Search found 81 matches

by atmartens
Fri Jul 28, 2017 2:34 pm
Forum: Cases and Damping
Topic: Tiny quiet case. Impossible?
Replies: 6
Views: 6612

Re: Tiny quiet case. Impossible?

Dropping down to a Ryzen 1700 to reduce the wattage would allow for quieter operation. Multi-threaded performance would still be good.
by atmartens
Fri Jul 28, 2017 2:30 pm
Forum: Cases and Damping
Topic: quick question about Antec Solo II design (upstairs PSU)
Replies: 6
Views: 6156

Re: quick question about Antec Solo II design (upstairs PSU)

I am running an Intel i7-3770 and an RX480 in my Solo II with a 400 W passive PSU and it works great. I have the impression that people over-estimate how much wattage they need out of a PSU, so maybe a fully passive one can do the trick for you?
by atmartens
Sun Jan 15, 2017 2:38 pm
Forum: Video Cards & Monitors
Topic: Asus Strix GTX 1070: Not so silent... Review sites wrong ?
Replies: 11
Views: 11448

Re: Asus Strix GTX 1070: Not so silent... Review sites wrong

One giveaway, to me, is when people use qualifiers for the word silent, such as "very silent." Something is either silent, or it isn't. There's no half-silent, or somewhat silent. The use of a qualifier signals that the person doesn't understand what silence is. I see this over and over again -- the...
by atmartens
Thu Jul 21, 2016 12:15 pm
Forum: Cases and Damping
Topic: Help with choice - Narrow (up to 225mm/8.85') Silent Case
Replies: 15
Views: 10158

Re: Help with choice - Narrow (up to 225mm/8.85') Silent Cas

quest_for_silence wrote:pick a GTX 1060 (120W TDP, 125-135W peak) instead of a 185-190W RX 480
The RX 480 is not a 185-190W GPU. Where did you get that number from?
by atmartens
Tue Jun 21, 2016 6:58 am
Forum: Video Cards & Monitors
Topic: First Radeon RX EU official pricing seen on web
Replies: 10
Views: 7742

Re: First Radeon RX EU official pricing seen on web

~El~Jefe~ wrote:I guess they just charge EU people 50 dollars more for nothing. High income taxes, sales taxes and higher cost of pc parts. Must be expensive to upgrade often
The price difference is likely due to the VAT (which is different than a sales tax).
by atmartens
Mon May 30, 2016 4:26 pm
Forum: Video Cards & Monitors
Topic: Fanless Video card for Windows 10?
Replies: 8
Views: 7543

Re: Fanless Video card for Windows 10?

AMD is supposedly aiming for lower power consumption. Maybe it's worth the wait? These generational leaps don't happen often.
by atmartens
Sun Apr 17, 2016 7:00 pm
Forum: SPCR Article Discussion
Topic: AMD A10-7890K 95W Flagship APU
Replies: 5
Views: 12755

Re: AMD A10-7890K 95W Flagship APU

Ironically, what I got from this review is that the 7600 is still great value. I guess the 7890K is only worth it in niche situations -- no overclocking, and no room for a GPU.
by atmartens
Tue Nov 10, 2015 2:24 pm
Forum: Cases and Damping
Topic: HDPlex H5 or UMX1/2
Replies: 4
Views: 4941

Re: HDPlex H5 or UMX1/2

If you're willing to pay a premium, and would prefer to keep the case small, the Fury Nano does well. It has a better sound profile than the small 970s.
by atmartens
Sat Jul 25, 2015 5:32 am
Forum: SPCR Article Discussion
Topic: Fractal Design Node 202 Compact Gaming Case
Replies: 9
Views: 13334

Re: Fractal Design Node 202 Compact Gaming Case

Would a GPU with an AIO watercooler be able to fit? If so, keeping in mind pump noise, I wonder how say, a Fury X would do.
by atmartens
Thu Jun 25, 2015 9:49 pm
Forum: Video Cards & Monitors
Topic: buying a GTX970, which has the best acoustics?
Replies: 2
Views: 2986

Re: buying a GTX970, which has the best acoustics?

novicemapper wrote:after amd has unveiled its super bad cards for the price, i decided to go with a GTX970.
I realize this doesn't answer your question, but it might be worth waiting to see how AMD's Nano card performs.
by atmartens
Wed Jun 24, 2015 2:36 pm
Forum: Video Cards & Monitors
Topic: AMD Fury X fan looks...
Replies: 10
Views: 9335

Re: AMD Fury X fan looks...

First Fury X reviews, and IMO looks like a flop... :( Flop is a little much, no? It's right up there with the fastest Nvidia cards, and priced similarly. Plus, it's a much better value for gaming than any of the Titan cards ever were... were those flops as well? I'm most intrigued by the upcoming n...
by atmartens
Thu Jun 05, 2014 6:48 pm
Forum: CPUs and Motherboards
Topic: 84W Haswell vs 65W Core 2 Cooling -- Upgrade Required?
Replies: 4
Views: 5489

Re: 84W Haswell vs 65W Core 2 Cooling -- Upgrade Required?

That probably depends on whether or not you use the integrated graphics. If you don't, then the actual TDP will be lower. I'm not sure how much, but you can probably find the power consumption figures for Haswell's iGPU. I'd guess 10-20 watts
by atmartens
Wed Feb 19, 2014 12:58 pm
Forum: SPCR Article Discussion
Topic: AMD A8-7600 Kaveri APU
Replies: 10
Views: 11115

Re: AMD A8-7600 Kaveri APU

I'm curious how well this would do when paired with a fanless R7 250. Presumably the APU can crossfire with the GPU - that would be good potential for quiet operation and decent performance.
by atmartens
Thu Oct 31, 2013 10:10 am
Forum: SPCR Article Discussion
Topic: Gigabyte GA-H77TN Thin Mini-ITX Motherboard
Replies: 7
Views: 10499

Re: Gigabyte GA-H77TN Thin Mini-ITX Motherboard

What sorts of cases take this form factor? Are there are lot out there?
by atmartens
Tue Jun 25, 2013 1:19 pm
Forum: Video Cards & Monitors
Topic: Replacement for 9600 GT
Replies: 16
Views: 13155

Re: Replacement for 9600 GT

It's also worth mentioning that if you use Linux with the proprietary binary blob drivers, nVidia is still way ahead. And (at least several years ago) I could only ever get vsync working in Linux on nVidia cards. AMD drivers are Linux satisfactory these days, but not outstanding. For a card like th...
by atmartens
Fri Mar 08, 2013 7:38 am
Forum: SPCR Article Discussion
Topic: Fractal Design Node 605 HTPC Style Case
Replies: 8
Views: 8981

Re: Fractal Design Node 605 HTPC Style Case

I guess you either need to use a video card that exhausts out the back or use an APU.
by atmartens
Tue May 29, 2012 7:43 am
Forum: SPCR Article Discussion
Topic: Noctua to use Active Noise Cancellation in new Fan
Replies: 49
Views: 87544

Re: Noctua to use Active Noise Cancellation in new Fan

Any ideas on how much these fans will live up to the hype, and what the pricing will be like?
by atmartens
Tue May 15, 2012 7:02 pm
Forum: Cases and Damping
Topic: I give you the ANTEC SOLO II
Replies: 177
Views: 246741

Re: I give you the ANTEC SOLO II

I already own the x-400, and am considering shuffling some parts around and building a new computer. Getting a new, fancy PSU isn't out of the question, but if it's not necessary then I'd save a few bucks by putting a cheaper PSU in the computer which doesn't need to be so quiet.
by atmartens
Tue May 15, 2012 6:22 pm
Forum: Cases and Damping
Topic: I give you the ANTEC SOLO II
Replies: 177
Views: 246741

fanless PSU in solo ii

Perhaps someone can answer this for me. How well would the Solo II work with, say, the Seasonic X-400? Given an 80 W CPU, what would the maximum GPU be?
by atmartens
Thu May 10, 2012 11:22 am
Forum: CPU Cooling
Topic: CPU cooler for a Fractal Design Define Mini?
Replies: 15
Views: 9530

Re: CPU cooler for a Fractal Design Define Mini?

I'm curious to hear what the clearance is. How much room is there to spare?
by atmartens
Wed Dec 28, 2011 7:57 pm
Forum: Video Cards & Monitors
Topic: MSI R6850
Replies: 8
Views: 4475

Re: MSI R6850

I have the cyclone. It's definitely not silent, though generally when I'm pushing the card I also have the sound up, at which point I can't hear it much. At idle it's quiet, but still a bit louder than my computer's baseline (which is nearly silent). All four slots in my case are used, so perhaps I'...
by atmartens
Thu Oct 20, 2011 2:45 pm
Forum: CPUs and Motherboards
Topic: Bulldozer – a funny review but appalling power efficiency.
Replies: 74
Views: 28814

Re: Bulldozer – a funny review but appalling power efficienc

Ars Technica has a good article that highlights the strategy behind Bulldozer. Basically, they made some assumptions about how pervasive multi-threaded computing will be, and are betting the farm on Fusion, where certain tasks will be offloaded to the GPU. However, they might be 5-10 years premature.
by atmartens
Mon Oct 17, 2011 5:59 pm
Forum: CPUs and Motherboards
Topic: Bulldozer – a funny review but appalling power efficiency.
Replies: 74
Views: 28814

Re: Bulldozer – a funny review but appalling power efficienc

I'm curious to see how the Bulldozer-based Fusion APUs will be. AMD already bet their success on APUs the moment they bought ATI; it's possible that, much like Llano, the Trinity CPU performance will be "good enough" and the GPU performance will outdo what Intel can provide. That could get them a si...
by atmartens
Sat Sep 03, 2011 6:46 am
Forum: Video Cards & Monitors
Topic: AMD GNU/Linux drivers -- Am I missing something?
Replies: 2
Views: 10298

Re: AMD GNU/Linux drivers -- Am I missing something?

Phoronix forums will get you better answers. My impression is that AMD has been accelerating their Linux efforts, but that ATI did such a bad job that it's taking them a while to catch up.
by atmartens
Mon Jul 04, 2011 7:51 pm
Forum: SPCR Announcements
Topic: Re: Mike's final sign-off - POSTPONED
Replies: 70
Views: 139885

Re: Mike's final sign-off

Perhaps the most enduring contribution by SPCR won't be the reviews of hardware, as the harware will go obsolete at some point anyway. Rather, it's that Mike Chin championed the notion that it's worthy to make our computers quiet, and we have a forum of like-minded individuals where previously it wo...
by atmartens
Sat Jul 02, 2011 11:03 am
Forum: CPUs and Motherboards
Topic: Lull in CPU Market?
Replies: 4
Views: 3490

Re: Lull in CPU Market?

We're probably 5 years away from ubiquitous fanless systems in people's desktops.
by atmartens
Fri May 13, 2011 9:32 am
Forum: CPU Cooling
Topic: New Scythe Big Shuriken 2
Replies: 3
Views: 5707

Re: New Scythe Big Shuriken 2

The VGA Peter cooler is monstrous :shock:
by atmartens
Fri May 06, 2011 7:58 pm
Forum: Video Cards & Monitors
Topic: The fastest passively cooled graphics card... Ever
Replies: 11
Views: 12123

Re: The fastest passively cooled graphics card... Ever

What's meant by the 3 slot design? Do most cases have enough room for sticking something one slot width backwards, given most motherboards have the PCIe slot first?
by atmartens
Fri May 06, 2011 7:55 pm
Forum: CPUs and Motherboards
Topic: Intel Haswell CPU - a Quantum Jump in CPU Performance?
Replies: 46
Views: 31021

Re: Intel Haswell CPU - a Quantum Jump in CPU Performance?

5-10 years from now it seems we'll be using sub 30W CPU-GPU fusion computers and SSDs. At that point SPCR might have to throw in the towel, it's hard to imagine any sources of noise being left. :!: