That's brilliant, I think I will go for the RM650x due to the such small price different and the higher passive mode.

So I have had a good look round on the forums and reviews, it seems like the following psu's are highly regarded. I have decided that my Nexus value 430W is getting a little old and I have lost a pc before from a PSU blowing up! Corsair RM550x (£70) Corsair RM650x (£75) EVGA G2 550 (£80) EVGA G2 650...

So to expand on that, yes you're correct there I have the one which only goes down to 600rpm. So my case is a Fractal Design R5 with stock fans plus an identical additional intake fan all running at 350rpm. I didn't think of just looking at the fans which Noctua uses on their heatsinks, that would m...

Hi,

I have a Thermalright Macho 120 cooler but I am not that happy with the fan. Is something like the Noctua NF-P12 PWM still the best PWM fan for a cooler or is there something else I should consider?

For me the important thing is the fans being software controllable as I always use speedfan for controlling it. This is due to being able to specify the temperatures to start reacting and by how much. I will update this thread as I decide, but I am still swinging towards the i3-3220t.

porkchop, I should have been more specific on my emulation requirements, I am only after SNES level stuff. :p

fuzzymath10, That is good to hear with the Q8200. Was something I was worrying a bit about, sounds like I was over reacting on that!

I have at least found out the MSI H61I-E35 does not allow undervolting. I did have a thought, the i3-3220T is identical prices to the i3-3220 so I could always go that way so I don't have to worry about undervolting.

Will be using onboard gpu with Windows 7. A lot of what I watch though is 10bit which instantly means software decoding. monkeyesque, Spot on the pricing there, the motherboards are so expensive for the AMD's! I am trying to get away with doing a fanless (Thermalright HR-02, only using fan when unde...

Hi, I have a bit of dilemma, I am looking at a new htpc and I have found that both the A6-5400k and i3-3220 come out at the same costs as each other! This is due to the m-itx motherboards being so expensive for the AMD route. I watch 1080p 10bit h264 which requires cpu so am I correct thinking the I...

Ahh yes I should have said it will be in my bedroom. Hense why fan speed is of a concern. I was going to use speedfan to control the fan on the cpu allowing it to ramp up if needed. I would have thought if I put the settings in windows to stop the 3.5" drives spinning after 15mins then the noise of ...

Hi, I am wanting to build a HTPC which I will keep on 24/7 as it will also serve as a NAS and download box. I have selected the following parts: Lian Li PC-Q11 - Looks like I can soft mount hard drives at the base, should be able to fit up to 3 with using the dvd drive space. 120W PicoPSU - I alread...

If that works for you then it's great. A big cooler is what keeping me from mounting the system at the back of the monitor - too little space between the monitor and the wall. EMI could be a potential problem with no case at all. Should that be a problem a simple wire cage could solve that. :) That...

Hmm I have just thought why bother making a full case for the pc? I could just use a sheet of acrylic or metal to mount the motherboard onto, to then vesa mount. An extra level to the side could easily be made to hold a 2.5" ssd, plus it would let me use a larger cooler. What do people think to this...

Oh that must have slipped by me with the new sandy bridge cpu's coming! I currently have a htpc so I can wait. Those celerons looks like a good choice though, but I would at least want the dual cores.

Is there much advantage to an ssd performance wise when using something like xbmc?

Hi, I am after a new htpc which I keep on 24/7. Originally I was looking at an E350/SU2300 setup but it seems people have been getting excellent idle power usage from the sandy bridge setups, so the extra power would really be handy as I run mine as a nas/downloader/htpc. So if you could let me know...

Well it was £400 overall for the pc.

ces, Yeah I have the same psu in my pc. :p

Not really to be honest, as long as the costs arnt vastly different. What idea have you got?

Hi, I am building a PC for a friend and he is after a quiet PC. It is going to be a sandy bridge i3 build without a gfx card so won't be much heat in the case. I am not wanting to spend as much as a fractal design r3 is so is there any good alternatives at a lower price? Any in the coolmaster range ...

Thanks, did more digging and was able to find someone with a similar setup running 36W at idle and 60W load, and I will be undervolted too. Though they didn't have the 4350 but that apparently is only ~15W.

I doubt a laptop CPU requires a 300w psu. Does anyone know what amount it will use roughly? I was looking at 90w picopsu. The 4350 seems to use 12w at idle and I only use it for films so I doubt it will go over 20w. Hard drive I don't think will go over 20w, so that just leaves the CPU and motherboa...

Well I have done the mod to 7v and it is perfectly fine. Unfortunately it still isn't as quiet as I'd like, and the fan only has 2 wires so no rpm monitoring. Think I may swap the fan for an aftermarket 80mm fan and like you say, run it ~700rpm. Ksanderash, Unfortunately a 120mm itself is wider than...

Hi, For my htpc I run laptop components with an amd 4350, I estimate the pc uses no more than 150w under load, probably less. The case I bought for it came with a 400w(!) sff psu. So I am not pushing the psu at all. Annoyingly that psu is also the loudest thing, so I opened it up. I found it had an ...

Hi, I have just bought some bits 2nd hand for a htpc I am building. I have bought laptop parts so they are running passive, with only a need for a case fan. So this means I need a silent/quiet psu, so I got thinking and decided a picopsu/electrodacus psu would be the way to go. One thing though is I...

120mm x 5 = 600mm of overall fan surface area 180mm x 3, + 120mm = 660mm of fan area, with 180mm behind the hdd cage Sorry but that is flawed, surely you need to work out the area of each fan, not just the diameter, as when you double the diameter of a circle, you have 4 times the area. 120mm x 5 =...

Thanks for the help there. In the end I decided to spend the extra for the Nexus Value 430, should certainly be quiet!

Thanks for that, I was ideally looking at spending less than that though. From a little digging I have found the following psu's: Seasonic SII-380w = £45 Enermax Pro82+ 425W = £53 Enermax Modu82+ 425W = £62 (I realise thats very similar costs, but it is modular too which could be nice) I noticed ...

Hi, I have gone about making my pc quieter bit by bit and now I am fairly happy, but annoyingly the psu is the loud part to it! So I am wondering what I should go for really. Here is my pc specs: E7200 @ 0.99v (Xigmatek S-1283 with Nexus fan @ 1000rpm) 4 sticks of DDR2 AMD 4850 @ stock (Akasa Vortex...

Took some photos of my case now. I know its not that good a silent pc compared to others but its slowly improving, lol. http://img153.imageshack.us/img153/6084/imag0038vf.jpg http://img99.imageshack.us/img99/3453/imag0039d.jpg http://img337.imageshack.us/img337/7721/imag0040i.jpg http://img529.image...

Sorry for a slow reply here! Well I went for 2 Nexus fans in the end, that way I knew they would be good and quiet. I find the AC vga cooler excellent with the fan control, it really has improved my 4850 so much. I have overclocked too and it still handles the temps well. Was nice and easy to fit to...

Hi, Previously I found that someone had used a Scythe Kama Flex 80mm (2000rpm version) in their antec earthwatts 500W (EA-500D) psu to quieten it down. Now as it seems my system should be pulling less than 200W (on the dc side) then I should be able to run a slower than stock fan all fine. Now as so...