cooling
Topic: HSF install gone horribly awry
Replies: 4
Views: 2571

I'm still amazed that it survived the beating it took. After about an hour or so of gaming all seems well and the only thing I'm really concerned about at this point, still, are the drives. The one that crashed into the motherboard is a few week old replacement for one that went bad on me with bad s...
by scandium
Mon Feb 27, 2006 8:42 pm
Forum: CPU Cooling
Topic: HSF install gone horribly awry
Replies: 4
Views: 2571

HSF install gone horribly awry

My AC Freezer Pro 64 arrived today and midway into installing it had the stuff of nightmares occur. I'd just removed the stock hsf and cleaned gunk off the cpu when I realized that the height & position of the northbridge HS prevented the AC Freezer from clipping on one side of the cpu bracket. Sinc...
by scandium
Mon Feb 20, 2006 6:13 pm
Forum: The Silent Front
Topic: Lowest power consumption for DivX encoding
Replies: 35
Views: 36941

I think you'd get more efficiency out of a Sempron64 than you would out of a mobile Barton. the onboard mem controller on the S754 would outperform the Barton-M, clock for clock, and particularly shine in memory intensive apps like encoding, while the Sempron64 is also desktop friendly (giving it an...
by scandium
Mon Feb 20, 2006 2:13 pm
Forum: Silent Storage
Topic: high temps for wd2000js?
Replies: 13
Views: 6250

so i can connect a SATA2 on a SATA1 cable? Yes. This hard drive also has a jumper on back (near the SATA connectors and labeled on the sticker on top of the drive) to force SATA1 compatability (because some hd/mb combinations have problems with the "autosensing" and without the jumper you can have ...
by scandium
Mon Feb 20, 2006 2:09 pm
Forum: CPU Cooling
Topic: PIII 550 with a VGA cooler?
Replies: 7
Views: 3515

I use a quiet 60 mm Nidec fan attached to the slot 1 HS of my P3-450 (using plastic tiewraps) and it keeps it pretty cool.
by scandium
Mon Feb 20, 2006 2:03 pm
Forum: System Advice / Troubleshooting
Topic: Upgrade from Athlon Xp-M 2500+ to 64 world
Replies: 13
Views: 5734

Re: Upgrade from Athlon Xp-M 2500+ to 64 world

Socket 939 prices are going to go up not down. They have been going up the past few months. [/b] I've noticed they've gone up as well, though here in Canada its only this month that they suddenly began to surge upward (at least on the CPUs we were following: I'd ordered new board/cpu in Dec and a f...
by scandium
Sun Feb 19, 2006 7:54 pm
Forum: System Advice / Troubleshooting
Topic: Upgrade from Athlon Xp-M 2500+ to 64 world
Replies: 13
Views: 5734

Re: Upgrade from Athlon Xp-M 2500+ to 64 world

Each has their advantages & drawbacks: Athlon64 (single core): often the best bang for the buck for raw cpu power and processor speed. Dual cores are not yet that widely supported application/game wise (since few apps/games have been multithreading recoded/developed). Opteron (single core): double t...
by scandium
Sun Feb 19, 2006 12:44 am
Forum: Silent Storage
Topic: 3x Samsung sp2504c vs WD raptor 150gb
Replies: 53
Views: 24203

It provided some first hand experiences with the the 74 & 150 GB Raptors :)
by scandium
Sun Feb 19, 2006 12:32 am
Forum: Video Cards & Monitors
Topic: MSI Radeon X1300Pro 256mb, questions
Replies: 8
Views: 3463

Another option is to use an Antec Vcool to blow air onto the card that's brought in from outside the case via its intake. It has a 3 way speed control and is pretty quiet on the low and medium settings. You need two free slots below your card though.
by scandium
Sun Feb 19, 2006 12:27 am
Forum: Video Cards & Monitors
Topic: Please help a video card idiot!
Replies: 11
Views: 5053

In my purely subjective opinion I find ATI provides better 2D & video quality than nvidia. The 9xxx cards are beginning to show some age (and I don't think any of them have HD support in hardware) so I wouldn't bother with a 9250, 9600 etc when you can get the newer x1xxx equivalents for roughly the...
by scandium
Sat Feb 18, 2006 10:48 pm
Forum: Silent Storage
Topic: high temps for wd2000js?
Replies: 13
Views: 6250

but hey...here's a question, SATA2 hard-disks are compatible with SATA1 too? they use the same type of connection? Yes, as well there's also a jumper on the back of the 2000JS to force SATA1 mode. Regarding the temps: based on my experience and that of others in this thread I don't think these temp...
by scandium
Fri Feb 17, 2006 8:26 pm
Forum: CPU Cooling
Topic: Will Swapping out the HSF Make a Big Difference?
Replies: 3
Views: 2111

Yeah you could try speedfan.
by scandium
Fri Feb 17, 2006 1:37 pm
Forum: CPUs and Motherboards
Topic: CnQ with OC?
Replies: 19
Views: 8885

Re: CnQ with OC?

... if theres no point in having CnQ then i'll get a 2500+ for more cache, and cheaper.. rather than a 3000+ That was my thinking when I chose the 2500+. In retrospect, and after doing more research on the effect of L2 cache on Sempron64, I might have been slightly better off with the $8 Cdn more a...
by scandium
Fri Feb 17, 2006 12:53 pm
Forum: CPUs and Motherboards
Topic: Some more info about AM2 processors
Replies: 53
Views: 19800

Just looking at the numbers makes me consider postponing my upgrade from Socket A. Not sure how many people are in the same boat I am, but if I waited this long to upgrade, I might as well wait a little longer for more details to come out. unfortunately I already decided on the parts that I want fo...