Search found 56 matches

by StanF
Mon Nov 05, 2007 2:28 pm
Forum: System Advice / Troubleshooting
Topic: Hardware for Windows Home Server setup
Replies: 9
Views: 4486

>windows seems to frequently access that drive for some reason.

That's why I would recommend a SATA laptop harddrive for the boot drive. It should never draw more than 2.5W even when Windows is hitting it constantly.
by StanF
Tue Oct 30, 2007 12:48 pm
Forum: CPU Cooling
Topic: Very Low Profile (and quiet!) AM2 Cooler?
Replies: 2
Views: 2039

Thanks for the tip. It's also available at Newegg:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6835224006
by StanF
Tue Oct 30, 2007 8:26 am
Forum: CPU Cooling
Topic: Very Low Profile (and quiet!) AM2 Cooler?
Replies: 2
Views: 2039

Very Low Profile (and quiet!) AM2 Cooler?

Need a quiet, very low-profile cooler for AM2. (for a 1U server-type case)

It will be cooling one of the 45W TDP AMD processors BE-2350 or BE2400.

There are a few at Newegg, but I have no idea which would be best. Any suggestions?

Thanks!
by StanF
Mon Oct 29, 2007 6:51 am
Forum: System Advice / Troubleshooting
Topic: What case fans for Silverstone LC-20m
Replies: 7
Views: 3050

I used Antec Tri-cool on low for all the fans on my LC20, mostly because they were readily available from Fry's. And also because they would be easy to crank up a notch if temperatures were higher than I wanted.

They are quiet enough for my taste, but not completely silent.
by StanF
Tue Oct 16, 2007 10:03 am
Forum: Quiet Prebuilt, SFF and Barebones Systems
Topic: Aopen XCCube Upgrade
Replies: 1
Views: 2570

Aopen XCCube Upgrade

I have an older Aopen XCCube (Shuttle XPC knockoff), model EZ482 (socket 939). It is surprisingly quiet, generally works well, does S3 standby perfectly, Cool N Quiet works great, etc. I am using it as an bedroom HTPC with Windows MCE. Overall, I am very pleased with it. Right now, it has an Athlon6...
by StanF
Fri Sep 21, 2007 10:45 am
Forum: System Advice / Troubleshooting
Topic: Best Place to Buy Rubber Isolators for Fans???
Replies: 2
Views: 1950

Best Place to Buy Rubber Isolators for Fans???

Where's the best place to buy the rubber isolators for fans? I don't want to pay $5 shipping for a $1 item :D

Alternatively, I would be happy to find a local place to buy them. Fry's doesn't seem to have them. I'm located in Austin, BTW.

Thanks,

Stan
by StanF
Fri Sep 21, 2007 10:42 am
Forum: Deals, Vendors and Classifieds
Topic: Scythe 120 mm S-FLEX fans on sale at Newegg
Replies: 10
Views: 6076

I ordered two of the very silent ones. It will be interesting to see how they compare to the Antec Tri-cools that I have in my case (on low).

Thanks for the tip.
by StanF
Mon Sep 17, 2007 5:27 am
Forum: Off Topic
Topic: Tv-tuner power draw?
Replies: 6
Views: 3865

It depends on the type of tuner:

1) the little USB ATSC tuners draw 2.5W or less

2) internal ATSC or NTSC single channel tuners probably draw 5-10W

3) dual tuner ATSC or NTCS could be 10-15W.
by StanF
Fri Sep 14, 2007 5:15 am
Forum: System Advice / Troubleshooting
Topic: Noisy LCD Monitors (high-pitched backlight whining)
Replies: 17
Views: 17308

Noisy LCD Monitors (high-pitched backlight whining)

I recently purchased (and returned!) a Westinghouse 24" monitor. It had a terrible high pitched whine when the backlight was turned down. It shipped at 100%, and started whining at about 98%. So I bought a Dell 22" monitor...guess what...yes, it whines too! An older Dell 22" does not whine. Is it ju...
by StanF
Tue Aug 28, 2007 12:26 pm
Forum: Silent Storage
Topic: 2.5" SATA in a desktop
Replies: 29
Views: 13133

The boot times don't bother me, but I use S3 standby and rarely reboot.

You could also try a 7200RPM drive. Here's a review of a new, very fast Hitachi drive:
http://www.storagereview.com/HTS722020K9A00.sr

Stan

ps: I think the only time I reboot is when MS rolls out their monthly patches :-(.
by StanF
Tue Aug 28, 2007 2:30 am
Forum: Silent Storage
Topic: Four notebook drives in RAID 1+0 a desktop?
Replies: 19
Views: 8161

I like the idea of four 2.5" drives.

However, more drives = less reliable

You are more likely to have failures if you have four drives.
by StanF
Wed Aug 15, 2007 4:49 am
Forum: Silent Storage
Topic: 2.5" SATA in a desktop
Replies: 29
Views: 13133

The power savings when using 2.5" drives is substantial: 2.5" drives draw about 3W peak, and less than 1W idle. 3.5" drives draw about 12W peak, and 9W idle. These numbers might be off 1W or so, but they are reasonably accurate. At idle, it will be 2W for two 2.5" drives. Compare that to 18W for two...
by StanF
Mon Aug 13, 2007 11:15 am
Forum: Silent Storage
Topic: 2.5" SATA in a desktop
Replies: 29
Views: 13133

2.5" harddrives in a desktop are a great idea. I've switched over one system, and will be doing more in the future. I think the lower power consumption is the big improvement. (equating to less heat and less fan noise) I typically install my OS and programs on one harddrive, and this is where I am u...
by StanF
Mon Jul 16, 2007 3:13 pm
Forum: Video Cards & Monitors
Topic: New 512MB (passsive) version of the Gigabyte 8500GT
Replies: 3
Views: 2728

IMHO...it always amazes me that they put 512MB of RAM on a non-gamer card. You see 512MB on ATI X1300 and X1600 cards. Why? Why? Why? The extra RAM on the graphics card is only used for textures in a few games, and those cards won't play those high-end games properly anyway. I just don't get it, unl...
by StanF
Tue Jun 19, 2007 1:05 pm
Forum: System Advice / Troubleshooting
Topic: HTPC Design - Low End Budget
Replies: 15
Views: 7026

Silverstone LC11 Case...Silverstone makes nice-looking cases that can be a real pain-in-the-a** to work on. Unless you need the smaller height, I would recommend the Antec 2400. I would choose a motherboard with SPDIF-out and be done with it. I don't think the X-Fi or any other sound card will offer...
by StanF
Tue Jun 19, 2007 8:53 am
Forum: System Advice / Troubleshooting
Topic: HTPC Design - Low End Budget
Replies: 15
Views: 7026

A few suggestions...YMMV and others may disagree: 1) Go with a socket AM2 dual core processor. This will require you to buy new DDR2 RAM, but it is really cheap right now. Socket 939 is dead, dead, dead! Dual core is the way to go, especially for an HTPC. It will be much more responsive, give you en...
by StanF
Wed May 16, 2007 7:11 am
Forum: Off Topic
Topic: Vista Media Centre menu problem with stuttering audio/video
Replies: 4
Views: 3549

I've seen some other tips for Vista that recommend changing some sound settings. Go into the Sound control panel, then advanced, and disable "Allow this device to take exclusive control ..." or something like that. I am doing this from memory, so I might have something wrong. But if you poke around,...
by StanF
Mon May 14, 2007 8:18 pm
Forum: General Gallery
Topic: Quiet X2 in SLK3000/SLK3800B
Replies: 9
Views: 7119

I have the same case, and it can be very quiet. I haven't gone to the trouble of adding the tiles to the case sides yet, but I need to do it. I definitely get some extra noise from the side panels resonating. I love your USB connector fix. Another simple thing that I need to implement. I have a prob...
by StanF
Mon May 14, 2007 4:40 pm
Forum: Off Topic
Topic: Making HD images
Replies: 7
Views: 4776

Count me as another happy Acronis user. I boot from a CD and then use it to backup to another system over the network. You can also use a local USB drive, and, of course, local IDE and SATA drives.
by StanF
Thu Apr 26, 2007 7:04 am
Forum: Cases and Damping
Topic: Black quiet HTPC case recommendation?
Replies: 13
Views: 7944

I have the LC-20. Look at avsforum.com for my mini-review (and subsequent discussions)
by StanF
Wed Apr 25, 2007 5:21 am
Forum: Video Cards & Monitors
Topic: Gigabyte 8500GT Fanless
Replies: 24
Views: 29080

Any chance of you doing an H.264 decode test? Supposedly, the new 8600 cards offload 100% of the H.264 decoding from the CPU. I'm not sure if the 8500 does the same.

I'm also not sure what software is needed to make sure the offload takes place :?:
by StanF
Fri Mar 09, 2007 6:03 am
Forum: System Advice / Troubleshooting
Topic: Advice on a very small quiet HTPC for watching vids only
Replies: 3
Views: 2788

I have a QPack case, which is similar to the Microfly. It is not quiet at all. It's not really that small either. It's a weird boxy form-factor. I just ordered a Shuttle case from Newegg for $149. I bought the Socket 939 version, since I have an extra processor. Newer sockets are more expensive. Thi...
by StanF
Tue Feb 20, 2007 5:01 am
Forum: Video Cards & Monitors
Topic: Asus Radeon X1600Pro Silent, good?
Replies: 3
Views: 2567

The 7600 series from Nvidia uses less power than the X16xx series. There's a very good article on xbitlabs where they tested various cards for power consumption.

I personally use the Gigabyte 7600GT Silent Pipe Cooler. The less heat the card dissipates, the lower the temperatures.
by StanF
Tue Jan 30, 2007 4:21 am
Forum: System Advice / Troubleshooting
Topic: HTPC with Antec NSK2400 / Silverstone SG01, am I on track?
Replies: 30
Views: 14443

I'm not a big fan of the NSK-1300. I had the previous version (Aria), and it was not good - very high internal temperatures and loud. YMMV. The NSK-2400 is a great case, but it is deep. Have you considered a Shuttle Case? Or a Q-pack? or a Microfly? They are more shoebox size, but they are more shal...
by StanF
Mon Jan 29, 2007 5:12 am
Forum: General Gallery
Topic: Antec NSK2400 HTPC Running MythTV - Another Update 27/02/07!
Replies: 8
Views: 36472

You can buy the SPDIF module directly from Asus for only $10. MUCH cheaper than the ebay vendor.

http://estore.asus.com/shop/item.asp?it ... &catid=137
by StanF
Fri Jan 26, 2007 3:58 pm
Forum: Silent Storage
Topic: moving sawp file to USB thumb drive
Replies: 13
Views: 5798

The worst thing you could do would be to add another 1GB of RAM and then use it as a ramdisk for the swap file. That really makes no sense. It won't use the swap file until it runs out of RAM - with 2GB, it will likely never run out of ram.
by StanF
Fri Jan 26, 2007 3:51 pm
Forum: Newcomers Briefing Room
Topic: Serves me right for building an el-cheapo machine... Can it
Replies: 7
Views: 6169

I have used the Artic Cooling Freezer 64 on two Athon 64x2 systems and have been happy with the results. I paid $15 and $20 for them at Newegg - they seem to have them on sale from time to time. Regular price is $30, which is still cheaper than most other heatsinks. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Pro...
by StanF
Thu Jan 25, 2007 7:55 pm
Forum: Cases and Damping
Topic: ATX HTPC case recommendations?
Replies: 5
Views: 3981

I did a mini-review of the Silverstone LC-20 at avsforum.com . It accepts ATX boards. There is alot of other HTPC case information there as well.
by StanF
Thu Jan 25, 2007 7:52 pm
Forum: Quiet Prebuilt, SFF and Barebones Systems
Topic: Aprevia Qpack - Big loud case
Replies: 3
Views: 4308

I share your pain...my Qpack power supply is also loud. I haven't tried to quiet it down yet (new p.s. or whatever) - I think I might just replace it instead.

And I agree that the case is bulky. I like my Shuttle much better.
by StanF
Wed Jan 24, 2007 5:51 am
Forum: System Advice / Troubleshooting
Topic: Quieting a computer
Replies: 9
Views: 3769

I will second the recommendation for the Gigabyte silent 7600GT. I have two of them, and in a well-ventilated case, you will not have any temperature issues. The only downside is that it doesn't have HDCP, which may not matter to you. That being said, there are rumors of a 8600Gx coming out in March...