Sorry to be having this little conversation with myself here... but maybe this will help someone else: I installed a Kabuto II (which has clips for the stock AMD cooler mounts) and now the loudest thing in the system is my spinning drive, which isn't very loud. The damping mounts in the hard drive c...

Hmm, doing some research now and I have a conundrum -- it seems the fm2a88x-itx+ isn't compatible with many aftermarket coolers, because of components on the back side of the board. I'd like to use the Noctua NH-C14 or 12 -- but apparently that's not possible without some futzing, which I'd rather a...

Hi All,

Built the system -- and I love it. It's idling at around 20W from the wall -- you guys were right about the stock cooler though. It's lousy. Plenty of room for a (much) larger cooler in this case.

Thanks again for all your feedback!

After finding the Rosewill W1-B in a recent excellent SPCR update on the recommended cases page, I've finally gone back to my original desire to use the SS-300TGW and completed a build list: ASRock FM2A88X-ITX+ AMD A10-7800 Rosewill Legacy W1-B-Window Black SS-300TGW 300W ADATA XPG V1.0 (2 x 8GB) DD...

Thanks Boost, those Chenbro cases would probably work for what I originally wanted to do, though I don't seem to be able to find any retailers for them in North America (I looked at all the ones from their website) -- good find though, I never saw those in all the searches that I did. I think I've c...

Ah, ok, thanks! I knew that had to exist. More food for thought.

Oh, I forgot to ask, what did you put your SeaSonic SS-300TGW into? I still haven't given up totally on that idea...

I do prefer AMD -- I know intel has it all over everyone else in the performance per watt race. I've been building with AMD for 15 years now, and am unlikely to stop anytime soon. If I were going intel, and had the chops to pull it off, I'd *love* to do something like what this guy did: http://trans...

Ah, I see that now. Thanks for the heads up about that. I've been looking at so many cases, I missed that. I'm now considering using the Streacom ST-FC8 and a picopsu -- which is pricy, but has the advantage of being completely fanless. Still not sure though. So many options!

Pappnaas, Yeah, I saw the Chieftec too, and the Winsis, and the Foxconn RM233, all of which come with crappy PSUs that I'd never use. I'd get an SFX, or even a full ATX supply, but there don't seem to be any 80+ GOLD SFX units out there with a peak efficiency south of around 250 watts (the seasonic ...

Hi Everyone, I'm looking to build a small(ish) system around the MSI A88XI AC V2, an A10-7850K APU (with stock cooler), an SSD and one 3.5" drive. Other than memory, a blu-ray drive, and a PSU and a case fan or three, that's everything. I'd like to use either the SeaSonic SS-300TGW or the SeaSonic T...

Congrats on 7 great years, and mission almost accomplished... Though while quiet computers are becoming mainstream, it will be a very long time indeed before computers approach anything like the theoretical maximum power efficiency, as per the Von Neumann-Landauer limit. If SPCR can inspire increase...

Hi Everyone, Anyone know what are the changes in this new board, from the reviewed board or the improved version (GA-MA78GPM-DS2H): GA-MA78GM-US2H I'm trying to decide between the GA-MA78GPM-DS2H and the GA-MA78GM-US2H -- I'd like to use the 5050e and ddr2-800 -- though neither of these boards have ...