Search found 117 matches

by RedAE102
Tue Aug 24, 2010 1:40 pm
Forum: Cases and Damping
Topic: Antec Solo upgrade soon?
Replies: 71
Views: 44357

Having had my Antec Solo for several years now, I had a few small niggles with it. When my uncle and aunt needed a new PC a month ago, I suggested the Solo as a good investment for future use. When I opened it up for their new build, I was greeted with several new upgrades from mine. One, the front ...
by RedAE102
Mon Aug 09, 2010 7:57 pm
Forum: Cases and Damping
Topic: Quiet case on a budget?
Replies: 20
Views: 10403

Re: Quiet case on a budget?

Antec Solo, watch your graphics card size though. The Sonata isn't that good for airflow or noise IMO. Also consider Antec NSK 4xxx and 6xxx series for budget cases. I second both suggestions, as I have a Solo and an NSK4480. The NSK4480 is great for those on a budget since it includes a decent 80-...
by RedAE102
Tue Jun 08, 2010 3:04 pm
Forum: Power Supplies
Topic: Dell H255E 255W 80+ Silver PSU
Replies: 23
Views: 26138

A friend of mine just bought this PSU, and now has replaced his PicoPSU with it. System specs are as follows: Intel E8400 (C0), at something like 1.12V, stays the same even when idling at 2GHz Gigabyte GA-E7AUM-DS2H µATX motherboard with nVidia Geforce 9400-730i chipset 4x2GB DDR2-800 4-4-4-12 GSki...
by RedAE102
Sat Jan 02, 2010 4:27 pm
Forum: CPUs and Motherboards
Topic: How to read CPU voltage reliable?
Replies: 3
Views: 2794

k10stat is giving you the VID (Voltage ID), which is a target voltage. CPU-Z and Speedfan are giving the exact voltage reading, which is what is actually getting supplied to the CPU. My AM2 board supplies LESS voltage than requested across the entire range, and the difference can be more than 0.025V...
by RedAE102
Fri Dec 25, 2009 3:15 pm
Forum: CPUs and Motherboards
Topic: Upgrading an Athlon 64 3200+ to a dual core...
Replies: 15
Views: 10465

I was referring to the stock *full* speed. My E3 Venice 3400+ runs 800MHz-1.2 GHz with 1.1V, but could really run lower if it would respond to voltage requests below 1.1V. It also runs the full 2.4 GHz at 1.35V. My friend has an older HP notebook with a S939 E4 Manchester 3200+ (that's not a typo, i...
by RedAE102
Wed Dec 09, 2009 12:46 pm
Forum: Notebook Systems
Topic: 13" Macbook Pro 2.53Gz Too Loud
Replies: 4
Views: 6473

Sorry it took me so long to chime in, but I had to gather some information via some additional testing of my own machine. I've got the 2.26 GHz MacBook Pro 13", and do mainly use it in OS X, though I do use Boot Camp for Windows 7 RTM. Here are a number of things to consider... First of all, Boot Ca...
by RedAE102
Wed Dec 09, 2009 12:01 pm
Forum: CPUs and Motherboards
Topic: Need feedback on my undervolting approach
Replies: 6
Views: 4954

- I chose IntelTestBurn simply because it is much faster - 15 minutes of testing compared to hours with Orthos. But I take your feedback and will run Orthos to ensure that my voltages are high enough In my own experience, 10 minutes of Orthos has usually been enough to uncover instabilities. The an...
by RedAE102
Tue Dec 08, 2009 3:56 pm
Forum: CPUs and Motherboards
Topic: Need feedback on my undervolting approach
Replies: 6
Views: 4954

Being an avid undervolter, I'll bite. Unfortunately, I can't help with k10stat since I don't have a K10 and have never directly dealt with one. Your methods seem sound, except I'd recommend using Prime95 or Orthos (which is Prime95 with a GUI tailored to stability testing), which do a good job of st...
by RedAE102
Mon Dec 07, 2009 12:25 pm
Forum: CPUs and Motherboards
Topic: Which LOW POWER CPU to replace Sempron LE1250?
Replies: 4
Views: 3229

Unless you're actually trying to watch the recorded or live HDTV directly on the file server, there's little to no CPU activity needed to record the stream, as the only necessary decoding for that is done by the card itself. It's only when it comes time to watch it that you'll want whatever computer...
by RedAE102
Sat Nov 28, 2009 5:44 pm
Forum: CPUs and Motherboards
Topic: Help me with a Athlon 64 x2 3800+
Replies: 8
Views: 3786

I realize now after reading one of the stickies that my X2 manchester cpu is vcore locked. Nothing below 1.1V works. I'll maybe try a 3500+ single core, otherwise I'll sell everthing. Socket 754 and 939 Venice single cores also suffer from this 1.1V lower limit lock, including my 754 3400+, and the...
by RedAE102
Sat Nov 21, 2009 2:10 pm
Forum: CPUs and Motherboards
Topic: P5N7A-VM and PicoPSU-120 ???
Replies: 1
Views: 1596

For most boards, the extra 4 pins on the ATX connector aren't important and the board will function as normal with a 20-pin connector. Do you have the adapter for the ATX12V connector above the CPU? No modern board will work without it. My friend is also using a PicoPSU, but on his Gigabyte 9400 boa...
by RedAE102
Mon Nov 09, 2009 11:05 am
Forum: CPUs and Motherboards
Topic: Socket 939 and AM2+/AM3, heatsink still compatible?
Replies: 3
Views: 3261

Yes, I've tried both my Alpine 64 and Ninja Rev. B each on both my AM2 and S754 systems, and they all work fine. AM2+ brackets (for the ones mounted with clips) are also identical, or at least the two I've come across are. I have to agree with psiu. I had originally run my system off a 1st gen (250G...
by RedAE102
Tue Oct 13, 2009 3:08 pm
Forum: CPUs and Motherboards
Topic: Brisbane core CPUs and Speedfan
Replies: 4
Views: 2967

On a side note, the newest versions of Everest now support proper Brisbane core temperature sensing. I use it on my Brisbane Athlon X2 5400. The main CPU temperature diode reading still shows temperatures around 0°C, but the two core temperature readings show ~30°C at idle (1.2 GHz @ 0.768 V) and ...
by RedAE102
Tue Oct 06, 2009 2:04 pm
Forum: CPUs and Motherboards
Topic: Upgrading an Athlon 64 3200+ to a dual core...
Replies: 15
Views: 10465

Well, first of all, all of the 939 Athlon 64 X2s were either Manchester or Toledo cores, which all had 89W or 110W TDPs. The fastest 89W versions are the 2.2 GHz 4200+ and some 4400+ models, with the former having 512KBx2 cache, and the latter having 1MBx2 cache. The 2.4 GHz 4600+ and 4800+ models h...
by RedAE102
Tue Oct 06, 2009 1:41 pm
Forum: System Advice / Troubleshooting
Topic: 64bit or 32bit
Replies: 13
Views: 5602

It's worth mentioning that students can get a full license for Office 2007 Ultimate as part of their Ultimate Steal promotion. It's how I got my Office 2007, as well as my Vista Ultimate Upgrade license. Office will run you $60, and currently Vista runs $65. The latter is hardly worth it now with Mi...
by RedAE102
Wed Sep 23, 2009 9:26 am
Forum: CPUs and Motherboards
Topic: Smallest - cheapest AMD AM2+/AM3 motherboard
Replies: 8
Views: 6565

Does $33 after rebate qualify as cheap? If you're going to get a 4670 in the future (a good choice, if I do say so myself :) ), the 740G is a good, low-power, low-cost choice. Not sure about availability in Europe, though, nor do I know about undervolting options, but it's a proper AM2+ with the spl...
by RedAE102
Tue Sep 22, 2009 1:57 pm
Forum: Video Cards & Monitors
Topic: Radeon HD 4670: A perfect balance?
Replies: 498
Views: 390295

For those who, like me, initially had issues with running multiple monitors, after some searching online, I found the solution to the problem. You must disable ATI Overdrive completely, which, when a second monitor is installed, locks the GPU memory to the full 1GHz, but still allows the core to thr...
by RedAE102
Tue Sep 22, 2009 1:26 pm
Forum: CPUs and Motherboards
Topic: Lowest power CPU for Socket 939?
Replies: 3
Views: 3211

It's worth mentioning that the Venice cores in both Socket 939 and 754 packages were locked at the low end to 1.1V and couldn't be undervolted at lower speeds any more than their stock Cool 'n' Quiet voltage. One of my secondary systems runs a S754 Venice 2.4 GHz 3400+, and I've run into that limita...
by RedAE102
Mon Jul 13, 2009 4:41 pm
Forum: CPUs and Motherboards
Topic: Undervolting: how low can you go?
Replies: 234
Views: 271916

Bought a new MacBook Pro 13" last week with the 2.26 GHz Core 2 Duo P7550. I'm using CoolBook to undervolt it, and quite an undervolter it is. Here are my results: Core 2 Duo P7550 2.26 GHz Stock Voltages: 0.875 V @ 800 MHz 1.000 V @ 1.6 GHz 1.0625 V @ 1.86 GHz 1.0625 V @ 2.0 GHz 1.125 V @ 2.13 GHz ...
by RedAE102
Fri Jun 19, 2009 4:25 pm
Forum: Notebook Systems
Topic: benchmark/comparison of notebook coolers?
Replies: 6
Views: 7563

I can tell you what NOT to buy: one of the Targus notebook coolers made of silver painted plastic with two fans. Complete waste of money. Didn't do much to the temperature, and within months, the bearing chatter while it warmed up could be heard from the next room. I then bought an Antec cooler, the...
by RedAE102
Thu May 21, 2009 11:51 pm
Forum: CPUs and Motherboards
Topic: RAM Temperatures - Help Please, will this RAM be too hot[?]
Replies: 14
Views: 6251

If you're not overclocking, an AM2 processor (K8) will not run anything over DDR2-800. You'd need an AM2+ or AM3 processor (K10/K10.5) to run DDR2-1066 RAM at full speed. I have 4x2GB G.Skill DDR2-800 Pi Black, which is rated to run 4-4-4-12 timings at 1.8-1.9V, among the first manufacturers to reac...
by RedAE102
Thu May 14, 2009 3:18 pm
Forum: Notebook Systems
Topic: Post your laptop's power usage
Replies: 29
Views: 31555

I guess it's about time I added my other laptop, which I picked up last year for $450 at Best Buy. It's an Acer Extensa 4420-5963, and came with the following: 14.1" CCFL LCD, AMD Athlon X2 TK-57 1.9 GHz (65nm Tyler Turion core with half cache), AMD RS690M/SB600M chipset (Mobile AMD 690G), 2x1GB DDR...
by RedAE102
Wed Apr 22, 2009 10:11 am
Forum: Silent Storage
Topic: loud seek with HITACHI Travelstar 5K250
Replies: 2
Views: 2240

My experience with the 160GB Hitachi Travelstar 5K250 (yes, a 5K250, not a 5K160) that came in my Acer Extensa laptop was actually quite pleasant. My guess is that your particular sample is one of the bad ones. I've since replaced it with a 7K320 320GB, but will be utilising it in a secondary system...
by RedAE102
Tue Apr 07, 2009 2:07 pm
Forum: Silent Storage
Topic: New Seagate 4200RPM Drive?
Replies: 6
Views: 4198

I hardly see the point in slowing the spindle speed down any further. My Acer Extensa laptop came with a 160GB Hitachi 5K250 5400 rpm hard drive, and I've since swapped in a 320GB Hitachi 7K320 7200 rpm drive, and it just makes enough noise so that I can actually hear it when the hard drive spins do...
by RedAE102
Tue Apr 07, 2009 12:52 pm
Forum: CPUs and Motherboards
Topic: X2 5600+ 65W vs X2 5050E 45W
Replies: 5
Views: 5706

If you're using Windows, you can undervolt using CrystalCPUID and effectively eliminate any possible differences between the chips. At default voltages, the 5050e will idle lower because the default voltage at 1GHz is 1.0V versus 1.1V for the standard X2 5600. My Brisbane G2 5400 runs at 53.3W at fu...
by RedAE102
Tue Apr 07, 2009 12:37 pm
Forum: The Silent Front
Topic: Running CrystalCPUID as a service under WHS?
Replies: 4
Views: 4559

I'll try to help, but I don't know whether I can. If you just need the task to be created with administrative privileges, then it can be done easily with Task Scheduler, found in Control Panel---> Administrative Tools. However, I don't know about running as an actual service, or anything for that ma...
by RedAE102
Mon Mar 09, 2009 1:19 pm
Forum: System Advice / Troubleshooting
Topic: Post your power consumption
Replies: 109
Views: 91999

Here's my system and my friend's. My system: AMD Athlon X2 5400 2.8 GHz, Brisbane G2, Stock 2.8 GHz speed 4x2 GB G.Skill Pi Black DDR2-800 RAM, 4-4-4-12 @ 1.92V (1.95V is lowest available in BIOS) HIS ATI Radeon HD 4670 IceQ Turbo 512MB GDDR3, 800 MHz core/1050 MHz (2100 MHz DDR) 2xWD6400AAKS Caviar...
by RedAE102
Wed Mar 04, 2009 9:26 am
Forum: Power Supplies
Topic: Is 110W enough?
Replies: 7
Views: 3949

A friend of mine is running that board with an E8400, 2x2GB DDR2-800, a TV tuner, a 300GB VelociRaptor, a 500GB 7200 rpm Hitachi drive, and 3 120mm fans, all on a PicoPSU 120 with EDAC 110W brick, and the highest he's seen is 98W at the wall running GTA4, which also gives me higher power consumption...
by RedAE102
Tue Mar 03, 2009 4:11 pm
Forum: CPUs and Motherboards
Topic: Undervolting: how low can you go?
Replies: 234
Views: 271916

On behalf of my friend with an original stepping C2D E8400, I'd like to post his results: System Specs Intel Core 2 Duo E8400, Wolfdale C0 Stock 3.0 GHz @ BIOS VID: 1.1125V Everest observed: 1.07V Gigabyte GA-E7AUM-DS2H w/ integrated GeForce 9400 graphics, Stock clocks 580/1400 MHz (GPU/shader), ove...
by RedAE102
Tue Mar 03, 2009 3:51 pm
Forum: CPUs and Motherboards
Topic: X2 amd or Core 2 Duo require 64 bit OS?
Replies: 20
Views: 7662

For a desktop with 3GB or more RAM, I would heartily recommend Vista x64. I run Vista Ultimate x64 on my main desktop, and couldn't be happier with it. It can take some time to start up, but my desktop is typically on 24/7, so that really isn't an issue for me. For laptops though, 7 is worth the wai...