Search found 397 matches
- Sat Aug 10, 2013 7:58 am
- Forum: Video Cards & Monitors
- Topic: The fastest GPU ever discontinued??
- Replies: 4
- Views: 4928
Re: The fastest GPU ever discontinued??
I just bought the 7850 myself for my son's new box (my old one - heh). My thinking was this: - I'd spend $40-$50 on an aftermarket cooler like the Accelero S1, including decent vram heatsinks (the ones with the S1 are junk and don't stick most of the time, sorry to say) and shipping, tax, and all of...
- Sat Dec 24, 2011 7:05 pm
- Forum: Video Cards & Monitors
- Topic: Accelero S1 Rev 2; plus a thermalright VGA cooler?
- Replies: 5
- Views: 3636
Re: Accelero S1 Rev 2; plus a thermalright VGA cooler?
I had to buy low profile heat sinks, though, as the ones that came with the Accelero were too high to fit under the card. (oops). Note - I have a slot fan on it. I tried the Accelero cooling fans that they make for it and they worked well, but dies after a year. A slot fan works just as well and is ...
- Sat Dec 24, 2011 7:00 pm
- Forum: Video Cards & Monitors
- Topic: HD6850 Passive by PowerColor!!!!!!
- Replies: 56
- Views: 37906
Re: HD6850 Passive by PowerColor!!!!!!
Looks interesting. From what I can tell, because of the extreme temps created by this card, a normal fan won't work. Too much back-pressure due to the tightly spaced fins, which reduced airflow and increases speed. You'll need a slot fan or a side fan blowing outwards to suck the heat off of the car...
- Wed Jun 15, 2011 2:02 pm
- Forum: System Advice / Troubleshooting
- Topic: Ultra low power 24/7 box
- Replies: 5
- Views: 2772
Re: Ultra low power 24/7 box
Power supply - the PICO is fine. Case - you want small minitower case with the side removed entirely. Place it on its side so that the heat has at least 2-3 ft of airspace to radiate into. Technically all you really need is the mounting chassis from the case and the power switch. You could as easily...
- Mon Jun 13, 2011 10:41 am
- Forum: System Advice / Troubleshooting
- Topic: I do not want to hear this system ...
- Replies: 29
- Views: 12599
Re: I do not want to hear this system ...
I tried to build a system like that for my (now ex) girlfriend. And the Samurai cooler failed to adequately cool an older Athalon. We're talking about a sub-2Ghz model, no less. It's really a pathetic little thing that only works if you keep the fan at 12v pretty much all of the time on a modern mul...
- Mon Jun 13, 2011 10:21 am
- Forum: System Advice / Troubleshooting
- Topic: Unexpected crashing
- Replies: 4
- Views: 2636
Re: Unexpected crashing
I had this exact problem last week. The machine would be fine and then simply cycle its power like that. The solution was to get a new power supply. The old one would not be able to supply enough current to the 6 pin aux connector on the video card and it would crash the entire system as a result of...
- Thu Mar 24, 2011 7:19 am
- Forum: Fans and Control
- Topic: The "7V trick" on fans with adjustable voltage - RPM gone!
- Replies: 28
- Views: 13682
Re: The "7V trick" on fans with adjustable voltage - RPM gon
That's likely the motherboard increasing the rpm as its components heat up. The idea being that since stock coolers were all downward-flowing, turning on the CPU fan to a higher rate would cool the board as well. Myself, I just hard-wired it to ~9V straight from the PSU.
- Thu Mar 24, 2011 7:14 am
- Forum: Video Cards & Monitors
- Topic: Passive graphic card
- Replies: 8
- Views: 4723
Re: Passive graphic card
Just get a dual slot motherboard - the HDMI card is a simple thing if it's just being used for movies, so a tiny TV tuner card or similar would probably be more than enough to get the job done.
- Thu Mar 24, 2011 7:11 am
- Forum: Quiet Prebuilt, SFF and Barebones Systems
- Topic: I just wrote an article about a completely silent PC
- Replies: 7
- Views: 5805
Re: I just wrote an article about a completely silent PC
If you are using that little power, get a PICO PSU. The problem with most power supplies is that they are rarely even 50-60% efficient when run at such a small fraction of their rated output. So you are creating excess heat for nothing. Also, the CPU eventually will heat up too much without some sor...
- Mon Mar 21, 2011 7:42 am
- Forum: Fans and Control
- Topic: The "7V trick" on fans with adjustable voltage - RPM gone!
- Replies: 28
- Views: 13682
Re: The "7V trick" on fans with adjustable voltage - RPM gon
Those type of diodes are generally able to handle the heat. But they DO get quite hot, so be aware of it. Common sense and others who have done this trick before suggest a larger 5W diode (or as close to the power rating of the fan in case it stalls due to an obstruction or shorts out at some time) ...
- Sun Mar 20, 2011 1:21 pm
- Forum: Off Topic
- Topic: speaker recommendation
- Replies: 20
- Views: 13626
Re: speaker recommendation
Magnepan does make good speakers, but finding them in Europe is really tough. They also are one of the few brands that should pretty much not be bought used, as they are extremely prone to damage. They also require a good amplifier. That said, they are stunning. The best arrangement is to mount them...
- Fri Mar 18, 2011 7:50 am
- Forum: System Advice / Troubleshooting
- Topic: recommendation for a back-up drive
- Replies: 33
- Views: 9675
Re: recommendation for a back-up drive
I have a 2.5 inch drive in a no-name metal case that I use. It's on top of my PC and is essentially silent and not even warm to the touch. One thing, though - a metal external drive case is slightly better as it will act a bit more like a heat sink than a plastic one.
- Fri Mar 18, 2011 7:33 am
- Forum: Off Topic
- Topic: Installation question for long-time Windows 7 users
- Replies: 24
- Views: 11269
Re: Installation question for long-time Windows 7 users
Some programs won't run. Anything that you have to run in compatibility mode under XP of course, is unworkable either way.(case in point, say, GTA3 series - has to be run in Windows 2000/98 mode under XP). Windows 7 simply pukes it up in either mode.(game loads but no mouse - sorry) When an issue ha...
- Fri Mar 18, 2011 7:07 am
- Forum: Fans and Control
- Topic: The "7V trick" on fans with adjustable voltage - RPM gone!
- Replies: 28
- Views: 13682
Re: The "7V trick" on fans with adjustable voltage - RPM gon
The problem with the fanmate is that it eventually will burn out - it gets quite hot and is from what I can tell, a pretty miserable design. A resistor is of course the best solution, but it takes careful planning since most systems react poorly to 5v cooling levels for any extended period of time. ...
- Wed Mar 16, 2011 11:15 pm
- Forum: Off Topic
- Topic: Installation question for long-time Windows 7 users
- Replies: 24
- Views: 11269
Re: Installation question for long-time Windows 7 users
Also be aware that the Pro version has XP compatibility more while the lesser versions are crippled and don't have it.
Spend the extra money on it.
Spend the extra money on it.
- Sun Mar 13, 2011 9:30 pm
- Forum: CPU Cooling
- Topic: Here is one interesting CPU Cooler
- Replies: 30
- Views: 10661
Re: Here is one interesting CPU Cooler
Actually, fanless is only good for about 40-50W max. Beyond that, it's horrendously hard to get rid of the heat quickly enough without a massive external heat sink or something similar.
- Sat Mar 12, 2011 5:42 pm
- Forum: CPUs and Motherboards
- Topic: Do PCIe mobos require mandatory PCIe graphics cards to run?
- Replies: 6
- Views: 2955
Re: Do PCIe mobos require mandatory PCIe graphics cards to r
Very old PCI cards actually require 3.0V, IIRC, and most new systems don't put enough voltage ut to handle it.
- Fri Mar 11, 2011 12:14 pm
- Forum: System Advice / Troubleshooting
- Topic: Parts list critique for long time geek, first time builder
- Replies: 34
- Views: 11003
Re: Parts list critique for long time geek, first time build
SSDs that are based upon MLC (multiple layer cells) are known to suffer from fragmentation at a much faster rate than with a typical hard drive. Enterprise-level SSDs that support TRIM and that are single layer cells exist, but they are incredibly pricey. And you absolutely have to be running Window...
- Thu Mar 10, 2011 9:57 pm
- Forum: System Advice / Troubleshooting
- Topic: Parts list critique for long time geek, first time builder
- Replies: 34
- Views: 11003
Re: Parts list critique for long time geek, first time build
SSDs fail on writing, so if the system files are merely being read and your main applications are as well, then it will last nearly forever and you can pretty much ignore the traditional issues of hard drive crashes and bad sectors. But you cannot put them in RAID (normally) and you need a separate ...
- Thu Mar 10, 2011 12:32 pm
- Forum: System Advice / Troubleshooting
- Topic: Parts list critique for long time geek, first time builder
- Replies: 34
- Views: 11003
Re: Parts list critique for long time geek, first time build
SSDs can work, but the problem is the way that Windows uses caching. If you have a SSD, you need roughly 2x the memory and no swap file at all on the system. It will of course yowl like a starving cat about the lack of it. If you want to save money, the cheapskate alternative (tm) ;) is to get the s...
- Tue Mar 08, 2011 8:03 pm
- Forum: Cases and Damping
- Topic: micro ATX advantage?
- Replies: 25
- Views: 12502
Re: micro ATX advantage?
The big deal is that the smaller cases cannot generally fit any aftermarket cooler of any size nor can they generally fit larger video cards and potential aftermarket coolers(Accelero or similar). A typical Mini ATX can do this and still be fairly small.
- Tue Mar 08, 2011 7:55 pm
- Forum: CPU Cooling
- Topic: New here. Trying to construct a build.
- Replies: 15
- Views: 5098
Re: New here. Trying to construct a build.
The deal about solid state capacitors and power regulation circuitry is that they can handle lower airflow or very little airflow over them. Most of these massive tower shaped CPU coolers actually make the problem worse as while they are great for low noise CPU cooling, they don't really cool the bo...
- Tue Mar 08, 2011 2:27 pm
- Forum: System Advice / Troubleshooting
- Topic: Parts list critique for long time geek, first time builder
- Replies: 34
- Views: 11003
Re: Parts list critique for long time geek, first time build
What makes you think that "Lower heat and speed" of a 1GB laptop drive pushing the limits of technology would be the dominating factor over reliability compared to a 500G WD Black drive (that can be cooled in the case as much as you choose to cool it)... especially in light to the Google research o...
- Tue Mar 08, 2011 2:01 pm
- Forum: CPU Cooling
- Topic: New here. Trying to construct a build.
- Replies: 15
- Views: 5098
Re: New here. Trying to construct a build.
I'm not so sure. Fixed-enough-low-fan-speed is a very limited scenario, to the extent that it can be almost an hazard: it can't be a widespread use, as it doesn't keep count of different usage patterns, ambient conditions, hardware differences, upgrades, failures, and so on. Moreover it likely requ...
- Tue Mar 08, 2011 8:51 am
- Forum: CPU Cooling
- Topic: New here. Trying to construct a build.
- Replies: 15
- Views: 5098
Re: New here. Trying to construct a build.
ASUS or MSI, forget those Gigabytes: you need a mobo with better support for SpeedFan. I'm not so sure. All of the fans in my system are running at fixed speeds and are directly wired into the power supply itself. Speed Fan and monitoring is simply turned off. I've been running it this way for almo...
- Tue Mar 08, 2011 8:39 am
- Forum: Off Topic
- Topic: speaker recommendation
- Replies: 20
- Views: 13626
Re: speaker recommendation
Ah - my old brain was confused. I was thinking about Mirage. Replace what I said about Paradigm with Mirage. But, yes, Paradigm are great as well. As for Energy, I did mention that they were what I'd consider a bare minimum standard, along with the Mercury series by Tannoy. Anything less capable is ...
- Tue Mar 08, 2011 7:41 am
- Forum: System Advice / Troubleshooting
- Topic: Parts list critique for long time geek, first time builder
- Replies: 34
- Views: 11003
Re: Parts list critique for long time geek, first time build
It looks pretty good, but you should get different drives. Use the 500GB for data. Expect it to die, eventually, though. I'd get a 1GB laptop drive instead. Lower heat and speed should mean a slightly longer life span. Get two WD 250GB RE4 drives - the smaller ones, actually. This is purely an OS dr...
- Tue Mar 08, 2011 12:30 am
- Forum: Off Topic
- Topic: speaker recommendation
- Replies: 20
- Views: 13626
Re: speaker recommendation
Cabinets are MDF - who cares where they are from as long as the glue holds together. It's the drivers and design that matters. That said, of the budget speakers, entry level Paradigm are good. They are virtually identical to the less expensive Tannoy models in sound and price (the MX/MXM series) whi...
- Sun Mar 06, 2011 10:16 pm
- Forum: Off Topic
- Topic: speaker recommendation
- Replies: 20
- Views: 13626
Re: speaker recommendation
I should make a bog called the skinflint audiophile. ;) 1: Unless you have special requirements, if all you need is basic sound reproduction, amplifiers are pretty much the same. All you should care about is basically the power transformer and how much current the thing can handle. It's a pretty goo...
- Sun Mar 06, 2011 2:51 pm
- Forum: Silent Storage
- Topic: Max safe temp for hard drives?
- Replies: 103
- Views: 929250
Re: Max safe temp for hard drives?
I do know that in the past I had Maxtor drives, and they were known to be horribly unreliable. Yet running a fan over them resulted in 10+ years and half a dozen systems that I used them in and not one failure.
If it's too hot to touch, it needs cooling.
If it's too hot to touch, it needs cooling.