Asus seems to have really fixed the fan control issues for the Z97 series - for mainstream, Rog, and Tuf, which is good news for quiet computing. Here is JJ at Asus explaining the improvements (fan control in EZ mode at 5 min, but at 8:40 gets into the advanced fan control): http://www.youtube.com/w...

Yes that is a fly in the ointment, and maybe worth the unknowns of using a new chipset. Given that the Z87 (and H boards) were the first consumer chipset for Haswell, is it probable or normal that there are generally fewer issues with a second chipset release for a processor? Granted any board can m...

Last question. After looking online at the Z87 Pro V for purchase at amazon, it has a higher price than the normal Pro, probably because of availability, even though the V version doesn't have wifi and Bluetooth. I really do not want wifi, have no plan to use the feature and do not want more wifi si...

Thanks for the responses. That Powercooler looks interesting, but after researching it is available in Europe and not in US or Can. There is a helpful thread on it in SPCR. The R9 270 and R9 270x seem like the best AMD option for having enough performance for gaming, but not overboard on the watts. ...

Thanks Lodestar, that was a helpful reply. That settles it for the MB then, and was good information about the fanmate and PWM differences. On the asus boards my understanding is the cpu has a true PWM fan connect, so could use a PWM fanmate if I had to go to that option as a last resort, but accord...

Before posting on the new build thread in the forum, wanted to ask questions about the card. I've done research but it's hard to know what is truly quieter as non-SPCR reviews have different notions about quiet. My preference is to get the quietest Asus AMD card that can play games reasonably well, ...

Again, appreciate the feedback. Have still not been able to find out whether the Z87 Pro has lower fan speed limits with the bios q fan control than the asus hero (this is without ai suite and fanxpert installed). There are the 40 or 60 percent limits, but also a "silent"mode. Not sure how silent th...

Thanks Abula and Lodestar for the feedback, appreciate it. Abula I read your thread to Asus which made good sense, and yet they didn't care at all about the higher fan speed minimum on the rog boards, which is disappointing. My preference would be fan control in the bios, but of course that's not th...

That was just an impression about the speech recognition, but glad that should not be a problem. I didn't see the helpful sticky in this section about asus fan control issues until just now. Frankly it's off-putting that an asus representative at hardforum mentioned that the 40% minimum fan speed in...

Okay, finally, finally!, ready to build. I have some parts selected, but after research there seem to be only least-bad options for the MB. First some info: -processor 4770K. Probably will not overclock, but like the option of the K version. -no SLI -will not be using wifi, and prefer not to have it...

Thanks for the help with this drive clone task. It worked, the drive is activated, and it's good to have the backup drive, am happy about that. Didn't mean to make a huge ordeal over it, but I have a lot of data on that machine and didn't want anything to go wrong. The Windows activation was no prob...

So the clone procedure worked with Acronis, but there is a snag with windows activation that I am wondering what to do? The original HDD has a legitimate retail version of XP pro that I bought for the build at the time -10 years ago. It was activated twice then; had to do a full re-install once. My ...

Thanks for the feedback Steve. I'll give the 1TB Red a try then and like that it comes with the Acronis tool. Even though the current Samsung drive is sata, could there be any compatibility issues with a decade old motherboard? While it does accept sata, do you think it will still work okay with tha...

The HDD on my older computer built in 2004 is starting to act strange, and wanted to clone an exact image of the whole disk onto a new drive, that could then replace the current drive, a Samsung 1614C. Even though the computer is old, I want to protect the data and keep it running. After research, t...

It's been a long time since my last build, and I have a new case, and was almost done researching parts for an Ivy Bridge build, but am now wondering if waiting for Haswell makes more sense? This is for a medium-high performance PC. The lower power consumption of Haswell seems like a plus, but does ...

Just an update. Got the VF700 installed and it seems to be working okay. Couldn't find a way to check the GPU temp in the bios, is there any other way to check it without adding some utility? The cooler has a little warmth, not much, so am assuming some heat is dissipating through it. Is that heatsi...

Thanks for the response. You mention I'll have to accept no fan control on the VF700, is there a manual fan controller that works at that voltage for that fan? Could I use a typical Zalman fan controller? Will probably go with the VF700, but like knowing the fans can be controlled. Will it be loud a...

Thanks the feedback flemeister and edh (I'm not wearing a tinfoil hat for this problem I assure you :) ) The fan is scraping continually and sounds like it's going to fail at any point, so need to solve this right away. A) is there anything temporary, like lubricating the fan bearing? B) as for a re...

Hi, I'm at the start of a new computer build, but it may be weeks before it's finished (do not even have most of the parts yet), and in the meantime the fan on the graphics card of my old machine is making intermittent noises and sounds like it will fail soon. Would like to keep the old machine runn...

Also for the big size, it doesn't seem well space optimized. Long graphics cards barely fit in it without removing a fan grill, and yet there is a lot of empty space under the PSU. If a user didn't need many HD's, one would think they could have compressed the case lengthwise, putting the PSU and dr...

If only a couple guys on the web were having this issue, Silverstone wouldn't have a section on their website dedicated to this problem, which they do. Maybe heat pipe orientation doesn't matter, or maybe it does, as the article linked earlier in this thread explains, maybe non-blower designs don't ...

I don't think the FT02 is a bad case by any means, but I do think to the layperson buying it, it has a slight probability of having GPU overheating because of the vertical card orientation. What that probability is I have no idea. For a quiet PC build, it seems to be creating potential issues about ...

Not trying to get into a debate on this, or be disagreeable :) But that article doesn't really focus on the video card issue itself, by say testing many cards in vertical orientation. The FT02 obviously has good overall cooling. Here is an article claiming card orientation does matter: http://en.exp...

Whatever the problem is, this isn't voodoo or a non-issue. While it may not be a huge problem, this is a known issue with the FT02. Indeed Silverstone themselves have a Q&A here http://www.silverstonetek.com/product.php?pid=242 , where they list the "bad orientation" of VGA cooler designs for the FT...

http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1429251 has a 176 page thread on the FT02. There was a long discussion there of overheating issues with the vertical orientation of the GPU card in the FT02, but don't know if it was in that thread. When I researched this a while ago, it didn't seem that there ...

Look for a replacement case...but hold off with the purchase/return for a week. You lose nothing by waiting a bit. That's good advice, and will wait a week. Thanks everyone for the input. This may be a stupid question, but just want to make sure is the Bitumen the dark colored insulation, or is tha...

I think you're overreacting. CA_Steve provided a link that states they don't use Bitumen anymore. It's just a normal chemical smell from manufacturing. That's not true, the R4 does have Bitumen, check the Fractal website. The Fractal rep in the link was only making the point that the rubber grommet...

Thanks for all the replies and ideas. After doing research on a subject first then this is the best place I've found for computer advice, from a forum that understands 40db is not "quiet". The smell of the Bitumen insulation has gone down a little, but I'm still concerned enough about the safety of ...

My computer case situation has reached defcon 3. I ordered a Fractal R4 in white, and it is a beautiful case, better than I thought it would be, but unfortunately the bitumen sound insulation smells, but worse in researching, it turns out this is a form of petroleum-based asphalt. I don't know the s...

Thanks for the feedback. 1cm overlap doesn't sound bad at all. I could even drill a couple holes for air on the case bottom where it overlaps. I researched, and indeed there are some customer reports of buzzing, whining, etc, on the earlier Seasonic and Corsair models like the 650 and 750. That is a...