Another comparative review. http://www.digit-life.com/articles2/cpu/intel-pentium-e2140-2160.html It seems E2xxx CPUs are really lower powered than BEs. Thanks a lot for that link. That was an interesting article. Especially interesting that the E4400 and E6x20 series were both lower voltage than t...

http://www.hardtecs4u.com/reviews/2007/amd_be2xxx/index5.php and http://www.hardtecs4u.com/reviews/2007/amd_cpu_roundup2007/index28.php "Last" (red) means load... Interesting. Thanks for those links. I had heard that the most recent steppings of C2Ds were more efficient -- anyone know if the underv...

FWIW, the e4300 draws less than the BE-2300 (ad idle AND load), although it costs more. Really? Where did you read that? I had heard lower draw at load, but all the graphs I've seen showed the AMD drawing less at idle -- with the exception of the one Anandtech review I linked above. I agree about t...

Folks were using XP and P4 chips for Tv,media,Home server tasks,for years Any X2 or Core 2 has a LOT more capability than the GAMER heavyweights of just a few years ago. It's true...for anything server-related, any XP-class chip would do fine. Shoot, a C7 would do fine. It's the MythTV part that I'...

FYI -- you mentioned having a hard time sourcing an Antec Take 3. It looks like Antec is selling one B-stock on their North American store here: http://www.antec.com/us/pro_b_stock.php Not sure what they normally go for, but I imagine the B-stock would be a good deal. If you're planning on moving it...

well, if you're shooting for a 3U rackmount, stock cooling wont be too loud [mainly because that case is quite thick, and if stored in a 19" rack, you wont hear a thing from it. i'd say look into some lower profile coolers, i'll definately help you more. Anyone who's been in a server room would que...

With a little further investigation, it looks like the Biostar TF7050-M2 may be the way to go. I've read a few newsgroup postings that don't make the AMD690 look good for MythTV. I was skeptical about the BE-2350 from a performance/watt perspective, but a lower idle wattage may make up for it. I've ...

I just ran ye olde power-meter on my setup: Biostar TF7050-M2 Athlon64 X2 3800+ (0.9v/1.0GHz, 1.075v/2.0GHz) 2x1GB 667MHz DDR2 Samsung HD080HJ Panasonic UJ-845-B Slimline Slot-in Nexus 92mm, Nexus 120mm, HSF AMD 70mm fans USB Keyboard, Wireless USB Mouse Seasonic SS-300SFD 80+ Idle: 26w Playing 108...

[Max Slowik] Seconded. The video out of the MCP61, I think, actually makes video playback worse. A lot worse...I would go as far as to say that the video playback is actually replaced with an animated .gif of the goatse guy. Ha -- good to know. Ok, I won't drop down to the 6100. It looks like the 6...

Questions much like this have been asked several times, so I've been reading furiously the last few days trying to do my homework. But there's enough out there that I'm bound to have missed something, so I'll spell out what I've been able to gather or assume, and hopefully someone will point out wha...

I have a 7700-CU running in a 4u case and an Antec NSK2400 desktop case. Height is no problem -- although, as you'll note, the fan exhausts up so it needs an inch or two above it for airflow. It cooled my AMD X2 3600+ just fine. I believe the 7700-CU is "venerable" just because it's old -- it was a ...

This is pretty helpful for me. I have an old slot-1 processor that I'm using as a firewall/router; I was trying to decide my best option for silencing it -- I was thinking of either replacing the fan, or replacing the whole board. I didn't know that removing the slot-1 fan might be an option. I'm go...

I was looking at the guts of a Dell 2850 today (installing Fiber Channel HBA's), they have 4 60mm fans blowing across the 2 CPUs at the front (kind of BTX style), another 2 60mm fans at the back to exhaust hot air, and a 60mm fan in each power supply. Wow. That's impressive. I've gathered a small p...

Hmm...looks like the project has to go on hold temporarily; I just had one of my other servers die (undetermined hardware failure) so the CPU + motherboard that was going to go into the 2U case is having to fill in for the dead server instead. Hopefully, I'll be able to revisit it soon -- and as alw...

Mats, thanks a lot for the info. There's another way of doing it, and that's by shorting pins in the socket with small wires. It's even easier to do. I'll have to look that up. Sounds promising. Funny, as I probably got this chip because it would over clock well. Strange how these things cycle aroun...

And, you can always undervolt by changing the bridges on the CPU. I've done that, pretty easy. Ah, I remember overclocking Athlons by connecting traces on the CPU. Makes sense that the opposite could apply. So it sounds like a hole over the CPU is the best bet at the moment? No low, squat HSF that ...

You said you're willing to do some modifications, but you're not willing to make a hole for a fan above the CPU, right? Just checking. It's an option, but that does limit rack-mountish behavior somewhat. It will never have a lot of free space above it (not sitting on a shelf, HTPC-style), but one p...

So I find myself with an interesting collection of surplus hardware, and a need for a new server to do file/build/development utility duties. It doesn't need to be particularly fast to do the job; low power, low noise, and reliability are all more important. However, if it does end up having power t...

Do you need a 500W PSU for that? I don't know much about the video card, but the CPU and HD are very low-power. Normally, the Seasonic 380 seems to be far more than enough for a Core 2 Duo build.
Please correct me if I'm wrong, of course.

foobar2000 can definitely do it. I have mine split over 3 disks; Foobar's "Media Library" setup just wants a list of directories to scan for music. The directories can be on local or remote disks; it doesn't care.

A quickie off the top of my head: CASE Antec SOLO, P150 or P180 $80-120 P180b $120 shipped http://shop4.outpost.com/product/4843800?site=sr:SEARCH:MAIN_RSLT_PG It may be backordered, but I got mines in a matter of a week. CPU Intel Core 2 Duo E6300 $180 www.newegg.com Motherboard www.zipzoomfly.com...

I'm really interested in the TNN300; such a neat little case. There are a couple reviews that might interest you, if you haven't seen them: one on the 7950GT and one on silent video cards . You've probably seen the silent video card review, and it doesn't include the 7950GT (came out a couple weeks ...

That's a good question; I'd like to do the same thing. I tried that on my last system and had a lot of problems with the USB connection flaking out -- sometimes the computer would recognize it, sometimes it wouldn't, and it would always fail when I tried to write a CD or DVD. But I honestly think th...

My understanding of DDR2 RAM -- it's mostly absorbed second- or third-hand, so take it with a grain of salt: The difference between the current "performance" and "budget" RAM at a given speed is a.) the "performance" RAM will hit 667mhz with better timing settings (1T vs 2T, CAS latency) and at a lo...

Any sub $200 mobo thoughts to match the E6300? Ah, I see you've edited your last post. My ghz comments are moot then. Which motherboard depends on what features you want, and whether you plan to overclock the processor. It can overclock pretty far, especially if you are willing to raise the voltage...

It's not about the Ghz number -- the Core 2 Duo E6300 (1.86ghz) is faster than the Athlon 64 X2 3800+ (2.0ghz). The Core 2 Duo is a newer architecture, cleverly designed, has more efficient caching, and is cooler running. There's a head-to-head comparison here that might be of interest: http://www.a...