I know we all tend to get caught up on forums in the negatives, and in the ultimate performance of a product. But as we all know, there are also failures. All else being equal, I'm a big fan of products whose companies back them up. This X400 is my third Seasonic PSU, but the first time I had to con...

Sorry it took so long. It's hard to tell with the power supply in, but you have about 1" to 1.25" clearance from a video card to the PSU.

There's approximately 142mm from the CPU socket to the power supply, so that should give you some idea. I'll pop my old 9800GTX+ in tomorrow and try to measure that, but I don't know how accurate I'll be able to get.

You have approximately 142mm by measuring the overlap of the Meghalems over my Seasonic X 460 power supply. So that might vary be socket, and you of course still have to worry about RAM, expansion cards, and junk around the socket. Unless you have parts already, I'd wait for Sandy Bridge, this case ...

I'm thinking it's going to be the Thermalright AXP-140, since the socket is under the PSU. I'll get you some clearance measurements, but I don't think you'll be able to use any towers, so it's more going to be motherboard limitations.

Actually, my first dry run was a little off, the Meghalems is hitting the part of the 5.25" cage which juts out a bit to act as a runner for the top 3.5" cage. A S1366 or Sandy Bridge motherboard looks like it would still be just fine. It's too bad the modularity isn't a bit different. You can take ...

Well, all my internals came yesterday, and the case came today. I'm still messing around with it, but I really love this case. I've owned a ton of Lian-Li cases dating back to one of the first shipments of PC-60's to come to the US. This is by far the best build quality I've seen from them, and that...

I had to buy it on eBay since the only ones with stock were Sundial Micro, and I refuse to buy from them again. So I won't have it until between the 11th and 18th, but that will let me test all the others parts which should be here around Wednesday. I'm going to be building a Linux (or a very slight...

Honestly, if it's just a NAS, which it is unless you're planning on decoding the media on their with something like MPD, one of the Supermicro Atom boards might be best.

Tim, what kind of video card are you using? I'd be very worried about a video card that doesn't vent through the back while relying on the PSU fan to cool. Besides, I've tried that with an SG01 once before, and I was less than thrilled with the results. Mounting a fan in a PSU really seems to reduce...

I'm looking for a passive heatsink for the PC-Q08. I'm going to be using the Gigabyte GA-H55N , which has some junk behind the CPU socket, so I don't think I can use a bolt through mount (unfortunately). I'm not entirely sure it will work, so I want some versatility, but this is what I'm thinking fa...

http://www.techreport.com/articles.x/17010/13 The test includes the Scorpio Blue, Spinpoint M7, Travelstar 5K500.B, Momentus 5400.6, and Momentus 7200.4. They throw the Intel X25-M in there as well. I would have liked to have seen more qualitative descriptions, but such is life. It looks like the Sc...

I can only say good things about my new A20, but damn did I have to pay for it. My A16 is great, as well, but is taking more work to silence. I've just started with the A20, but with careful consideration going in, it doesn't take much more than a normal build.

Only if he's right, and he is.

Most people get their concepts of power loads from maxing out cheap throwaway power supplies. Like FartingBob mentioned, those supplies aren't able to provide nearly the amount of power they claim under real world situations.

I absolutely love my HT Omega Striker. It works great in Linux and Windows, and does have I think hd audio compatible pin outs. It has optical in and out, and digital coax out. Very nice sound quality, too, but no shielding like some of the new Asus cards, so it does suffer badly from EMI when you m...

There's a $30 MiR for the 430w Earthwatts right now, which makes it $30 from Newegg, assuming you ever get the check.

Are there even any mitx motherboards that support quad core? I immediately thought of the DG45FC, but it looks like Intel artificially limits that board to dual core. Probably out of heat concerns. Actually, if you could get by with a dual core processor, and don't need discrete graphics, that board...

Since most of my stuff is black, I use a gob of black silicon rubber over the offending LED. It's easy enough to peel off when the time comes. This reminds me how much I love my NEC LCD, it has an option for LED brightness from 0-100% in 5% increments, and also the color between blue and green. Unfo...

Yeah, I'm a big fan of Lian-Li, from way back.

And yes, they did some really weird stuff for awhile, trying to innovate silence. They've always had some more normal cases (I love my A16), and their latest wave of high end cases look very interesting. My new A20 seems very promising.

Well, Micro ATX motherboards are specced at 244 x 244mm, though some are smaller. At that size, it's going to be very tight, and take a lot of modifications. The question is, do you have the tools to modify a Lian-Li case without great injustice and destructive force? Lian-Li does make some very att...

Thanks for the impressions on the Scythe 40mm. I've been thinking about replacing the little 40mm fans in a couple switches at work.

If you're doubting the Asus board, I've always had very good luck with Intel based Gigabyte boards. The latest I've used is the P35-DS4, and a 965P-DQ6 in my server, so I can't speak for P45. I would definitely suggest taking a look, though. I know my DS4 has very good cooling and voltage regulation...

David Cole wrote:Is the ICEpak heatsink off? Mine were unacceptable until I took the heatsinks off.

Yeap

I ran some stressful diagnostics to try and induce an early failure, and took that thing right off.

That sounds like it. HDD Scan shows it set to 254, and suggests 128. The damned thing won't let me change the setting, though. I grabbed Ultimate Boot CD, so I'll see if Hitachi's ftools work from there tomorrow.

But that's half the fun of owning a high resolution LCD, the constant need to upgrade in order to game with it. I do miss my old Cornerstone P1600 when I'm gaming sometimes, but all that heat just didn't work in the low desert. I'm sure it's nice up there in the frozen north, though. Who needs a spa...

I see no reason for you to use the P12 instead of the S12-1200, considering you don't have any back pressure. If you already have the S12, try it and find out. Every situation is a little different, so only you can answer if the cooling vs noise tradeoff is worth it to your ears. If not, I don't thi...

HDD Scan says it was on to begin with, but I've never used that tool before, so I'm not sure I trust that assessment. Unfortunately, I'm having a hell of a time getting a CD with Hitachi's Feature Tool to boot. It's really odd, I boot burned CD's all the time.

I'll trade you one of yours for mine... I have it suspended using stretch magic in a 5.25" bay, and it's by far the noisiest thing in my case. That's saying a lot since I'm still using the stock cooler on my 9800 GTX+. And no, the stretch magic isn't so tight that it's relaying the vibrations to the...

God, I just can't wait anymore, I hope they don't delay this thing again. It's going to be so perfect in my PC-A16 with the expansion slot fan venting over it. With any luck, that fan mounting hardware that impedes airflow will be easily removed. Oh, by the way, I did get confirmation from Thermalri...

+1 for the nsk3480! .... The only thing, having worked with 2 of these cases, it makes you really think about what order you install your parts. Take your time with the build, and that solid little beauty will serve you well. My parents have been complaining about the noise in their system (failed ...