I for one was clamoring for this review...

Oh wait, maybe that was for a case that had a slim chance of being quiet.

InWin paying the SPCR electric bill this month?

faugusztin wrote:You should do the same i did. Remove all the unused drive bays. Only if the whole 3,5" drive bay construction wouldn't be riveted but only screwed in, i would remove it ASAP.

1/8" drill bit solves the rivet problem

I don't understand the point of going with the Core i5-660 with the integrated video if you intend to use a discrete GPU. Go with the Core i5-760 for the same price and double the cores. However, if you don't require the turbo modes, then the Core i3-560 is a better deal. Core i5-660 3.33GHz / 3.60G...

Thanks for the recommendations. I have set my sights on either; Asus H55 + Core i3-530 or Asus 785G + Athlon II X2 245 + Sapphire Radeon HD 5670 . The two options come to around $175 each. I will just have to watch Newegg and my funds closely and catch them when there is a price drop or discount code.

How about investing 50$ more and get it soon back in electricity bills? Your kids ears would probably appreciate this solution too: http://www.thinkcomputers.org/asus-at3iont-i-deluxe-atom-330nvidia-ion-motherboard-review/ Anyway, at stock clock, the Atom 330 scored 2.30. That puts it in the realm ...

I'm looking to replace my kids hand-me-down Dell box. I'd like to bring it more in-line with the other two computers in the house. Money is tight right now, but the daily frustration has a price. The budget is ~$150US. Dell box: 2.4ghz (P4 era) Celeron, 1.25gb RAM, 100GB HDD, Intel IGP (82845G), Win...

I'll second the P183/CP-850 recommendation. (~$250)

Also, you should look at Silverstone Fortress 2 or Raven 2 paired with a Seasonic M12D-750/850. (~$375)

http://www.silentpcreview.com/article971-page7.html

My HTPC uses a 90 Watt PicoPSU with an athlon x2 2.0ghz at 1.05 volts. (65nm). And laptop hardrive with 2 gigs of ram. So i dont think that is too much for a Pico, but still dont care to go over budget. I highly doubt 7w max load is going to put you over capacity on your Pico-90, as long as your po...

An MDF carcase will need a frame and also needs to be sealed on both sides and all edges to avoid warping due to moisture ingress, a clear varnish was suggested to me - and paint the exterior afterwards. Yes, apply a sanding sealer after assembly. You won't need to sand and re-apply on the inside, ...

Nails and liberal use of wood glue holds MDF quite well, even butt joints. Circular saw with a fence clamped to the piece does fine for making dados that won't be seen on the exterior of the finished product. An inexpensive hole-saw kit for your drill motor would suffice for making fan cut-outs. Don...

If i needed that much space for HDDs in a mATX style case, I would probably design a desktop style case with the shell being 1/2 inch MDF. Set the 4 HDDs on a soft, non-static form sheet on the bottom of the shell. Dado in a slot just over them to install a 1/4 inch piece of MDF horizontally to set ...

Great review, great product. Deserves and Editor's Choice in my opinion. /rant Take note Antec! Silverstone is fast becoming the brand of choice for consumers looking for quality, quiet, classy computer cases. They took an innovative configuration and made it aesthetically pleasing to the over 30 cr...

This chip is only exciting for Apple and other OEMs will love these for the $50 or so they will pay for them. It is actually lower on the performance spectrum than the 4670 was when it was launched. It is more like the 3650/2600/etc. It deserves 64-bit memory bus. Even the 5770 is pretty low end, b...

My 2 cents,

WoW runs 30+ FPS at 1600res "Very Good" settings on an E7300 + HD 4670 under the most taxing circumstances (25 player raids).
Try to scrape together enough change for a 60-80GB SSD.

Thanks, Meato. I'm thinking ASUS M4A785TD-V EVO AM3 AMD 785G HDMI ATX AMD (would link it if I could) for the mobo would work out well. What's the school of thought between the Sempron or the x2? The EVO ATX would be my choice as well. The Sempron is an X2 with one core disabled. It will consumer le...

Mobo: choose from one of these
CPU: AMD Sempron 140 or AMD Athlon II X2 240
CPUHS: Scythe Mugen 2
GPU: Integrated
RAM: 2GB (2x1GB) DDR3 1333

http://www.anandtech.com/bench It keeps throwing my browser to an error page today, but if memory serves me, they have idle power consumption on the charts. If you could give specifics about what duties the CPU would be performing, I'm sure some of the HTPC/NAS savy users could point you in the rig...

Asus P5Q Pro Turbo This P5Q version features heatsinks around the CPU socket and Crossfire support. There is a Gigabyte board that comes close but it lacks Crossfire and has several complaints about memory slot failures. I own the Asus P5Q Pro (non-Turbo) and haven't had a Vista64 install go any sm...

AMD Quad wishlist

I'd put that together and then use your own ears to find what parts are the noise offenders. Possibly a fan swap for the Earthwatts PSU. If Newegg is still selling the mini P180 for $45, that would be a good purchase along with the Nexus Value 430W.

Top-notch design man. I voted for your mod on the challenge site.

My top 3 picks would be;
Mission
Murderbox 008
Blue-man

I'm looking for a dual core Intel Conroe series CPU. No extremely overclocked/abused chips please. Here is the list of supported CPUs for the motherboard. I am looking to spend around $50 USD for a E4000 series and slighty more for a E6000 series 4mb cache version. The item would be shipped to Tulsa...

What about the mATX route?

Antec Mini P180
Nexus Value 430
MSI 785GM-E65
AMD Athlon II x4 600e(45W)/605e(45W)/620(95W-Undervolt)
4GB DDR3
Samsung F3 500GB/1TB
Xigmatek or Scythe top-down heatsink

The new Alpine 11 Pro is available. It fits socket 1156 and 775. It has a 92mm PWM fan that operates between 500 and 2000RPM.

Arctic Cooling Product Page

TweakTown Review
HardwareSecrets Review
HardwareBistro Review

$11.99 @ eWiz.com (USD)
$14.99 @ NCIX.com (CAD)

Take everything from Tom's with a grain of salt, but here is their power testing of the GeForce 220 and 210. http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/geforce-gt-220,2445-16.html The 210 has the lowest idle draw on that chart, but also the lowest performance of any card on that chart. Also, note that in t...

For Seagate and HITACHI, I was able to find the number of platters in their downloaded *.PDF data sheets. Seagate Momentus 5400.6 250GB 5400rpm HITACHI Travelstar 5K500.B 250GB 5400rpm I don't have any personal experience with these drives. I'll keep poking around and trying to find out if Samsung a...

How much expansion room do you need? Are you going to be adding a second 1+TB hard drive later? Will you need a video card installed down the road? If not, have you considered mITX? What is your budget? Antec ISK-300-65 case/psu Intel mITX G41 board Intel E3200 Quiet 80mm fan w/ softmounts OCZ/Intel...

@Okie Wolf

It was entertaining if nothing else. Thanks for the read.

no TV and no beer make Wolfie something something

20th Treehouse of Horror is coming up!

But the I5 would work? Or am I already stretching the silent&cool part of the pc with it? The case has 2 12cm fans (front) and a 8cm fan in the back, so not exactly small except the rear one. Thanks for all the replies so far! I wanted to provide some evidence that your setup would in fact work and...

Oh I completely agree with you on the 5750 being a great value, more so than the 4770 was. The price is only a small premium over the 4850 which it most closely compares to. The 5770 on the other hand, the price needs to come down to match the performance.

Hard OCP's site alone hurts my eyes, much less trying to follow their review of the product. Their charts are confusing. The products and in-game specs differ even in evaluating the same game. What the heck.. apples to apples?